Timetabling & Curriculum
Cost-effective curriculum development and innovative timetabling solutions
Service
Timetabling
This service gives you time for complete focus on teaching, learning and provision across all areas of your leadership and support teams. We will carry out a review of your curriculum and staffing and design your curriculum model for use in your management system.
We will consult with senior and middle leaders to complete a full design brief. Post review, we will recommend efficiency savings and improvements for your schedule, followed by a complete write and scheduling of all aspects of your timetable. This includes reporting back on any decisions that fall outside of the scope of the project brief with an explanation of the decision.
We then adjust and make requested amendments to the structure, staffing and rooming at any time, and in consultation with your senior and middle leaders, up to the launch and final review of timetable.
Post-timetable write, we can make changes requested by your organisation through the year. These can be written into your timetable at a discounted cost.
Questions asked of the school:
- What do you want to achieve?
- What are your non-negotiables within your curriculum?
- Are there any known time restrictions?
- Who will be the school’s main contact?
- We will also ask questions about curriculum and structure, although we can also collect this from your system if necessary.
Curriculum
We believe that the curriculum, curriculum design and leadership capacity in relation to curriculum are the key drivers in schools. Curriculum impacts on all areas of the school, especially though behaviour, attendance and outcomes. Therefore, we want to empower schools to develop this with us.
We believe that meeting your pupils’ needs through a broad and challenging curriculum should be at the heart of what you do. With Ofsted’s inspection framework putting an emphasis on the ‘quality of education’, your school’s curriculum has never been more important than it is right now.
Our team of consultants have a wealth of experience and expertise across the primary and secondary sector, as teachers, senior leaders, headteachers and Ofsted inspectors. Through our support, your school or multi-academy trust will be afforded a creative and ambitious curriculum that generates an equal chance for all pupils to succeed. It is not that one model fits all schools but that each school delivers what their pupils need.
We offer a range of curriculum design ‘solutions’ that can be bespoke to the individual needs of your school or multi-academy trust.
How does it work?
This service can be bespoke to your needs. We have found that the most effective approach is an in-depth evaluation carried out in school. Our three-stage model offers a fantastic foundation for curriculum development that will be adapted to your school’s specific needs and budget.
Solution
At SchoolPro we pride ourselves on enhancing schools’ productivity and utilising the available resources. Our timetabling service is a great example of this – we optimise school timetables with a focus on student progress and attainment as well as providing your staff the best working outcome. Our experienced team are dedicated to providing bespoke solutions to meet the needs of each school and Trust we work with.
Common Mistakes:
- Start too late
- Low involvement from middle leaders and staff
- Leave scheduling to admin staff – limited senior team oversight
- Use automated software too much that reduces choice
- Not using all the flexibility that is available within the model and structures
- Allowing low priorities to drive aspects of the timetable
- Not considering every child’s experience of a school day
- Not considering every teacher’s experience of a school day
Benefits:
- Your leaders can focus on the pupils and the running of the school
- Staff remain focused on their main priority – their pupils
- Experience of a wide variety of structures, models and systems – you don’t know what is possible, if you have never experienced it
- Your middle leaders are fully engaged in the process, it is theirs to own and work with
- Cost savings
- Improved scheduling impacting the pupils’ experience, even down to considering pupil movement and flows of people within buildings
- Improved teacher wellbeing. Teachers are involved in process, listened to, and their school day analysed to ensure no work overload or pressure points within a cycle that may lead to absence or stress
- External oversight to ensure nothing is missed, and you launch on time
- Expert advice and support
- Our expertise and experience allows us to work quicker than if you attempt to do the work internally. If you are up against it… we can complete within a week
Process (example):
JAN / FEB
Agree curriculum model
FEB / MAR
Agree structures that will give the most flexibility and that are, usually, the most cost-effective
APRIL / MAY
Review and support the options process Write draft timetable plan
MAY
Discuss with leaders and redraft
MAY / JUNE
Meet and work with middle leaders to refine and redraft
JUNE
Finalise – Complete
JUNE / JULY
Resolve individual niggles
AUGUST
Review post summer results
SEPT
Launch
Curriculum Design and Review
This service can be bespoke to your needs. We have found that the most effective approach is an in-depth evaluation carried out in school.
