DeeGee

I'm at a Bromcom MAT and we use wTimetable natively, straight out of the box. Don't see any need to plug anything else in when there's a really good, and always developing, cloud-based timetabling solution built-in.

The best solution to this is probably, actually, not to timetable a break. Do you need break timetabled? Don't worry about splitting period 2. Make lesson 2 run from 10 until 11:25. That way you can't overlap accidentally or put cover on at the wrong time. The kids and staff will get the hang of where they are actually supposed to be quickly, and you can tell supply staff what time the lesson is when they get their cover slips. As John wrote above, use the new split lunch functionality in wTimetable to schedule lesson 4. That way you can also schedule duties within the timetable if you wish. I'd suggest getting it into wTT via the new import routine and working on it/publishing directly from there - always better to use the one piece of software rather than keep switching between the two, and wTT is designed to work with Bromcom without any clunky period matching routines...

I think that’s exactly it. NOVA‑T6 was unbeatable in its day, and anyone who’s been around timetabling long enough knows it inside out. But once you finally rip the plaster off and move to something else, you realise just how much complexity NOVA adds to things that don’t need to be complicated. And if you want it to actually do anything, you spend hours feeding in constraints, hit autoschedule, and then watch the machine hang for half a day before coming back with a polite “nope”. Meanwhile you can’t use the computer for anything else. Other systems have moved on massively, while NOVA is basically identical to how it was when I first used it. For me, the key is that you need to understand how to write a timetable, not just how to operate a particular bit of software. Once you’ve got that, the best tool is simply the one that talks cleanly to your MIS. In our case, when the trust moved from SIMS to Bromcom, I moved from NOVA‑T to wTT. What’s been interesting is that when I share my skills with colleagues who want to learn timetabling, they pick it up far more quickly in wTT than they ever would have in NOVA. Even the UI alone is less intimidating than NOVA’s “Windows XP in a trench coat” aesthetic.

I was in that position a couple of years ago, moved from SIMS to BROMCOM but was completely used to NOVA-T6 and was reluctant to have to learn a new tool. However, my CEO reminded me that if I was a "real" timetabler, I should be able to use anything. And he was right. NOVA-T6 is fine as a legacy tool, it does its job well, however, wTimetable is really good and I'm so glad I changed. My favourite feature is the fact that, being cloud-based, anyone in the trust who knows what they are doing can go in, make a copy of the current model and try different scenarios. You can have a timetable team all working across the trust, and you can more easily do clever stuff like timetabling a member of staff to two schools - allows a greater trust overisght. The autoschedule routines are really quick now, and when they can't do you a 100% fit the engine gives really useful feedback so you can work out what compromises best to make. Two or three people can timetable simultaneously - our Science leads like to adjust staffing of Dual Award to make the most of people's talents, and I trust them to just go in and use the staffing scheduling screen to move staff around - with my support, obviously. And he can do that while I'm finalising a different curriculum area. Timetabling becomes a collaborative effort - which you couldn't do with NOVA-T6 as two concurrent sessions open would result in someone's data overwriting someone else's. If you're using BROMCOM as an MIS it just seamlessly links back, and there's no risk of messing the grid up with the manual export routine that you have to do with NOVA-T. And it's not just in one school - I timetable across a trust, we've used it for an 11-18 school with 12FE, a split site school, a village school, primaries. I've yet to find a scenario that, with a little true timetabler's initiative, wTT can't handle.

I’ve been a Nova T6 timetabler for years. It’s what I was trained on, what I’m used to, very much my comfort zone, but when our trust moved wholesale to Bromcom two years ago, and after some discussions about what software to use moving forward, I ended up switching to Bromcom wTimetable. Last summer was my first full build in wTT, and a lot of the time went into learning the interface. This year has been noticeably smoother and faster now that I’ve internalised the workflow. The auto‑schedule has come a long way: it’s quick, and when it can’t hit 100% it gives reasons that are actually useful rather than just “no fit”, which at least points me in the right direction. Still not perfect with part‑timer day‑off optimisation, but honestly, nothing is. Reporting feels much better than last year. The range of curriculum exports to Excel has expanded, which makes producing the usual subject‑area views far less fiddly. I’m also finding the drag‑and‑drop on the staff assignment screen really handy now that I’m into the final stretch and trying to land the last few classes sensibly. Overall, wTT feels like it’s settling into itself. Not flawless, but definitely moving in the right direction and increasingly practical for day‑to‑day timetabling. Out of curiosity, what are your best workflow hacks or lesser‑known tricks in wTT that have genuinely saved you time this year?

Okay, so it's not a good idea to change timetables mid year, but sometimes we have to. We've migrated from SIMS to Bromcom this month. Alongside this, I've recreated the school's timetable in wTimetable. Processed it, and am now trying to apply it with effect from Nov 2 so it's good for the new term, and I can then bin NOVA-T6 off completely. I'm getting this error message, and no timetable changes occur: "Apply failed! -- Requested collection(s) cannot be inserted/updated because other collection(s) of the same name and type exist(s) within the selected date range" What should I do?

So, we've got an automated routine that creates users from admission numbers. Obviously, in order to do this, we need admission numbers. Students don't have admission numbers until their status is changed to "admitted", and this doesn't normally happen until the INSET day. All the documentation says not to admit until *after* the year starts. Except we're offering summer school, we'd like to get accounts set up for that. Is there any harm going through the "Admit Applications" routine before the start of the year, given that the Admission Date is set within the Admission Group? I'm not sure what happens during the "Admit Applications " process.

I was having that same issue and can confirm that downloading the file again allows the import to happen correctly.

Thought I'd just drop back in to say, we had a student for whom Academic Year, and YTI did not match. The student was actually in nursery, but had a year of R, so your first suggestion was sort of right, Phil.

Will do, Phil. I was just thinking that I was missing something obvious.

One dual registered, but not in that year group. It's got me flummoxed. I've run a whole school list, effective date 05/10/17, every pupil has a year group and tutor group, and there's just the one dual reg.

In terms of age? No, I'm pretty certain we don't take kids out of year group. Is there any way to print the list of students counted for either "School Report" or "Student Analysis" to double-check? I've run a general student list and that's got 59 on.

Looking at student numbers on SIMS. "School Report", effective date 05 Oct 2017 has a total of 60 students in reception class. Running a Student Analysis Report for all students on roll on the 05 Oct 2017 has 60 students in reception class. Our PLASC census says 59. Anyone got any clues as to where I can find the missing one? I've run a report of leavers since the start of the academic year, and none of them have a leaving date before 05 Oct.

I haven't asked them yet, to be fair.

M'colleague has applied a # code to a student's attendance in error. We've tried to delete the exceptional circumstance, but although now it'll allow me to delete the # and put the attendance marks back on for the lessons, it stays resolutely stuck in the sessions and I can't overwrite. Is there a way to fix it? Would making the student a leaver and then removing the leaving date force SIMS to overwrite everything with a Z, then delete the Z but not replace it with what was there before?