The changing school timetable

MIST Services have seen school timetabling and curriculum requirements change over the years and would like to pose some questions and topic areas for consideration.

Traditional vs. new
Some school leaders and teachers have a view that many schools operate a very 'traditional' school timetable i.e. underpinned by a traditional curriculum, which doesn't cater for the individual learner and their aspirations. Some say that the way students learn has changed over the years due to environment and technology enhancements but having said this, timetables produced don't necessarily embrace such enhancements. There are leaders that say that the traditional school timetable should be abandoned and replaced by radical approaches in which subjects are taught together and entire weeks or days are dedicated to single topics.

In light of this there are many questions; should a school change the way they timetable? Is this type of teaching and learning right for every school? What impact does teaching subjects together or having themed 'subject weeks' or 'days' have on the school, teachers and the learners (students)? Or are these changes only achievable in Specialist Schools or Academies?

Changed to key stage 3
A lot of the changes proposed by schools are linked in around students in Key Stage 3, and wanting to keep their motivation and engagement in learning high in the early years of the 'Secondary school'. Many schools focus on the transition of the student in terms of teaching styles from the primary phase into the secondary school. Due to this 'transition' many schools are adopting much more of a 'primary' model when it comes to teaching the lower year groups and implementing courses/strategies such as 'Opening minds', 'Learn to Learn', 'Skill base' etc where teachers are encouraged to engage in teaching a 'subject' (or topic) across the typical subject themes, lessons or boundaries. Schools are even questioning the limitations of a traditional lesson length (or period), exploring the fact that the length could be varied and not necessarily take the whole period so long as teams of teachers are scheduled at the same time. Ultimately allowing individual teachers to teach specialist topics, or even have the flexibility to merge groups of students together or change the groupings temporarily to allow for the most suitable teachers to teach the appropriate students and topics. It should be noted that some of the flexibility may need to be built into your school timetable and a real understanding of the impact is vital.

Ultimately this style of teaching can impact on how a teacher teaches and how a learner learns, which for some schools and teachers may need support and training, or impact on structures and policies. All of these needs to be considered to ensure a viable outcome is achieved and change isn't bought for changes sake.

Teaching styles
All teachers have a curriculum to deliver but quite often they see a curriculum very much in a 'silo' mentality, where all the skills need to be taught through a single subject, whereas if a bigger picture was drawn then the subject boundaries can be pulled down to increase flexibility and mix skills, topics and subjects together into a delivery format that works for all stakeholders. Giving the individual learners a greater experience and often allowing them to join up the dots!

The next statement can be seen as quite the opposite as to what has already been talked about, where a school 'immerses' the learner in a certain topic. What this means is that the learner is taught a subject for a prolonged period of time, lets say a week rather than an hour every week. This allows the teachers and learners to involve themselves in sometimes quite exciting projects and different learning styles can be catered for quite easily if the project is scoped accordingly. Some schools will apply this method to ICT where the learner goes to their individual lessons although the focus of each different topic (subject) is ICT related. It should be remembered that this style may not be appropriate for all subjects or learners so a mixture between 'immersion' and 'drip feed' could be considered.

Many of the comments above can benefit the learner, although as a school you need to be realistic in the type of curriculum you wish to deliver, the establishment you currently have and the staff you currently have. You may wish to change but change might actually require extra resources, extra training for teachers and should be phased in at an appropriate pace. Above all there should be an exit strategy as well should the circumstances and learning needs change, as there is probably nothing worse than de-motivated learners and educators!

Changes happening at your school?
If your school wishes to implement vertical teaching, three year key stage 4, primary curriculum, modular timetables, flexible Fridays, suspend a timetable etc and would like to discuss anything further please contact MIST Services. MIST Services works with many schools, colleges and Academies each academic year, ultimately being exposed to literally hundreds of curriculums and timetabling problems. Just remember that change cannot necessarily be implemented across the board as certain courses will need to be completed in their current format!