Objects of Substance- Timetable

The School Timetable

Timetable over time Most schools rely on a timetable of some description to assist students and staff with a familiar structure for their day. This has always been the process at Girls Grammar and it may be interesting to note that there is a framed, hand-written copy of the 1899 timetable hung in the School museum. This is not only an interesting artefact but also a glimpse into the world of the School at that time. The sequence of the school day is laid out in elegant copperplate handwriting that seems to announce, “we know what we are doing and we do it with grace and confidence”.

1899 Maud Sellers’ Timetable as Acting Headmistress after Miss Fewings’ dismissal.

This timetable echoes the traditional structure of designated short times for lessons in different subjects, rotated throughout the day. Most members of any school community would assert that a well-constructed timetable establishes a natural rhythm and routine at once familiar and stable. There are several revealing aspects that are evident or inferred by this 1899 timetable. Firstly, the timetable reads left to right from Form VI [Year 12] to Form I. Does this imply that having girls leave prepared for further study after school was a priority? [There was one Form VI lesson a week designated as “Test Papers”.] The girls were offered a wide range of subjects from mathematics [algebra and trigonometry were separate lessons and we assume the lesson called “Euclid” was geometry]; three languages [Latin, German, and French]; and the humanities; but only one science was mentioned: Botany. The broad-based liberal education was verified because, as well as these more academic subjects, all levels of the School undertook singing, sewing, drawing, and physical education [either Drill in the lower grades or gymnastics in V and VI]. There were a few very interesting additions: Form I had lessons called “Writing and Tables”, “Read and sing”, “Dictation”, and “Cane work”. [Whatever that was. Perhaps it was to increase their dexterity?] Cookery was also added in the margin [metaphorically marginalised?] for Forms II, III, and V. School timetables like this have been in place for hundreds of years and, rightly or wrongly, very little about the basic principles changed by the twenty-first century. However, at Girls Grammar, the school timetable and structure of the day has certainly evolved over the last 145 years. The first thing that is noticeable is the array of subjects available to the students. Depending on the grade, the School currently offers three English subjects, five languages, four mathematics, seven humanities, four sciences, two Health and Physical Education, four technologies, and three creative arts. No wonder the timetable is more complicated in the 21 st century! In addition, the starting and finishing times of the day, the length of lessons, and the timing and duration of morning tea and lunch have been adjusted on many occasions. Perhaps one interesting concept is that the number of lessons per day has changed, at different times, from eight, to seven to six to the present five, the lessons becoming longer from forty minutes to the current sixty-five minutes. Staff and students, even the Year 7s, have responded positively to the longer lessons and especially appear to enjoy having only one lesson after lunch. The school day was managed by the ringing of a bell between lessons and breaks. In 1990/1991, a major refurbishment of the Main Building and the boarding facilities was undertaken. During this time, the electronic clock which controlled the bells was disconnected and taken for refurbishment. During that time, there were no bells. When the clock was returned, the Principal, Mrs Judith Hancock, decided that the calm provided by not ringing the bells throughout the day was worth preserving and Grammar girls did not need this prompting. The 1899 timetable appears to provide one break of an hour, whereas now the students and staff have two breaks. In 1880, one parent wrote to The Telegraph newspaper expressing concern that the lunch break was only thirty minutes long. They felt that it was vital to one’s health to have a longer break with an opportunity for an unhurried meal and a rest before afternoon classes. They said it was “prejudicial to the health of growing girls” and went on to say that the boys school had a one-and-a-half-hour lunch. Perhaps the longer lunch break was a response to this opinion. In 2021,

there is a morning tea break of twenty-five minutes and a lunch break of forty minutes on four days, and sixty minutes on Wednesdays.

1998 Elizabeth Hatton and Ann Farley in the US researching timetabling. During the early 1990s, much discussion and debate was undertaken about what makes an ideal timetable and school structure with a number of staff being sent to the United States to a conference on timetabling and different school structures. They also visited many schools to experience such structures in operation. Ideas came back around longer lesson times and more cross-curricula teaching to utilise allocated time differently. New school day structures were proposed and considered. A teacher at the time, Dr Ann Farley, wrote an article reflecting on the changes called “Optimising possibilities” but, interestingly, the structure of the school was changed very little from the way it had been for the previous 100 years.

Timetable cartoon 1975 Magazine by Raeleigh George In the early years of Brisbane Girls Grammar, students had a set curriculum and the timetable most likely took one day to create for the new school year. It was handwritten and pinned to a notice board in the one staff room. Teachers had to make their own copies by reading very closely and copying down their lessons and classes into their personal school diaries. Mrs Cooke told me she had to do this when she started teaching here in 1972. She then had to read out the complete appropriate level timetable to her form class who made copies for themselves. Today’s students experience a very different type of timetable. The 2021 Grammar timetable revolves around student choices and takes around three months to construct, even with the assistance of a computer and specialised software. The size of the school, student choices, and what subjects and year level a teacher would like to teach are all considered. Rooming also plays a role in the timetable jigsaw as there are over 100 different teaching spaces on the Gregory Terrace campus. Today, all students and staff are given their own hard copy of their personal timetable, which they can also access electronically in real time on the school’s learning management platform, Minerva. Schools are complicated organisations. Ours involves well over 1,500 people, a horde of locations, venues, and spaces, and a curriculum that offers the widest choice possible. Is it any wonder that we all rely on that one deceptively simple document that provides stability and structure: a piece of

paper or a screen shot that tells us where we have to be and when? It is the first item both teachers and students want on the first day of a new school year: their own timetable.

Tennille Cummings Dean of Operations

1966 VIE Timetable