Help
How to set up and run a primary school timetable.
Open documentation, no account needed. It is written for the person who is actually doing this, usually an assistant principal who also teaches, and it says plainly when a step is fiddly.
Getting started
Setting your school up, and what to have ready before you begin.
Staff and classes
Part-timers, job-shares, specialists, composite classes and dual roles.
Adding part-time teachers
Enter the days, not the fraction. Bell Path works out the entitlement from the days.
ReadSetting up a job-share
Two teachers, not one combined teacher. This is the single most common modelling error in primary timetables.
ReadTeachers who are both classroom and specialist
A teacher can hold a class and teach a specialist subject. Enter both roles and Bell Path keeps them from colliding.
ReadPlanning time
Entitlements, coverage, shortfalls and staff agreements.
How planning time is calculated
Two different systems operate across Australia. Which one applies to you decides whether your bell times matter.
ReadWhat to do about a planning-time shortfall
A shortfall means your school has promised more release than it can supply. Rearranging the week cannot create supply.
ReadRecording and removing staff agreements
An agreement records a teacher accepting less than their entitlement. Record them honestly, and remove them the moment they stop being necessary.
ReadGenerating the timetable
The final check, what stops a generation, and how to read the result.
Reading the Final Check
The Final Check runs before generation so a school never pays for, or publishes, a timetable that cannot exist.
ReadWhy a timetable will not generate
Almost every failure is one of four things, and three of them are about supply rather than scheduling.
ReadRegenerating after a staffing change
Change the setup, regenerate, compare. The previous version stays exactly where it was.
ReadRunning the week
Daily cover, yard duty, wet day plans and the operations calendar.
Covering an absence on the morning
Mark the absence, see who is genuinely available, and let the fairness record decide between equal options.
ReadBuilding a yard duty roster
The roster comes from the timetable, balances across the term, and keeps a record you can show a staff member who asks.
ReadRunning a wet day
Declare the wet day and the outdoor roster converts to indoor supervision in the same screen.
ReadSharing with staff
Exports, printed packs, the staff portal and what teachers can change.
Still stuck
Tell us where the step stopped making sense.
If the next action was not obvious, that is a flaw in Bell Path rather than in you, and knowing exactly where it happened is the most useful thing you can send us.