Daily cover software for schools: a cover plan for every absent teacher before the first bell.
Mark a teacher absent and Bell Path shows every lesson and duty that needs covering and who is free to take it. Book the relief teacher and their brief goes to their phone by text, with the absent teacher’s class plan on it.
Already run one? Send the file and it is in Bell Path within 48 hours, with Daily Cover free for two weeks.
Absent · Mrs Jones (3B)
Covered by K. Walsh, CRT
Nothing left uncovered
8:50
3B Literacy
CRT · K. Walsh · Room 6
9:50
3B Numeracy
CRT · K. Walsh · Room 6
10:50
Recess duty · undercover area
Swapped to D. Thompson
11:20
3B at Music
CRT takes 4A · So R. Mitchell can plan
12:20
3B Reading
CRT · K. Walsh · Room 6
1:20
Lunch
No duty
2:10
3B Inquiry
CRT · K. Walsh · Room 6 · until 3:30
Sample day · for illustration
Someone has called in sick and you have until the first bell.
The same puzzle comes up several mornings a week: who is free, who is already owed time, what the relief teacher needs on their phone before they walk in, and how the absent teacher gets their plan to a stranger without coming in.
Bell Path already knows the timetable, the specialist lessons and each teacher’s hours, so the cover plan starts from the real day rather than from a blank page.
What Bell Path gives the relief teacher.
Most schools run a system that holds the timetable and the roll, and it tells a relief teacher which session is next. These three things are what Bell Path adds.
One relief teacher, one link
The day sheet is personal. It shows one CRT their own day: the classes, covers and duties they were given, and nothing else.
Nothing to log in to
The link arrives by text before they leave home and opens on their phone. There is no account to create and no password to type. A printed copy can wait at the office for the CRT who prefers paper.
The lesson sits under the session
The teacher’s plan for each session is on the same page as the session, with the room and the time. The CRT never has to go looking for it somewhere else.
Timed in Bell Path
Four staff away on a Monday. Cover planned and published in 2 minutes 10 seconds.
The person doing cover books two relief teachers, covers two absences with the school’s own staff, hands over a yard duty, publishes the day, copies the staff notice and makes both day sheet links. Every step happened in Bell Path, against a stopwatch.
Measured time: 2 minutes 10 seconds, from 7:50am to 7:52am.
Measured: 2:10
Done by 0:18
Dylan (5B) is away. Add the absence and pick Erin from the CRT list.
Erin gets Dylan’s class for the day and his lunch duty.
18.3 seconds
Done by 0:32
Kieran (4B) is away. Pick Sam from the CRT list.
Sam gets Kieran’s class for the day and his lunch duty.
14.5 seconds
Done by 1:10
Jarrah, the PE teacher, is away and no CRT is free. Cancel his three lessons.
Each class teacher keeps their class, and Bell Path records the planning time they lose as owed to them.
37.4 seconds
Done by 1:29
Anika (1/2D) is away with no CRT. Check the split Bell Path suggests.
Her class joins 1/2A. Bell Path warns 1/2A is taking too many sessions, so a second class shares the afternoon.
19.5 seconds
Done by 1:47
Hand Anika’s recess duty to Lachlan on the Yard Duty page.
The published roster changes, so staff see it straight away.
18.1 seconds
Done by 1:55
Publish the day.
Bell Path locks the plan for the record. Nothing is sent yet.
7.6 seconds
Done by 2:00
Copy the staff notice.
Who is away and every class change, written from the published plan, ready to paste into the staff email.
4.7 seconds
Done by 2:10
Make Erin’s and Sam’s day sheet links.
Each link opens that CRT’s whole day on their phone, duty included, ready to paste into a text.
10.1 seconds
How we timed it. On 26 September 2026 we ran this morning on a sample school with made-up names, in a copy of Bell Path built the same way as this site. A script made the 45 clicks at a steady 1.85 seconds each, which covers finding the button, moving to it and reading the result. It typed about five letters a second, like someone who knows the page. That pace accounts for 92 seconds. The rest is the pages saving and loading on our test computer. The stopwatch ran from pressing Add absence to making the second day sheet link. The same morning took 1:52, 1:50 and 2:10 over three runs, and we show the slowest. Your first few mornings will be slower while the page is new.
What goes wrong without it.
The person doing cover has to open the timetable, the staff list and a spreadsheet before 8am.
Working out what a CRT should do while the class is at a specialist lesson depends on memory and goodwill.
