Critical DevelopmentsFrom First Principles Works

Critical Developments · Product 03

SitRep

Seat the class you actually teach.

Teacher-controlled seating plans.

See SitRep in actionSee what it solves

The gap

A seating plan is a theory of the classroom.

Every seating plan makes claims about attention, access, relationships and the kind of lesson a room should permit. Most are simply too static to admit it. SitRep treats arrangement as revisable professional judgement: grounded in the real room, assisted by explainable rules and always open to the teacher who knows the class.

  1. 01

    Teachers redraw the same room whenever a new class or plan begins.

    Time is spent reconstructing furniture before considering the pupils.

    Reusable, versioned room layouts retain seats, tables, board, door, teacher desk, restricted areas and the room's real canvas dimensions.

  2. 02

    A static plan shows where pupils sit but not why.

    Later changes and cover decisions discard the reasoning behind the arrangement.

    Visible constraints, locks, conflicts and named versions preserve enough context for a teacher to revise deliberately.

  3. 03

    Automated seating suggestions are opaque.

    Staff cannot inspect the assumptions or challenge an unsuitable arrangement.

    Deterministic rules explain random, alphabetical, fill, priority, separation, grouping and distribution choices; suggestions never silently save.

  4. 04

    Useful classroom context is shared too widely.

    A cover or printed plan can reveal sensitive needs or private planning labels.

    Names-only is the default share and print state; private overlays are deliberate, labelled and permission-limited.

  5. 05

    Quick lesson actions become permanent records before review.

    A momentary classroom judgement can travel farther than intended.

    Live-lesson events begin as reversible drafts and move through an editable factual review before any separately authorised submission.

Feature map

Find the tools for the task.

Choose a school task to see the relevant tools and their boundaries, then open the walkthrough.

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Areas 7Features 38

School tasks, the tools that help and the boundaries to keep in view.

Build the room you teach in

  • Start with a useful pattern

    Create a room from an existing starting pattern and choose a personal default. Select classroom or hall dimensions and landscape or portrait orientation. An existing-room resize remains an unsaved change until every element fits the new bounds.

  • Place the furniture

    Add, move, resize, duplicate and rotate tables, a board, door, teacher desk and restricted areas. Bounds and collision checks help keep the saved layout coherent. Furniture keeps the same proportions across the designer, seating plan, lesson view and PDF.

  • Personal or shared

    Personal layouts retain their owner's control. Available school rooms can be used by permitted staff; editing them requires the separate room-settings permission. Shared use does not make every room freely editable.

  • Keep the earlier layout

    Saving creates a new room version and preserves the old geometry. Plans do not silently adopt the new layout: review the proposed room change before saving their successor version.

The layout represents the furniture. Check physical access, support space and safety in the actual room; a drawing does not establish their suitability.

Open this walkthrough

Prepare the class plan

  • A roster you can place

    Connected classes use authorised school directory references. Missing fields are not filled with invented values. Source and membership warnings identify changes that need attention; stale or unavailable information can block a new plan or lesson.

  • Drafts and an active plan

    Keep named alternatives for the class. Copying makes a separate draft; explicitly activate the arrangement you intend to teach from. Only an active plan can start a lesson, and later changes do not rewrite the version used by an earlier lesson.

  • Explore with fictional names

    For a demonstration, preview a manual list or CSV of fictional names. Review duplicates and ignored columns before confirming it. This trial route is not a general live-pupil import or MIS synchronisation service.

A lesson-only assignment does not grant school-wide class access. A saved class-plan list is not an authorised timetable.

Open this walkthrough

Arrange pupils with teacher control

  • Direct, reversible changes

    Move or swap pupils by pointer, touch or keyboard, or return them to the unseated pool. Locks preserve fixed positions and deliberate gaps keep seats unused. Undo and redo step through local changes before a new version is saved.

  • Your planning cues

    Apply a teacher-created planning colour that follows the pupil within this plan. It is a temporary planning cue, not a diagnosis or an automatic tag shared with DAS Board. Names-only output omits it.

  • Inspect the suggestion

    Try an arrangement with its explanation and remaining conflicts. Consider near/apart, same/different table, position and LSA-space requirements. New pupil rules stay private or go for authorised review; approved rules can be shared within scope. Refused rules do not apply.

  • Review a change of room

    Compare matching seats, pupils needing places and seating-rule conflicts before confirming another permitted room. Saving creates a new plan version rather than silently changing the original arrangement.

Suggestions never silently save. Optional grouping needs a school-approved field; missing values remain explicit and nothing is inferred from names. Check that proposed support space suits the pupil and room.

Open this walkthrough

Show the plan and teach the lesson

  • The view for the audience

    Use a names-only student view or the private teacher context, with room-fit presentation and zoom. Choose PDF content deliberately: deselected text and images are absent. Private overlays are omitted from names-only output; portraits must be authorised images supplied by the school directory.

