Part 3. Modules

3.3 Timetable and classes

Version 1.0 ·Updated 2026-10-07

Next reviewed by 2027-04-07.

Written for a school's staff learning how Kestrel works, the trainers who teach them, and the families using the portal.

Today's lessons, classes and subjects, houses, the day's relief and room changes, room and resource bookings, parent-teacher interviews, next year's class build, and the terms and bells behind them.

Written forFront officeTeacherRegistrarHead of house or yearBusiness managerIT

What it is for

The timetable answers the questions the school asks all day: what day of the cycle it is, which lesson a person is in, who has a class, which room is free and who is covering for an absent teacher. Kestrel stores the school's terms, bells, rooms, subjects, classes and houses, and works out a person's day from them each time you ask.

Kestrel does not solve a timetable. The school's timetabling engine, such as Edval or Timetabling Solutions, builds it and publishes the result to Kestrel over LISS. The office then records the day's changes over the top, and the staff who teach, cover and book rooms see the day as it really runs.

Who uses it

Who	What they do here	Capability
Each staff role	Reads today, the classes, the houses and the rooms, and books a room or resource.	timetable.record.read and timetable.booking.write
Front office	Keeps classes, subjects and houses, records relief and room changes, and runs parent-teacher interviews.	timetable.class.write, timetable.variation.write and timetable.interview.write
IT	Does what the front office does, and sets the terms, bells and rooms and connects the timetabling engine.	timetable.structure.write
Business manager	Sets the terms, bells and rooms, and can cancel anyone's room booking.	timetable.structure.write

Key ideas

Term: A stretch of the school year with a start, an end and the days students attend. Each date in it is a school day, a day off or not yet set.
Day of the cycle: Where a date falls in the school's bell cycle, for example Day 3 of a ten-day cycle.
Bells: The periods of a school day, with their codes and start and end times. A school can have more than one set, for a campus or a short day.
Class: A group that meets in the timetable, with a code such as 9MAT1, a subject, a year it runs in and a kind: Academic, Pastoral or Session. Who is in it, and who has been, is kept with dates.
Subject: What a class teaches, with a code such as MAT, a faculty and the year levels it covers. A class is taught as a subject.
House: A school house, with a colour and a campus, and the students who belong to it.
Variation: One change to one lesson on one date: a relief, a room change, a merged lesson, a cancelled lesson or an extra lesson. The timetable underneath stays as it was published.
Round: A parent-teacher interview evening: the dates and times each teacher is available, the year levels invited and when families may book.

Screens

Today
/app/timetable
One person's lessons on a date or over a week, with the day's changes applied, a person picker and a date stepper.
Needs timetable.record.read
Classes
/app/timetable/classes
Find a class by code, name or subject, and add a class. Each row shows who is in it today.
Needs timetable.record.read
A class
/app/timetable/classes/[id]
One class: its key facts, when it meets, who teaches it and who is in it, now and in the past.
Needs timetable.record.read
Subjects
/app/timetable/subjects
The subjects the school teaches, by faculty and year level, with a way to add one or retire it.
Needs timetable.record.read
Houses
/app/timetable/houses
The school's houses, with a colour, a campus and how many are in each today.
Needs timetable.record.read
A house
/app/timetable/houses/[id]
One house and the students in it, with a way to add a student.
Needs timetable.record.read
Variations
/app/timetable/variations
A date's lessons as they run, with each relief, room change, merge, cancellation and extra lesson that the office or the timetabling engine recorded.
Needs timetable.record.read
Rooms
/app/timetable/rooms
Each room and resource with what is in it on a date or across its week, lessons and bookings together, and a form to book it.
Needs timetable.record.read
Interviews
/app/timetable/interviews
The parent-teacher interview rounds, each with its first evening, how many teachers and how many families have booked.
Needs timetable.record.read
An interview round
/app/timetable/interviews/[id]
One round: the teachers' times, a form to book a family, and the list of who is booked with whom on the evening.
Needs timetable.record.read
Class build
/app/timetable/build
The builds of next year's classes, each with how many classes it asks for, its rules and its runs.
Needs timetable.class.write
A class build
/app/timetable/build/[id]
One build: its rules, the proposal from the latest run and the button that writes the memberships.
Needs timetable.class.write
Calendar
/app/settings/calendar
The terms of a year and the school days in each, with the day of the cycle.
Needs timetable.structure.write
Bells and rooms
/app/settings/bells
The bell schedules with their periods, and the school's rooms.
Needs timetable.structure.write
LISS
/app/settings/liss
The credentials a timetabling engine uses to connect to Kestrel.
Needs tenant.settings.write

