What is the difference between a Group and a Filter?
Pupil Groups allow you to instantly select any group of pupils. These may be for the purpose of data entry, data analysis or both. The Groups page is a simple table that displays Name, Type of group, if the group came from the MIS, the number of pupils within the group and the ability to use that group in an assessment page.
For clarity it is worth defining the difference between a Group and a Filter. Filters may be used to display only the boys. In theory you could create a Group of just the boys and use that instead.
The difference is that the Filter will always look at the contextual data to pick out all the boys but the Group will only ever be the boys put in the Group when it was set up. In other words, a Boys Group will be out of date as soon as a new boy joins the cohort but a Filter will always be up to date.
For this reason Groups should not be used to record anything which is already held in the Contextual data; SEN, Gender, Birth term etc.
Groups are designed to hold any pupils who share a common attribute and you may want to view together. Good examples of this are ability teaching groups, for example in Literacy and Numeracy, intervention groups, after school clubs or anything which may be useful for the purpose of data entry or analysis.
Adding a new Group
To begin first click Groups on the left sidebar.
The Groups button opens the Your Groups dialogue which shows groups that have already been created – either by users or from your schools MIS. It also allows new groups to be created.
To add a new group click the Add a new group button in the top right of the screen.
You then add the details required - a unique name and a group type - always choose Group unless you have no MIS. Click Create Group in the bottom left of the screen.
You have now made the group but it is currently empty and you need to add the pupils.
Select the pupils you want to include by clicking on them and use the green arrow icon in the centre to move them into the group. To remove pupils form the group you use the red arrow icon.
There is no need to save the group after you have moved the pupils - this is automatic - and the group becomes available for use. Most users apply groups from the filter pane.