Timetabling Software

[DonMcGillivray]

On 02/02/2025 at 21:55, C3PO said:

I have a question in relation to timetabling software. We still use Nova-T and I know this is going to be non-supported soon and I just wonder if there are alternative better solutions out there that work across different MIS systems - or I wonder if there is a new version of Nova-T being developed as a stand-alone product.

 

I'm just looking at options and thinking of time in re-training etc given the person has been using Nova for 10+ years and didnt have a chance to see any at BETT this year.

 

Thanks

 

[DonMcGillivray]

NOVA T6 works with SIMS (obviously) and BROMCOM.  It is not compatible with EDVAL.  The EDVAL timetabling software is terrible - basically you won't get a decent timetable for anything more complex than a primary school - you'd be better off just using an EXCEL spreadsheet.  NOVA T6 is better than anything else around including TIMETABLER.  If you use BROMCOM you can purchase NOVA T6 as a standalone for under £5k.

 

SCOMIS are not supporting the new cloud-based SIMS but you can simply buy into support from SIMS which should be better, being more direct.  All MIS systems are going cloud-based, if not already.

 

NOVA T6 SIMS is the best.  NOVA T6 with BROMCOM is also fine.  EDVAL - don't even go there - a disaster waiting to happen!

[bobsmith]

Edval (TES Timetabler) was used 2 years running in my last school and was a genuinely impressive bit of kit, running a secondary with sixth form including half year group bands. That's as complex as a secondary timetable tends to be (barring split lunches!)

 

It's all in the setup - but after I sat (virtually) with one of their experts for an hour or so - it was a pleasure to use. Our timetabler hadn't timetabled before and after I wrote him a nice curriculum plan and organised the rules around staff etc it was a breeze.

 

My new school is moving to Edval this year and I am really looking forward to never touching Nova-T6 again.

[DonMcGillivray]

Reply to Bobsmith

 

You do not name schools, and I remain unconvinced.

 

As a freelance timetabler, I have been inundated over the last two years by requests for help from schools who are attempting to timetable with EDVAL.

 

Usually, EDVAL has been forced onto timetablers by Trust managers who are only concerned with the price tag rather than the quality of the product, and who are not listening to those in their schools with the expertise.

[BKGarry]

 

Mod Hat on here - @DonMcGillivray We do not ask members to identify where they work, for matters of privacy, What I saw here was someone who did have a positive experience, and while you may not have had this, others may have actually had positive experience and would like to highlight this in the discussion.

[DonMcGillivray]

Reply to BKGarry

Apologies! Of course you are correct.

 

Let me say instead that Bobsmith has made it clear that he is not himself a timetabler.  Therefore, how does he have sufficient knowledge?

[daturum]

30 minutes ago, DonMcGillivray said:

 

Usually, EDVAL has been forced onto timetablers by Trust managers who are only concerned with the price tag rather than the quality of the product, and who are not listening to those in their schools with the expertise.

 

Isn't EDVAL considerably more expensive than the alternatives?

[DonMcGillivray]

I believe SIMS/NOVAT6  is the most pricey option.  BROMCOM  and ISAMS are cheaper.  EDVAL undercuts the others I think.

[BKGarry]

Ah, but this thread it about the timetabling software alone, not the cost of the whole MIS.

 

And yes people have moved away from the SIMS/Nova model, but in most cases this is not solely down to price, and here at my school, it was a whole leadership decision to move away from SIMS and all of the on costs of running an onsite server and having Microsoft SQL Licenses and CALs etc.

 

I would like to point out, that although it have been a few years now since I scheduled my last timetable, I can actually see that Timetabler does require more effort on the "Planning" Stage but this makes the scheduling part a lot easier and less stressful for our current timetabler.

[DonMcGillivray]

Reply to BKGarry

 

The whole leadership team understand price.  Only timetablers understand efficacy.

SIMS have always taken advantage of their monopoly in their pricing.  Schools are naturally responding to the expense now there are alternatives.  Sadly NOVA T6 is the baby being thrown out with the SIMS bathwater.  NOVA T6 remains superb and as standalone at under 5000 pounds it is the best option in my experience

[BKGarry]

Considering our Timetabler also sits on the Leadership Team, was fully included in the process, checked out both the scheduling and looked over the allocation side.

 

Please do not make assumptions, we value your opinion on this, but as every school is different, as you may know as a consultant, their processes and involvement will be different.

