How to manage Actions in Scheduling

The Scheduling page allows users to drag and drop Blocks into available Periods to create a Scheduled Timetable.

This guide covers the following Actions within Scheduling;

• Check for Missing Staff or Rooms
• Timetable Specifications
• Auto Schedule
• Print Draft Timetable

The minimum permissions required to create a Timetable are found in the Timetable Module from Config > Setup > Roles and Permissions > Choose Role>Edit>Timetable > Timetable App.

For more information on wTimetable see here and see What’s New for latest updates.

Go to Modules>wTimetable to open Projects>Click on your Project to see the Timetable panel, click on your Timetable to see the tabs below. Click on Scheduling.

Then click on the Actions drop down.

Check for Missing Staff or Rooms

Sessions with missing Staff and Rooms can be easily highlighted using this option under the Actions button.

Select Check Missing Staff / Room from the Actions drop down.

2. Select the relevant filter options:
   a. Staff: shows sessions without an assigned main Staff member.
   b. Room: shows sessions without an assigned Room.
   c. Select All: as above, selects both Staff and Room.
   d. Clear Filter: deselects all filters.
3. Click Apply.

The Actions button will display a blue dot to show that a filter is being used, and the Scheduling page will update to show the sessions without a main Staff member, Room – depending on the filter selections. All sessions with assigned main Staff members or Rooms will be greyed out.

Note: If both Staff and Room filters are selected – the page will show sessions that do not have a main Staff member or Room assigned. Only sessions that have an assigned main Staff member AND Room will be greyed out.

The Show Report button opens a popup listing missing elements based on the selections in the popup.

Select Check Missing Staff / Room from the Actions drop down.

Click Show Report.

The Check for Missing Staff/Rooms popup appears listing sessions with missing elements.

Switch between Staff and Room list to show sessions with missing Staff or Rooms.

Click on the eye icon in the Actions column to view individual sessions.

Unscheduled session – the report will close, and users will be taken to the Curriculum Plan page and the expanded view of the Block containing the session highlighted with a blue dotted line.

Scheduled session – the report will close, and users will remain in the Scheduling page and the Year Group – Detailed view, where the session will be highlighted with a blue dotted line.

• Filters can be applied on the following columns: Year Group, Band, Subject, Class, and Period Number.
• Use the Search field to search in all displayed data.
• Export the listings to a csv file by clicking the Export button.
• Switch All Year Groups to On to see missing elements for all year groups. If the toggle is left Off, only sessions for the Year Group selected in the Scheduling page are displayed

Timetable Specifications

The Timetable Specifications popup consists of six tabs which allow rules to be set up and used in the Auto Schedule functionality.

To add a rule to the Auto Schedule process, click on Add New Row within the relevant tab when in Active view.

Subject relationships tab allows users to set up rules between Subjects so that the auto-scheduling process can distribute the sessions accordingly.

After clicking on Add New Row, select one or more Year Group, a Subject 1, a Rule (that will link Subject 1 and 2), and a Subject 2, and select the tick to save the rule to the Subject relationships tab.

• The Subject relationships rule will be added to the table.

Subject relationship Rule dropdown options explained:

• Must follow within a structured week – Subject 1 must be scheduled to the teaching period after Subject 2 within the same structured week.
• Must precede within a structured week – Subject 1 must be scheduled to the teaching period before Subject 2 within the same structured week.
• Not continuous within a day – Subject 1 and Subject 2 cannot be scheduled to consecutive teaching periods on the same day
• Must be on the same day as – Subject1 and Subject2 must be scheduled on the same day.
• Must not be on the same day as – Subject1 and Subject2 cannot be scheduled on the same day.
• Scheduled together within a day – Subject 1 and Subject 2 have to be scheduled on consecutive periods on the same day, regardless of their order.

Subjects on days tab allows users to set day and period availability for subjects so that the auto-scheduling process can distribute the sessions accordingly.

After clicking on Add New Row, select one or more Year Group, a Subject,followed by one or more Not Available, Undesirable, and Preferred sessions. Select the tick to save the rule to the Subject on days tab.

The Subjects on days rule will be added to the table.

Subjects on days Rule dropdown options explained:

• Not Available – The selected subject cannot be scheduled to the selected periods in the selected year group.
• Undesirable – The selected subject should not be scheduled to the selected periods in the selected year group if other periods are available.
  • If it cannot be scheduled elsewhere, the subject is allowed to be scheduled here.
• Preferred – If possible, the selected subject has to be scheduled to the selected periods in the selected year group.

Staff on days tab allows users to set preferred periods for staff members so that the auto-scheduling process can distribute the sessions accordingly. For Staff non-availability please see Non-Contact Codes.

