Is my curriculum possible?

The simple answer is yes your curriculum plan can be scheduled (or timetabled). There isn't a curriculum plan that cannot be scheduled (so long as it mathematically adds up!). The only time a curriculum cannot be timetabled is if it is drawn wrong i.e it isn't actually what you want to timetable (or your logic is incorrect).

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.