Crusoe College
About Crusoe College
Crusoe College is a government secondary school in Bendigo, Victoria, committed to delivering high-quality learning experiences in a supportive and forward-thinking environment. With a strong focus on collaboration and student-centred practice, the College continually seeks tools and processes that enable staff to work efficiently and make informed decisions. Crusoe College adopted Griddle to streamline its timetabling process, reduce manual overhead, and distribute key tasks across a broader team. By moving to a shared, cloud-based platform, the College has strengthened transparency, improved team communication, and created a more resilient workflow around timetable planning and adjustments.
Locations: Bendigo
The Challenge
Before Griddle, timetabling at Crusoe College was limited by:
- Manual processes: The timetable relied heavily on a few key staff members and required significant manual handling.
- Limited transparency: Staff had few opportunities to provide input or visibility into the constraints shaping the timetable.
- Workflow bottlenecks: Adjusting the timetable and gathering information was time-consuming and dependent on a small group of people.
“Our timetabling process was quite manual and relied heavily on just a few key people.”
Why Griddle
Griddle provided Crusoe College with an intuitive, flexible and collaborative workspace that enabled more staff to contribute meaningfully to the timetable. The platform made it simple for teachers to share their availability, constraints and preferences, reducing friction and improving the quality of data feeding into decisions. With clearer visualisation tools and the freedom to test structural options, the team could explore solutions with greater confidence and less stress.
“It gives us the freedom to explore different structures and solutions without the usual stress.”
As Crusoe College introduced Griddle, staff particularly valued how intuitive the platform was and how easily they could build confidence in core workflows. The collaborative features encouraged greater staff engagement during the information-gathering stage – a shift that significantly improved clarity and sped up the process. When questions arose, the Griddle team provided responsive, high-quality support that helped the College refine its approach and maintain momentum throughout planning.
“It gives us the freedom to explore different structures and solutions without the usual stress.”
Implementation and support
As Crusoe College introduced Griddle, staff particularly valued how intuitive the platform was and how easily they could build confidence in core workflows. The collaborative features encouraged greater staff engagement during the information-gathering stage—a shift that significantly improved clarity and sped up the process. When questions arose, the Griddle team provided responsive, high-quality support that helped the College refine its approach and maintain momentum throughout planning.
“The support from the Griddle team has been outstanding.”
What sets Griddle apart
- Collaborative design: Staff across the school can contribute information and understand how their input shapes the timetable.
- Powerful visualisation: Clear, flexible tools make it easy to interpret the timetable, spot issues, and adjust structures.
- Intuitive interface: A user-friendly design allows both experienced and new timetablers to work confidently.
- Flexible modelling: The ability to draft and test ideas encourages better decision-making and reduces the pressure associated with timetable changes.
“It has made it far simpler to visualise and adjust our timetable as we go.”
Impact and results
Since adopting Griddle, Crusoe College has shifted to a timetabling process that is more transparent, collaborative and efficient. Staff engagement has increased—particularly during the information-gathering phase—resulting in smoother planning and clearer shared understanding. By distributing knowledge and involvement across a broader team, the College has reduced reliance on a small number of individuals and built a more resilient and adaptable timetable workflow.
“It’s helped us make positive, lasting changes to how we manage our timetable planning.”
Recommendation
Crusoe College strongly recommends Griddle to other schools seeking to modernise and simplify their timetabling. The combination of collaboration, flexibility and responsive support makes it a powerful solution for any school aiming to reduce stress, improve communication, and make confident, well-informed scheduling decisions.
“I would absolutely recommend Griddle to other schools.”