Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

As 2024 comes to an end, I would like to take a moment to reflect and share my appreciation. I have thoroughly enjoyed working alongside you all as we work towards a better education for all learners. You will have had a busy year and need some time to rest and recoup. The focus for us, as we move into the new year, is to take time to reflect, regroup and refresh. It has been a busy year so far with the addition of our SMARTcurriculum Timetabling Forum (more details below) and the launch of our fortnightly Friday Focus Podcast, which now regularly reaches 1,500 leaders. Join us on LinkedIn for live or recorded viewing. We are also thrilled to announce that the first of four eBooks, titled The Efficient School, has been published! See below for more details. Education can be incredibly rewarding and challenging, so our newsletters are designed to give you practical tips to make navigating the school year a bit easier for you. 

Curriculum design and timetabling - Key considerations

Over the past months, we've had many discussions with schools about curriculum design and timetabling. Timetabling and curriculum design are distinct yet interdependent disciplines. Curriculum design focuses on population principles, staff planning, and delivery policies, while timetabling implements these, balancing compromises and practical constraints. They both come with significant challenges, particularly when schools transition or have differing leadership goals and expectations. Key issues include:

• Year group assemblies: Reduce timetable capacity and create staffing challenges.
• Departmental meetings: Hard to schedule without blocking delivery across subjects.
• Blocked delivery: Necessary for flexibility, but leads to compromises and split-teacher classes.
• Balanced weeks: Ensuring equity is tough, especially with 2-week cycles.
• Double lessons: Beneficial for some subjects but disrupts balance.
• Teacher allocations: Inequitable distribution of teaching load causes frustration.

To address these issues, the SMARTcurriculum Timetabling Forum was created to promote transparent planning and decision-making. The Forum is intended for any school leader, IT IS NOT JUST FOR TIMETABLERS! It is focused to get into understanding the operational implications of the decisions made and equipping a school with a completely open and productive planning style. Membership is annual and available via a closed LinkedIn group. If you would like to join our Timetabling Forum please email enquiry@smartcurriculum.net.

In-year timetable rewrites

More schools are also requesting in-year timetable rewrites due to issues with the current structure or significant changes. However, micro-fixing the schedule often makes things worse rather than better. 

What can you do?

Schedule a Review – Bring in an expert to assess your practices and suggest improvements for the future. A fresh perspective can highlight issues you may not see when you're deep in the details. Many leaders find a "helicopter view" invaluable for identifying the best way forward. Consider a Rewrite – If a timetable rewrite is necessary, we can help minimise disruption across the school. However, a full rewrite is rarely needed unless you're changing the day structure. It’s best to talk to us before reaching this point. I once worked with a school that published 16 different timetables in just three weeks—resulting in exhausted staff and chaos. This often points to deeper issues that need addressing first. As you look ahead to 2025, please don’t feel you have to do it all on your own. We’re here to support you and your school in any way we can. Whether you need a bit of guidance or someone to chat things through with, we’re always happy to help.

And the most important tip of all...

Make sure you have a truly restful Christmas break. All at SMARTcurriculum wish you joy and peace this festive period!

Warm regards,

Chris and the team

Finally, I'm thrilled to announce the launch of my new eBook, The Efficient School— a guide designed to empower educators and school leaders with practical strategies to create more effective and sustainable schools. In the new year we plan to add to this three additional books in the SMARTcurriculum Method Series called The Perfect Timetable, The Impactful Curriculum and The Leaders Perspective. Watch out for these. Whether you’re a teacher, headteacher, trust leader, or just passionate about education, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let’s work together to create schools that thrive! To find out more or to buy please click here.