Reading someone's day

Open "Timetable". The page is "Today" and starts empty, asking "Choose whose day to read". Find a person by name or number in the box, and their lessons appear for the date, with the time, the class, the room and the teacher. Choose "Day" or "Week" under "Show", and use "Previous day", "Next day" and "Today" to move. The date steps over a day off.

Changes show on the lesson they touch. A lesson taken by someone else reads "Relief", a lesson in another room reads "Room changed today", an extra lesson reads "Extra lesson" and a merged lesson reads "With" and the class it joined. A date the calendar does not set reads "This date is not set in the school's calendar", and a day off reads "Students do not attend on this date."

Open a person's own record and their lessons for the day appear in a panel there, with "See your full day" to come back here. A family reads their child's day in the portal.

Classes and subjects

On "Classes", type a class code, class name or subject in the box and the list narrows, showing what each row matched on. A search that matches nothing offers to add the class. A class that is not retired and has students in it today shows how many. Choose a class to open it: its "Key facts", when it meets under "When it meets", "Teachers" and "Students". Retired classes cannot take new students.

On "Subjects", press "Add a subject". Give the "Code" (for example MAT), the "Name", the "Faculty" and the year level and campus if it is one of several.
Press "Add it".
On "Classes", press "Add a class". Give the "Code", the "Name", the "Subject", the "Kind", the "Year it runs in" and the "Campus". Press "Add it".
Open the new class. Press "Add a teacher" and "Add a student", find the person and add them. Each is kept with the day they started, so a teacher or student who leaves keeps their place in the history.

A class the timetabling engine publishes is marked as published by it, one the office enters is marked as entered by the office, and one made from next year's class build is marked as coming from the build.

Houses

On "Houses", press "Add a house" and give its "Name", "Campus" and "Colour", then press "Add it". Each row shows the house, its colour and how many students are in it today. Open one to see who is in it and add a student. A house that stops being used is retired and still shows as "Retired".

House membership is a dated fact like a class membership, so a student who changed house last term is still in last term's list.

Relief and room changes

The front office keeps the day's variations on "Variations". The page lists the date's lessons as they run, with each change the office or the timetabling engine recorded, and "Varied" narrows the list to only the lessons that changed. Each recorded entry shows its source, either "Office" or "Timetabling engine", and whether it still applies.

Open "Variations" and set the "Date".
Under "Lessons", press "Record a relief", "Room change", "Merge the lesson" or "Cancel the lesson" on the lesson, or "Add an extra lesson" for one that is not on the timetable.
Choose the "Teacher" or "Room" (or the class it "Joins"), add a "Note" and press "Record it".
The lesson now shows the change on "Today" for the teacher and the students, wherever the lesson appears.
If an entry was wrong, press "Void" beside it under "Recorded on this date". It stays in the list marked "Voided", so the record keeps what happened.

Record a relief or a room change. Record a relief or a room change

Rooms and resources

Open "Rooms". The page lists "Rooms" and "Resources" such as equipment and devices. Set the "Date", choose "Day" or "Week", and press a room to see what is in it: lessons and bookings together, and a "Clash" marked where two things want the same time. A retired room cannot be booked.

Open "Rooms", set the "Date" and press the room or resource.
Press "Book it", then fill "Date", "From", "To" and "Purpose".
Read what the form says before you send it. Where the time is over a lesson in the room, the form names the lesson. The lesson keeps the room, so check with its teacher first.
Press "Book it". The booking shows under "Booked on this date" and in the room's list.
To free the time, press "Cancel the booking" on a booking of your own.

Book a room or resource. Book a room or a resource

A person can cancel only their own booking. The business manager and IT can also cancel someone else's, which is how the hall is cleared for an event.

Parent-teacher interviews

The office runs a round from "Interviews". The list shows each round with its first evening, how many teachers are in it and how many families have booked. A family can book from the portal once booking opens, and the office books for the family who rings.

