Timetabling the new, more flexible curriculum will prove challenging for many schools and colleges. The move towards more individual, less age-related programmes, delivered in collaboration with other providers, will require a different approach to timetabling.
An outcome of curriculum review will be a rationale with principles defining the shape of a new curriculum structure. It is important that priorities are also established to guide timetablers in implementing the structure.
This page has three sections:
creating time for a new curriculum
allocating time to subjects
providing for minority subjects, 16-19
Creating time for a new curriculum
The new flexible, bigger and broader curriculum has made demands on time and timetables in several ways. Schools and colleges have had to:
- balance the need to devise a Curriculum 2000 programme with other priorities and the needs of other groups of students
- provide access to a range of qualifications for all students
- maximise teaching time.
Distribution of time over the week, term or year is changing. Schools and colleges are:
- introducing longer lessons
- using longer days
- introducing flexible days
- incorporating evening sessions
- altering or suspending the timetable for specific periods and purposes
- making special provision for the period after the AS examinations
- changing the timing of their holidays.
Allocating time to subjects
In designing a more flexible curriculum, schools and colleges may need to review time allocations to subjects. Achieving flexibility may require variation in pattern, from subject to subject or at different points within a course. In considering students before structures, some current assumptions may be called into question. In planning their future 14-19 curriculum, schools and colleges can consider the relative importance to their own circumstances of the factors below and use them to formulate some principles to guide their curriculum review and design. At the level of whole-curriculum design they include:
existing structures and systems including staffing and buildings
existing curriculum structure
perceptions of the relative importance of subjects and their contribution to achieving national policy and/or institutional aims. This may also be driven by funding mechanisms
the structure, content and assessment demands of the qualifications used
At the level of individual subjects or courses they include:
students’ prior attainment, ability and motivation
the size of the groups taking the subject
how a subject relates to others and how many qualifications a course leads to
the teaching and learning styles and the range of contexts for learning that are expected or desirable
any support and learning opportunities available outside timetabled time
Existing structures and systems including staffing and buildings
The inertia created by existing structures and systems and the necessity to put the curriculum together as a whole are important factors determining time allocations. Teachers in post have specific specialisms and skills, and institutions wishing to develop their curriculum, in ways that the staff profile does not support, cannot implement change in the short term. Developing staff knowledge and skills to enable them to teach a wider range of courses can provide increased flexibility in the short term, as can collaboration with schools or colleges where the expertise exists.
Accommodation can also create constraints. For example, a shift in time allocation from science to design and technology might mean that the science laboratories would not be used to capacity while workshops might be over-used or not available for each lesson required. When students are taking courses that take place wholly or partly on another site they may need a longer time allocation. Adapting to evolving curriculum demands takes time and requires analysis of the new expectations such as increasing breadth and flexibility of student choice and the need to provide programmes that combine a range of general and specialist courses.
Existing curriculum structure
The basis of curriculum structure is the number of blocks used to construct it, the length of teaching periods and how they can be combined. In colleges, the relationship between different programme areas, schools or faculties is also important. Decisions on whole curriculum structure may be taken without regard for the workload or demand of any particular course. Over recent years there has been a upward trend in the number of qualifications taken both pre- and post-16. A consequence is often a reduction of time for individual subjects or courses.
Time allocations within the curriculum tend to be on a percentage basis and most changes result in small adjustments between one area and another. Percentages are largely determined by lesson length and the possible combinations of lessons. In schools, ten-day timetables are often used to offer more flexibility, and similar flexibility can be provided by considering the balance of time over the two years of a course. A longer day can accommodate more option blocks and more choice though the consequence may be student timetables with a high proportion of non-contact time, which raises other issues.
Perceptions of the relative importance of subjects
There are historical and public perceptions of how much time should be allocated to a subject. mathematics, English and science are generally allocated more time than other subjects because students, parents, receiving institutions and employers perceive it important to achieve as well as possible in these core subjects. Schools and colleges also make decisions about the relative priority to give to subjects in the context of their own values and aims. For example, specialist schools and colleges may allocate more time to their specialist area, even if the extra time may not be strictly necessary for students to achieve a qualification. Subjects or other aspects of the curriculum that attract funding are likely to be reflected in time allocations, and there is a relationship between the funding and time allocations, for example, in allocations to general studies and key skills.
The structure, content and assessment demands of qualifications used
The reality of curriculum planning may be that new qualifications are introduced largely where they fit the time available within an existing curriculum structure. In investigating and selecting new qualifications for use within a more flexible curriculum, schools and colleges may need to determine the time needed to deliver them effectively, and allow this judgement in turn to determine the time allocation and curriculum structure.
Differing assessment demands within qualifications may require different amounts of time. For example, qualifications with a large coursework component requiring specialist facilities such as art studios, workshops or computers often make extensive use of students’ free lessons or lunchtime and twilight sessions, extending the time available to students, but not affecting the subjects’ allocation on the timetable. The demands of practical assessment in some AS courses have caused some schools and colleges to allocate extra time to these subjects, often at specific times of the year rather than an increased time allocation each week.
Students’ prior attainment, ability and motivation
Consideration of these factors is often at the level of a cohort, the time allocated to a course being the same for all students taking it. There is increasing recognition that the time needed by individuals will vary according to their ability, interests, prior attainment and how the previous phase of their education has focused on developing the skills needed for progression. The key questions for providers are how many courses leading to qualifications should be taken by students of different abilities, how to provide more time for those who need it and how to ensure that the time is used productively. Students’ motivation can be a factor in time allocation, for example in making additional opportunities available for particular groups of students. There is also recognition that some students will benefit from a more intensive course.
