School timetable software
Classbell builds a weekly timetable per campus and refuses to store a booking that conflicts with one already there. The check runs when the slot is written, not when the timetable is published — so the grid you are looking at is publishable by construction rather than after somebody untangles it.
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What is the difference between blocking a clash and refusing one?
Most timetable tools let you build a clashing grid and warn you before you publish it. That leaves a period between creating the problem and discovering it, and the person who has to fix it is rarely the person who caused it. Classbell rejects the write itself: asking for a teacher who is already booked in that period returns a refusal naming who they are booked with, and nothing is stored. Publishing is additionally blocked while any conflict exists, but by then there should not be one.
- A conflicting slot is refused at the point of writing, not at publish
- The refusal names the teacher or room already booked
- Publishing stays blocked while any conflict exists
- The publish control is disabled rather than merely discouraged
Which conflicts does the system actually catch?
Teacher double-booking and room double-booking within a campus, plus the ones a conflict detector structurally cannot see and so are checked separately. A teacher assigned to a class at a campus they do not work at is refused, because one person booked across two branches in the same period looks identical to a busy week if you only compare periods. A subject placed in a grade it is not taught in is refused for the same reason.
- Teacher double-booking within a period
- Room double-booking within a period
- A teacher assigned outside their own campus is refused
- A subject placed in a grade band it does not belong to is refused
How is teaching load kept inside contract?
A conflict-free timetable can still be an unfair one. The grid carries a teacher-load list showing weekly periods against each teacher's contracted hours, with anyone over contract shown as over rather than buried in a report — twenty-six periods against a twenty-four-period contract reads as a breach on the same screen where it can be fixed.
- Weekly load against contract, per teacher
- Over-contract teachers surfaced on the timetable itself
- A route from the overload straight to that teacher's profile
- Load also visible on the teacher's own timetable view
Can campuses have different periods and different school weeks?
Yes, and this is where systems built for one school get stretched. Teaching periods are configured per campus, defaulting to seven, and each period carries a start and end time. A period can be marked as a break, which renders as a banded row across the week, is refused as a teaching slot, and is excluded from attendance pickers. Working days are per campus too.
- Teaching periods configured per campus, with start and end times
- A period can be a break — refused as a slot, excluded from registers
- Working days per campus, rendering Sunday first where the week starts there
- A period cannot be removed while lessons are placed in it
Who else sees the timetable once it is built?
Teachers get their own weekly grid with their contract position stated and any conflict flagged. Pupils and parents get the child's grid, resolved on the server with the campus's own period names — so a family at a campus that calls its first period Registration sees Registration, not a generic label the portal guessed at.
- Each teacher's own weekly grid, with contract load stated
- Pupil and parent views of the child's week
- Period names resolved per campus rather than generically
- Subject colours carried consistently across every view
Does the system generate a timetable automatically?
No. Classbell is a timetable you build, with the machine enforcing the constraints rather than solving for them. Automatic generation is a genuinely different problem and we do not claim to do it. What the software guarantees is that whatever you build is internally consistent and publishable.
Common questions
Can a teacher work across two campuses?
A teacher is assigned to a campus, and a timetable slot must name a teacher who is at that class's campus. This is checked on the write rather than inferred from the grid, because cross-campus double-booking is invisible to a per-campus conflict check.
Can we delete a timetable slot?
Yes. A slot is a placement rather than a record of an event that happened, so removing one is a straightforward delete — restricted to administrators, scoped, confirmed and audit-logged.
How many periods can a day have?
It is configured per campus and defaults to seven. Periods have a stable identity, so adding or removing one does not renumber the lessons already placed, and a period with lessons in it cannot be removed until they are moved.
Does the timetable handle rooms?
Rooms are recorded against slots and room double-booking is detected and refused. There is no room-capacity or facilities-management layer beyond that.