After clicking on Add New Row, select Staff, one or more Undesirable sessions, and one or more Preferred sessions. Select the tick to save the rule to the Staff on days tab.

The Staff on days rule will be added to the table.

Staff on days Rule dropdown options explained:

• Undesirable – The sessions with the selected staff member assigned (either as main or additional staff) should not be scheduled to the periods selected here.
  • If they cannot be scheduled elsewhere, scheduling them to these periods is allowed.
• Preferred – If possible, the sessions with the selected staff member assigned (either as main or additional staff) should be scheduled to the periods selected here.

Limitations

April 2025 Update : A new Limitations tab has been introduced to the Timetable Specifications popup, allowing users to define and apply maximum limits on how many times a subject (or subjects) can be scheduled within the same teaching period and is applicable to all year groups. Clicking Add New Row, users must complete the following fields to create a rule:

• Subjects: Select one or more subjects to which the rule will apply.
• Sessions per period: Define the maximum number of times the subject(s) can be scheduled in the same teaching period.

Example Rules:

• Example 1:
  • Subjects: Art
  • Sessions per period: 2
  • Meaning: Art can be scheduled only 2 times within the same teaching period.
• Example 2:
  • Subjects: Biology and Chemistry
  • Sessions per period: 3
  • Meaning: Either Biology or Chemistry can be scheduled up to a maximum of 3 times within the same teaching period (a mix of the two subjects is allowed, but the total cannot exceed 3).g
• Example 3:
  • Subjects: All
  • Sessions per period: 1
  • Meaning: Any subject can be scheduled only once within the same teaching period.

When a user attempts to manually schedule a subject that breaks the Limitations rule, the affected periods will be highlighted in amber (indicating a scheduling conflict), and an alert notification will appear in the top right-hand corner. However, the user can still proceed with exceeding the period limit for the selected subjects to manually schedule a session.

The Conflicts popup will display details of the Limitations conflict. By clicking on the Eye icon, the user will be directed to the Limitations tab in the Timetable specifications popup.

Blocks on days tab allows users to set lessons within a Block to be scheduled on different days so that the auto-scheduling process can distribute the sessions accordingly. Default Rules are applied for all Blocks in all Year Groups. These will be switched on by default. Users can switch the default rules off individually, and then set up new rules as shown.

Note: Adding new rules will overwrite the default rules for the selected Blocks.

After clicking on Add New Row, select a Year Group, one or more Blocks, a Rule, and a Period Limit. Select the tick to save the rule to the Blocks on days tab.

The Blocks on days rule will be added to the table.

Blocks on days Rule dropdown options explained:

• Balance across the cycle (default)
  • The sessions of a subject within a class in the block have to be distributed evenly between weeks.
  • Where we can, we should repeat the scheduled period for Week 2.
    • E.g.
      • W1: Mo P1, We P3
      • W2: Mo P1, We P3
  • Staff allocation should be evenly distributed between the weeks – E.g. Staff A is assigned to 4 sessions for a subject, Staff B is assigned to 5 sessions.
  • If possible, Staff A should have 2-2 sessions per week, Staff B should get 2-3 or 3-2 session distribution for the two weeks.
• Balance across the day (AM-PM) (default)
  • The sessions of a subject within a class in the block have to be distributed evenly between AM/PM.
  • The two sessions should have as many other periods in between as possible.
• Allow consecutive periods
  • The sessions of a subject within a class in the block can be scheduled to consecutive periods.
  • If the two sessions have a breaks/non-teaching period in between, they don’t count as consecutive periods.
• Allow multiple periods per day
  • Allows scheduling multiple sessions of the same subject for a class within a block for the same day.
• Do not balance across the cycle (Week 1-Week 2)
  • The sessions of a subject within a class in the block do not have to be distributed evenly between weeks.
• Do not balance across the day (AM-PM)
  • The sessions of a subject within a class in the block do not have to be distributed evenly between AM/PM.
• Do not allow consecutive periods
  • The sessions of a subject within a class in the block cannot be scheduled to consecutive periods.

Note: Conflicts generated from the Timetable Specifications rules are included in the Conflicts table. The Auto Schedule process will follow the rules and not create conflicts as a result; however, selected rules will be checked during manual scheduling and conflicts may arise accordingly. 

1. Conflicts will only display for the Rules that are a ‘must’.
2. For Simple, Option and Complex blocks when having multiple classes for the same Subject in the same Block Period, it will only display the conflict for any Timetable Specification once, showing the first Session Name in the conflict.
3. For Linear Blocks: For Subject relationships, and Subjects on days we display the conflicts for each session. For Blocks on days, we display the conflicts by Block Period.

General Actions – rules added to the table can be edited, excluded (moved from Active view to Excluded view), or Deleted under the Actions column.

