Classroom Group Generator
Paste your class list and split students into random groups in seconds — with rules to keep certain students apart or together.
Paste your names above — one per line.
How to use it
- Paste your class list, one student name per line.
- Set the number of groups — four is a common starting point for a class of 24–32.
- Add keep-apart rules for students who work better separated, or keep-together for a student who needs a support partner.
- Generate the groups and project them straight onto the board with Present mode.
Splitting a class into mixed-ability groups
Group work only functions if the groups themselves are workable, and "workable" is doing a lot of quiet labour behind the scenes for any teacher who's run it. Left to choose their own groups, students self-sort by friendship, which usually means uneven ability spread and, often, the same few students being left to team up last. A random split avoids the friendship-clustering problem entirely — but pure randomness has its own failure mode, because it can just as easily put two students who cannot productively sit together into the same group, or separate a student from the one peer who helps them access the task.
That's the specific gap this page is built for. The rules system lets you encode the real constraints of your classroom before you shuffle: keep-apart rules for the pairings that reliably derail a group, keep-together rules for a student who needs a familiar face or a designated helper nearby. Set those rules once at the start of term and reuse the same list all year, reshuffling for each new activity while your constraints stay respected every time.
Four groups is the default here because it's a common sweet spot for a class of 24–32 students, giving groups of six to eight that are large enough to survive an absence but small enough that everyone has to contribute. Switch to "by group size" instead if your task genuinely needs a fixed number per group — three for a triad discussion, five for a jigsaw activity — and let the number of groups fall out of your class size automatically.
For genuinely mixed-ability grouping rather than pure random grouping, list your students in ability-banded order (highest to lowest, or grouped by current attainment) before pasting them in, then use "keep group sizes even" with a higher group count — random distribution across a pre-ordered list tends to spread ability more evenly than shuffling a fully randomised list, though it isn't a substitute for genuine differentiation planning where that matters for your task.
Present mode is built with the classroom specifically in mind: point it at the projector or whiteboard, and it renders large, high-contrast group cards with no toolbar, no ads, and no distracting chrome — just the groups, readable from the back row. Escape exits back to the normal view instantly when you need to make a change.
Frequently asked questions
- Open the Rules section, add a "keep apart" rule, and select both names. That pairing will be avoided in every group and every reshuffle, and the tool will tell you clearly if it's genuinely impossible with your current number of groups.
- Yes — use a "keep together" rule instead. Both names will always land in the same group, no matter how many times you reshuffle the rest of the class.
- Yes. Every name you type is processed only in your browser and is never sent to a server or stored in a database — see our privacy page for the full detail. This makes it appropriate for classroom use with student names.
- Yes — use Present mode after generating groups. It removes all navigation and controls and displays the groups in large, high-contrast text designed to be read from the back of a classroom.
- There's no fixed rule, but groups of four to six students tend to work well for most collaborative tasks — large enough to survive an absent student, small enough that no one can disengage unnoticed. Adjust the group count until the group size feels right for your activity.
- Your list is automatically kept in your browser's local storage, so it's still there next time you open the tool on the same device. Use Share link if you want a URL you can bookmark or send to a co-teacher.