The problem
Before each grading, head instructors go through notebooks to work out who has covered the syllabus and enough classes, while parents ask whether their child is grading. A school grading 4 times a year can spend about 8 hours on it each time.
What the AI does
Class Manager is class management software with skill tracking and digital registers. Its skill tracking page says you set what students must master before grading to the next belt, give each skill its own status and mark progress as you go, so you have a clear record ready for grading day. Families can see a child's current grade and when they move up, without the full breakdown. Its attendance page says teachers tap through the register on a tablet or phone. Its pricing page says there is no monthly subscription, only a service charge on payments taken online. The instructor still decides who grades.
A worked example
A martial arts school in Wolverhampton with 120 students grades 4 times a year. It sets up each belt's syllabus in Class Manager, and instructors mark progress on a tablet at the end of each class.
Before
About 8 hours per grading going through notebooks and answering parents
After
Syllabus progress recorded in class; about 3 hours per grading checking the list
What it's worth
About $56£42€50A$81C$79 a month in time saved: 5 hours on each of 4 gradings is 20 hours a year, about 1.7 hours a month at an assumed $33£25€30A$48C$47 an hour. Class Manager has no monthly fee if you don't take payments through it.
How to set it up
- Open a free Class Manager account and set up each class and belt level.
- Enter the syllabus for each belt as skills, with the statuses you want, such as learning, competent and ready.
- Ask instructors to take the register and mark progress on a tablet at the end of each class.
- Before each grading, check each student's progress and attendance and decide who is invited.
- Choose whether parents see the belt only or the skills too, and tell them where to look.
What goes wrong
- Grading decisions stay with the instructor; the record supports the decision, it doesn't make it.
- If your governing body or association sets minimum training times between gradings, check those yourself; the software won't know them.
- Instructors who forget to mark progress leave gaps. Make it part of closing every class.
- Student profiles can hold medical details, which are special-category data under UK GDPR; limit staff access to what each instructor needs.