Adding students and classes to a Platinum subscription using a template (without MIS integration)

Classes and students can be added to Carousel Platinum by either uploading a spreadsheet, or by adding them manually. We recommend that during the initial setup of Carousel Platinum you use an Excel template to upload students and classes. The article below tells you how. To learn how to add students manually, click here. For classes, click here.

• We also recommend that one person oversees the uploading of class lists, or at a minimum takes responsibility before the process begins for identifying students with identical FIRST NAME and LAST NAME combinations: if two different teachers upload two different students who share the same name, Carousel will treat them as if they are the same student.
• If you are having upload issues we recommend copying and special pasting (values only) your data into a fresh spreadsheet before uploading.
• Teachers that are associated with classes you are uploading must already have been added to the account before the student/class spreadsheet will upload successfully. To learn how to add a teacher, click here.

The class list spreadsheet template is attached to this article. Please download it and familiarise yourself with it before continuing. It works on the simple basis of putting a Y in the cell that corresponds to the pupil and class, and please note that class lists do not have to be uploaded all in one go, and that the task can be performed by any Platinum user with Admin status (see the article on adding teachers for more information on that.)

The video below gives a very brief introduction to the classlist upload process. We recommend that you watch it in addition to, but not instead of, reading the rest of the article below.

STEP 1 - Prepare your Excel spreadsheet for uploading

• Download the template attached to this article (link). 
• [Google Sheets: download the template and in a new Google Sheet, select "File>>Import".  Select the upload tab, browse for the file and import data.]
• Cells A4-D4 of the template contain the headers for student information. Do not change these headers.
• Entering data in Column A (Student UPN) is optional. Columns B-D must be completed for each student, beginning in B5-D5 below the headers for the student information. Enter student First Name, Last Name, and Year Group for each student.

First Name and Last Name must combine to make a unique identifier. Where two or more students share the same first and last names in the data you are uploading it will be necessary to add an initial, a number or other such distinguishing character. Duplicates will be rejected by Carousel if uploaded in the same file. If duplicates are contained in separate uploads, Carousel will treat them as being the same student.  We recommend you check the full dataset for duplicates before uploading. If you need guidance on how to check for duplicates, see the the section entitled “Checking for Duplicates” under Tips and Tricks below.

• Cell D4, Year Group, contains a header that refers to both students and classes. Do not change this cell. All students and classes must have a Year Group assigned. For students, this information goes in Column D; for Classes, it goes in Row 4.

• Column E contains the other headers for Class information: Class name, Class subject, and Class teacher email address. Do not change these headers, and please leave the rest of Column E blank.
• All classes must have a name, subject, teacher email, and Year Group, which go in rows 1-4 for each class. There can't be any spaces before or after class names, class subjects or teacher emails. If you accidentally include one, the text will turn red. 
• Ensure the 'Class Subject' matches the name used in Carousel's subject list, e.g. Religious Education rather than RE.

• To add a student to a class, enter Y or y in the corresponding cell on the spreadsheet as per the cells highlighted in red below; otherwise leave blank. You may want to make use of a Helper Sheet. For more information on how to do this, see Tips and Tricks below.

Please note that, to make sure this information is not missed when you are completing your spreadsheet:

• If a class or student is entered without a Year Group, the Year Group cell will be highlighted in red:

• If a teacher email contains a space, it will be highlighted in red:

• If a student is entered but not assigned "Y" to a class, the row will highlight yellow (n.b. this is just for your information and will not cause an upload error):

We recommend copying and special pasting everything (values only) into a fresh spreadsheet once complete.

Once your file is prepared, download it as a .xlsx ready for upload.

If using Google Sheets:  Once your file is prepared, select "File >> Download >> Excel spreadsheet" to generate a file that can be uploaded into Carousel in STEP 2.]

 

STEP 2 - Upload the spreadsheet to Carousel:

• Go to the ‘STUDENTS’ tab, in ‘MY ACCOUNT’.
• Click on ‘UPLOAD STUDENTS’; then `BROWSE FILE`, then once you have selected the file click `UPLOAD`.

                                                         

                                       

• Review to ensure all classes and students are assigned as appropriate in the table.

• Repeat this process with the rest of Year Groups.

• After uploading students and classes to Carousel, it will then be possible to manually add and remove students, classes and teachers using the tools under the ‘STUDENTS’ tab without having to upload a new spreadsheet. To find out how to manually add and remove students and classes, click here.

TIPS AND TRICKS

Creating custom/ad hoc classes

Once students have been uploaded and assigned to regular classes, you can also create custom classes such as intervention groups. You can read how to do this here.

Checking for duplicates in Excel

• To check for duplicates, we recommend preparing a spreadsheet with all student names in it, with first names in Column A, and last names in Column B, as below.

                                                 

• In Cell C1, enter the formula =A1&B1, and hit return. This will create a string combining A1 and B1,

that makes this:

Then click on Cell E1 to highlight it, and drag the fill handle (the little green square in the bottom right corner) all the way down to the bottom of your list of names to fill the formula down the column, then release the mouse button.

This will create a column combined of first name plus last name.

Click on the E to highlight Column E, then select the Format tab and Conditional Formatting, then click + or Add Rule. For Style, choose Classic, then select ‘Only format unique or duplicate values’ and ‘duplicate’, then click 'OK'.

Your student name list will now highlight in red any name strings that are duplicated.

You should then add an initial or number or some other distinguishing character to make each of these name combinations unique.

USING A HELPER SHEET TO ADD STUDENTS TO CLASSES

You may find it faster to use a Helper Sheet and an Excel formula to populate the classes in the main sheet.  We recommend you do one Year Group at a time and follow the instructions below.

1. In your upload spreadsheet, paste the First Name and Last Name of all the students in a Year Group into Columns B and C and complete their Year Group in Column D, as described in the article above.

2. Enter the Class Details (Name, Subject, Teacher Email and Year Group) into rows 1, 2, 3, 4 of the appropriate column (starting with Column F), as you would normally.

3. At the bottom of the upload spreadsheet click on the + to add a new sheet.

4. In the newly created sheet (Sheet 2), paste into Columns A and B (beginning in cells A1 and B1), the names of the students who are in the class you have detailed in Step 2.

You must ensure there are no leading or trailing spaces before or after the names or they will not match (unless they exist in both sheets!)

5. Return to Sheet 1, and in cell F5, paste the following formula:

=IF(COUNTIFS(Sheet2!$A:$A, $B5, Sheet2!$B:$B, $C5) >0, "Y", "")

Drag it down (or copy and paste) to fill all the cells in the column.  Note: the formula is visible in the formula bar at the top of the sheet, but not in the cells.

This should populate the corresponding cells for the students in this class with a  `Y`. 

6. Next, select all the cells in the column and use CTRL+C to copy their contents. Then go to:

EDIT > PASTE SPECIAL > VALUES

to paste the values into the cells without the formula.

7.  In Sheet 2, delete the student names and repeat steps 2-5, taking a new column (G, H, I etc.) in Sheet 1 for each class.

8. To ensure that there are no stray formulas remaining before upload, 

• open the search function CTRL+F
• select ‘advanced search’ (‘more options’ [Google Sheets])
• type ‘ =IF ’
• select ‘Look in formulas’ (‘also search within formulas’ [Google Sheets])

This will highlight any missed formula, and step 6 can be used to remove them.

Sheet 2 will not cause an upload error as Carousel will only upload the first Sheet in the spreadsheet.

9. When completed, the Year Group sheet can be uploaded into Carousel as per the instructions in the article above.

RETURN TO GETTING STARTED SECONDARY

RETURN TO GETTING STARTED PRIMARY 

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