Key takeaways
- Ready means provably feasible, evidenced by named routines, not merely entered.
- Block build, combing chart, and clash table test the structure at three scopes.
- A what-if trial proves the structure schedules with next year's real staff.
- The handoff passes a feasibility-proven, staffed structure; placement stays downstream.
Feasibility has named tests
The routines are old, unglamorous, and load-bearing. The block build assembles each block and fails if a teacher or room is used twice inside it; the sourced rule is blunt, if the block will not build then it cannot be scheduled. The combing chart slides blocks against each other looking for teacher double-bookings. The clash table maps which blocks across year groups can share time, which is also where scheduling order comes from.
One more rule carries into placement: schedule the most-constrained items first, singletons, then cores, then electives.
The handoff sequence
Evidence first, record second, handoff last.
- Run the block build on every block; fix structures, not symptoms, where it fails.
- Run the combing chart across the built blocks.
- Build the clash table across year groups and note the implied scheduling order.
- Run a what-if trial with next year's real staff on the full structure.
- Write the handoff record: routines, versions, results, open risks.
- Hand the staffed, feasibility-proven structure to placement.
How to do this in Smootables: readiness you can see
Fall 2026
Recurring weeks18.8.2026 - 20.12.2026 / 18 weeks
Timeline
Teacher workload
2 teachers over weekly limit · 1 placement to be decided later
The Planning view is the handoff surface: it shows whether placements exist for the period, and its warnings are the readiness signals this guide asks for. The header workload indicator reads Teacher Workload: All OK or counts the teachers over limit; missing-teacher warnings flag unstaffed placements; and a teacher or room genuinely undecided can be marked To be decided later, which keeps an honest distinction between not yet chosen and forgotten.
Generation itself is gated the same way: Generate timetable validates the period plan first and reports typed errors rather than attempting a doomed run, so the what-if habit has a cheap equivalent, generate early on the draft and read what comes back.
What the handoff does not include
Placement. The handoff passes a feasibility-proven, staffed curriculum structure forward; deciding which lesson lands in which period is downstream work with its own guides, starting at timetable generation and, for migrations, checking timetable data.
Keeping the boundary clean protects both sides: planning owns the structure and its evidence, timetabling owns placement and its trade-offs, and the record says where one ended and the other began. The full downstream walkthrough is how to create a school timetable.
Questions planners ask about the handoff
What exactly does each routine prove?
Three scopes, inside out. The block build proves one block is internally consistent (no teacher or room used twice within it). The combing chart proves blocks coexist without double-booking a teacher. The clash table proves compatibility across year groups, and along the way it tells you the scheduling order.
Why run a trial timetable when generation will run anyway?
Because the trial is cheap and the real run is not. A what-if trial with next year's actual staff proves the structure is achievable before it is finalised; the same discovery during the real build arrives after sign-off, when every fix costs rework.
What goes in the handoff record?
The evidence: which routines ran, on which version of the structure, with what results, and which known risks pass forward. A handoff without a record decays into memory, and memory is what the September dispute will be settled against.