Setting Up Sunday School Classes — Teachers, Helpers, and Students
Sunday School in TimelyChurch works through three simple layers that build on each other. People is your master directory -- every child, teacher, and helper has to exist here first. Classes (under Planning > Classes) is where you build the class itself: its name, age group, room, and staff. Check-In is what happens on Sunday morning -- kids check in to their class, and attendance is created automatically from who showed up. The simplest way to remember it: you build the class in Classes, and you run it every week through Check-In.
This article walks through staffing a class from the ground up.
Before You Start: People First
Before you can add anyone to a class, they need a profile in your People directory -- this applies to children, teachers, and helpers alike.
- Go to People.
- Click Add Person for anyone who isn't already in your directory -- a child who needs a name tag on Sunday, a new teacher, or a volunteer helper.
- Fill in the basics (name, birthdate for children, contact info, and any allergy or medical notes).
Note: You can't assign someone as a teacher or helper, or enroll a student, until they have a Person profile. If a class member is missing from a dropdown, this is usually why.
Create the Class
- Go to Planning > Classes.
- Click New Class.
- Fill in the basics: Name (e.g., "Youngest Class"), Age Range, Room, and a Color for quick visual identification. Under Who is this class for? you can also set ages or grades and turn on Auto-enroll by age/grade (see Managing Classes).
- Click Create Class.
Your class now exists as an empty shell -- the next steps are about putting people in it.
Add Teachers
Teachers are stored as the class's leaders, and they get portal access to manage their class -- view the roster, take attendance, and more.
- Open the class you just created and go to its Roster tab.
- In the Teachers card, click Add teacher, search for the person, and click Add teacher. The first teacher becomes the Lead teacher; the next ones join as Co-teachers.
- Use Make lead to change who leads.
Who can do this: Assigning teachers requires a church administrator, or a role that has been specifically granted the "assign teachers" capability.
Tip: If a ministry leader needs to manage every Sunday School class without becoming a full administrator, create a custom role under Roles & Permissions -- for example, "Sunday School Director" -- and grant it the assign-teachers permission along with whatever else that role needs.
Add Helpers
Helpers are added as co-leaders of the class -- extra hands to support the teacher.
- Open the class and go to its Roster tab.
- In the Teachers card, click Add teacher, search for the person, and click Add teacher.
- Because the class already has a lead teacher, the helper joins as a Co-teacher (a co-leader of the class).
Who can do this: The Teachers card's buttons need a church administrator or a role with the assign teachers permission.
Add Students
- Open the class and go to its Roster tab.
- Click Add Student.
- Search for and select the person (they must already exist in People).
If the class has Auto-enroll by age/grade turned on, children who fit its ages or grades are enrolled automatically -- see Managing Classes.
This enrolls the student in the class. They now appear on the roster, and they're ready to show up on Sunday's check-in list.
Sunday Morning: Check-In
Once a class has its roster built, the Sunday operation takes care of itself:
- A child checks in at the kiosk or front desk.
- The class roster -- pulled straight from who you enrolled as students -- determines which class they check into.
- An attendance record is created automatically for that class the moment the check-in happens.
- If a class doesn't use the kiosk that week (or you need to catch up a class from a past date), open the class page and use manual attendance instead.
Attendance history and reports are available both on the class page and in the Check-In attendance reports.
Who Can Do What
| Role | Create Classes | Add Teachers and Helpers | Add Students | Take Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Church Administrator | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom role with "assign teachers" (e.g., Sunday School Director) | Depends on role setup | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teacher (class leader) | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Helper (co-leader) | No | No | Yes (typically) | Yes |
Common Questions
Why can't our Team Leader assign a teacher to a class? Assigning teachers is a specific capability, separate from general class access. A Team Leader role doesn't include it by default. If a ministry leader needs to assign teachers across all your classes, ask an administrator to create a custom role (see the Tip above) with the assign-teachers permission turned on.
Do helpers get portal access like teachers do? Yes. As co-leaders, helpers get portal access to their class alongside the teacher, so they can see the roster and help with attendance. The one thing that stays reserved for an administrator (or a role with the assign-teachers permission) is adding or changing who the class's official Teachers are.
Where does attendance actually come from -- do I have to enter it by hand? No manual work is required in the normal flow. Attendance comes straight from Check-In: when a child checks in to their class, an attendance record is created for that class automatically. Manual attendance on the class page is only needed if you want to record attendance for a session that didn't go through Check-In, or to fill in a past date.
Do I have to add a child to People every time before Sunday? Yes -- a Person profile always comes first. But it only has to happen once. After a child is in People and enrolled as a student in their class, they stay on the roster week after week without any extra setup.