Does anyone have timetabling nightmares? Too many pupils with restricted times when they can come for lessons? I spend hours each year trying to work out a timetable and then a couple of weeks into the term a mother phones and says that her child can’t make the slot she originally thought she would be able to.

I was wondering about getting some timetabling software, hoping it might make things easier for me. Can anyone recommend any that is easy to use and not too expensive?

Thanks

I use Mozilla Sunbird which is free - it is a calendar/diary which you download to your computer and you can enter appointments/events etc. You can put different types of 'events' into categories and colour them so you can see which are teaching, which personal, other types of things appropriate to your schedule. I have my teaching lessons highlighted so that they stand out from other things. You can create additional calendars as well - I have a 'Home' one and a 'Teaching' one although they don't actually look different so I'm not sure if I've got the point of this completely correct - I haven't had time to investigate but it works for me as it is. You can also print out as well.

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/

I use Mozilla Firefox for internet and Thunderbird for email as well - they are all very stable.


Louise

Do you mean software that allows you to enter everyone's "possible" times/days and then it works out the timetable for you? That would be funky, if such a thing existed.

No - you can enter lessons for a date and time, they will be listed in the box for that day in chronological order.
I tend to view a month at a time, but you can display a day or week view in which case it is probably easier to see where the spaces are between lessons etc.

It is a standalone calendar - you have to tell it when your appointments/lessons are and how long they are - you can specify things as all day, or give a start and end time. You can also set them as recurring events - so for weekly lessons you can set them to repeat to be weekly until a certain date - eg. I enter the lesson for the beginning of term, repeat it until the end of term, whatever the last date for that term is, then I delete the one which is in half term. When you look at the overall view - for a day/week/month, however you like to view it, then you can see a bigger picture.


Louise

Yes, I'm looking for software that will work out the timetable for you, after you have entered the days/times pupils are free for lessons. I’ve had a quick look on the web but most of the software available is designed for schools, is rather expensive and will also have many features that I won't use.

FET is an open source programme designed for school/college/university use. It is free to download on linux, windows or mac. It maybe of some use, I havent't tried it yet but will be having a look to see if it will be any use for peris/private teachers. The website is http://www.lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/

Thanks stewart81 – it’s just what I wanted. I have finally managed to get forms back from parents saying when their child is free for lessons, have entered the details into the software and it made me several timetables- BRILLIANT! It took a couple of hours to work out how to use the software because I’m not very good with computers but it was time well spent.

[quote name='pianonocturnes' date='Jan 5 2009, 01:45 PM' post='776689']
Yes, I'm looking for software that will work out the timetable for you, after you have entered the days/times pupils are free for lessons. I’ve had a quick look on the web but most of the software available is designed for schools, is rather expensive and will also have many features that I won't use.
[/quote

This software does exist!!

It's called TASC and it timetables lessons and events. You enter dates and times, no of weeks, whether you want the lessons to run on a running rota, different venues eg schools for each lesson. It's all colourcoded. It can also store, names, addresses, reports, exam results etc. Anything and everything a music teacher in school or at home would need. It can also invoice and has templates fields for teaching contracts!!

I know this because I had it written with the aim of running a large teaching practice in and out of school. If you wanna know more about this program PM and I can email snap shots and a link to a demo.

This would be most interesting to me - I will PM you.
But does anyone know if the FET package also generates invoices? That is my major headache since my schedule is full and I rarely offer parents the opportunity to change their times all at once, so I don't actually need to generate a schedule from scratch at the moment....

Thank you all for your PM and interest in TASC.

The developer is currently working on uploading the screenshots and a demo for those who are interesting in working with TASC which should be available by the weekend

As promised here is a link to some screen shots of TASC if you have any questions please PM myself or email the address in the URL!

Many thanks for your interest.

http://www.jdnet.co.uk/TASC/overview.htm

As far as I am aware FET does not have invoicing facilities. I use Excel and mail merge in Word and find that is the quickest way for me to produce invoices and keep track of all business transactions. You can use formulas in Excel to calculate all monies due and then easily transfer the details into your invoice template in Word.

I use Quickbooks pro for my business but there is also Quickbooks simplestart which is ideal for teachers! This software will print all your invoices and track everything you need for the tax man! It's really good and easy to use.

You can get a free demo here
http://quickbooks-store.co.uk/IntuitProduc...ame,ProductName