Privacy Policy

Bell Path Timetabling (ABN 59 429 101 462) runs Bell Path, a school timetabling and operations platform. This policy explains how we collect, use, share and protect personal information when schools, their staff, teachers using Bell Path on their own, relief teachers and visitors to our website use Bell Path.

Bell Path is covered by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. We chose to be covered, and Bell Path Timetabling has been on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's Privacy opt-in register since 3 November 2026. This policy also works alongside state privacy laws, school policies and any contract a school has with us.

Most information comes from the school: staff, CRT and student details are entered by school staff, not collected from each person. A teacher using Bell Path on their own enters their own plans, including details of their students and of the people they send a plan to. Account holders give us their own details when they sign up. The one other source is listed under school contacts below.

You do not have to give Bell Path personal information, but some parts of Bell Path cannot work without it:

Bell Path does not need student names to build a timetable. Some features let a school record named students if it chooses to: Education Support, tutor timetables and the student support described next. Student support in a CRT brief is limited to verified, action-focused instructions relevant to that assignment. It is not a copy of the student's medical file or whole profile.

If a school enters student-identifying, health, disability, wellbeing, funding or other sensitive information, the school is responsible for having the authority, notices and consents it needs to do so.

Please keep sensitive information out of free-text fields unless it is genuinely needed for that part of Bell Path and suitable for storing in a cloud service.

A teacher using Bell Path on their own decides what to write about their students, as they would on a paper plan left for a relief teacher. The relief teacher sees notes about students, logins, files the teacher marks as holding student information and any file found to hold a password only after entering a four-digit code texted to their mobile. These also print on the teacher's own printout.

We use a school's information to provide Bell Path to that school: to run, support, secure and fix the service it uses. We also use it to improve Bell Path in the two ways the Terms set out: we test new versions of the timetable builder on copies of a school's setup, with every staff and class name replaced by a code, and we keep the layout of a timetable file Bell Path could not read, as described above. We do not show one school's information to another school without its permission, with one exception. When a relief teacher is on more than one school's list, Bell Path matches them by mobile number, so a school asking who is free sees "No longer available" once another school has booked them. The school asking is never told which school booked them, or for which class. When the booking covers only part of the day, the school asking sees which part is still free. For this match Bell Path keeps only the mobile number, and deletes it once no school's list holds it.

Bell Path keeps internal usage records that are linked to school and user accounts. We use them to see whether schools are completing the key steps, where they get stuck, and what needs improving.

For website visitor statistics, we store a scrambled code made on our server from the request details, a secret key and the month, rather than the visitor's raw IP address.

To see which pages lead schools to sign up, we record the first Bell Path page a visitor opened and the name of the website that sent them, for example google.com, but never what they searched for.

These internal records are identifiable, and we do not pretend otherwise. If we ever publish product insights, benchmarks, case studies or marketing claims, we use information that is aggregated, de-identified (stripped of anything that points to a person or school) or shared with permission.

Google advertising measurement is on unless you choose Stop Google measurement. It lets Google store advertising identifiers and receive visit and conversion information, including advertising user data needed to match a walkthrough request or registration to an ad. Bell Path does not send names, email addresses or school information to Google. Google enhanced conversions and advertising personalisation remain disabled.

Open Privacy choices to stop or allow Google measurement. Your choice is stored in this browser. Stopping measurement prevents future Bell Path conversion events. Bell Path works the same either way.

Measurement is never active on login or password pages, on invitation or registration links that carry a token or a prefilled school name, inside a school’s Bell Path account, in the free calculators, on the School Approval Pack review form, or on the support and procurement contact forms. On the contact page, only the walkthrough-request form is measured. The confirmation page sends a Google conversion only for a successful walkthrough submission, unless you stopped measurement, not for an ordinary visit or refresh.

When Bell Path runs ads to teachers on Facebook or Instagram, Meta's pixel runs on the teacher page (/relief-plan) and nowhere else. It lets Meta set its own cookies there and receive that page's visits and a finished sign-up. Choosing Stop Google measurement in Privacy choices, at the foot of Bell Path's other public pages, stops Meta's pixel too. It never runs on a teacher's plan or the links a plan is sent on.

An assigned CRT can open a non-sensitive day outline from the random booking link issued for that assignment without a Bell Path account or verification code. Class handovers, student support instructions, restricted files and School access vault values open only after a check that the person holds the mobile number the school recorded for them.

A teacher without a Bell Path account can use an expiring contribution link limited to the date, class or session they own. It does not open the rest of the school’s Bell Path account.

