How to manage courses and batches in an academy without the mix-ups

Ask the front desk at a busy academy which batch a learner is in, and you often get a description instead of a name: "the Tuesday French one, the newer one, with Claire". That works until there are two Tuesday French batches and Claire is on leave. An academy with a dozen overlapping batches needs written rules for naming and sizing them, and a calm way to move learners when plans change. This article sets out those rules using one fictional centre as the example.

Fenwick Language Centre teaches English and French at four levels, A1 to B2. For example, it has one branch with five rooms and runs 12 batches. Each level takes about four months, and a new beginner batch starts every two months, so at any time two A1 batches are running at different points in the course. The numbers only illustrate the problem, which looks much the same at five batches or fifty.

A naming pattern that answers the usual questions

A batch name should let anyone on your staff answer the common questions without opening a record: which course, which level, when it meets and how far along it is. Put the parts in the same order every time. Fenwick uses course, level, days, time and start month.

Name people used	Name Fenwick uses now
French Tuesday	French A2 Tue Thu 6pm Mar
Claire's beginners	English A1 Sat 10am May
New A1	English A1 Mon Wed 5pm Jul
Weekend advanced	English B2 Sat 1pm Jan

Instructor names stay out of batch names because instructors change. Keep the start month even after the batch is running. When a parent mentions "the May A1" in July, everyone knows those learners are about halfway through the level and should not be compared with the group that started in July.

Capacity: two numbers for every batch

Each batch needs a maximum and a minimum. The maximum comes from the room and the way you teach. A speaking class needs space for pairs to talk, and a room with eight chairs sets its own limit. The minimum comes from cost. Add up what the batch costs you each month and divide by the monthly fee.

For example, say an instructor costs 300 a month for one batch, the batch's share of rent and bills is 100, and the monthly fee is 60, all in your currency. The batch needs at least seven learners to cover its own costs. Fenwick sets most batches at a minimum of seven and a maximum of twelve.

When a new batch is still under its minimum a week before it starts, make the decision on purpose. You can delay the start by two weeks, merge it into a batch at the same level, or run it at a loss for a month because the enquiries and waiting list will fill it. Any of these can be right. The expensive outcome is a batch of four that starts by default and runs all year.

Rooms and the busy slots

Overlapping batches are a room question first. A language centre is full for only a few hours a day. At Fenwick, for example, every room is in use from 5pm to 9pm on weekdays and on Saturday until 2pm, and most rooms sit empty before 4pm. A new batch can only start when one of those busy slots is free.

Fenwick plans this with a slot calendar. Each busy slot in each room has a row showing which batch holds it and the month that batch finishes its level. When a B2 batch finishes in June, its Tuesday and Thursday 6pm slot in Room 3 goes to the July A1 intake. Planning intakes against that calendar means every new batch is promised a time the centre can really give.

Give the busy slots to the learners with the fewest alternatives. Children can only come after school and at weekends, while many adult learners can manage 7:30pm or a weekday lunchtime. Match rooms to courses as well. Fenwick's listening classes need the room with speakers, so those batches are placed before the others. Instructor hours are the other half of the grid, covered in scheduling academy instructors.

When intakes overlap

Rolling intakes are good for income and hard on planning. A learner who starts in July cannot join the May batch, even though both are A1, because the May group is already two months ahead. Treat each intake as its own batch until it finishes the level.

Plan the end of each level before it arrives. Fenwick moves a whole batch up together. When "English A1 Sat 10am May" finishes in September, it carries on as "English A2 Sat 10am Sep" the following week, in the same time slot and, where possible, with the same instructor. Families keep a slot that already fits their week. Learners who are not ready repeat the level in the next A1 batch at a similar time.

Batches also cross the end of your session. If your session follows the calendar year, a batch that starts in November finishes its level in the next session. Decide early whether late-year batches carry on into the new session or whether your last intake of the year starts in September.

Moving a learner to another batch

Moves happen for ordinary reasons. A placement turns out a level too high, or a learner's work shifts change. Handle every move the same way so records stay clean:

1. Agree the move with the learner or parent and with both instructors.
2. Pick a move date, ideally the start of a week or month, so attendance before it stays with the old batch.
3. Check the fee. If the new batch costs more or less, apply the new fee from the next billing month so nobody has to work out part months.
4. Tell the new instructor the learner's name and level before their first class.
5. Check the learner's attendance in the new batch after two weeks. A move that has not worked usually shows there first.

Courses and batches in SkoolBro

The app's screens are worded for schools. Fenwick sets up its session as an academic year and its levels as grades (A1, A2, B1, B2). Every batch is a section under its level, and English and French are subjects. Subjects can be core, elective or activity, so an optional conversation club can sit beside the main course as an activity. Fee structures are set per grade, which suits Fenwick because it charges by level whatever the language.

Periods can match your own slots, such as 6pm to 7:30pm, and rooms belong to each campus, which is SkoolBro's word for a branch. With those in place, each batch gets a weekly timetable built from periods and rooms. Attendance, homework and tests all work per batch, and you can send a notice to a single batch or to every batch at a level. For numbers per level, the enrollment by grade report counts the learners at each one and downloads as a CSV file.

Two points are worth knowing before you start. A section belongs to one academic year, so a batch that runs past the end of your session needs a section in the next one as well. SkoolBro also runs the batches without hosting course material or video lessons, so your books and online resources stay where they are. If you are setting up the whole academy for the first time, the academy setup checklist gives the order to do it in, and the features section lists every module.

Questions

How many learners should a batch have?

Set a maximum from the room and the way you teach, and a minimum from what the batch costs you each month divided by its fee. Then apply both numbers to every new batch.

When should I merge two small batches?

Merge when both are at the same level and the same point in the course, and when one time slot suits most families. Tell parents before the change and give anyone who cannot make the new time another option.

How do batches appear in SkoolBro?

Each batch is a section. Sections sit under a grade, which an academy uses for a level or for batches that share a fee, inside the academic year you use as your session. Courses are set up as subjects.