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The Art of Class list Management

Class list management involves assigning students to classes, changing subjects, checking data and ensuring students are where they should be. ‘How hard can it be?’ you might ask. Yet this is a huge area, occupying much time in schools and with the wrong tools or processes, there are significant problems –the devil is in the details. Class list management can be another timetabling “dark art”!

Types of Class List
  • Core classes: Groups of students attending several different core subjects together. for example, students in “8A” do English, Science and Physical Education together.
  • Streamed Classes: A subject like Maths is locked together for two or more core classes, allowing lists to be set by ability –separate to their core class groupings.
  • Elective Classes: Students request subjects, like Physics or Chemistry, or in junior years, a language elective.
  • Practical Classes: Use specialist rooms with with smaller class sizes so students can be monitored closely when working with equipment. (for example Art)
  • Study Classes: Students and staff change each period, based on which students are not in a teaching class that period.
Mixing Core And Practical Classes

Some schools use old structures where practical subjects are ‘isolated’ from core. Students ALL do Art or Design and Technology or Music during a given period, when no core classes are scheduled. A more efficient structure splits two core classes into three practical classes. For example, both 7A and 7B core classes become three practical classes (7-1,7-2 and 7-3) and these can run with 7C and 7D, OR another three different practical classes. If core classes took 24 students each, then the 7A and 7B group of 48 students splits into three practical classes of just 16 students each.