# Understanding school years

URL: https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/creating-your-first-calendar
Tab: Scheduling & Courses
Category: School year
Updated: 2026-10-08

Set up the school calendar that every course and lesson is scheduled against.

Student work on OpenSky is organized under a School year. Students are enrolled in a school year, and you can optionally specify a specific grade for this enrollment. Courses and activities are then added to these grades so you can organize a student's academic records. New courses and activities are automatically added to the active school year.

Video: https://openskyvideo.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/attendance.mp4

## Manage school years

A school year gives each student an estimated first and last day, an attendance goal and the attendance record.

1. Go to the **Calendar** page in the left nav and click **Change year** in the top right corner, then **Edit years**. 
2. Here you can edit school years, edit student grades in each year, or create new school years.

## Teaching days

If you courses are being scheduled, or not being scheduled, on certain days, you might need to update your teaching days for the school.
1. Go to **Calendar** and select the **Teaching Days** tab
2. Choose the days you'd like courses to be scheduled and click **Save**

![The Calendar page with the Teaching Days tab open](https://opensky-public-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/supportimages/scheduling/creating-your-first-calendar-1.png)

Lessons are only placed on teaching days; the others are shaded on the calendar. Changing them reschedules every lesson. Which of these days a particular course uses is set on the course itself.

## School year dates

The **Settings** tab holds the year's **Term name**, **First day** and **Last day**. Saving moves every student who follows the year; a student given their own dates stays put, and the panel names them.

## The teaching-day count

The number above the calendar is how many teaching days the range on screen contains. It updates as you add breaks, so you can see the effect before saving. Next step: [Adding holidays and breaks](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/adding-holidays-and-breaks).

## Need more help?

Reach out any time at [support@openskyplanner.com](mailto:support@openskyplanner.com) and we will be happy to help.