Creating a database system for a high school containing students records

Question

I am building a student database for a high school. I have been able to solve most of my problems with the exception of one.

The tables I currently have are for records of the current school term. I am trying to find a way to permanently keep records for the first term, second term, third term and even after the student graduates. Student information will still be stored in the database permanently.

Please can anyone give me an idea of how I should build it?

Answer 1

I think the most logical way is to have Year (calendar year) and Term (semester term: Spring, Summer, Fall) fields associated to each student. This way you could fully distinguish attendance by either calendar year or term. For graduation status you could add either graduation flag or graduation date, or both.

ADDED:

In response to comment below. Yes, I think it does make more sense to track prospective students and enrolled academic students separately. You either can track those in a stand along table or implement additional fields to the existing table. As an example, you could have a field person_status as enrolled, graduated, prospective.

Your ultimate structure really depends on what level of detail you try to achieve.

Answer 2

Add a field "Term", where you write the term, which this record is for.