Making Changes to Groups

One of the most important features of Motional is its powerful and flexible ability to look at results and change over time, and you’ll want to make sure that you’re dealing with any changes to your Groups in the right way to make sure you can get the best out of this. This article looks at the following scenarios, but if there are others we’ve missed that you’re not sure about just pop us a message via the pink circle! In scenarios where you need to edit the existing group, the How to Edit a Group page article will guide you through if you're not sure how.

• My Group has moved up a year to a new class. What do I need to do with my Group on Motional?
• I’ve got a new pupil joining one of my existing Groups. Will I have to create the Group again?
• I’ve got a pupil who is no longer in one of my Groups. Will I have to create the Group again?
• I’ve got a pupil who is no longer at our setting. Will I have to create the Group again?
• There are quite a few changes to the pupils in my Group. Should I just edit the Group?
• My Group has left. How do I delete it?

My Group has moved up a year to a new class. What do I need to do with my Group on Motional?

If your Group is moving from ‘Class 4 Rhino’ to ‘Class 5 Elephant’, but the children within that Group are staying more or less the same, then all you need to do is rename the Group. The Group is defined by the Participants within it - the title is just a means of you identifying them. To make sure that you can continue to use any change over time overview features to compare the results (and hopefully track progress!) of the Group, simply change the Group name. Behind the scenes we still know it is the same Group of Participants and we’ll be able to show you how the results of ‘Class 4 Rhino’ compare now that they have become ‘Class 5 Elephant’!

I’ve got a new pupil joining one of my existing Groups. Will I have to create the Group again?

If you just need to add one or two children to an existing Group there’s no need to create the Group again. Just add them to the Group and carry on as you were. Just keep in mind that if you have existing Groupshots for this Group any changes might affect the change over time summary, so you'll want to consider whether any changes might be to do with the change in Participants. Any new Participants won’t appear in your previous Snapshot results since they weren’t a part of the Group at the time. But they’ll be added so you can include them in any future Snapshots.

I’ve got a pupil who is no longer in one of my Groups. Will I have to create the Group again?

If the pupil is still at your school / setting but just not in that Group anymore, you can just remove them from the Group and carry on as you were - there’s no need to create the Group again. This is not the solution if they have left your setting completely though (there's another FAQ below for that scenario). Just keep in mind that if you have existing Groupshots for this Group any changes might affect the change over time summary, so you'll want to consider whether any changes might be to do with the change in Participants. Any Participants who have been removed from the Group (but not from your Team) will appear in previous Snapshot results since they were a part of the Group at the time, but they won’t be included in any future Snapshots for the Group.

I’ve got a pupil who is no longer at our setting. Will I have to create the Group again?

If the Participant has left your setting and you want to remove them from your Team account, then you’ll need to delete them from the Participants page. Only Team Admins will have the option to delete and bulk delete, so if you don't have this user role you'll need to get in touch with them to ask them to do this. The Team Admins for your account will be listed on your Dashboard. There’s no need to create the Group again. Once they've been removed you will no longer be able to see their details within your list of Participants and they won’t appear in your Group. Just keep in mind that if you have existing Groupshots for this Group any changes might affect the change over time summary, so you'll want to consider whether any changes might be to do with the change in Participants. Any Participants who have been deleted from your Team will no longer appear in previous Snapshot results.

There are quite a few changes to the pupils in my Group. Should I just edit the Group?

If there are significant changes to the Participants within the Group (e.g. more than about 20% of the Group has changed) we don’t recommend that you edit the Group. This is because is becomes very tricky (and not particularly accurate) to compare the results of this Group within the change over time graphs. It is essentially a new Group - the name might be the same, but the Group of Participants within it are no longer the same. We would recommend instead that you create a new Group. Make sure you use a slightly different name than before (something like adding the academic year into the Group title) so that you can tell the difference! The old Group can either be deleted or archived from the Groups page: if the Participants within the old Group are still at your setting we would recommend you archive the Group rather than delete, so you don't lose the valuable individual Participant data that has been collected through any previous Groupshots for the Group.

I need to create new Groups for my new Year 7s. How do I do this?

1. You'll first need to make sure that all of these pupils are listed as Participants within your Motional Team. You can do this yourself or you can send us an up to date list of your pupils and from this we'll work out who's new (and add them), who's left (and remove them) and make sure all other details are up to date. You’ll find more details in the Importing Participants to Motional article
2. Once you know they're listed in your Participants page you can create a new Group 

My Group has left. How do I delete it?

If your whole Group has left (for instance last year’s Year 6s) you might want to delete the Group from your Team account. Only Team Admins will have the option to delete Groups, so if you don't have this user role you'll need to get in touch with them to ask them to do this. The Team Admins for your account will be listed on your Dashboard. Keep in mind that once you have deleted a Group you will no longer be able to view any of their Groupshots information, or the individual Participant Snapshots from within it.

In the case of Participants leaving to move on to another setting (e.g. Year 6), with your permission we can transfer their individual data to their Secondary school, if they are also using Motional.