• Search – searches in all displayed data in the table.
• Active / Excluded – toggle between the views to show rules with Active status, or Excluded status.
• Exclude Rules – another way to exclude rules,in this way – rows can be multiselected. By clicking on the Exclude/Activate Rules button, users change the status for the selected rows to ‘Excluded’/’Active’.

Schedule Order tab allows users to set priorities in an order that the user prefers for the Auto Schedule process. Each Block created in the Timetable is shown as a separate row in the table. The rows appear in the following order, and the default is:

• By Year Group from highest to lowest:
  • Where the Year Group is numeric, sorting from highest to lowest.
  • Then all other Year Groups in descending alphabetical order
• Within each Year Group we use the following sorting order:
  • Options Blocks
  • Blocks containing ‘English’
  • Blocks containing ‘Mathematics’
  • Blocks containing ‘Science’
  • All other Blocks in alphabetical order
• If the default order has been changed by the user, any newly created blocks added subsequently will be placed to the end of the list, with the lowest priority within the group.

Click on Create Row Groups to create groups within the table and set the order of priority within the group. Row Groups can be created for Year Groups, Departments, and Subjects individually or combined together.

Use the Order dropdown to change the priority of each row.

Note: The priority order and the group setup is automatically saved. When reopening the popup, the setup created by the user will be retained. There is no reset to the default sorting order

Auto Schedule

This feature allows users to automatically schedule the Timetable using parameters set in Timetable Specifications.

Note: If required, users should complete Timetable Specifications, and also ensure that where there are Conflicts that these are not already scheduled and locked on the timetable.

Step 1 – Select Entities

This 1^st step in the Auto Schedule allows users to select which Year Groups and Subjects are included in the automation.

Click on Auto Schedule from the Actions button.

The Auto Schedule popup opens.

Select which Year Groups and Subjects to include in the auto scheduling or Select All.

List by is a single-select dropdown for Subjects or Departments (Subjects by Department).

Select one or more Subjects from the list.

Note: The Search bar, Select All check box, and Clear All can be utilised here.

• Click Next to start the Pre-Schedule process.

 Once the process is complete, users will be moved to Step 2. If the process fails, see Note.

Note: When clicking on the Next button, if the sum of the Block periods on the Curriculum Plan do not fit within the teaching periods of the Timetable cycle, users will see this message: “Are you sure you want to continue?” “<YearGroup> Band <BandName>, has more block periods on the Curriculum Plan than can fit into the Timetable Cycle. Some periods will not be scheduled.” Clicking Cancel returns the user to step 1 without any changes. Clicking Continue will take users to step 2.

Step 2 – Feedback

The 2^nd step of the Auto Schedule provides Feedback on the pre-scheduled blocks. This table lets the user know in the Scheduled Sessions column which blocks were successfully scheduled (100%), and which ones were only partly scheduled.

Note: The Search bar, Filters, and Sort can be utilised here.

1. Click on the Scheduled Sessions to view the sessions for a Block. This opens a read only, expanded Blocks view. The scheduled sessions in the Block have a grey background. The sessions that cannot be scheduled have a white background.
2. Click the X to close the view and return to the Feedback page.
3. Click Next to move to step 3.

Step 3 – Issues

The 3rd step of the Auto-Schedule lists the sessions that cannot be scheduled within the existing setup. The Details column will state one of the following reasons why the scheduling was unsuccessful: Staff assignment, Room assignment, Staff Non-Contact Code, Room Non-Contact Code, and Timetable Specification Subject Relationships rules. The Period column displays the affected Period.

Note: The Search bar, Filters, and Sort can be utilised here.

1. Click Export to download an Excel file of the Issues.
2. The user can do one of two things: click Apply Schedule to run the Auto Schedule process for sessions that were successful (in Simple, Option and Complex Blocks the Block Periods containing at least one conflicting session will not be scheduled), or alternatively click the X to close the Auto Schedule popup if you do not want the process to run with the existing setup.

Note: Users can manually change the set up to resolve the Issues and run the Auto Schedule process again.

• Tip: If users apply the Auto Schedule for partly scheduled sessions, they can simply view the unscheduled sessions in the Curriculum Plan > Blocks > View Details, and Scheduling > Blocks > Show Unscheduled.

Issues – review unscheduled sessions

March 2025 update In Step 3 – Issues of the Auto Schedule process, users can now review unscheduled sessions caused by rules from the Timetable Specifications or Staff/Room restrictions, and take action on them without navigating away from the wizard.

To facilitate this, the following new columns have been added to provide additional information:

• Band:Issues are now organised byBand. If the Block is assigned to multiple bands, all bands will be listed. 
• Block Period: Issues are organised by Block Period (period of the block).

