It is amazing to be able to suspend a year group who are out on a trip as it means their lessons don't need covering and staff who are teaching those lessons are freed for cover. However, it would be AMAZING if this could also be applied to parts of the day. For example suspend a year group for a select number of periods or between a time as we have lots of trips and fixtures that leave part way through the day.
I agree - being able to suspend a classes lessons using timings (as you can do when covering staff) would mean you could suspend part of a lesson, rather than the whole lesson. Also, if the class has the same lesson twice in one day, all occurrences will not be suspended, only those that are relevant to the periods they are away.
I think this is an essential requirement - if you are suspending a year group or a couple of lessons you have to select each lesson within those periods - being able to suspend by either time or lesson period (the same as cover absence) would make it mush easier.