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you know that makes a lot of sense, I hate having certain classes right after lunch or at the end of the day.

I think that to try and change that in our school this year will be tough, but maybe in a year of two I could make my argument and win support for a rotating style of schedule.

I am planning on using FET to do this years timetabling, I will let you know how it turns out and if I feel successful using FET.

thanks alot for the forum and FAST answers to questions

Paul

pedagogically: we are creatures of habit and if you can have the same subject at the same time; learning, retention and recall is easier (part of maintaining an environment).

historically: that is the way we have done it for the past 40 years.

easier: we have a few part time teachers that come to teach a few classes and have other jobs and schedule that they need to maintain i.e. we have an accounting teacher that works for an accounting software developer...he only wants to be in during periods 2-4. or our Spanish teacher wants to be there only periods 3-5

it has not occurred to me that it would be done otherwise. Do European schools follow a model different than having the same class at the same time? each day? Why would you not want to have math or language class tat the same period each day? What would the benefit be of having math on mon 3rd hours, tues 5 hour, weds during 1st hour... ?

we have 1 credit and 1/2 credit classes.

We have 4 quarters, per year. Some 1/2 credit classes run only 2 quarters and some run every other day for all 4 quarters.

There are 6 - 40 minutes periods and 2 - 50 minute periods each day.

If the class runs all year then those 1/2 credit classes that fall in the 50 minute periods run 2 days per week all year.  The 1/2 credit classes run 2 days/week in one quarter and 3 days/week the next quarter.

so each 1/2 credit class gets the same number of minutes per year
.

for example a math class will always meet 4th period each day, but an art class might 3 period might meet tues and thursday and 3rd period mon, weds and fri might be phyical education for a student

i'm trying to slowly add activities...things are looking really good. I am thinking I will use this for the upcoming scheduling task for our school.

I have another question: is there an easy way to set an activity to always be in the same time slot. I've been adding and activity  and then going to activity constraints and splitting into 5 per weeks (so it occurs each day) then going to activities constraints and selecting 5 corresponding activities and adding same start time constraint.

Seems like there must be an easier way. Like a check box on the activities page. All our classes should have the same start time.

Is there a better way to set an activities to run 5 time per week and alway at the same time?

I think that makes a lot of sense, I was trying with groups, but subgroups = individuals makes more sense thanks.

how to do I require that an activity runs in the same time slot each day?

is there an easy way to move a group to a new year when working on next years schedule?

In our school the students select courses they want to take, there are a handful of required coursed they take, but each student has the option of selecting various elective courses. there is usually not a group that has exactly the same daily schedule.

how can I set this up in FET? does each student become their own group so that I can generate a timetable based on the student's course selection, teacher and room and time constraints?

at our school students need to take certain classes and then can select electives,  usually we like to give everybody what they want, but we are a small school (<100) and limited resources, but some students might not get exactly all they want. when i did a manual schedule we typically give the oldest students first priority and the youngest students last priority,

couldn't some groups of students get a lesser weight than 100% to allow that priority?