Before you create a project
A good automatic timetable starts before data entry. Collect the information that decides where each lesson can go, then enter it in Schedull in the same order your school thinks about planning.
- The teaching week: active days, number of modules per day, and the start and end time of each slot.
- Classes or groups that need weekly timetables, including any groups with different daily structures.
- Subjects for each class, the weekly number of sessions, and the teacher assigned to each subject where known.
- Teacher availability, part-time limits, fixed meetings, and slots that cannot be used.
- Classrooms or specialist spaces, such as labs, workshops, gyms, or shared rooms.
Core Schedull concepts
Schedull separates school data into a few planning objects. Understanding these terms makes it easier to diagnose timetable issues later.
| Concept | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Project | The workspace for one school, year, campus, or planning cycle. It stores schedules, classes, subjects, teachers, rooms, rules, and generated results. |
| Schedule | The grid of teaching days and modules. A project can use one shared schedule or different schedules for specific classes. |
| Class | A student group that receives lessons during the week, such as a year group, course, section, or classroom group. |
| Subject | A lesson type assigned to a class, with a weekly session count and optional teacher or room requirements. |
| Teacher | A staff member who can teach one or more subjects and can have availability, workload, and timing rules. |
| Classroom | A physical or specialist space that can be reserved for lessons when room planning is part of the timetable. |
| Rule | A requirement or preference that guides placement, such as unavailable slots, spacing between sessions, or preferred teaching times. |
| Manual edit | A human adjustment after generation, used for final swaps, corrections, and institutional judgement. |
Recommended setup workflow
Create the project and schedule grid
Name the project clearly, then define the teaching days and modules. Choose a shared schedule unless some classes follow a different grid.
Add classes before subjects
Create every class or group that needs a timetable. This gives each subject a clear destination later.
Add subjects and weekly loads
For each class, add the subjects and the number of weekly sessions. Check totals against the available modules before generation.
Assign teachers and rooms
Attach teachers to the subjects they teach and add rooms where space matters. Shared teachers and specialist rooms are common sources of conflicts.
Add rules in priority order
Enter true blockers first, such as teacher unavailability. Add ideal patterns as preferences so the generator still has room to find a valid result.
Run, review, and adjust
Generate a timetable, inspect class and teacher views, then adjust inputs or make manual edits for the final timetable.
Generation and review
When you start generation, Schedull uses the schedules, subjects, teachers, rooms, and rules in the project to place sessions into the weekly grid. Progress appears in the browser while the app searches for a valid timetable.
After a result is ready, review it from both class and teacher views. Look for uneven days, late lessons, room pressure, and teachers with tight availability before saving or exporting the timetable.
Troubleshooting common timetable problems
If generation cannot find a timetable, the cause is usually limited availability, overloaded weekly requirements, or too many mandatory rules competing for the same slots.
| Problem | What to check |
|---|---|
| No timetable found | Compare each class's weekly subject total with its available modules and remove any rule that is only a preference. |
| Teacher has too few available slots | Check part-time blocks, fixed meetings, and subjects assigned to the same teacher across multiple classes. |
| Special room is overused | Review lab, gym, workshop, and classroom requirements. Only require a specialist room when the lesson truly needs it. |
| Lessons are packed into awkward patterns | Add spacing preferences, then use manual editing for small final improvements that do not need to block generation. |
| A class has a different day structure | Use class-specific schedules when one group has fewer modules, different days, or a different daily rhythm. |
Related documentation
Use these pages when you need a walkthrough, rule guidance, support answers, or plan information.