The resource shelf has its own short code and contains only lesson resources already attached to that CRT brief. Its code cannot open student support instructions or School access vault values.

A relief teacher asked whether they are free answers from a link texted to them. The same link opens My days, which lists their own asks and bookings from every school, matched to the mobile number the link was texted to. No school sees another school's asks or bookings.

A teacher can use Bell Path free, whether or not their school does. They reach their plans from a personal link Bell Path emails or texts to them, with no password. The link stops working a year after it was last opened, and the teacher can get a new one by typing their email address.

When they send a plan, the relief teacher gets a link of their own, and the code for the student notes goes only to that relief teacher's mobile. The cover planner, a colleague, the QR code on the printout and anything shared another way get a link that leaves out student notes, logins and the files behind the code. Anyone holding one of these links can read the rest of the plan. Every plan link stops working at midnight after the last day away.

A teacher's plans reach their school only when the teacher sends or shares them. To offer sharing, Bell Path looks for the teacher's email address on the staff list of the school they picked, and tells the school nothing unless they share. Once shared, a plan is part of the school's records, as anything a teacher tells their school is.

The relief teacher can send notes about the day back, typed or spoken. Only the teacher and that relief teacher see them.

We share information where we need to in order to run Bell Path, support a school, take payment, comply with the law, protect the service, or act on the school’s or the user’s instructions. We may also share it with our professional advisers and insurers, and with anyone who buys or takes over Bell Path or is looking at doing so.

The providers we use now are below. We may change them as Bell Path changes.

Bell Path is an Australian business run from Victoria, and its servers are in Australia: the website you sign in to, database holding your school information, timetable generator, virus scanning of those files and scheduled jobs that send notices and publish cover run in Melbourne, and the files staff upload for the teacher covering a class and database backups are stored in Sydney.

Email, text messages, payments and the AI that reads timetable files come from separate companies, some of them outside Australia. The AI is from Anthropic and OpenAI, in the United States, and reads what a file holds, such as staff names, classes, subjects and times.

So we do not promise that all data stays in Australia.

Because of the companies listed above, Bell Path is likely to disclose some personal information to them overseas. The countries are shown beside each company. The United States is the most common.

If a school needs a particular hosting region, a data residency commitment, or a restriction on which providers we use, that must be agreed in writing before the school relies on it.

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, change or disclosure. People using a school’s Bell Path account sign in, and roles decide what each person can see and change. Account-free CRT and teacher links are random, limited in scope and expire. Protected CRT information needs the separate check described above.

Bell Path's own administration tools are limited to the people who run Bell Path, and their access to sensitive areas is recorded.

Bell Path does not claim any sector certification, audit result or government panel approval unless we have stated it in writing.

If we suspect personal information in Bell Path has been lost, or seen or used by someone who should not have it, we assess what happened and take reasonable steps to contain it.

Where a breach is likely to cause someone serious harm, we notify the people affected and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, following the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme. Where school information is involved, we may do this through the school.

We keep account, school, timetable, billing, support, audit and analytics records for as long as we reasonably need them to provide the service, meet legal and accounting obligations, resolve disputes, keep the service secure and improve Bell Path.

If a school asks us to delete or export its data, we will take reasonable steps to do so, within legal, security, backup and operational limits, as the Terms set out. Database backups are encrypted, kept for a limited time and then deleted automatically, so deleted information can stay in a backup until that backup expires.

A teacher's plans, class guide and the notes sent back to them stay until the teacher changes or clears them, or asks us to delete their account. Photos and files on a plan are deleted once their day is over and no link to that day's plan is still open.

If you ask us to remind you when timetabling season comes around, we store the email address you enter, the reminder time you choose, and the page you asked from. We use this only to send you that one reminder email.

Because the form does not need an account, we first send one email to confirm the address is yours. The reminder is set only when you click the confirm link. Every reminder email has a cancel link, and cancelling affects only that reminder. It does not change any account, billing or support email.

These records are deleted automatically. If a reminder is never confirmed, we delete it 7 days after you asked. Once a reminder has been sent or cancelled, we delete it 30 days later.

To access, correct, export or delete personal information, or to make a complaint, email hello@bellpath.com.au. We may need to confirm who you are and that you have authority for the account or school before we act.

We respond to requests within a reasonable time. We look into each complaint and reply in writing with what we found.

If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints. This policy is governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia.

We may change this policy at any time by publishing a new version on this page. The date at the top shows when it last changed.