• Reason: Displays the active rule or staff/room restriction causing the the unscheduled session.
• Suggested Action:Offers a recommendation to the user that, if followed, will allow the session to be scheduled.
• Status: Default is blank. Displays ‘Accepted’ when the users accepts the Suggested Action.
• Action: Click the tick to accept the Suggested Action. This can be undone by clicking the cross.

Suggested Actions – March 2025

Users will be presented with one of the following Suggested Actions depending on the cause:

• Delete the rule ‘name of the rule’ from ‘name of the Timetable Specifications tab’ for ‘YG x’, ‘subject x/block name’ ‘Block Period’
  • For all rules in the Subject relationships tab
  • For all rules in the Subjects on days tab
  • For Allow multiple periods per day and Do not allow consecutive periods rules in the Blocks on days tab.

• Create a rule ‘name of the rule’ for ‘YG x’ ‘Block Period’
  • For Balance across the cycle andBalance across the day (AM -PM) rules in the Blocks on days tab
• Remove the non-contact code for ‘staff/room’ in ‘Session/Block Period’
  • For non contact code conflicts.
  • Note: Will not suggest to remove a non-contact code when it is NA (Not Applicable).
• Remove ‘staff/room’ from ‘Session/Block Period’
  • For staff and room teaching conflicts.

Note: When deleting a rule, if the active rule contains multiple Year Groups, the system will adjust the rule by removing the Year Group causing the issue, while keeping the other Year Groups intact.

Limitations

April 2025 update: users can review unscheduled sessions caused by Limitations rules from the Timetable Specifications restrictions, and take action on them without navigating away from the wizard.

Users will be presented with the following Reason and Suggested Action for Limitations rules:

• Reason: “Active rule for subject ‘subject’ with ‘x’ sessions per period from Limitations page.”
• Suggested Action: “Delete the Limitation rule from ‘Limitations’ for subject ‘subject’. “

Note: If actioned, Limitation rules will be deleted for that subject only.

Update Button

A new Update button (March 2025) has been added that will rerun the Auto Schedule process:

• Update:Clicking Update will apply the accepted Suggested Action(s) and trigger a rerun of the Auto Schedule process.
• Automatic transition to Step 2: Feedback:Once the rerun of the Auto Schedule process is complete, users will automatically move back to Step 2: Feedback. This allows them to review the new Success Rate without manual navigation.

• Note: If users accept the Suggested Action and do not Update, they will see the following the alert when clicking Apply Schedule:

Auto Schedule rules for Complex Blocks

• The Auto Schedule will consider Complex Blocks as a dynamic process before the schedule is applied to give feedback on potential issues, reordering sessions within a class.
• If the distribution of the block has been changed while auto-scheduling, we see this updated distribution on the Curriculum Plan as well.
• The distribution can still be modified by swapping subjects manually.
• If the user wants to fix certain parts of the block, they can schedule with the original distribution, lock it on the schedule and then run the auto-scheduling process.

Auto Schedule – Locked Sessions and Non Selected Entities

From March 2025, when running the Auto Schedule process, all locked sessions will be automatically scheduled, and any non-selected entities will be excluded from the process, even if this results in a conflict.

• All locked sessions will ignore the rules set by the Timetable Specifications, and Staff/Room restrictions. In other words, a locked session or block will bypass these rules or limitations and retain their scheduling.
  • The Feedback step will show the locked session is scheduled.
  • The Issues step will not display any information related to locked sessions, as they will be scheduled automatically.
• The Auto Schedule process will find the best position for selected entities (Year Groups and/or Subjects) within any existing scheduling for non-selected entities. 

Print Draft Timetable

Timetables can be printed from any view – Year Group, Staff, and Room. Any filters that have been applied in the Scheduling page will be reflected in the printed version.

Select Print Draft Timetable from the Actions button.

• Choose between Compact, Large, or Canvas. Compact: This option divides the timetable into A6 parts, and fits 4 of them on A4 pages, eliminating any gaps between the parts.
• Rules:
  • No of rows greater than 21 – Portrait mode
  • No of rows less than or equal to 21 – Landscape mode
  • No of rows less than or equal to 15 – Portrait mode
  • No of rows less than or equal to 10 – Landscape mode

• Large: This option prints the entire canvas using A4 sized pages. The different parts of the canvas break into a new page where it doesn’t fit on a A4 page anymore. We use portrait/landscape mode for all the pages based on the whole canvas’s size: If height > width, we use portrait mode. If height <= width, we use landscape mode.

• Canvas: This option prints the entire canvas onto a single page without breaking it into separate pages. The page automatically adjusts to fit the size of the canvas.

Coming soon: When dividing the timetable into separate pages:

• Days and periods are split into separate pages based on page width.
• Year Groups and Bands / Staff / Rooms are split into separate pages based on page height.