Belt testing and promotions

Promoting a student moves them up a program's belt ladder and writes a permanent record of who awarded it, when, and why. It happens on Students then →Ranks, on the Student Ranks tab.

Building the ladder itself is Belt ranks. This article assumes it exists.

Before a grading

The screen is Students then →Ranks → Student Ranks: one row per student per program, showing their current rank with its colour and the date it was assigned.

Four controls above it — a name search, a All Programs filter, a All Ranks filter, and sortable column headers.

Promoting one student

Promote on the student's row opens a panel showing:

• the Program — fixed, it is that row's program;
• their Current Rank with its colour swatch;
• Promote To — a dropdown of ranks;
• Notes (optional) — up to 500 characters.

Press Confirm Promotion.

The Promote To dropdown only offers ranks above their current one. If it says "No higher ranks available", either they are at the top of the ladder or the ladder is in the wrong order.

Promoting a group after a belt test

The realistic case: twelve students graded on Saturday, all moving to the same belt.

1. 1

   Filter to the program

   Use the All Programs dropdown. This also decides which ranks the bulk dialog offers, so it is worth doing first.

2. 2

   Tick the students

   A checkbox per row, and one in the header that selects everything currently visible — so filter first, then select all.

3. 3

   Bulk Promote

   A button appears showing the count: Bulk Promote (12). It opens a panel listing the selected students, with a Program, a Target Rank and one shared Notes field.

4. 4

   Confirm

   Everyone moves to the same rank, each with their own history entry carrying the shared note.

Up to 100 students can be promoted at once.

Each student is promoted independently, so a partial failure is possible and is reported as such: anybody already at or above the target rank is skipped with "Target rank must be higher than current rank" while everybody else goes through. Re-check the list afterwards rather than assuming.

Notes are worth writing

The Notes field is the only place the reason for a promotion is ever recorded, and it shows in the history table. "Winter grading, board break and kata" is a sentence somebody will be glad of in two years.

For a bulk promotion, one note covers everyone — name the grading, not the individual.

Promotion History

The third tab is every promotion your studio has ever recorded, newest first, with columns for Date, Student, Program, Promotion (from-rank to to-rank with both colours), Promoted By and Notes. Every column except Promotion and Notes sorts.

Filters: a student search, From and To dates, program, and rank.

The most recent 50 promotions are loaded. For a studio grading in batches that is several gradings' worth; there is no "load more", so the date filters are how you look further back into a long history.

The record survives everything: a rank you later delete still reads correctly here, and an instructor who has left keeps their name on the promotions they awarded.

Belt testing as an event

A grading is usually also an event. Creating it on Classes then →Events with the type Belt Testing gives you a date, a capacity, RSVPs and — if you charge a testing fee — a price families can pay from their own payments page.

That is the invitation and the money. This screen is the result. See Events and RSVPs.

Where a rank shows up afterwards

What is not here

• No time-in-rank or attendance requirements. Nothing checks that a student has trained enough times before you promote them; that judgement is yours.
• No stripes or partial grades other than as ranks in their own right — if you award stripes, add them to the ladder as ranks.
• No promotion email. Families are not notified. Tell them in class, or post an announcement.
• No certificates. Nothing is generated to print.

Last reviewed 2 August 2026