Teesdale School
Teesdale School
A Timetable Revolution
Background
In September 2016, Teesdale School in County Durham, joined the North East Learning Trust. It was a move that saw big changes for not only the staff and students, but also the overarching curriculum design: the timetable.
Edval
Dr Janice Gorlach, the Trust’s Deputy CEO, knows just how important a well constructed timetable is to a school. “This defines how the curriculum is delivered, when and by whom.” She also recognised the risks the school faced when only one person was in charge of the timetable. “We needed a way to timetable that didn’t leave us dependent on one person with highly specific technical skills.”
Edval “revolutionised” the writing of the timetable at Teesdale School. Deputy Headteacher, Neil Williams, was new to the software and recalls how easy he found it to use and was impressed with how quickly difficult tasks could be achieved.
“On my first day training with Edval I was able to produce a full timetable, a process that would normally take several weeks. More students got more of their options, rooming was done in seconds to very good standard when usually this takes two days. Major timetable changes can be implemented in minutes which enables better analysis of multiple what-if scenarios.”
Results
Both Neil and Janice are thrilled with the results they have seen since engaging Edval. Timetabling costs have dramatically reduced, staff absences are lower than ever and last but not least, Edval allowed for “a team of timetablers work together so there is no single point of failure and we can reduce political bias and personal pressures”.
Staff Say
“Our results are fantastic this year. Our new timetable had a part to play in this and an important one.”
“The school has only been in the trust for 2 years and Edval has saved us a lot! It is quite a story…”
Dr Janice Gorlach
Deputy CEO of North East Learning Trust
“On my first day training with Edval I was able to produce a full timetable, a process that would normally take several weeks.”
Neil Williams
Deputy Headteacher of Teesdale School
