How to set up Event Patterns (Individual and group) and amend patterns

To save time manually marking meals, and to help form the basis of the Arbor import feature, you can create meal patterns to automatically mark the attendance screen on set days and then simply remove any marks for people who did not attend.

Individual Patterns

You can set up an individual meal/event pattern for a student by following the below;

1. Go to People[1] > Pupils and Staff[2] >Search for their Year or Class[3]
2. Find the child and click on their name[4]
3. Scroll down to the Even Pattern Section and click Add New Pattern[5]
4. Select the relevant meal time and type[6], tick the relevant days[7] for the individual pattern, choose the start date[8] (this must be in the future), select a defined end date or choose the open-ended option[9], tick consider closing days[10], if you want the pattern to stop during holidays, and then click Save[11].

NOTE  If a child changes their pattern, you would need to delete the current pattern and then create a new one. To delete the pattern, you will need to navigate to the Event Pattern Section, find the pattern, click and Delete.

Groups and Patterns

To set up a group pattern, you will need to follow the below; (You may already have a group imported from your MIS so to save time, please check the second drop-down menu)

1. Go to People[1] > Groups[2]
2. Select Pupil in the search criteria and then choose Custom Group[3], then select New Group[4]
3. Give the group a name[3]
4. To add pupils to the group, search for the pupils using the drop-down menus and select the pupils from the Find people to add[4][5] section and add them to the group.
5. Once you click Add to group[6], the selected pupils will appear in the group at the top of the page.
6. Repeat this process to add multiple people, from multiple classes to the group.
7. Click Save[7], once you have saved you can set up the group pattern.
8. Go to People[8] > Groups[9]
9. Select your newly created custom group[10] 
10. Click Create group pattern[11] 
11. Select the relevant meal time and type[12], tick the relevant days for the group pattern[13], choose the start date[14] (this must be in the future), select a defined end date or choose the open-ended option[15], tick consider closing days[16] and then click Save[17]. (Meal patterns cannot overlap - if they do the system will warn you and ask you to confirm in order to overwrite the information)