School time-table task

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33774, 21 February 1975, Page 12

School time-table task

(By our education reporter)

Plotting daily school activities this year for almost 2000 pupils and 103 teachers has been a full-time “computing” task over the last two weeks for the associate principal of Burnside High School (Mr J. P. Godfrey).

Burnside High School, the largest secondary school in the country, also provides the widest range of courses for its 78 classes, who work in 80 classrooms, lecture theatres, and laboratories.

Mr Godfrey, who is shown working with an assistant, Miss E. Allison, has almost completed the extensive task of identifying the movements of all staff and pupils on a timetabling board of 150 sq. ft. Each disc placed on the board represents a subject area, and a complicated procedure is involved to make sure that none of the teaching facilities is double booked, or that any pupil choosing optional subjects is denied a place in which to work.

Burnside High School is administered as four separ-

I ate divisions of about 500 pupils, each under a deputy principal. Three divisions cater for Form 111 to Form V pupils and a senior division, which is under Mr; Godfrey’s control as the associate principal, caters for 19 sixth and seventh forms. Because of the size of the school and the fact that many senior pupils elect optional subjects, it is impossible to calculate the annual timetable on a computer, as is done in a number of smaller secondary schools before the school year begins.