Seating chart maker that keeps students apart
The sample class below already has a keep-apart rule — hit Shuffle a few times and watch it hold. Free · no signup · nothing uploaded unless you turn on sync.
Four rules that do the work
Keep apart — click a seated student, "Keep apart with…", click the other one. Every shuffle from then on seats them away from each other (at tables, that means different tables, since everyone in a pod is adjacent). Keep together works the same in reverse — for the anxious student who does better beside a friend, or a peer-support pairing. Priority zones — paint desks "near teacher" or "away from door" and tag the students who need them. Locks — a seat that's finally working stays put through every reshuffle.
And one kind of honesty
Rules can collide — two keep-apart students in a two-desk room have nowhere to go. When a combination is impossible, RosterOwl says so with a visible warning naming the students, instead of silently breaking a rule and letting you find out mid-lesson. If it shuffles clean, the rules held. Period.
Rules that follow the roster, not the chart
Keep-apart pairs live with your class list — switch from rows to a U-shape in the seating chart maker, or use the group maker, and the same rules apply. Set them once in September; they work all year. And none of it ever prints: charts show names only, so the wall copy and the substitute's copy reveal nothing.
Questions teachers ask
How many keep-apart pairs can I set?
As many as you need — though every pair shrinks the number of valid arrangements. If you over-constrain, the warning tells you exactly which rule couldn't be satisfied.
Can a student be in several rules at once?
Yes — apart from two classmates, together with a third, pinned near the teacher, all at once. The shuffle juggles all of it.
Do rules apply to group work too?
Yes — the group maker reads the same rules, so keep-apart pairs land in different groups automatically.
One roster, every other tool
Your class list is already saved in this browser — every tool below picks it up, with no names retyped and nothing uploaded unless you turn on sync.
- Group maker Balanced teams that honor your keep-apart rules
- Student picker Fair cold-calling, nobody picked twice
- Classroom jobs chart Class jobs that rotate fairly, every week
- Award certificates One PDF, a certificate for every student
- Name tags & desk plates Desk plates and Avery-style badge sheets
- Class checklist Names down the side, your columns across
- Attendance sheet The month's real school days, pre-built
- Bingo cards A unique card for every player
- Flashcards & name cards Names or word lists as bold printable cards