Objects of Substance- Timetable

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