Women in Timetabling - a #womened & @edvaluk Event

I was initially made aware of this Saturday CPD opportunity by one of my friends' tweets:

It made me wryly chuckle: this is so true. Timetabling can become of the stuff of murky myth and legend. @CB_Sociology alerted me to this event being run by @TheHopefulHT, inviting me to go with her so she could challenge with confidence when she received a "the computer says no" response in the future. I'd had some positive interactions with @edvaluk and had been looking for an opportunity to engage with the #womened community so this seemed like a prime opportunity.

At best the below, is a fragmented, partial collection of my notes, impressions and realisations from the day. It is by no means exhaustative. It is perhaps most for @CB who couldn't come in the end, so I promised I would try to take decent notes!

Introduction: Our 'Why'

A rowsing, concise opening from Hannah Wilson (@TheHopefulHT) reiterating the #womened agenda. Four particular aspects stuck with me:

1. The idea of the CONFIDENCE GAP. We have heard the analogy of the different reactions of men and women when they look at a job spec, women honing on the few statements/descriptors they don't feel they meet fully and using that as a justification for why they shouldn't apply. I liked having a clear term for this gap and the fact that today's course, for many, would simply be about starting to address this confidence gap:

*Having the confidence to ask your timetabler for something

*Having the confidene to ask your timetable WHY something was "impossible"

*Having the confidence to start to use the right language/ask the right sorts of question

2. On language, Hannah chatised the audience several times for using "self-diminishing" language such as "I don't think I have the brain..." "It may be a silly question but..." She's right: we do need to stop this!

3. Hannah's thanked the men in the audience and reminded us all that men don't need to be invited to #womened events, they can just rock up!

4. Flexible recruitment, not just retention. For too long, any flexiblity is only introduced quietly, subtly (begrudgingly?) to retain your staff. Instead, Hannah said we need to recruit flexibly too, giving us that stat that job adverts that explicitly mention flexible working get 17% more interest. She also argued that if we want it to be a viable option at SLT level (and people do want to co-head) then we need to start at the ITT level and allow people to complete their training and QTS in a flexible way.

Part 1: Timetabling: the Bigger Picture

Chris Cooper, CEO of Edval and timetabling evangelicist challenged us to:

1. To elevate timetabling. It is not a "task to be completed, but an opportunity." Indeed - the timetable "enlightens" you! He used the ladder analogy to describe the different levels/relationships we can have with timetabling:

2. To timetable in teams: many minds and eyes will alleviate pressure and spot better solutions.

In fact, perhaps my biggest "take away" from today was to see timetabling as a really skillful part of the job (and not in the technical sense of knowing HOW to use your timetabling software whether it's Edval, SIMS or NOVA T) which deserves to have decent CPD dedicated to it and for people to actively build networks to learn about this. As someone who is utterly plugged into the idea of networking and CPD for all other aspects of school, it struck me like a lightening bolt, that I hadn't had this attitude towards timetabling before. I had very much seen it as an operational task - a challenging, complex operational task, but operational nonetheless. CPD on timetabling has largely been limited to a "how to guide" from the person who has done the job before us. The TT was definitely something was done "behind closed doors."

3. The Timetable Grid

This is your "empty" timetable template: 6 periods of 55 minutes divided up into 2 lessons/break/2 lessons/lunch/2 lessons home etc. Chris argued that sometimes we need to really take a step back and examine the assumptions and embedded status quo that is behind this seemingly innocuous grid.

Below are the slides with the initial, big picture thinking/decision making and the overall process:

Overall process (as photo could well be too blurry): Determine courses to offer --> Get student option preferences --> Generate options blocks --> Generate full TT to test option blocks --> Sign off on blocks. Tell. --> Get staffing requests --> Schedule timetable --> Do rooming.

Part 2a: My Experience

We heard from Sarah Downes and Naomi Metcalfe who were refreshingly honest and humble about their experiences timetabling - connecting it back to real people doing real jobs in real schools is always enjoyable. Sarah summarised that a decent timetabler is someone who is:

• A logical thinker

• Careful listener

• Persistent Problem-solver

And these qualities are not the sole preserve of male Maths/Science teachers!

