What is the grading scale?
The grading scale is what turns a raw score into a grade on a report card — for example, deciding that 70-100 is an "A", with a chosen color and a remark like "Excellent" that prints alongside it. It's set up once for your school and then attached to assessments as you create them, so every result gets graded the same way.
- It's required. You can't create an assessment without choosing a grading system for it.
- It's shared across your school, not tied to one class — set it up once, reuse it everywhere, and only add more if you deliberately want different classes or assessment types graded differently.
- Younger classes work differently. Nursery and lower primary classes usually don't use a numeric scale at all — they use simple Rating Keys instead, covered in Step 3 below.
Open Grading Systems and plan your ranges
Go to Settings → Report Sheets → Grading Systems.
This screen lists every grading scale your school has set up. If it's empty, that's expected the first time — click Add Grading System to start.
Sketch your ranges out on paper first: A, B, C and so on, each with a lowest and highest score. Check the highest score of one grade sits exactly one point below the lowest score of the grade above it (for example, B ends at 69 and A starts at 70) — that's what avoids the gaps and overlaps covered in the FAQ below.
Add your grades
Build each grade row when creating, or apply a recommended scale later when editing.
Build your grades
Click Add Another Grading System for each grade you need, filling in:
- From (Lowest Score) and To (Highest Score) — the score range this grade covers.
- Grade Name — what prints on the report, e.g. "A" or "A+".
- Grade Color — used to color-code the grade on screen and on printed report sheets.
- Remark — a short description like "Excellent" that appears next to the grade.
- Auto Principal's Remark and Auto Form Teacher's Remark — optional comment text that fills in automatically for students who land on this grade.
When every grade is added, click Create Grading Systems.
Or start from a recommended scale, once it exists
Recommended scales aren't offered on this first-creation screen — but once a grading system is saved, open it again to edit it, and you'll see Recommended Grade for you with a Yes/No switch, plus examples under What other schools' grade look like. Switching one on fills in the grades for you — you can still edit any row afterwards if it's not quite right.
Double-check your ranges don't skip any scores and don't overlap each other. CloudNotte doesn't block you from saving a scale with gaps or overlaps — see the FAQ below for exactly what happens if you do.
Set up ratings for younger classes and Cognitive/Affective keys
Optional, and separate from the numeric scale above.
Early Grade ratings (nursery / lower primary)
Go to Early Grade → Ratings, choose the classes this applies to, and add Rating Keys with a Name (e.g. "Excellent") and Remarks. There's no score range here — these classes are rated in words instead of numbers.
Cognitive Keys (Psychomotor & Affective)
Go to Cognitive Keys, choose a class, then add keys under Psychomotor Domain (practical/physical skills) and Affective Domain (behaviour and attitude), such as "Punctuality" or "Teamwork". These are rated separately from academic scores when results are entered, and print as their own section on the report sheet.
If your report cards don't include a ratings section or a behaviour/skills section, you can skip this step entirely and move straight to attaching your grading system to an assessment.
Where the grading scale gets used
Once it's set up, you'll meet the grading scale again in a few places:
| Where | What happens |
|---|---|
| Creating an assessment | You'll pick a Grading System for it — required before it can be saved. |
| Cumulative assessments | Cumulative results use their own grading systems, set up the same way. |
| Pass Mark | A separate setting on each assessment — it decides who's marked PROMOTED and isn't part of the grading scale itself. |
| Result sheets | The scale prints as a reference table, and every score is colored and labeled using the grade it falls into. |
Common questions
- Do I have to set up a grading scale before I can create an assessment?
- Yes. Every assessment needs at least one grading system attached to it before it can be saved — that's how CloudNotte knows which grade to give a score. Set your grading scale up first, and the assessment screen will already have it ready to pick from.
- What actually goes wrong if my score ranges have a gap or overlap?
- If there's a gap between two ranges (say A is 70-100 and B is 60-69, but nothing covers 50-59), a student who scores in that gap will be quietly rounded up into the higher grade rather than shown an error — so they may get a better grade than intended. If two ranges overlap, the lower one wins for any score that falls in both. Neither shows a warning on screen, so it's worth double-checking your ranges line up exactly before saving, with no space and no overlap between them.
- Can I just use a ready-made grading scale instead of typing my own?
- Not while you're first creating one — that screen only has the blank rows to fill in. But once you've saved a grading system and open it again to edit, you'll see a
Recommended Grade for youoption, plus examples of what other schools use, that you can switch on to fill the grades in for you. You're free to leave it as applied or tweak the ranges, names, and colors afterwards. - Do I need a different grading scale for every class, or is one enough?
- One grading scale can be reused across your whole school — it isn't tied to a single class. You only need more than one if you genuinely want different classes or assessment types graded differently (for example, a separate scale for cumulative results).
- What are Cognitive Keys, and do I need to set them up?
- Cognitive Keys cover the Psychomotor (physical/practical skills) and Affective (behaviour and attitude) traits some report cards include, like punctuality or teamwork — separate from academic scores. They're optional and set up per class under the Cognitive Keys tab. If your report cards don't include this section, you can skip it.
- What happens to results that were already entered if I change the grading scale afterwards?
- The grade shown on a result sheet is worked out from whatever ranges exist in your grading scale at the moment it's viewed or printed — it isn't locked in when the score is first entered. That means editing a grading system later can change the grade shown for scores entered earlier. If a scale needs correcting, it's safer to do it before results are released to parents, and to re-check anything already printed afterwards.