[psydii]

I've seen a "you'll take NOVA-T over my dead body" Timetabler (who has genuinely tried a couple of alternatives named earlier in this thread over the last 15 years), be genuinely impressed with EDVAL to the extent they went all-in this year. The only complaints from teachers about this year's timetable are artifacts of staffing/budget cuts, (fewer teachers ergo some balance of larger classes/more contact time/reduced curriculum choice, all decisions taken prior to the switch).

Edval is a bit of a beast and needs about 4Gb of ram per model its resolving, and a bit of GPU grunt. If you don't feed it, it gets hangry. If trying complex stuff (i.e. needing to try out more than three models a day) I could well believe that an 5GHz+ 12 core with a modern IGPU with 32GB RAM might be needed to get the initial models done swiftly.  That said a xen 3+ mobile ryzen 7 with 16GB was enough to get things done here.

[psydii]

3 minutes ago, psydii said:

 I could well believe that an 5GHz+ 12 core with a modern IGPU with 32GB RAM might be needed to get the initial models done swiftly.  That said a xen 3+ mobile ryzen 7 with 16GB was enough to get things done here.

...which is insane if you consider the hardware that NovaT6 and Timetabler first started on.

[AlistairB1983]

7 minutes ago, BKGarry said:

Considering our Timetabler also sits on the Leadership Team, was fully included in the process, checked out both the scheduling and looked over the allocation side.

 

Please do not make assumptions, we value your opinion on this, but as every school is different, as you may know as a consultant, their processes and involvement will be different.

Our current Timetabler is similarly on SLT and, whilst not using it in our school, has used it previously and was similarly impressed by it.

 

All told, of the 4 timetablers I've known and worked with, not one of them still uses NOVA. Some of which is undoubtedly financial, but all have been more than happy using alternatives - either Edval or, for the majority, TimeTabler. 

[Garacesh]

I mean, on one hand, I do try to take the opinion of experts. On the other, obvious agenda is obvious, y'know? There's a balancing act to be struck here. While you're probably very well equipped to speak of the benefits of NOVA T6, you making an account and immediately slating the competition feels a bit like a conflict of interest. 

 

I also don't think it's reasonable for you to say only timetablers understand efficacy. I know we like to have a bit of a gripe about SLT sometimes but to imply they have zero grasp of the concept of 'paying a little more for a better product' and instead always pick the cheapest option is, in my experience, absolutely no the case. (Sometimes, in fact, they even pay more for a worse product)

 

Now I can't say for certain if NOVA T6 was only used because of SIMS' previous dominance or not, but I expect so, because why buy a second timetable software if the current one works? What I can say, though, is with the positive press for alternatives in this thread, by people I trust to be competent IT operatives, I'd definitely be looking at all my options before making a decision. I can also say I shared an office with the timetabler for 8 years who used solely NOVA T6 and some of the expletives I overheard would make a sailor blush, so whilst I don't want to be misconstrued that I'm suggesting it's terrible or not up to the job, I don't have the impression it's as seamless as you're making it out to be.

 

But I left to play the other side (corporate), so YMMV. 

Edited October 13, 2025 by Garacesh

[bobsmith]

On 13/10/2025 at 14:42, DonMcGillivray said:

Reply to BKGarry

Apologies! Of course you are correct.

 

Let me say instead that Bobsmith has made it clear that he is not himself a timetabler.  Therefore, how does he have sufficient knowledge?

 

Sorry but you are making a very wrong assumption here.

I learnt timetabling under the wing of my first assistant head who used a pin board and post-it notes. When I saw how horrendous his methods were I learnt Facility Scheduler (CMIS!) - I then had instruction from Peter at MIST services (45 years experience).

Then I learnt more from a consultant called George Faux before moving on to doing it myself from scratch. I've written timetables using my own home grown excel spreadsheets (all manual scheduling of course) - then took a look at Nova-T6 when my school had SIMS foisted upon them and ran a mile.

I ended up having to consult on timetabling to help out my next school (they used Nova - so I would explain timetable theory but let someone else press the buttons) - then moved on to Edval which is great.

Something your customers may have missed out on is that Edval comes with a serious amount of expert level consultancy on timetabling - if they didn't use that consultancy then that's on them - I found their help was invaluable for navigating the software.

My boss (the "official" timetabler) in my previous school was a timetable virgin - no grounding in the theory - but the consultants helped with that aspect - doing the planning and checks before you even dream of scheduling.

I've also played with timetabler (it comes with Keith Johnson's excellent book) - but found it wasn't as flexible as Edval.

Of all of them - Facility Scheduler was the most powerful in terms of letting you create exactly what you want, but Edval is a close second - and it's automated "AI" scheduling assistant is really impressive.