Examples of differential use of time include:
- use of a standard time allocation for English to provide an intensive course in media studies for some students and extra support for others
- second language provision offered through a twilight session and allocated less time than it would have within the curriculum, on the grounds that it is intended for highly-motivated and able linguists who need less time to achieve the same results
- a lunchtime GCSE music class for a small and highly-motivated group of students allocated considerably less time than a timetabled GCSE
- intermediate GNVQ provided over two years and linked with substantial work placements to provide students not of English mother tongue with relevant experience to maximise their chances of success
- an AS critical thinking class provided as an enrichment activity for able students
- AS provision across two years for students who need extra time to be successful at advanced level.
Size of groups
Small classes may be allocated less time as students get more individual attention, can participate more and are often more motivated as a result. Schools and colleges use this in different ways, for example a lower set in mathematics may be kept small so that students have the same chance of success in the same time as other students. Conversely, a small group of students not necessarily of high ability may be able to achieve in less time than they would need in a larger class. Differential time allocations for classes of different sizes are common post-16, where issues of student supervision do not arise, and could be further considered at pre-16 in the context of a more flexible, individual curriculum.
How a subject relates to others and how many qualifications a course leads to
The relationship between subjects can be defined as the knowledge and skills that a subject contributes to other aspects of learning and the knowledge and skills that other subjects contribute to it.
Cross-curricular areas expected to appear in all subjects, or hosted by particular subjects will meet the definition above. A common example is ICT, often developed across the curriculum rather than through a discrete allocation of time. Specific subjects may have responsibility for aspects of ICT teaching, for example mathematics, D&T, science and geography, and may have an extra time allocation in recognition of this. Where ICT, or another key skill, is being developed across the curriculum it may have a short time allocation solely to address students’ readiness for assessment. In this case the time allocation would not represent the time required to achieve the qualification. On the other hand, vocational programmes at level 1 have a strong emphasis on developing the basic skills for employability, including the key skills, and therefore often have more time allocated than might be required to achieve the vocational qualification alone.
Subjects that underpin learning elsewhere in the curriculum are often allocated more time. This is particularly the case for English and mathematics as it is considered that students need to acquire certain levels in these subjects to enable them to access other curriculum areas. At key stage 4 English usually has a longer time allocation than other subjects on the grounds that, for most students, it represents two GCSEs. However, the time allocation is seldom twice that of other GCSEs as the two English GCSEs reinforce and support each other. AS mathematics may be allocated more time than the single qualification warrants in order to enable students to build their key skills portfolios for application of number.
Teaching and learning styles and contexts
Desirable teaching and learning styles may not be an important factor in deciding on time allocations and are likely to be adapted to fit the time available. Where programmes of study or specifications are seen as content-driven, the potential for diverse teaching and learning styles may be reduced because time allocations are, in general, fixed. Where a school or college wishes to promote a particular type of teaching and learning, this should be acknowledged when time allocations are decided.
Similarly, when students are working in a different context – at a different educational institution, with a training provider or an employer – it is important to ensure that they are not disadvantaged by missing core lessons. Appropriate time allocations are part of this, as are timetabling to minimise clashes and provision of support where the timetable cannot accommodate the individual’s circumstances.
The extent of support and learning opportunities outside timetabled time
Timetabled time is supplemented with work at home or in a resource centre, extra support to individuals within and outside the classroom, lunchtime classes, independent study and so on. For students at foundation level or others who have yet to develop independent learning skills, learning time is likely to be the same as timetabled time while students with motivation and better-developed learning skills will also study outside. Traditionally schools and colleges have said that advanced level students should match their timetabled time with independent study. Since the introduction of Curriculum 2000 some have changed the balance between taught and independent learning time.
There is growing recognition that support can be provided by a range of adults or other students and that teacher presence may not always be necessary, provided the support is seen as an integral part of the learning. Extra support can help students catch up after absence, or complement, supplement and extend their learning in class. It can therefore have an important role in providing a more flexible curriculum to meet individual needs.
Providing for minority subjects, 16-19
Some subjects will start with small numbers of students; others will reduce between year 12 and year 13. Schools and colleges are looking carefully at emerging patterns to decide:
- which subjects should run only to AS in future
- where local collaboration is possible to provide A2 courses
- where in the curriculum to place subjects that are likely to need fewer sets in year 13 than in year 12.
They are also considering under what conditions they can guarantee to students that A2 classes will be available. For example, they may be able to guarantee that a subject will be available at A2, but not that students will be in the same teaching group or taught by the same teacher. Regarding courses as one-year in length rather than two can be helpful in such cases.
While placing subjects in more than one option block in year 12 increases student choice, it is more difficult to reduce the number of sets in year 13. Ways of doing this include:
- combining two sets in one of the original option blocks
- combining two sets in a different option block
- creating a new set in a ‘spare’ option block reserved for such purposes
- creating a new option block, perhaps wholly or partly outside the normal teaching day
- prioritising students affected in this way when designing the A2 timetable
- organising the curriculum so that some of the above actions will be possible when it is confirmed that set numbers are going to change.
Also see
> Individualising the curriculum
> Collaboration
Case studies
> Timetabling
> Curriculum design
Other web links
> DCSF: 14-19 pathfinders
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Page updated: 12 June 2008