School timetable software

Creating a school timetable is a complicated job. You need to fit hundreds of lessons into a limited number of periods while accounting for teacher availability, classroom requirements, class groups and the school's particular way of organising its week.

If you've recently been given responsibility for creating your school's timetable, knowing where to start can be difficult.

Schedula is school timetable software designed to help you work through the process, from gathering your school's requirements to generating, editing and publishing the finished timetable.

You can use automatic timetable generation to find a solution that respects your scheduling requirements, then make adjustments yourself using the Week Planner.

Whether you're creating your first timetable or looking for a better way to manage an existing one, Schedula gives you the tools to get the job done.

Create a school timetable in four steps

Define your requirements. Generate a solution. Work with the timetable. Publish it.

That's the basic process in Schedula. You don't need to place every lesson manually or work out every possible combination yourself.

1. Define your requirements

Before you can create a timetable, you need to understand what your school requires.

This is often the most time-consuming part of preparing to create a timetable, particularly if you're doing it for the first time.

Start by gathering information about:

Teachers: Which subjects do they teach? When are they available? Are any teachers part-time?
Students and groups: Which students belong to each group?
Classes and lessons: How many lessons of each class are needed per week?
Rooms: Are particular lessons restricted to specific rooms?
School week: How many periods are there each day? Does the school operate a single-week or alternating-week timetable? What time do lessons start/end?
Other requirements: Are there subjects that need to run simultaneously, or particular scheduling preferences that should be considered?

For example, a first-year class might need four mathematics lessons and four English lessons each week. Mathematics may need to be taught by a particular teacher, who is unavailable on Wednesdays. Some lessons may also need to take place in specific rooms.

These are the kinds of requirements you'll need to account for when building the timetable.

In Schedula, you configure your timetable grid, add teachers, classes, groups and rooms, enter lesson requirements and specify availability.

You can also configure subject option blocks, where students choose between subjects that need to run at the same time.

If you're preparing for your first timetable, our guide to the essential data to gather before scheduling a school timetable is a useful starting point.

2. Generate a timetable automatically

Once your requirements are in place, Schedula's automatic solver searches for lesson placements that satisfy your school's scheduling constraints.

This is where automatic timetable generation can save a substantial amount of manual work.

It helps to understand two types of scheduling requirements:

Hard constraints are requirements that must be satisfied. For example:

A teacher cannot teach two lessons at the same time.
A class cannot have two lessons at the same time.
A room cannot be assigned to two lessons simultaneously.
Teachers, rooms, classes and groups must be available when their lessons are scheduled.

Preferences are requirements you'd like the timetable to satisfy, but which may allow some flexibility. For example:

Avoid having the same subject twice in one day.
Spread a subject's lessons across the school week.
Distribute lessons as evenly as possible.

This distinction is important. Hard constraints determine whether a timetable is valid, while preferences help determine whether it's a good timetable.

A practical example

Imagine you're scheduling a first-year class that needs four mathematics lessons per week.

The mathematics teacher:

Is unavailable on Wednesdays.
Teaches other classes throughout the week.
Has limited availability on certain days.

The class also has a fixed activity on Friday afternoon.

You might prefer to have no more than one mathematics lesson per day, so that the lessons are spread across the week.

Schedula's solver considers the teacher's availability, the class's existing commitments and the other lesson requirements. It searches for placements that satisfy the hard constraints while trying to accommodate your preferences.

You can let the solver continue searching for as long as you need. More time can give it additional opportunities to find a suitable arrangement, particularly when there are many interacting requirements.

However, if your requirements contradict one another, additional processing time won't make a valid timetable possible. In that situation, you'll need to review the requirements and try again.

What if the solver doesn't find a solution?

It doesn't necessarily mean you've done something wrong. Sometimes the requirements simply don't allow a valid arrangement.

For example, a teacher might be required to teach more lessons than their availability allows, or a combination of room and class restrictions might leave no possible placement.

Reviewing your requirements and availability is the best place to start. Once you've made any necessary changes, you can run the solver again.

3. Work with the timetable

An automatically generated timetable is a starting point, not necessarily the finished product.

Schools have preferences and practical considerations that can be difficult to capture in a set of scheduling requirements. You may want to move a lesson, accommodate a particular request or make an adjustment after reviewing the overall timetable.

Schedula's Week Planner gives you a place to review and edit your timetable.

You can:

View lessons by class, group, teacher or location.
Filter lessons by day and other criteria.
See teacher-class preferences while working with lessons.
Change the teacher or room assigned to a lesson.
Pin lessons to keep their placements when making further changes.
Select multiple lessons and update them together.
Unschedule or delete lessons where necessary.

For example, you might have generated a timetable and then discovered that a teacher would prefer to have a particular afternoon free. You can review their lessons, select the relevant ones and make adjustments in the Week Planner.

You don't have to accept every placement produced by the solver. You remain in control of the timetable.

Learn more about filtering, selecting and updating lessons and teacher preferences in the bulk update modal.

4. Check and publish your timetable

Before publishing, you'll want to review the timetable and make sure it meets your school's requirements.

Schedula includes an errors and warnings panel to help identify timetable issues.

A resource clash, for example, occurs when the same teacher, room, class or group is assigned to overlapping lessons. Warnings can also highlight other issues that deserve attention, although not every warning necessarily means the timetable is invalid.