Part 2b: Option Blocking

Edval consciously tried to walk a careful line of the day NOT becoming a hardcore sales pitch for their services and software. However, their live example of how their Options module could work was pretty compelling!

Firstly, Chris described the two main ways that schools do options:

1. Fixed Blocks that are then offered to students to pick from

2. A free list to pick from which is then plugged into the(ir) software and generates the best option block combinations to give as high a satisfaction rate to students as possible.

I have only ever seen Option 1 in practice. Chris argued that this was flawed in that it obscured real pupil voice: You think Japanese is a hugely popular subject, but actually it's just the "best of a bad bunch." The fixed block way of doing options also means that if multiple subjects occupy the same block you'll never get visibility about what is actually their second or third preference which can be really useful; you can only see their first.

Next Claire Pullen (@TimetableClaire) took us through what the information would look like on Edval and how you gain some useful information before deciding which options don't run etc. I can't explain it well enough to go in more detail: I have neither the visuals nor the expertise, but it was pretty persuasive stuff which ultimately informed you which subjects would need to be dropped:

Session 3a: My Experience

Paula Simmons shared with us some of her insights after timetabling for 20 years! One insight was that of course, it makes most sense for the SLT member with responsiblity for the curriculum to also be the timetabler. I wonder how many schools this is the case in?

Session 3b: Scheduling Task

A nice practical problem solving task where we got to experience timetabling four year 8 classes for just two days of the week. It was the old school version of moving coloured bits of paper around and just as you smugly felt you had created a neat solution, a further task sheet was added with additional complications that you now needed to factor in. It felt a lot like a game, and I didn't necessarily feel like I learned loads but seeing others' tweets later made me realise it was definitely a valuable "closing the confidence gap" activity. If you had any "stroppy" staff who were are satisfied with the final timetable, it would also be a great task to do with them: you very quickly had reality vs. principles: we had originally planned for all of our PE to be after lunch, but by the end of the process PE was always before lunch.

Thanks to the lovely @CQuinnLarkin for this tweet with her example of the scheduling task; @MrsRockPig and I didn't photograph ours!

We also had a quick pro/con activity to do, which again would be really valuable to do with your SLT when you are reviewing your timetable grid: Moving from a two year KS3 to a three year KS3; Introducing a two week timetable; Changing from a single long lunch break to multiple split lunches keeping teachers in their teaching rooms versus reducing student movement:

Session 4a: The Software & Rooming

Chris demonstrated some more Edval functionality on rooming, once again demonstratinging how nimble and user-friendly the software was. In fact, that was Chris and Claire's point throughout the day: because Edval was FAST to use, you can generate drafts, you can experiment with a "what happens if I..." which is effectively impossible (because of the impossible time-cost) on other more cumbersome types of software.

We did a second practical task where we solved the issue of the poor part-timer who had been roomed all over the school. Claire made the point that everyone should expect to make a small sacrifice in order to make the part-time colleagues' timetable less hellish (it is of course impacting on their STUDENTS too) is a reasonable expectation.

Session 4b: Flexible Working

Lucy Rose (@luceassociation) gave us a quick overview of her project to explore the barriers to flexible working and some areas that she is interested in researching as possible solutions. The left side of the photograph are solutions that could be enacted on a school/system level. One of the purposes of today's timetabling CPD was to address the top one: "overcome perceived logistical barriers. The right side of the photograph are solutions that could be enacted on an individual level.

The WHY we need to promote flexible working is summarised in this photograph (shared by @mumsyme) where Lucy argued that in this time of desperate teacher shortage, we can't afford to have a trained, talented workforce choosing not to teach:

Reflections:

Chris finished by calling us to take action in a number of ways (see below) and to empower ourselves through knowledge (see resources slide) below.

Click to make bigger.

So what am I going to do?

1. This blog is my contribution to "making some noise" on the issues of promoting flexible working and women being involved in timetabling

2.I'm going to actively try to network and learn from other timetablers, I loved meeting @rondelle10_b, @CQuinnLarkin, and seeing @MrsRockPig after almost a decade.

3. To explore having an Edval audit of our timetable to identify any blindspots.

4. I'm going to engage with the resources, now I've had the realisation that timetabling (like all other aspects of my role) is worthy of CPD!