If you are looking for savings within your curriculum delivery, as a result of our reorganisation of a curriculum, we have brought schools out of considerable deficits within the space of a year!
Aims of our Curriculum Review Session are:
- Identify the intent of your curriculum and what it is trying to achieve
- Come to a greater understanding about what makes a great school curriculum
- Ensure that your curriculum truly reflects the school vision, values and ethos
- Share ideas and good practice with colleagues from other schools
- Have a clear idea about the principles that will underpin your curriculum and how the curriculum develops these
- Be clear about how the curriculum is implemented with a focus on pedagogy
- Have a clear understanding about how we will assess the impact of our curriculum
Training
Our two-day face-to-face course
In-house face to face, or remote training for new timetablers in school. Our training covers all the elements you need to plan, create and analyse your timetable in either NOVA T6 or Timetabler.
You will learn how to create a curriculum allowing you to set up your year groups to accommodate your band structure and needs. Then how to allocate staff, rooms and resources before you then look at scheduling the lessons.
The training is designed for new timetablers who want to be able to get the most out of the timetable software.
We also run refresher courses for those who need support before they take up the timetabling duties.
Our online course – managing the timetable day to day (via teachable)
This course is aimed at helping you with the processes needed to maintain the timetable. It is NOT designed to take you through the building of the timetable itself.
It is also great for staff who want to add knowledge and skills to their portfolio in preparation to move into a new role.
You don’t need to have any prior knowledge of NOVA T6, but most people will probably be either working in a school or looking to work in a school.
By completing this course you will have the knowledge and confidence to be able to manage the timetable on a day to day basis, implementing basic changes that might be needed and administering the system.
Curriculum Focused CPD Sessions
Our curriculum CPD sessions will be led by a former Headteacher, who has been praised for his dynamism and vision as a leader. He regularly supports other schools in his area as a School Improvement Partner, Local Leader of Education (LLE), and as a mentor / professional partner for newly appointed Headteachers. As a trustee for a Multi-Academy Trust, he is also fully aware of the needs of large organisations.
The format of the sessions can be bespoke to the needs of each school. This can be run as half or whole day sessions, or a school could arrange to host for a number of other local schools.
All of our CPD sessions can be delivered to a full staff body as part of an INSET day or to groups of senior and middle leaders from a variety of school settings.
If you’d like to discuss how Ofsted’s sharper focus on curriculum may impact your school’s next Ofsted inspection, arrange a conversation with us today.
Aims of this session are to:
- Develop an understanding of the statutory responsibility to monitor and evaluate data processing with specific focus on SEN and Child Protection (CP) pupils
- Develop a greater awareness of the potential pitfalls of processing SEN and CP data
- Share good practice in relation data protection using case studies from schools we currently work with
- Raise awareness of the retention schedules for SEN and CP data
Packages
Consider your leadership time of planning/analysing/writing/meeting staff – it will cost more than our standard cost. Your leadership costs will be in the region of £450 per day – plus admin support AND the impact on pupils of a senior leaders being focused elsewhere.
If this cost is greater than approximately 10-12 days of your leader’s time, we will be a cost neutral or better solution.
Talk to us about potential savings, but do not be afraid of asking us to look for £300,000 – £500,000 of savings – we’ve identified this level of savings for schools before!
Timetable Construction
Typically from £5,500 +VAT
Coaching & Mentoring
Day rate* from £450 +VAT
*typically 5-10 days
Curriculum Design & Review
Typically from £1,100 +VAT
To review your existing curriculum and provide suggestions to improve efficiency, pupil experience, and manage staff challenges.
Options
from £560 +VAT
Frequently Asked Questions
How quickly can you produce our timetable?
The quickest a timetable could be produced would be a week but this would be in an emergency situation for a school. Ideally, we would like to be able to work with you over a longer period of time to ensure that the timetable is constructed efficiently and effectively and that staff are involved in the process.
What software do you use to timetable?
We can timetable into all major timetabling software including Nova T6 and Scheduler. We can also timetable using our own custom-designed system if you don’t have dedicated timetabling software or an electronic management system.
Does it matter what MIS my school uses?
No, we can timetable in all major timetabling software.
Will you work onsite or remotely?
It will be a combination of both. Some of the work can be done remotely but it is also important that we spend some of the time onsite working with your staff.
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