You can use this information alongside your own review to check that the timetable is ready to share.

Schedula also provides reporting tools to help you review lesson distribution and teaching hours.

Row statistics show how subject lessons are distributed across classes and groups, including hours, minutes and percentages. This can help you check whether the intended subject allocation has been achieved.

Learn more about row statistics.

Yearly summaries provide an overview of teaching hours for classes, teachers, groups and locations. You can also print these summaries.

Learn more about yearly summaries.

Once you're happy with the timetable, you can publish it in several ways.

PDF: Download a timetable for printing or sharing.
Live timetable: Share a hosted timetable link that people can access online.
Website embedding: Embed a live timetable directly into your school's website or app.
Calendar subscriptions: Give teachers and other users calendar subscription links that work with Apple Calendar, Microsoft Outlook and other compatible calendar applications.

Your hosted and embedded timetables remain connected to Schedula, so changes made to the timetable can be reflected in the published version. Calendar applications control how frequently they refresh subscribed calendars.

Learn more about embeddable timetables.

Schedula features

Schedula brings automatic timetable generation and manual timetable management together in one browser-based application.

You can use it to:

Create single-week or alternating A/B-week timetables.
Manage teachers, classes, groups, rooms and lesson requirements.
Account for teacher and resource availability.
Schedule subject option blocks.
Generate a timetable automatically using your requirements.
Review and edit lessons in the Week Planner.
Identify timetable issues using errors and warnings.
Review subject allocations and yearly teaching hours.
Publish timetables online, as PDFs or through calendar subscriptions.
Collaborate in real time: Add multiple users to your account and work on the same timetable together, with live updates and no per-user fees.

You can work on multiple timetable projects without needing to manage separate software installations.

Frequently asked questions

Is Schedula suitable for someone creating their first school timetable?

Yes. Schedula provides a structured process for setting up your school's requirements, generating a timetable, making adjustments and publishing the result. If you're new to timetabling, gathering the necessary information before you start will make the process considerably easier. Our guide to the essential data to gather before scheduling a school timetable is a useful starting point.

Can I create a school timetable automatically?

Yes. Schedula includes an automatic solver that searches for lesson placements based on your school's requirements. It takes account of hard constraints, such as teacher, room and class availability, while trying to accommodate preferences such as spreading subjects across the week.

Can I use Schedula without the automatic solver?

Yes. You can work with lessons directly in the Week Planner and make manual changes. The solver is an additional tool to help find suitable lesson placements; you remain in control of the timetable.

What happens if the automatic solver cannot find a solution?

A valid solution depends on whether your school's requirements are compatible. For example, a teacher might be required to teach more lessons than their availability allows. If the requirements contradict one another, the solver cannot produce a timetable that satisfies them all. You can review your requirements, make adjustments and run the solver again.

Can Schedula handle part-time teachers and teacher availability?

Yes. You can specify when teachers are available to teach. The automatic solver takes these restrictions into account when finding lesson placements, helping you accommodate part-time teachers and other scheduling requirements.

Can I create an A/B-week timetable?

Yes. Schedula supports different timetable grids and week structures, including single-week and alternating A/B-week timetables.

Can I schedule subject option blocks?

Yes. Schedula supports subject option blocks, allowing subjects that students choose between to be scheduled at the same time.

Can I edit a timetable after it has been generated?

Yes. You can work with lessons directly in the Week Planner. Change teachers and rooms, adjust lesson placements, pin lessons, select multiple lessons and make bulk updates, or unschedule and delete lessons. You remain in control of the timetable after automatic generation.

Can I import an existing timetable or reuse last year's timetable?

Schedula does not currently support importing an existing timetable. You'll need to set up your school's teachers, classes, groups, rooms and lesson requirements in Schedula. If you're moving from another timetabling application, allow some time to prepare and enter this information.

Can multiple people use Schedula at the same time?

Yes. You can add users to your Schedula account so that multiple people can work on the same timetable at the same time. Changes are updated live, so users can see each other's changes without having to refresh the application. There are no additional per-user subscription fees.

How do I know if my school timetable is valid?

Schedula includes an errors and warnings panel to help identify timetable issues, including resource clashes involving teachers, rooms, classes and groups. You can use this information alongside your own review to check that the timetable meets your school's requirements before publishing.

You can download timetables as PDFs for printing or sharing. You can also share hosted live timetable links, embed timetables on your school's website and provide calendar subscription links for compatible applications such as Apple Calendar and Microsoft Outlook.

How much does Schedula cost?

Schedula costs €290 per year. The subscription includes unlimited timetable projects, no per-user fees, email support and video tutorials. You can try the software free for seven days before deciding whether it's right for your school. See our pricing page for more information.

Do I need to provide payment details to start the free trial?

No. You can start Schedula's seven-day free trial without entering payment details. There's no need to cancel a subscription when the trial ends. You can decide whether to subscribe after trying the software.

Schedula hosts customer data within the European Union and provides a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) setting out how personal data is processed when schools use the service. You can read our Data Processing Agreement.

How large a school can Schedula handle?

Schedula has no limit on school size. Larger or more complex timetables may take longer for the solver to generate, but there is no predefined size restriction.

Do I need to install software to use Schedula?

No. Schedula is a browser-based application, so you can access it online without installing software on your computer.