Press "Open a round". Fill "Title", the minutes in each slot, "Families may book from" and "Booking closes", tick the year levels invited, and press "Open it".
In the round, press "Add a teacher's times". Choose the "Teacher", then add each "Date", "From", "To" and "Room" with "Add a time", and press "Set the times".
When a family rings, use "Book for a family": find the student, then press a time under "Book a time".
On the evening, "At the door" lists who is booked with whom, with the time and room. "Edit the round" corrects the title, the dates or the booking window.

Run a round of interviews. Run parent-teacher interviews

Each teacher shows as "booked" out of their slots. A booking is cancelled from the round, and the time goes back to the pool for another family to take. A student whose name the reader may not see shows as "Name withheld".

Building next year's classes

The class build is for a year level at a campus in the coming year. It proposes which students go in which class, evens out the class sizes and keeps to the rules the school set, then writes the result as memberships once someone approves it. It is a proposal first: nothing about a student changes until a person presses "Write the memberships". Setting up a build needs the capability to keep classes and houses, which the front office and IT hold.

Open "Class build" and add a build: choose the year level, the year and how many classes it asks for.
Open the build. Under "The rules this build places students by", press "Add a rule". Choose "Balance across the classes" (by gender or house, and always applied "Where it can"), "Keep apart" or "Keep together" for named students, and press "Add it". A separation or a friendship rule needs between two and twelve students.
Press "Run the build". The proposal is below, with each class and who is in it, and "Why" each student was placed there. "Since the run before" lists who moved, so you can see what a rule change did.
Change the number of classes with "Change the classes" and press "Save the classes", or add a rule, and run again until the result suits.
Press "Write the memberships". Kestrel asks you to confirm how many memberships it writes, into which classes, and from which day. It then creates the classes from the build.

A hard rule is always kept. A soft rule is kept where it can be, and the proposal says which soft rules it could not keep and why, so you decide whether to accept it.

Terms, bells and the timetabling engine

IT or the business manager sets the school's structure in Settings. "Calendar" lists the terms for a year. Press "Add a term", give its "Label", "Starts" and "Ends", the "Campus" and the "Bells" it uses, then press "Save the term". A term shows its dates at a glance, and a date not yet set reads "Not set". Press the button to mark the weekdays in a term as school days, and the weekends are marked as days off with them. Each date already set is left as it is. "First day of the cycle" and "Days in the cycle" set where the cycle starts.

Under "Bells and rooms", press "Add bells", give the "Name" and the "Days in the cycle", and press "Add a period" for each period with its code, label, start and end. Press "Save the bells". Under "Rooms", press "Add a room" and give its "Code", "Name", "Kind" (classroom, laboratory, hall, oval or other space) and "Seats", then press "Save the room". Bells and rooms that are no longer used are retired and can be offered again.

Under "LISS", an administrator issues a credential for the timetabling engine. The engine reads the students, teachers, rooms, bells and calendar, and publishes the timetable, bells and calendar back. Each call is recorded in the school's audit trail. The password is shown once and cannot be read back, so copy it into the engine straight away. A lost password means revoking the credential and issuing a new one, and a credential expires two years after it is issued.

Set the bells and rooms. Set the bells and rooms
Connect the timetabling engine. Connect the timetabling engine over LISS

Reports

The library at "Reporting" has two timetable reports under the heading "Timetable". "Class lists for a term" lists each student in each class over a term, with when they joined and left, as at a day you choose. "Class sizes by subject and year level" counts the classes, the students in them and the smallest, largest and average class. A student in two classes of a subject is counted in each. Run either and download it as a CSV.

3.13 Reporting

Journeys

The timetable is set up once a year, built on again each term, and read each day. Its classes are what the roll in Attendance and the markbook in Assessment are taken against.

Settings

The terms, bells, rooms and the engine's credentials are in Settings under "Calendar", "Bells and rooms" and "LISS". A write there needs both the capability for the area and administrator standing, so the grant decides which administrators may change them.

Training notes

Teachers need "Reading someone's day" and "Rooms and resources", about ten minutes in the "Rooms and resources" session. The front office needs relief and room changes, classes and houses, and interviews, and covers them in "Families, staff and the timetable". IT needs the terms, bells and the engine, and sets them up before the first term opens.