# What scheduling tools does OpenSky offer?

URL: https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/what-scheduling-tools-does-opensky-offer
Tab: Scheduling & Courses
Category: Overview
Updated: 2026-10-07

A tour of the calendar, pacing, block scheduling and rescheduling tools.

OpenSky builds the schedule for you and then keeps it up to date as life happens. These are the tools that shape it, roughly in the order you meet them.

## Setting up the year

- **School calendar** — the days of the week you teach, your holidays and breaks, and the school year's first and last day. Every course is scheduled against it. See [Creating your first calendar](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/creating-your-first-calendar).
- **Holidays and breaks** — draw a break on the calendar, or import a standard set for your region in one step. Lessons skip those days. See [Adding holidays and breaks](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/adding-holidays-and-breaks) and [Importing standard holidays](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/importing-standard-holidays).
- **School years** — start the next year without losing the current one, with each student's grade moved up. See [Adding a new school year](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/adding-a-new-school-year).

## Placing courses

- **Pacing** — **Fixed pace** schedules a set number of lessons on each teaching day; **Finish by deadline** spreads the remaining lessons so the course completes by a date. See [Course pacing](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/course-pacing).
- **Start dates** — a course can start today, on a future date, or part-way through if you are picking up a curriculum you already began. See [Scheduling a course for the future](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/scheduling-a-course-for-the-future), [Scheduling a course that started already](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/scheduling-a-course-that-started-already) and [Scheduling the first lesson](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/scheduling-first-lesson).
- **Block scheduling** — rotate two courses in one slot, start a course when another ends, teach several at once, set up A and B weeks, and give a block a time. See [Block scheduling](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/block-scheduling).
- **Activities** — one-off and repeating items alongside courses, which can push courses forward on the days they happen. See [Activities](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/activities).

## Keeping it current

- **Moving a lesson** — drag a lesson to another day. Moving it earlier offers to bring the later lessons forward too. See [Moving a lesson](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/moving-a-lesson).
- **Clearing a day** — a date's **⋯** menu has **Move incomplete lessons**, which sends a day's unfinished work to the next teaching day. See [Overdue lessons](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/overdue-lessons).
- **Days off** — **Add day off** on the checklist records a holiday, sick day, weather day or absence, and the affected lessons move. See [Attendance](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/attendance).
- **Pausing** — pause a course or a block and resume later without losing your place. See [Pausing a course](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/pausing-a-course).

## Seeing it elsewhere

The whole schedule, or one student's, can be subscribed to from Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook and family displays. See [Calendar integrations](https://www.openskyplanner.com/support/calendar-integrations).

## Need more help?

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