Current school uses Nova-T6 and I'm hating it.

[DonMcGillivray]

Reply to Bobsmith

 

You should let me train you.

You will love T6 when we've finished especially when you become aware of everything it can do.

[AnglianEdu]

I've played with them all and currently we are using SIMS+Nova for two stand alone Sixth Forms where we have around 60 subjects being taught and 4 figures worth of students.  I think my immediate superiors would ideally like to just use timetabler as other schools in our group do (which are smaller and not sixth forms), but I have been pretty strongly against it. 

 

The blocking system used by Nova is far superior and easier to use for an establishment like us. The automation and the 'helpful' things that TimeTabler tries to do for you I can see would be really helpful for smaller schools and secondary ones, but it actively works against me when I'm trying to design our timetable and in other ways forces me to do certain things I don't need to do in Nova to achieve others. 

 

A lot of the good about Nova is in how it can work for a variety of different approaches. It can do some of the stuff automatically, but if you know what you are doing and want to simply build a timetable on your terms, it's not going to place roadblocks in your way because it doesn't think you should be doing things a certain way. Now that's probably dangerous to someone who is new to the software as you can get yourself in all kinds of knots, but if you do know what you are doing, just being able to do it without having to fight something that thinks it knows better is far easier.

 

I have chatted with the TimeTabler team and I have no doubt that they would be very supportive if we ever went down that road and the support they give us when we were looking into it was second to none. However most of our queries were answered and involved simply following a lot more steps than we would have to do in Nova to achieve the same thing because Timetabler had more rules in terms of how things must be done and also how the automation thinks you want it to be done.

 

I've had a limited time in playing with EdVal, but the moment we talked to them about our size and being a stand alone Sixth Form they quickly lost interest which suggests to me that they don't have that much confidence in their product to meet their needs and the support if we ever went down that road would be lacking to say the least. 

 

On the other hand, I have colleagues in other parts of the trust who use Arbor and Timetabler every day for secondary and primary schools and it works like a dream for them and looking at their requirements, I can see why it would be better than Nova. But for us due to the student volume and the complexity of our curriuclum, it just don't have the same fit. Arbor can't even give our Sixth Form assurances that they can support us due to our size!

Edited October 17, 2025 by AnglianEdu

[Redwing500]

We are looking to move from SIMS to ISAMS. I've been writing the tt (school is 11 - 18 with a large sixth form) using Nova T6 for around 15yrs. Most of the serious lifting is done outside Nova (in Excel or on graph paper) anyway, and I'm not driving for change as I'm two yrs from retirement and in no rush to learn a new set of procedures. 

 

Nevertheless, I'm being pressured to consider Timetabler (because it's cheaper!?) and or Edval. We could purchase Nova as a standalone (would need to obtain some options software from somewhere) and I'm moving towards pushing for that as it's the devil I know.

 

Dom is clearly a proponent for Nova. There are others with differing points of view. Having only really used Nova (went on a Timetabler training course a decade ago), I'm at a loss, so some further opinion would be much appreciated. 

Edited January 15 by Redwing500
Accidental return

[Keith-Johnson]

Some thoughts on choosing Timetabling software:

 

1--Do get your Timetabler to talk to the Timetabler in similar schools …and more than one,

2--If instructed by someone at your MAT to get a certain software, ask why and judge/question the reasons given, and the experience of the person behind them,

3--Do test software carefully that has been developed outside your own country,

4--Be aware that programs like aSc and UNTIS have mostly been used in Primary schools or schools without the complexity of UK secondary schools,

5--If support is readily available, do use it, especially in the first year of use,

6--Do be aware that programs based in the Cloud have some advantages but also distinct disadvantages for Timetablers,

7--Do consider whether the software can do the whole process …getting a 98% solution leaves the more difficult 2% for You to solve,

8--Do consider the time spent on setting it up…some programs take longer to set up the data but can then find a better solution faster,

9--Nova-T6 (developed by Clive Stott) has a particular viewpoint and moving away from it with an existing Timetabler may be difficult,

10--Just getting a solution should not be enough …getting a Quality solution should be the aim.

