Chapter 6

Timetable

school_adminprincipalclass_teachersubject_teacher

Overview

Building a timetable has four stages, each one feeding the next: define the daily period grid, declare how many periods per week each subject needs, map teachers to subjects/classes, then assign the actual weekly grid (either manually or via generate-and-approve). This chapter builds all four for Class 5A.

Key concepts

  • Period SettingThe school's daily time grid — what time each numbered period starts and ends, and where the breaks fall. One grid, shared by every class.
  • Subject Period RequirementHow many periods per week a given subject needs for a given class, e.g. "Maths — 6 periods/week for Class 5A." This is the target the Assign/Generate step tries to satisfy.
  • Teacher-Subject MappingWhich teacher teaches which subject in which class/section. This is the same table that Attendance's subject-teacher access scoping and this chapter's own timetable-visibility rules are checked against (Chapter 7).
  • Timetable SlotOne actual cell in the weekly grid: a specific class/section, day, and period, filled with a subject + teacher. Assign fills these in one at a time; Generate & Approve fills all of them at once from the requirements and mappings above.

Prerequisites

At least one teacher account must exist to be mapped to subjects (Chapter 2). This walkthrough also requests and approves a second, dedicated Subject Teacher account.

Each stage is a prerequisite for the next — Assign/Generate has nothing to work with until the first three exist.

A second staff request submitted for a dedicated Subject Teacher account
Figure 6.83. A dedicated Subject Teacher account requested…
The Subject Teacher request approved by the Principal
Figure 6.84. …and approved (Chapter 2’s maker-checker flow again).

6.1 Period setup & subject requirements

The Period Setup screen before any periods have been defined
Figure 6.85. Period Setup — empty.
The Period Setup screen with the daily period grid defined, including breaks
Figure 6.86. The daily period grid defined, including breaks.
The Subject Period Requirements screen before any requirements exist for Class 5A
Figure 6.87. Subject Period Requirements — empty for Class 5A.
The Subject Period Requirements screen with weekly period counts set per subject for Class 5A
Figure 6.88. Weekly period counts set per subject for Class 5A.

6.2 Teacher-subject mapping

The Teacher-Subject Mapping screen with teachers mapped to Class 5A subjects
Figure 6.89. Teachers mapped to Class 5A subjects.

6.3 Assign & generate

The Assign Timetable screen for Class 5A, showing empty period slots
Figure 6.90. Assign Timetable for Class 5A — empty slots, ready to be filled by dragging a subject/teacher into each period.
The Assign Timetable screen for Class 5A, with slots filled
Figure 6.91. Slots filled in manually.
The Generate & Approve preview screen for Class 5A
Figure 6.92. The Generate & Approve preview — an alternative to manual assignment for larger schools.
The final published Class 5A timetable, as seen by an Admin
Figure 6.93. The final, published Class 5A timetable, as an Admin sees it.

6.4 Role views

The Class Teacher’s own
Figure 6.94. The Class Teacher’s "My Timetable" — their own assigned class’s full weekly grid.
The Subject Teacher’s own
Figure 6.95. The Subject Teacher’s "My Timetable" — only the periods they personally teach, across whichever classes they’re mapped to.
Who can view which class’s timetable

A Class Teacher can view the full weekly grid only for the class/section they are assigned to in Chapter 7.1; a Subject Teacher can view the full grid only for classes/sections they appear in via Teacher-Subject Mapping above. Both get an explicit "only their own periods" view via "My Timetable" regardless. See the Roles & Permissions appendix for the full matrix.