Insights

As each new school year approaches, teachers everywhere start to measure time in semesters, quarters, terms, half terms, weeks, or even individual lessons/periods. Our lives are planned according to the academic calendar, always either counting down to the next holiday or, on a more optimistic note, looking forward to the promise of a fresh start that a new semester or school year brings.

Every school has its own needs, and creating a timetable which meets all of those needs is a huge challenge. My hat's off to all timetablers everywhere; that is one job I would never want to take on! At my school, our biggest challenge is creating a timetable that suits both the MYP and DP, since the majority of our teachers teach across both programmes. We are on a 10-day block schedule with four 80-minute periods a day (with the exception of Wednesdays, when we have an extended advisory and 65-minute periods to accommodate an early release for staff PD). In the MYP, it looks like this:

This year, we are making some modifications to Wednesdays to allow for more HL time in the DP and "Core" time in the MYP. The day will be divided into 5 periods instead of 4; it will look slightly different in each year of the programme, as below:

Approaches to Learning (ATL)

ATL lessons in Grades 6-9 will be focused mostly on explicitly teaching the approaches to learning, particularly those skills that are not subject-specific (e.g., self-management, note-taking, presentation skills). In Grade 10, ATL will be consolidated through the Personal Project.

Library / Information Literacy (G6-8)

Led by our fabulous librarian, this is an opportunity to develop students’ information literacy skills and promote a love of reading.

Service Learning (G6 & 7)

This will be an opportunity to raise the profile of Service Learning within the curriculum. The aim is to explicitly teach students in Grades 6-8 about the benefits of Service Learning and address the learning outcomes. Dedicated time within the timetable will provide opportunities for groups of students (or grade levels) to plan and execute Service as Action projects.

MYP Projects (G8 & 10)

Grade 8 will focus more generally on Service Learning in Term 1 and then explicitly on the Community Project in Terms 2 & 3. In Grade 10, Terms 1 & 2 will be spent focusing on the Personal Project; Term 3 will focus on Next Steps (Academic Transition).

Interdisciplinary Learning

Regular, dedicated lesson time for IDUs means that we can improve our delivery of an interdisciplinary curriculum/scope and sequence. We can pull our current stand-alone IDUs back into the main timetable; however, there is still enough flexibility to allow us to collapse a day for certain grades, as needed. We will now have time for at least 2 IDUs per grade per year, allowing us to report more holistically on interdisciplinary learning rather than one-off projects. The IB requires at least one formal IDU per year but recommends multiple interdisciplinary learning experiences, and timetabling interdisciplinary learning means we can aim for more than just the minimum. IDUs in G6 & 7 and 9 & 10 are timetabled against each other, allowing for the possibility of vertical collaboration, (perhaps opening up possibilities for student-led IDUs).

Logistically, how will this work? In some cases, the teachers who are assigned to the IDU sessions will be subject teachers and actively involved in the IDU. In others, subject teachers will scaffold during subject lessons and the IDU lessons can be used for independent synthesis and reflection, with supervising teachers there to support. Ultimately, we hope that structuring interdisciplinary learning in this way will better prepare students for the Interdisciplinary eAssessment.

Supervised Study

Supervised Study sessions give us an opportunity to reinforce The Learning Scientists' principles and independent study habits. Students in Grades 6-8 will have Supervised Study fortnightly. Students in Grades 9 & 10 will have Supervised Study weekly.

...Now, I know that the cynics and naysayers might argue that we are losing valuable subject time by making these changes. On the surface, this is true for some subjects. However, we will still be delivering more than the minimum number of hours required by the IB, and whatever subject time we are "losing", we will be gaining time on core skills and competencies. Other benefits and opportunities of this modified timetable include the following:

• We will have much more flexibility to organise special curriculum-related activities on collapsed days (e.g., Science Day, Languages Day, Design Day) or showcases (IDUs, Service Learning, etc.).
• We have a strong trips culture within our school, so we will look to Wednesdays first when planning local trips to minimise the impact on subject time.
• We can coordinate formal make-up assessment sessions on selected Wednesdays. Post-COVID, we have had issues with absences, particularly around assessment dates; this is one way of trying to accommodate those absences whilst also maintaining assessment integrity.

Timetabling the Core is just the first step, of course. This is a big project, so to ensure that we spend our time developing a quality curriculum we are working collaboratively in grade-level teams to develop two years of the programme at a time. In this inaugural year, Grades 6 & 7 and 8 & 9 will follow the same scheme of work. Next year, we will develop Grades 7 and 9 since the students will move up. We are treating Grade 10 separately since many of their sessions will involve independent work and consolidation

I aim to share more of the nuts and bolts of curriculum development as the year progresses. For now, here's to a successful year ahead -- on whatever timetable you follow!