A ‘federal’ timetabling situation is one where some (rarer) subjects are taught in only one of the schools in the group, and students from the other schools commute to that school.
This happens most often when schools have a federal or linked Sixth Form [Years/Grades 12-13 in England] so that less-popular subjects like 'Law' or 'Music' may be taught on one site but accessed by 'roaming' students from other schools (sometimes referred to as a 'roaming sixth-form').
There are 2 main possibilities:
Case 1
The schools in the group decide to offer the SAME subjects to ALL the students in all the schools, although knowing that some rare subject(s) (if they are sufficiently popular) will only be taught on one of the sites, and those students will have to commute.
Steps:
1.
The Option Choices to be offered to the students (across ALL schools in the group) need to be agreed by all the schools (ie. by the Heads of the schools or their representatives), and then offered to ALL the students/parents.
2.
Their Choices can be collected on paper (as used to be done, traditionally), or on-line using the free TOOLS software that we provide, or in other on-line ways.
3.
Our Options software will then analyse the Choices and find the Options pattern with the highest satisfaction rate, that will cost the school the least to staff.
More details at: Options video overview and at: Options web-page
4.
By looking in the Options software at the number of students in each school who have chosen a particular ‘rare’ subject as well as the location of the teacher involved, the Heads of the schools or their representatives need to decide/confirm (a) which subjects will be offered ‘federally’ and (b) on which site such ‘rare’ subjects will be taught.
5.
And before the timetables can be constructed they also need to decide when (and how often) these ‘rare’ subjects will be taught.
If they are face-to-face lessons, for practical reasons these times tend to be:
- (i) first thing in the morning [so 6th Formers go straight to the host school] typically for a Double period, followed by a free period or General Studies or a similar less-important period [so the students have time to travel back to their own school or
- (ii) ditto but straight after lunch [and students go directly home afterwards].
On the other hand, if these 'rare' subjects are taught on-line instead of face-to-face, then there is less restriction on the times of day, but the same principles apply: fix the times in advance.
[Similar considerations apply if a Teacher is shared between two or more schools; times on each site (with commuting time allowed for) must be decided in advance; see the articles on this topic in our KnowledgeBase.]
6.
Once decided, those lessons are part of the Fixed Points of each school’s timetable. ie. lessons which are placed early in TimeTabler and then Locked in place so they cannot move during the FIT ‘musical chairs’ moves of other activities. Donor schools can either block off those periods for the relevant class or (probably better) fix in place (and Lock) a dummy group with a dummy teacher, with a subject of 'Law' or 'Music' etc.
Then the rest of the timetable is built around those fixed points.
Case 2
The schools in the group decide that some ‘rare’ subject(s) (if they are sufficiently popular) will only be taught on one of the sites (and those students will have to commute), but that otherwise each school is free to offer whichever subjects they wish (and can staff).
For example, if the ‘rare’ subjects are thought (in advance) to be X and Y, one school may decide to offer subjects A, B, C, … as well as X and Y, while another school in the group decides to offer subjects A, B, E, F, … as well as X and Y.
Steps:
1.
Each school decides its own list of subjects, and offers them to their students/parents, as usual.
2.
Their Choices can be collected on paper (as used to be done, traditionally), or on-line using the free TOOLS software we provide, or in other on-line ways.
3.
Our Options software will then analyse the Choices for that school and find the Options pattern with the highest satisfaction rate, that will cost the school the least to staff.
More details at: Options video overview and at: Options web-page
4.
By looking, in the Options software, at the number of students in each school who have chosen a particular ‘rare’ subject, as well as the location of the teacher involved, the Heads of the schools or their representatives need to decide/confirm (a) which subjects will be offered ‘federally’ and (b) on which site such ‘rare’ subjects will be taught.
5.
And before the timetables can be constructed they also need to decide when (and how often) these ‘rare’ subjects will be taught.
If they are face-to-face lessons, for practical reasons these times tend to be
- (i) first thing in the morning [so 6th Formers go straight to the host school] typically for a Double period, followed by a free period or General Studies or a similar less-important period [so the students have time to travel back to their own school or
- (ii) ditto but straight after lunch [and students go directly home afterwards].
On the other hand, if these 'rare' subjects are taught on-line instead of face-to-face, then there is less restriction on the times of day, but the same principles apply: fix the times in advance.
[Similar considerations apply if a Teacher is shared between two or more schools; times on each site (with commuting time allowed for) must be decided in advance; see the articles on this topic in our KnowledgeBase.]
6.
Once decided, those lessons are part of the Fixed Points of each school’s timetable. ie. lessons which are placed early in TimeTabler and then Locked in place so they cannot move during the FIT ‘musical chairs’ moves of other activities. Donor schools can either block off those periods for the relevant class or (probably better) fix in place (and Lock) a dummy group with a dummy teacher, with a subject of 'Law' or 'Music' etc.
Then the rest of the timetable is built around those fixed points.
Notes:
1.
This scheme is usually used with older students (Years/Grades 12/13] because there may be a safety issue with expecting younger students to commute ...unless they are bussed to the other site.
2.
Your MIS / SIS / Admin-system may have special features to help with this procedure. For example, Arbor can provide a 'Shared Teaching Module'. See more details here.
3.
For a related article about centralised or shared timetabling, see the article here.
By the TimeTabler Team