Booklists: the books one class must buy
The single page that stops a family buying the wrong textbook twice, or the right one twice.
A booklist is the answer to the question every parent asks in September: exactly which books does my child need? One booklist belongs to one class in one academic year, and it lists the titles, authors and publishers that class must buy, in the order the school wants them acquired.
It is a short screen and it belongs to whoever prepares the school year: the academic secretary, the head of school, or a class teacher given the task in July. Done well, it removes an entire category of argument from the first fortnight of term — because the list is published, and every family is reading the same one.
The list also travels. From an enrolled learner’s file you can open or print the class list in one click, so the secretary can hand a family a printed copy at the counter, and the school can send it out as a PDF to families who were not there on the day.
Publish a booklist in five steps
One list per class per year, ready for the counter.
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Step 1
Open Academic > Booklists
The table lists every booklist with its academic year, class, published flag and number of attached files.
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Step 2
Name the list and place it
Click New Booklist. Give it a Title a family will recognise — “Sixth Year A — 2026/2027” — then choose the Academic Year and the Class it applies to.
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Step 3
Add the books one at a time
Use the books icon on the row to open the book list. For each title, fill in the Title, the Author and the Publisher, then press Add book. Repeat until the class is covered.
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Step 4
Attach the class PDF
The file icon on the row opens the files dialog. Choose the PDF and press Upload PDF; View opens an attached file again. This is the version you send to families by email or WhatsApp.
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Step 5
Publish it and print from the class
Tick Published on the row so the list is the one families are pointed to. Then open any enrolled learner in the class and use their Booklist button to open or print the same list.
One list per class, per year
Why the class and the year are both required, and what the Published flag actually does.
Classes move, so do prices and editions
Because a list is attached to a class and an academic year, a school that changes textbook editions every two years needs a new list rather than an edit. The old list stays readable, a family whose child is in Fifth Year this year keeps reading last year’s list, and nobody is left guessing which edition the school actually wants. Copy the previous year’s row, change the title, the year and the titles, and you are done.
Published is a signal to families, not a lock
Unticking Published simply stops the list being presented as the current requirement — useful while you are still checking prices with the bursar, or in the gap between years. It does not delete anything, and an enrolled learner can still reach the list from their own file. Publish it once the books are confirmed and the prices are known.
The attached PDF is the version that travels
The typed book rows are the working list your school maintains. The PDF is what leaves the building: it can be printed at the counter, attached to an enrolment receipt, or sent to a family by email or WhatsApp. Keeping both in step is a small discipline — attach the PDF once the book rows are final, and replace it whenever you correct a title.
Order matters more than it looks
Books appear in the order you add them, so add them in the order the school expects families to acquire them: the mathematics textbook first if that is the book with the longest supply chain. It also makes the printed list read like an errand list rather than an alphabetical directory.
Where the price of a book is decided
The list says what is required. The Library says what it costs.
The booklist is the requirement, not the invoice
A booklist deliberately carries no price column. Its job is to remove the argument: this is the book, this is the author, this is the edition your child needs. A school that puts prices on the list is making a promise about a bookshop it does not control.
The price lives on the book in the Library
If you sell books — or want families to be able to buy the correct ones online — create the book under Academic > Library, attach the file, and set its Payable flag with a Price. That is the figure a family pays, and the purchase arrives back in your books as an order. Free books simply leave Payable unticked.
Most families still buy on the street
That is entirely normal, and the booklist works just as well for it — which is exactly why the list should be precise about the title, the author and the publisher rather than about the price. Give families a list they can take to any bookshop, and print it at the counter for the ones who need a paper copy.
Reusing last year’s list
Tick the rows in the table and use the duplicate action on the table to copy a list in one move. Copies appear as new rows you can edit independently, so you can change the title, the academic year and the class, replace the books that changed edition, and leave the ones that did not exactly as they were.
The two book screens side by side
One says which books. The other says what they cost and where they are read.
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Stock
Library
The catalogue of digital books, with the file, the classes they are for and the price families pay.
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Print
Enrollments
The learner’s file, where the class booklist opens and prints in one click at the counter.
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Year
Academic years
The calendar the list is attached to, so last year’s booklist stays readable beside this one.
Booklist questions
Asked by whoever compiles the list every July.
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How do I put prices on the booklist?
You do not, and that is on purpose. The booklist is the requirement — title, author, publisher — and it should stay usable in any bookshop in town. If you want families to buy from you, create the book in Academic > Library, tick Payable and set the Price there; the list then points at a book they can purchase online for exactly that figure.
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Can I reuse the list I published last year?
Yes, and you should. Tick the row and use the duplicate action on the table, then change the title, the academic year and the class on the copy, and edit the books whose edition has changed. Because each list belongs to one class in one year, the original stays exactly as it was published — which matters when a parent asks why their child’s list differs from last year’s.
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What is the PDF attached to a booklist for?
It is the version that leaves the school. The typed book rows are what you maintain; the PDF is what you print at the counter, attach to an enrolment receipt, or send to a family who was not there on the day. Open the files dialog from the file icon on the row, choose the PDF, press Upload PDF, and View reopens it afterwards.
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Do I need one booklist per stream, or one for the whole year?
One per class, because a class is what the list is attached to. If Sixth Year A and Sixth Year B read different books in mathematics, they need two lists; if they read the same books, one list duplicated across the two classes keeps the wording identical and stops families being told two different things.