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Hi everyone, I’m researching how secondary schools tackle timetabling, and as someone coming at this from the outside, I’m trying to map out the basic process from start to finish. To help me understand the real-world workflow: 1. What does the rough timeline look like? (e.g., When do you start gathering curriculum requirements vs. when do you run the actual grid?) 2. Where does the process break down most? Is it getting subject preferences from heads of department, fitting room constraints, or dealing with part-time staff? 3. What software tools are you currently forced to use, and why do people complain about them? I'd love a high-level "Timetabling 101" sanity check from anyone who manages this in the real world!

Is there a way to set a two day rule for one class in Nova-T6? Am I correct in thinking it could be done via Period Type? That seems over complicated but I can't think of another way. If it's not easily possible it's maybe something that should be possible in the next version

Hi When transferring the timetable from Nova I'm getting this error that I've never seen before. Anyone have any ideas and/or solutions? Many thanks

Hi All We use SIMS Independent for primary schools, but don't have the timetabling module. I was wondering if anyone would recommend using it, or could recommend an alternative? My brief is: - each day is divided into timed slots, up to 16 in a single day, on a 1 week rollover. We need to vary the slot structure, depending on the year group. - each subject can be taught to a year, a class, or a defined class set - each student in a class, or defined class set, is allocated set number of taught hours per week, across all subjects - each student in a class, or defined class set, is allocated set number of taught hours per week, per single subject - each student has the same teacher for all periods of a single subject - define the set subjects a teacher can teach (different per teacher) - define the set periods a teacher is available to teach (different per teacher) - define the set periods of non contact time (different per teacher) - define rooms, and allocate those rooms to a timeslot - setting of general preferences, eg. no maths for any class before lunch - ability to identify teacher free periods, to enable providing cover - the timetables will be remade every term Ideally we want something that will either sit on our SIMS, or take an extract, and then automatically timetable according to these predefined rules, with the ability to fine tune afterwards. The information doesn't have to feed back into SIMS, we just need it for printouts. Not asking for much I know! I would be very grateful for any feedback.

I'm hoping someone can help me to help our Learning Support people. I've been asked to find a time table creation program for them to replace an old Access database that someone from the Jurassic period created. It doesn't have to be free, but free would be nice, it does have to be "easy" to use. What their definition of easy is I didn't dare ask. I asked them to try this program called FET but I'm told it is too complicated. Suggestions please? (Avoiding if possible the obvious one of RTFM for FET)

The final block Y11y Science New timetabler - down to what Auto thought would be the penultimate easiest block to schedule. Having difficulties.I am at an impasse; I can either Schedule, but not build or build but not schedule. I have tried different combinations of staff - 3 classes, 6 teachers - ideally 2 per class 3 times per week. But I cannot get things to go through. I do not know what should be my next steps. Is there anything anyone can think of - Am I right in even thinking to should throw the baby out - unschedule the whole thing and schedule this first?

Hi All I am new to timetabling this year, first time through (and my first post on here). I am in the middle of scheduling a normal timetable (secondary with 6th form) on Nova for September. It is likely that it will be difficult to have all students on site at the same time so normal timetable is unlikely to apply in the new academic year! I would be really interested to hear what others are doing to create what some are referring to as a Covid timetable for September. I have seen some some suggestions about splitting the population from 2 into 4 to reduce numbers on site but have not seen much more than that. Be great to hear your thoughts.

Hi, looking to get feedback from users on the following two timetabling products: gp-untis (Untis Timetable Software - School Scheduling Software- Timetabling for Universities) aSc Timetables (aSc TimeTables - School Scheduling. Best timetable software to create school timetable.) I read some feedback that although aSc has a user friendly interface, gp-untis was more suited for large schools with 1,000+ students. Also electives management is a key area I'd like feedback on. Anybody currently using these products, and if not can you recommend alternatives. Thanks, DB

Hi Is it possible to cap the amount of students in a class in SIMS.net? Our practical subjects need to be at a certain capacity for H&S reasons. If someone were to clone a timetable it may overfill the class. Much obliged.

Hi, Though I have 7 timetables under my belt, I am new to using Nova T6. My school has a two week timetable, so I'm thinking about the best way to schedule this in Nova T6. Could someone advise whether Nova T6 will effectively spread the lessons of a class or block over a two week timetable when auto-scheduling. I'm not concerned that week 2 should exactly mirror week 1, just that, for example, my 8 periods of Y7 maths are split 4:4, or at worst 5:3 across weeks 1 and 2. The manual from my training course suggests that auto-scheduling within Nova T6 will evenly spread lessons across 2 weeks, but the trainer seemed to suggest that the only way to ensure this was by using Interleave. However, I can foresee some complexity/constraints that I would rather avoid using Interleave, so would rather just start with a basic two week timetable and schedule that. Can anyone confirm that Nova T6 will spread same subject lessons within a linear block and option blocks evenly across 2 weeks? Thanks for your time.

Hi, I've taken over timetabling for the first time and I'm working on a new timetable for a new school structure. I have successfully allocated classes to teachers, built and auto-scheduled a whole school timetable and now I'm trying to make an optimal timetable. Currently, many of our blocks are in the format of eg. Double, Single, Single. This is good in some situations, say to get an even spread of classes, but there are some year groups where students moving around the site is a cause of problems. I have tried in these cases remaking the blocks as Double Double and trying to schedule but auto scheduling is failing. What I've tried to do is tag and schedule my 'problem' years and first schedule only the double periods. After this across the school all I have left is single periods which (I thought) the scheduler would be able to place easily. Sadly some of these remaining singles fail to schedule, even after 48 hours or so processing. Is there any way to make Nova try to first schedule singles together as a double and if it fails, split them? Are there any other techniques I could try?