Tel: 07590219746 - www.mistservices.co.uk
How come everything is possible?
The reason every curriculum plan is possible is because initially it doesn't
know the members of staff who are teach the subjects, it doesn't consider
accommodation demands, it doesn't consider spread of lesson to name a few
factors. A curriculum plan only becomes impossible when staffing and real
life constraints are applied! A very simple example of this is Electronics
and Photography are in the same option column in Year 10 but the Electronics
teacher doesn't teach Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday whilst the Photography
teacher doesn't teach on a Thursday or Friday! Therefore the block has to
be timetabled on a day when both the Electronics and Photography teachers
are both in, but in reality they aren't!
Part time staff members are generally a large contributor to any curriculum
failing to schedule, or at least cause a major restriction. From a timetablers
viewpoint no part time staff is the ideal but in reality there isn't a school
without part time staff whether that is by choice, need or economic reasons.
Do I have enough space to schedule my timetable?
Some schools find it difficult to timetable their curriculum plan effectively
because of accommodation demands. An example of this may be you have eight
science teachers but only seven science labs. From a timetabling view point
if accommodation wasn't a concern then all eight science teachers could
theoretically be teaching at the same time, but when accommodation forces
a limit this is not viable. Resulting in more periods in the week where
science will be taught.
Spread of lessons will stop a curriculum from timetabling, for example a
lot of schools will have say five single lessons of English for year 10
on a single week timetable and as such want a '1 per day' rule. Although
if diploma subjects are taught for a whole day, lets say on a Tuesday then
Year 10 English could not go on a Tuesday and forces five single lessons
onto four different days. Ultimately breaking the one per day rule! Whereas
if we ignored this constraint then yes it would be feasible.
Consider the impact of every change
Above are certain constraints that prevent a curriculum from being able
to timetable although ignoring these factors the curriculum would timetable!
There are many tests that can be applied to curriculum plans to check the
feasibility of a plan to help maximise chances of success in scheduling
the curriculum. Please remember that every change to the curriculum have
one of several impacts:
1 - Negative impact, i.e puts further constraints on the timetable from
a rooming, staffing viewpoint
2- Positive impact, i.e helps you as a timetabler to gain some extra flexibility
in scheduling permutations
3 - Neutral, i.e. has neither a positive ort negative impact.
As such when colleagues pose new questions and ideas you must take a reflective
viewpoint and understand what is the impact to the timetable?
If you would like to discuss block timetabling, combing charts, feasibility,
curriculum design please contact MIST Services.
A quality timetable takes time
To re-iterate all curriculum plans are feasible it is staffing and constraints
that make timetabling hard or impossible. Having said this you can timetable
every curriculum but you may end up with a less than desirable outcome with
the timetable displaying characteristics of abnormal amounts of split teaching
groups, part time restrictions broken, day spread being compromised, teaching
groups being combined due to lack of teacher expertise at certain periods
during the week. This is the challenge of timetabling and time spent on
a good curriculum design along side appropriate testing will pay dividends
in the long run. Don't forget your timetable is going to impact on your
school, every teacher and every student!
If your school has questions on designing and testing curriculums contact
MIST Services. MIST Services work with many schools, colleges and Academies
each academic year, ultimately being exposed to literally hundreds of curriculums
and timetabling problems.
Tel: 07590219746 - www.mistservices.co.uk