   

[Redwing500]

To Keith J, thank you for taking time out to respond. Nova makes no decisions for us. I drive the whole process, myself. It starts as a large combing chart (60pds yrs 10 - 13), in excel, then moves to Nova for yr9 and down. The in-built conflicts of the staff loadings are such that it wouldn't be possible to schedule the tt with any commercial  software without the timetabler (me in this case) having a very good understanding of what sorts of swaps are feasible and the degree to which these swaps introduce the required flexibility. To a greater extent, I find I'm deducing the timetable that we will have to have, more than I'm actually operating from a plethora of choices. I was trained by a gentleman (the then head of ICT / curriculum assistant head) that had written our timetable (before it became much more complicated) in Nova, for 10yrs (he had used Timetabler, also) and he insisted (even then) that there was no silver bullet to be found in any software. My instincts, having done this job for 15yrs, are that he was correct. Really, I'm just looking for the software that is most easily moved to, from Nova, if I've got to move.  Point 9 '....a particular view point' - at my age, I certainly have one of those... 

[Devaleth]

Viewpoint of somebody moving away from NT6 (10+ yrs experience) to Timetabler this year. (Bromcom school - used wTimetable last year and it was a disaster; using an excel spreadsheet was easier!). I've been playing around with Timetabler for about 15 hours so far:

• two week timetable for Y7-13
• like you, most of KS4+KS5 is more manual and planned in nature, with the software doing the heavy lifting at KS3
• most things feel like I have a reasonable analogue to NT6 which has been reassuring
• I've had to spend more time getting things setup in Timetabler than NT6, and more thought has had to go into it. This is mostly due to how Timetabler structures the curriculum plan and might speed up in time with experience
• By and large, the in-software support for timetabling solutions has been helpful, but not a guarantee of success
• Having greater control over how the timetable blocks get timetabled (e.g. particular combinations of classes not appearing on the same day) has been really helpful - in NT6 I would have had to spend a lot more mental energy making sure that these scenarios didn't end up happening. E.g. not having GCSE PE and core PE for a year group on the same day.

Too early for me to make a whole-hearted recommendation, but its promising.

 

[supportman]

On 15/01/2026 at 13:24, Keith-Johnson said:

Some thoughts on choosing Timetabling software:

 

6--Do be aware that programs based in the Cloud have some advantages but also distinct disadvantages for Timetablers,

 

   

 

Great points, I've always loved your product and we use it here (even though we have Bromcom).

 

I'm pretty sure I asked you this about 10 years ago..... Have your views changed on cloud software? I mean your product would be perfect if it was cloud based

 

I think its literally one of the last software products we haven't moved to the cloud.

[Keith-Johnson]

I don't think my views have changed substantially in recent years. 
I have sometimes been appalled at how long some MIS take to complete 'immediate' tasks.  Has your MIS network ever gone down?  How often do you see a 'spinning circle' before you get a response from your MIS?
   
Can all the features of a desktop timetabling program be replicated in a Cloud version??
Has ANY timetabling software yet moved successfully to the Cloud?
   

Could you (as Timetabler) afford to wait while a Cloud version found some possible solutions for you (as the human who knows about your colleagues) to choose from?   If not, what is the likelihood of getting a Quality timetable. which your colleagues have to operate (and be subjected to) for the next 190 days?
     
You can see that I'm dubious.
    

[BKGarry]

1 hour ago, Devaleth said:

Viewpoint of somebody moving away from NT6 (10+ yrs experience) to Timetabler this year. (Bromcom school - used wTimetable last year and it was a disaster; using an excel spreadsheet was easier!). I've been playing around with Timetabler for about 15 hours so far:

• two week timetable for Y7-13
• like you, most of KS4+KS5 is more manual and planned in nature, with the software doing the heavy lifting at KS3
• most things feel like I have a reasonable analogue to NT6 which has been reassuring
• I've had to spend more time getting things setup in Timetabler than NT6, and more thought has had to go into it. This is mostly due to how Timetabler structures the curriculum plan and might speed up in time with experience
• By and large, the in-software support for timetabling solutions has been helpful, but not a guarantee of success
• Having greater control over how the timetable blocks get timetabled (e.g. particular combinations of classes not appearing on the same day) has been really helpful - in NT6 I would have had to spend a lot more mental energy making sure that these scenarios didn't end up happening. E.g. not having GCSE PE and core PE for a year group on the same day.

Too early for me to make a whole-hearted recommendation, but its promising.

 

You seem to be mirroring exactly what our Timetabler says, while I can do basics in Timetabler, I have only constructed the whole thing in NT-6.

Our Timetabler says take the time to do all the planning correctly, which can take longer than in NT-6 but it makes the scheduling so much easier and a breeze compared to weird things in NT6.

Our only slight issue at the moment is we no longer "flick flack" changes between the Timetabling Software and the MIS, general maintenance is done in the MIS, so when a large rewrite comes mid year, we have to spend a bit of time redoing Timetabler before mid year options implementation.