How to make SkoolBro use your own words: learners, batches, cohorts and more

Staff at a music academy talk about batches and courses. A training institute has trainees in cohorts, and a vocational institute teaches trades. When the software keeps saying "class" and "teacher", every new member of staff has to learn a translation before they can find anything. SkoolBro now lets you choose the words that match your kind of institution, and you can adjust single words on top of that.

Choose your type of institution

The owner of the account sets this once for each school:

1. Open School details.
2. Pick the type of institution: school, academy, college or university, coaching or tuition centre, training institute, or vocational institute.
3. Save. The menus, page titles, the dashboard, list and report headings and the family portal now use that type's words.

Staff do not need to do anything. The next page they open uses the new words, and so does the portal that parents, guardians and sponsors see.

The words each type uses

Each type of institution comes with a full set of words. The first row is the school set, which is what SkoolBro uses when nothing else is chosen.

Type	Person learning	Person teaching	Level	Group	Subject	Year	Exam	Family contact	Institution
School	Student	Teacher	Class	Section	Subject	Academic year	Exam	Parent	School
Academy	Learner	Instructor	Course level	Batch	Course	Session	Assessment	Parent	Academy
College or university	Student	Faculty member	Program	Group	Course	Academic year	Examination	Guardian	College
Coaching or tuition centre	Student	Tutor	Class	Batch	Subject	Session	Test	Parent	Centre
Training institute	Trainee	Trainer	Program	Cohort	Module	Training year	Assessment	Sponsor	Institute
Vocational institute	Trainee	Instructor	Trade	Batch	Module	Training year	Assessment	Sponsor	Institute

Read a row across and you have the mapping for your staff. At a vocational institute, a trade is what a school calls a class, a batch is a section and a module is a subject. That mapping is worth writing down once, because some screens still use school words (more on that below).

Change a single word

Sometimes the set is nearly right. A secondary school may call its sections "groups", or a college may say "department" where the set says "program". You can change any single word without changing the whole set. For each word you enter two forms, the word for one and the word for more than one, such as "group" and "groups". SkoolBro needs both because lists say "12 groups" and a record page says "Group B".

A word you change yourself shows in every language the app offers, since SkoolBro cannot translate a word you made up. If your staff use the app in Urdu and English, choose a word that works for both, or leave that word as it is.

Two examples

Lakeview Skills Institute is a fictional vocational institute with three trades: electrical, plumbing and welding. Each trade runs morning and evening batches. Before the change, its instructors saw "Classes" in the menu and had to remember that a class was a trade. After the owner chose vocational institute, the menu says Trades, the attendance list is headed by the batch, and the trainee list says Trainees. Sponsors who pay for a trainee see the same words in the portal.

Harbour Hill Academy, also fictional, teaches languages to adults and teenagers. It chose academy, then changed one word. It calls its course levels "stages" (stage 1 to stage 6), so the owner entered "stage" and "stages" in place of "course level". Everything else in the academy set already matched how Amara, the office manager, and her instructors talk.

What changes and what does not

These parts use your words today:

• The menus and page titles.
• The dashboard.
• Headings on lists and reports.
• The family portal.

These still use school words for now: forms, help text, error messages, emails and the answers from the AI assistant. A form to add a batch will still ask for a section name, for example. Tell your staff this on the first day so it does not confuse them.

Your records do not change at all. Choosing a new type, or changing a word, renames nothing in your data and moves nothing around. If you pick the wrong type, pick another one and the screens follow.

A few tips before you choose

Choose the type before you invite staff. People learn the words of the first screens they see, and it is easier when those are already your words.

Use the words that appear on your fee vouchers, notices and timetables. If your printed timetable says "cohort", the app should say cohort too, so a parent who reads one and then the other is not left guessing.

Keep changes to single words few. Each one you change is a word you will need to explain to new staff, so change a word only when the set is clearly wrong for you.

The words apply to your whole account, every campus included. If you leave a single word empty, SkoolBro uses the word from your chosen set. Setting up a new institution from the start is covered in your first steps in SkoolBro. For how batches and courses fit together, see managing courses and batches at an academy, and the academy, training institute and vocational institute pages show the rest of what SkoolBro does for each.

Questions

Does changing the words change my records?

No. Your classes, sections, students and fees stay exactly as they are. Only the words on the screen change, so you can switch the type of institution back at any time.

Will forms and emails use my words too?

Not yet. Menus, page titles, the dashboard, list and report headings and the family portal use your words. Forms, help text, error messages, emails and the AI assistant's answers still use school words for now.

Does it work in other languages?

Yes. Each type of institution has its words in English and Urdu. If you change a single word yourself, the word you enter shows in every language.