  • Relevant classroom guidance

    A configured, permission-checked DAS connection can show published classroom strategies with their source. Unavailable guidance stays explicit. Diagnostic and safeguarding rationale is not copied, and the connection does not guarantee that a strategy bank is populated.

  • A lesson draft you can correct

    Start from the active plan's saved version. Record available positive or negative choices for one pupil or a deliberate selection, with short factual notes. Correct a review note or undo an eligible event or batch. These remain lesson-scoped drafts until review.

  • Keep useful actions close

    Select and order available actions under personal or school palette policy. Labels, definitions and points remain read-only catalogue information. School-wide choices need the configuration permission. The available catalogue depends on the school's agreed setup.

School setup required. An authorised colleague can use the plan as a teaching or cover view. SitRep does not allocate cover or replace statutory attendance, a markbook or safeguarding records. Published DAS guidance needs a configured connection and current permissions. Confirm the available action catalogue during school setup.

Open this walkthrough

Review the lesson and its seating context

  • The current seating picture

    Inspect permitted plans, neighbours, tablemates and valid relative room positions. Counts show their denominators; an unmarked feature or missing position is unavailable rather than zero. A plan list becomes a timetable only when authorised timetable data is supplied.

  • Patterns with their sample sizes

    Look back over your latest 30 reviewed or copied lessons using their original layouts. Same-class pattern cards need five lessons across three days in each comparison and differences of at least 0.5 points per lesson and 25%. Sample sizes and missing records stay visible.

  • Check, then approve

    Edit factual notes, remove mistakes and review the regenerated pupil summary. Approval preserves the exact checked event/category snapshot. Later catalogue changes do not rewrite it, and approval remains separate from successful delivery.

  • Return to the relevant record

    Browse original room, plan and lesson history. Readiness reports identify plans affected by room updates, roster changes, source attention or unresolved constraints, with routes back to the work needing attention.

Recorded associations do not establish causation, diagnose a pupil or rank pupils or teachers. They do not automatically create seating rules or publish tags.

Open this walkthrough

Choose a reviewed handoff

  • Copy or export deliberately

    Staff with export permission can copy SIMS-ready text or export reviewed CSV from the approved summary. Draft exports stay disabled. Copying does not send points, and manual alternatives are restricted while an uncertain delivery could cause duplicate entry.

  • Use configured destinations

    A connected HP Source route requires its licence, pupil resolution and award permission; HP Source owns the ledger. School MIS delivery needs supported actions, approved Wonde write scope, Account mappings, current staff links and an explicit MIS-writing duty alongside lesson read and approval access.

  • Read each result separately

    Approval stays saved if delivery fails. HP Source and MIS results settle independently. Only confirmed MIS success is completed; acceptance alone remains pending. The saved delivery record supports checking or retrying the same handoff. An uncertain send must be checked before another attempt or manual entry.

School setup required. Discuss supported connections and try the full school workflow before activation. MIS delivery excludes notes and seating observations; earlier approvals without the required event record cannot be sent. Confirm supported HP Source and Wonde MIS handoffs, required permissions and checked school setup before activation.

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Work with the access and information you need

  • Access follows the responsibility

    Class, pupil, plan, lesson, note and output views are filtered by current school and record scope. Plan management, lesson recording, review approval, export, seating-rule review and external duties are separate. Admin settings do not provide blanket pupil access.

  • A clear route to recovery

    Stale or unavailable sources, licence/access failures and delivery states have distinct explanations. Secure sign-in recovery helps when a session needs renewed verification. An unavailable class source is not presented as an empty class or successful delivery.

Connected information and actions depend on current school configuration and permissions. Check the displayed state before using a plan or continuing a handoff.

Open this walkthrough

Live catalogues, MIS commands, shared room publication and live school data remain separately governed.

Compare with competitors

Find the right fit.

Official published descriptions checked 27 August 2026. Feature sets change; procurement requires direct verification with each vendor.

  1. 01

    Class Charts

    Class Charts foregrounds data-rich seating plans joined to fast behaviour management and analytics. SitRep narrows the proposition around the room-plan-teach-review loop: versioned geometry, explicit constraints, teacher override, private planning layers and lesson-scoped drafts that do not automatically become an authoritative behaviour record.

    Compare the complete cost Request a complete annual SitRep quote including shared Account, Wonde MIS integration for the agreed scope, ordinary hosting and processing, standard setup, updates and remote support. Compare equivalent users, features, integrations and support, including any usage charges, using current written quotes. Supplier details · Request your complete annual quote

    Optimised seating-plan guidance
  2. 02

    Arbor My Classroom

    Arbor foregrounds an MIS-connected classroom view with attainment, attendance and behaviour data directly on the plan. SitRep is an independently licensable specialist product, emphasising richer geometry, explainable constraints, privacy-specific share states and reviewed lesson events.