The cover sheet still has to be typed up and handed out, under pressure.
What Bell Path does.
What it handles
- Mark a teacher absent and see every lesson and duty that needs covering, with covering staff suggested by the term’s fairness count
- A CRT brief built from the absent teacher’s real day, texted to the relief teacher as one link that opens on their phone with no account and no app
- The absent teacher’s class plan, typed or uploaded (Word, PowerPoint, PDF or a photo) from a link in their email, and kept private until they choose Share with the CRT
- Lesson links and files on the school laptop through one short code the relief teacher types at bellpath.com.au/go
- Student support instructions and the school’s laptop logins open only once the relief teacher’s phone is confirmed, by the first open of the booking text or a six-digit code sent to it, never in the plain link. Laptop logins are never printed
- A choice, when the class is at a specialist lesson, of releasing another teacher or keeping the CRT with the class, with planning time and time in lieu recorded
- The relief teacher’s end-of-day note: how each session went, a short message, or one recorded voice message, sent to the teacher whose class it was
- Printed briefs and the staffroom display, with a text to the relief teacher when the plan changes after their brief went out
- Part-day absences: mark a teacher away from a set time and only the sessions they miss are covered
- Release runs for days when teachers leave class one after another for meetings, with each release planned in clock order
- A Staff changes list that writes one ready email per person whose week changed, to open in your own email or copy into Outlook
Why schools choose Bell Path
- Every absent teacher’s class has a named person covering it before the first bell
- The relief teacher reads one live page on their phone instead of a printout, a text and three emails
- The class plan comes from the teacher who knows the class, not retyped by the office
- Anything sensitive sits behind a code; the plain link only ever carries the outline of the day
- Bell Path records the booking you have already made and communicates it; it does not find or employ relief teachers
- You still make every call; Bell Path shows you the options
Planning stories.
Composite examples of common planning situations, not reports from one school.
FAQ
Questions schools ask before they start.
Does daily cover use the school timetable?
Yes. When you mark a teacher absent, Bell Path reads their real timetable for that day, so the CRT brief starts from the actual lessons and duties rather than from scratch.
Does the relief teacher need an account or an app?
No. The booking text carries one link. It opens the outline of the day straight away: times, rooms, contacts, duties and where to report. The class plan, student support instructions and any school laptop login open once the relief teacher’s phone is confirmed: the first open of that booking text on the day, or a six-digit code sent to it if the link came another way, once, for that day.
How does the absent teacher share their plan?
Bell Path emails them a link for that date and class, so they do not need to sign in. They can fill in the session cards Bell Path has already made from the timetable, type one page, or upload the plan they already have as a Word, PowerPoint or PDF file or a photo. Nothing reaches the relief teacher until they press Share with the CRT, and if they are too unwell to prepare anything, they can say so and the daily organiser is told.
What is the voice message?
One recording, played back in Bell Path. A teacher can attach one to their class plan for the relief teacher to play, and the relief teacher can leave one with their end-of-day note. It is a record for the relevant teacher and school leaders, not a chat, and it never plays by itself.
Can Bell Path print a brief for the CRT?
Yes. The brief prints from the cover page as a day outline or a complete brief, and Bell Path only marks a paper copy as ready when a person confirms it was printed. The live link on the relief teacher’s phone stays the current version.
Why keep daily cover in the same system as the timetable?
Because the cover plan depends on the timetable: the absent teacher’s lessons, which specialist sessions fall that day, when the CRT is free, and which teachers are already owed planning time.
Free guides.
Guides written for Australian primary school leaders. No sign-up required.
Covering teacher absences without wearing out the same five people.
Covering a teacher absence means deciding, before the first bell, who takes each class, duty and meeting the absent teacher leaves behind, and recording whose planning time paid for it. Every morning, someone turns a list of absent staff into that plan. This guide makes the decision sequence explicit, and shows where fairness and planning time leak.
Time in lieu in primary schools: what counts, how to record it, and how to give it back.
Time in lieu is the time a teacher or education support employee is owed when the principal requires them to work beyond their normal hours. In Victorian government schools it accrues hour for hour above a 38-hour week, and it has two hard dates attached. This guide sets out what attracts it, how camps are counted, how to keep the record straight, and how to acquit it before the deadlines turn it into a payout at 150 per cent.
Publish a timetable you can trust.
Send the timetable you already have and we load it within 48 hours, with Daily Cover free for two weeks. Building a new one? Setting up your school and previewing part of it is free.