Clubs & Societies is an optional module. A school can turn it on or off under Settings. When it is off, the Clubs & Societies navigation group and its three pages (Clubs, Club Meetings, Club Activities) disappear, the Clubs tab on a student’s profile is locked, and meeting reminders are not sent. Turning it back on restores everything, including past records.
Records you’ll work with
| Record | What it is |
|---|---|
| Club | A single club or society, such as Drama, Chess, or Scouts. Carries a type, an optional cap on members, a description, and an Active toggle. Holds its patrons, leaders, members, meetings, and activities. |
| Club membership | One student’s enrolment in a club for an academic year. Carries the date the student joined and, once they leave, the date they left. |
| Club meeting | A recorded gathering of a club, with a date, optional start and end times, a venue, a meeting type, an agenda, and minutes. Tied to a term. |
| Meeting attendance | One student’s attendance row for one meeting, marked Present, Absent, or Excused, with optional notes. |
| Club activity | An event a club takes part in, such as a competition, trip, exhibition, workshop, or fundraiser. Can belong to more than one club, carries an achievement note, and is tied to a term and academic year. |
What you can do
Set up clubs
Create a club, attach its patrons, and appoint student leaders.
Membership
Enrol students into a club and record when they leave.
Meetings
Schedule meetings and take attendance.
Activities
Log competitions, trips, and other activities, mirrored on the calendar.
Reminders
See how guardians are reminded of upcoming meetings.
Set up clubs
A club is the home record for everything a society does. Open Clubs in the sidebar (under Clubs & Societies), or go to/clubs.
Create a club
Fill in the club details
Enter the Name (for example, “Drama Club”), pick the Club Type (Academic, Service, Religious, Creative Arts, Uniformed, Environmental, or Other), and add an optional Max Members cap and a Description. Leave Is active on for a club that is currently running.
Attach patrons
A patron is a teacher attached to a club. Patrons appear on the Patrons tab of a club’s view page.You will need: the teacher’s staff record to exist under Users & Identity, and an academic year to assign the role against. A teacher who is set as the Head Patron of a club can manage that club’s meetings and membership even without the broader clubs permissions.
Pick the teacher and role
Search for and select the Teacher, choose the Role (Head Patron or Assistant Patron), and pick the Academic Year.
Appoint student leaders
Student leaders hold offices such as Chairperson or Secretary within a club. They appear on the Leaders tab.You will need: the student to already be an active member of the club (see Enrol a member). The leader picker only lists students who currently belong to that club. Each office can be held by one student per club per academic year, so a club has at most one Chairperson in a given year.
Pick the student, office, and date
Search for and select the Student, choose the Role (Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer, or Organizer), pick the Academic Year, and set Appointed On.
Membership
Membership is a student’s enrolment in a club for an academic year. Members are managed on the Members tab of a club’s view page.Enrol a member
You will need: the student’s record to exist under Users & Identity and an academic year to enrol them against. A student can belong to a club only once in the same academic year.
Pick the student and enrolment dates
Search for and select the Student, pick the Academic Year, and set Joined On. Leave Left On blank for an active member.
Record that a member has left
To stop a student’s membership, open their row on the Members tab, click Edit, and set Left On to the date they left. The membership stays on the list as a historical record rather than being erased, so the club keeps an accurate roster for past terms. A row can also be removed entirely with Delete on the member row. [Insert screenshot: Members tab on a club’s view page showing columns Student, Joined, Left, and Academic Year, with the New, Edit, and Delete actions]Meetings
A meeting is a recorded gathering of a club. Open Club Meetings in the sidebar, or go to/club-meetings.
Schedule a meeting
You will need: the club to exist, and an active term to record the meeting against. Terms are part of Academic Years & Terms, which is always available.
Fill in the meeting details
Pick the Club and the Term, choose the Meeting Type (Regular, Special, Planning, or Emergency), and set the Date. Add an optional Start Time, End Time, and Venue, plus an Agenda and Minutes if you have them.
The attendance roster is built once, when the meeting is saved. Editing the meeting later does not rebuild it, and a student who joins the club after the meeting date will not appear on that meeting’s roster. Add members before scheduling a meeting so the roster is complete.
Take attendance
Attendance is marked on the Attendance tab of a meeting’s view page, where every active member already has a row.Mark each student
Each student has a row with three columns, P - Present, A - Absent, and E - Excused. Click the column that matches to set that student’s status. Changes save as you click.
Mark everyone at once (optional)
Use Mark All Present or Mark All Absent at the top of the tab to set every row at once, or tick several students and use the bulk Mark Present, Mark Absent, or Mark Excused actions.
Edit attendance
Attendance stays editable. Return to the meeting’s Attendance tab and click a different status column for any student, or use Edit to change the status and notes. There is no lock step on a meeting, so corrections can be made at any time.Activities
A club activity is a competition, trip, exhibition, workshop, fundraiser, performance, community-service outing, or similar event a club takes part in. Open Club Activities in the sidebar, or go to/club-activities.
Log a club activity
You will need: at least one club to link the activity to, and an active term and academic year to record it against. When the Events module is on, the activity is also added to the school calendar automatically.