    Compare the complete cost Request a complete annual SitRep quote including shared Account, Wonde MIS integration for the agreed scope, ordinary hosting and processing, standard setup, updates and remote support. Compare any additional modules or integration charges within your current MIS package, including the work needed to use them. Supplier details · Request your complete annual quote

  3. 03

    Seating Plan

    Seating Plan foregrounds flexible furniture layout, roster integrations, data-rich charts, algorithmic placement, adjustment, sharing and export. SitRep overlaps there but places its sharpest boundary around purpose-limited instructions, immutable versions, in-lesson privacy and reviewed handoff to another system.

    Compare the complete cost Request a complete annual SitRep quote including shared Account, Wonde MIS integration for the agreed scope, ordinary hosting and processing, standard setup, updates and remote support. Compare a whole-school quote covering the required users and integrations. Supplier details · Request your complete annual quote

Best fit
Teachers and schools that need reusable physical rooms, transparent assistance, fast revision and different privacy views for planning, teaching, cover and print.
Not intended to replace
The MIS register, markbook, safeguarding or behaviour system, a sensitive pupil dossier, or the teacher's professional decision about where a pupil should sit.

Editorial perspective

The argument behind SitRep.

Every seating plan makes claims about attention, access, relationships and the kind of lesson a room should permit. Most are simply too static to admit it. SitRep treats arrangement as revisable professional judgement: grounded in the real room, assisted by explainable rules and always open to the teacher who knows the class.

The grid is never neutral

Drag a pupil's name from one square to another and the movement looks administrative. It is not. A seat can alter what a pupil can see, whom they can hear, how easily they can leave and which relationships become unavoidable for the next hour.

A static document preserves the final arrangement while losing the reasons that made it sensible. SitRep starts from the claim that a plan should remember enough to be changed intelligently. Not everything. Enough.

A generated arrangement is only a suggestion. The teacher remains responsible for the room it creates.

Begin with the room that exists

Classrooms are not abstract rectangles populated by interchangeable desks. They contain doors, boards, fixed furniture, restricted areas and access routes. Reusable, versioned layouts keep the physical space inside the decision.

A pupil can be prioritised because an approved functional instruction exists; a category such as SEND cannot become a crude rule that moves a group wholesale to the front. Human needs do not become precise merely because the coordinates are.

Explain the suggestion, preserve the override

Seating assistance is useful when it can state what it tried to do: keep these pupils apart, preserve locked seats, distribute a teacher-created planning tag. These rules are comprehensible and contestable.

SitRep's engine is deterministic and explainable, and its suggestions never silently save. The aim is not to find the one true seating plan, but to reduce the mechanical labour around a decision the teacher can defend and revise.

Privacy is also a question of purpose

A functional instruction such as seat near the exit may be necessary; the diagnostic or safeguarding history behind it is not. Names-only is the default for sharing and printing. Cover should receive the information needed to teach, not an accidental pupil dossier with chairs attached.

The plan should learn without pretending to know

A useful history can show how the room and plan developed, which constraints were unresolved and what was deliberately altered. It should support reflection, not teacher surveillance with a nicer colour palette.

A seating plan is a practical hypothesis about how this class might work in this room today. SitRep gives that hypothesis a visible structure, a reason and a revision history.

With and without

Where the work gets lighter.

The point is quicker plan changes, better-informed cover and fewer classroom decisions trapped in one teacher’s head.

  • Faster plan updates
  • Better-informed cover
  • Clearer classroom routines

Build a new plan

Without SitRep
Redraw the room, copy pupil names and manually check each known constraint.
With SitRep
Reuse the room, load the roster and resolve visible constraints in one planning view.

Respond to change

Without SitRep
Move names around a static document and risk losing the reasoning behind earlier choices.
With SitRep
Adjust the live arrangement while keeping relevant constraints and teacher notes in view.

Prepare cover

Without SitRep
Export or explain a plan separately, often without the information that makes it useful.
With SitRep
Provide a clean cover view with only the information the covering colleague is authorised to see.

Measure it properly. Any published time-saving figure will come from the same task measured before and during a school pilot.

Security · UK GDPR

School data deserves more than a padlock icon.

Security and data protection are part of the product boundary. Certification, school approval and live use remain separate decisions.

Collect less

Define the minimum fields needed for each job, validate imports and avoid copying wider MIS records into the product without a clear purpose.

Control access

Use role-based permissions, least-privilege defaults and auditable administrative actions for data that should not be visible to every member of staff.

Protect and delete

Treat encryption in transit and at rest, tested backups, retention controls and reliable deletion as baseline technical requirements.

Make procurement evidence available

Prepare a clear data map, processing agreement, subprocessor list, retention schedule, technical-measures summary and practical DPIA support before contracting.

School-facing boundary: the school will still need an appropriate lawful basis, privacy information, access policy, retention decisions and—where the risk requires it—a DPIA. The supplier’s job is to make those decisions informed, documented and technically enforceable.