Creating a Recurring Lesson Series
The lesson scheduler generates a series of lessons at once — for example, every Tuesday at 4pm for the rest of term. In practice, you first set the student's or group's regular lesson details, then choose a date range an
When to Use the Scheduler
Use the scheduler whenever a student has a regular, repeating lesson slot. It's much faster than creating lessons one by one and ensures the entire term or semester is scheduled in one step.
You can also use the scheduler for group lessons — the process is the same.
Opening the Scheduler
For an individual student, open the student's Lessons tab and use the Current Lesson Time & Schedule panel. For a group, use the group's Group Lesson Time panel. Once the regular lesson details are set, use Generate Lessons or Schedule lessons to create the series.
Setting Up the Series
You'll configure:
- Student or group — who the lessons are for
- Lesson type — determines duration and billing rate
- Day of week — which day the lesson repeats on
- Timetable pattern — rotating, fixed weekly, or fixed fortnightly
- Start time — the lesson time for fixed timetables
- Fortnight week — Week A or Week B for fixed fortnightly timetables
- Date range — the start and end date of the series
The scheduler then shows a summary before you confirm. Quick range buttons make it easy to fill a common range such as 4, 8, 12, or 16 weeks.
Before You Can Generate Lessons
The generate button only becomes available once the regular lesson setup is complete.
For a fixed weekly timetable, that means:
- A lesson type is selected
- A lesson day is selected
- A start time is selected
For a fixed fortnightly timetable, that means:
- A lesson type is selected
- A lesson day is selected
- A start time is selected
- A fortnight week is selected
- Your school has a fortnight anchor date set, so Octavia knows which dates count as Week A and Week B
For a rotating timetable, the app only needs:
- A lesson type
- A lesson day
When you switch a student to a rotating timetable, the fixed start time is cleared automatically. Students must also be Current before lessons can be generated for them.
If something is missing, the scheduler explains what still needs to be set before lessons can be generated. If you choose fixed fortnightly and your school has not set its Week A / Week B anchor date yet, admins can set it from the setup flow at that point. Other users will be told to ask their administrator to do it first. See Fortnight Anchor Dates and Week A / Week B for what the anchor date means and the other places it can be set.
Weekly and Fortnightly Fixed Timetables
Fixed timetables now come in two patterns:
- Fixed (weekly) — the lesson repeats every week on the same day and time
- Fixed (fortnightly) — the lesson repeats every second week on the same day and time, and is assigned to either Week A or Week B
If your school uses fixed fortnightly lessons, Octavia relies on the school-wide fortnight anchor date to decide which calendar dates belong to Week A and Week B — see Fortnight Anchor Dates and Week A / Week B for the full walkthrough.
In the main bulk scheduler, the layout stays as a single week when everything is weekly. If any scheduled item uses a fixed fortnightly timetable, the scheduler switches to a two-week layout automatically:
- fixed weekly lessons appear in both weeks
- fixed fortnightly lessons appear only in their assigned week
- dragging a fixed fortnightly card from one week to the other updates whether it belongs to Week A or Week B
The preview shown just before lesson generation follows the same rule, so the review screen matches what will be created.
Detecting Existing Lessons in the Period
If there are already lessons scheduled for this student in the date range you've chosen, the scheduler detects them and asks what you'd like to do. The two options are:
Keep existing lessons — the scheduler adds the new series around the existing lessons without touching them. New lessons are created for the remaining dates; existing lessons are left as-is.
Delete and replace — the scheduler removes the existing lessons in the period and creates the full new series from scratch. This is useful when the student's schedule is changing and you want the new series to be definitive.
Before anything is created, the scheduler shows a summary of the selected items and date range. After the run finishes, it shows how many lessons were created, skipped, or replaced.
What Happens During Delete and Replace
Delete and replace is a billing-aware operation. Not all existing lessons can necessarily be deleted — the system checks each one against three conditions that would block deletion:
- Linked to a non-void invoice — the lesson has already been included on a sent invoice. It cannot be deleted until the invoice is voided.
- A lesson-pack credit has been consumed — a lesson-pack credit was used for this lesson. The credit must be restored first (by clearing the attendance record) before the lesson can be deleted.
- A scheduled makeup depends on it — a makeup lesson has been scheduled that is linked to this lesson. The makeup must be resolved first.
When some lessons can be deleted and others can't, the scheduler uses a partial approach: it deletes the lessons it can and leaves the blocked ones in place. The result is shown clearly in the UI:
- A summary panel tells you how many lessons were skipped, which students or groups were affected, and the high-level reason (invoiced, billing credit, etc.)
- A detail panel (collapsed by default) shows the specific lesson dates and times, the exact reason each was blocked, and what you need to do to resolve it
You are never left guessing whether a lesson was deleted or kept.
The scheduler can also show overlap warnings after the run if the generated lessons clash with other scheduled items.
Student Availability in the Scheduler
The main bulk Scheduler also includes a Student availability overlay. You can expand it to show recurring weekly student availability on top of the Scheduler calendar while you are arranging lessons.
This is useful when you want to quickly see a student's timing constraints without leaving the scheduling screen.
If student availability includes times the student is marked as not available, those blocks can also affect rotating scheduling by preventing placement in those times.
For rotating scheduling, Octavia currently works from the teacher's own availability and then applies student not available blocks as exclusions. A student's ordinary positive availability blocks do not currently act as the placement windows for the rotator.
Regular student availability is still useful context in the overlay, but it should be understood as visible guidance rather than the timing rule the rotator follows.
For a fuller explanation, see Student availability and Scheduler overlays.
Reminding Families About Upcoming Lessons
Once a regular lesson slot is in place, Octavia can text families an automatic reminder the day before each lesson — a light touch that helps cut no-shows for recurring students. This is opt-in and uses prepaid SMS credits. See Weekly lesson reminders.
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