Fill in the activity details
Enter the Name, select one or more Clubs, and pick the Activity Type (Competition, Community Service, Exhibition, Workshop, Trip, Fundraiser, Performance, or Other). For a competition, set the Competition Level. Pick the Term and Academic Year, set the Start Date and optional End Date and Venue, and record an Achievement (for example, “1st place, county finals”) and a Description if you have them.
Record who took part
Open the activity from Club Activities and use the Participants tab to add the students who took part. For each one, pick the Student and add an optional Role and Achievement. Use Edit or Delete to change or remove a participant. [Insert screenshot: New club activity form at /club-activities/create showing the Name, Clubs (multi-select), Activity Type, Competition Level, Term, Academic Year, Start Date, End Date, Venue, Achievement, and Description fields]Reminders
The day before a meeting, the school’s system sends a reminder to the guardians of the club’s active members, so families know a meeting is coming up. There is nothing to switch on for this: any meeting you schedule with a date for the next day is included automatically. Schedule the meeting at least a day ahead so the reminder has time to go out.Categorical values used on forms
None of these are lifecycles. They are fixed lists you pick from when filling in a form.- Club Type: Academic, Service, Religious, Creative Arts, Uniformed, Environmental, or Other. Set once on the club and used to group and filter clubs.
- Patron Role: Head Patron or Assistant Patron. Set per patron. The Head Patron can manage the club’s meetings and membership without the broader clubs permissions.
- Leader Role: Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer, or Organizer. Set per student leader, one holder per office per club per year.
- Meeting Type: Regular, Special, Planning, or Emergency. Set per meeting.
- Attendance status: Present, Absent, or Excused. Set per student per meeting. New roster rows start as Absent. Both Present and Excused count as attended when the system works out a student’s attendance rate.
- Activity Type: Competition, Community Service, Exhibition, Workshop, Trip, Fundraiser, Performance, or Other. Set per activity. Competition is the type that pairs with a Competition Level.
How records relate
A few user-visible relationships are worth keeping in mind:- A club holds its own patrons, student leaders, members, meetings, and activities. Patrons and leaders are tied to an academic year, so the line-up can change from one year to the next.
- A student must be an active member of a club before they can be appointed a leader of it. Leaving the club (setting a Left On date) ends the active membership but keeps the history.
- Each meeting builds its attendance roster once, from the club’s active members on the meeting date. A member who joins later is not added to past meetings.
- A meeting and an activity each carry a term, and activities also carry an academic year, so club work lines up with the school calendar (see Academic Years & Terms).
- A single activity can belong to more than one club, which is how a joint event such as a shared exhibition is recorded once and shown under each club.
- A student’s club involvement, the clubs they belong to and the activities they took part in, is gathered into their report card each term (see Assessments & Report Cards).
What guardians see
Guardians sign in to the same tenant subdomain as staff under the locked, read-only Guardian role, scoped to their own children. They do not see the Clubs & Societies navigation group or any of its pages. Instead, clubs reach them in two read-only places:- The Clubs & Societies summary on the guardian dashboard shows, per child, how many clubs the child belongs to and how many activities the child has taken part in this term.
- The Clubs & Societies tab on each child’s profile lists the child’s club memberships with the club name, type, any leadership role, the dates joined and left, and the academic year.
FAQs and troubleshooting
Can a student belong to more than one club?
Can a student belong to more than one club?
Yes. A student can be a member of any number of clubs at once. The only limit is that a student cannot be enrolled in the same club twice in the same academic year.
How do I close a club mid-term?
How do I close a club mid-term?
Open the club from Clubs, click Edit, and switch Is active off. The club and all its records stay in the system for reference, but it is flagged as no longer running. There is no separate delete step for normal closure; turning it inactive is the intended way to retire a club.
A student joined the club after a meeting was held. Why are they not on that meeting's attendance?
A student joined the club after a meeting was held. Why are they not on that meeting's attendance?
The attendance roster for a meeting is built once, when the meeting is saved, from the members who were active on the meeting date. A student who joins later is not added to a past meeting’s roster. Enrol students before scheduling a meeting so the roster is complete, and they will appear on every meeting from their join date onward.
What if a meeting was cancelled but attendance was already recorded?
What if a meeting was cancelled but attendance was already recorded?
Attendance is never locked, so you can correct it at any time. If a meeting did not go ahead, you can mark everyone Absent or Excused from the meeting’s Attendance tab, or delete the meeting entirely, which removes its attendance rows with it.
Why does a teacher who is a patron not need the full clubs permissions?
Why does a teacher who is a patron not need the full clubs permissions?
A teacher set as the Head Patron of a club can schedule that club’s meetings and manage its membership through a built-in allowance, even without the broader clubs permissions, as long as a year is currently active. Assistant patrons can update meetings for their club. Other clubs and the rest of the module still follow the school’s normal permission settings, which you adjust under Roles and permissions.
How do I charge a club membership fee?
How do I charge a club membership fee?
Club records do not hold fees. If a club charges a fee, set it up as a billable in Finance and apply it to the members, so it appears on their invoices. The two modules are kept separate: membership here, money there.