Seating charts take longer than they should, mostly because every change means redrawing the grid. This one builds the grid from your list, shuffles it in a second, and lets you fix the rest by hand: click one seat, click another, and they trade places. You can name pairs who should not sit near each other, and the shuffle tries to respect that. Nothing you type leaves your browser, nothing is saved, and student names are never sent anywhere, so print the chart before you close the tab.
Make a chart
Add names, then choose Build chart or Shuffle seats.
Front of room
How to use it
Paste your list
One name per line. First names with a last initial keep the chart readable and keep full names off a printout.
Set the room
Rows and seats per row. If your list is longer than the grid, the page adds rows so nobody is left out.
Shuffle, then adjust
Use Shuffle seats until it looks workable. To move someone, press their seat, then press the seat to swap with. Press the same seat again to cancel.
The printout shows the chart and any groups you made, without the controls.
Seating that helps, and what it cannot do
Random seats are fair and quick, and they break up cliques without anyone having to be blamed. They are not a plan for every student. Some need to sit near the front, near a door, or away from a window, and those placements should be made by hand after the shuffle. The keep-apart box looks at all eight surrounding seats, so a pair is treated as too close if they are beside, in front of, behind or diagonal to each other. With a very small room or many pairs it may not find an answer, and the page says so rather than pretending. Re-seating every few weeks tends to work better than a one-off chart; group work is easier when the groups are different from the seats, which is what the Make groups button is for. See small group instruction and mixed-ability classrooms for more on grouping with a purpose.
A privacy note on class lists. Names you type here stay in your browser. A printed chart on a wall or a shared screen shows them to anyone who walks in, so use first names or initials if that matters at your school.
How it compares with ClassSense
ClassSense has no seating chart, so this tool fills a gap rather than overlapping. What ClassSense does is the student-practice side: you upload a unit and students work through skill packs, and you see mastery for each student on each skill. That data can help when you decide who to group together, but ClassSense does not build the groups or the seating for you. See mastery tracking for what the teacher view shows. Your first 30 days are free, no card.
Common questions
Are student names sent anywhere?
No. The names stay in the page in your browser. There are no network calls, no cookies and nothing is stored. Closing the tab discards the chart.
How do I move one student?
Press that student's seat to select it, then press the seat you want to swap with. The two trade places. You can do the same with the keyboard by tabbing to a seat and pressing Enter or Space.
What if I have more students than seats?
The page adds rows until everyone has a seat, and tells you how many rows it used.
Does the keep-apart box always work?
It tries up to five hundred shuffles and keeps the best one. If it cannot separate every pair, it reports how many it missed so you can swap by hand.