A pupil did not progress into the new year

September, and somebody who should be having lessons is not in the new year at all. This is how to find out why - for one pupil or for everybody at once - and what to change so the next run picks them up.

Step 1 of 7

Ask the query first, not the pupil

There are two, and which one you want depends on who is billed: Tuition Progression - Direct and Not Progressed where the parent pays, and Tuition Progression - Indirect Not Progressed where the school does. Either lists everybody who did not come across, for the whole service rather than the one pupil who was reported. It does not spell out a reason, but it carries the columns you need to work one out - New School Year beside Upper School Limit is the pair that shows a pupil who has outgrown their school.

Use Columns to put the list into a shape you can read: the query opens on its id columns, and turning those off leaves the names and the school years. If somebody is not on the list at all, they were not eligible in the first place - usually no active activity in the year just gone.

Use the arrow keys to move between steps.

1. Ask the query first, not the pupil

   There are two, and which one you want depends on who is billed: Tuition Progression - Direct and Not Progressed where the parent pays, and Tuition Progression - Indirect Not Progressed where the school does. Either lists everybody who did not come across, for the whole service rather than the one pupil who was reported. It does not spell out a reason, but it carries the columns you need to work one out - New School Year beside Upper School Limit is the pair that shows a pupil who has outgrown their school.

   Use Columns to put the list into a shape you can read: the query opens on its id columns, and turning those off leaves the names and the school years. If somebody is not on the list at all, they were not eligible in the first place - usually no active activity in the year just gone.

2. Nothing happens the moment you fix it

   There is no button that pushes one pupil across. Progression runs by itself every eight hours, for everything due. So the sequence is always: change the thing that is in the way, then wait for the next run. If you make a change and look again immediately, of course nothing has happened.

   Hire and group memberships have their own runs on the same eight-hourly cycle. A hire linked to tuition goes across with it.

3. The silent one: outgrown the school

   A pupil who has reached the top year of their school cannot stay there, and if no new school has been recorded they do not progress. The range is not on the school itself - it comes from its School Type, in Settings. Primary runs Year 1 to Year 6, so a pupil going into Year 7 has outgrown every school of that type.

   The important part: unless the service type has Progress When No School switched on, nobody is emailed either. No error, no list, nothing. If pupils are quietly missing, start here.

4. Record the new school

   On the pupil's own tab, under Schools and colleges, add the new school with the date they start there. It is a history rather than a single field, so you are adding a row, not overwriting the old one. Progression then moves them, provided it can find a matching activity at the new school.

   If the new school has no matching activity there is nothing to match them to, and they stay put. Do not try to transfer them instead - a transfer moves somebody within a year and will not cross the year boundary.

5. A withdrawn activity has to be restored first

   Progression does not carry withdrawn activities. If somebody stopped and now wants to carry on, open last year's activity - it will show as withdrawn - and Restore it. That is the whole job, and the next run moves them forward. Nobody needs to re-register.

   Filter the pupil's activity list to include cancelled applications if last year's record is not showing.

6. Check the service type actually progresses

   If a whole activity failed to come across rather than one pupil, look at the service type. With Progress Activities switched off, nothing on it progresses at all - and there will be no explanation anywhere, because nothing was ever attempted.

   Where discounts re-apply and a pupil has a remission or subsidy, the payer is emailed to confirm instead of being moved automatically. That is working as intended.

7. And that the new year is open

   Progressing from inside Xperios, and a parent confirming on the Portal, both need the receiving year to have Open Progression switched on. Until it is, the action is refused - so if a colleague says the option will not work for anybody, this is usually it.

   Worth checking in August, before the questions start.

Why this one is worth knowing

Progression is the September workload, and the thing that makes it hard is that its failures are quiet. A pupil who cannot be placed does not raise an error and usually does not generate an email — they are simply not there.

The query is the answer to that. Run it once in August and once in the first week of term and you will find the gaps before parents do.

The same ground, as reference

• Progression — the conditions in full, and what the payer is asked
• The waiting list — where a pupil progression could not place ends up
• Transfers — moving somebody within a year, and why that is not this