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Springwell Dene School : Special Needs School Calls for Special Timetabling Solution

Springwell Dene is a special needs school designed to meet the needs of children who are experiencing difficulties with their education. The education is provided through a system of individualized action-planning for each of Springwells 65 pupils. A real need for individualized planning and timetabling was what led Springwell Dene to look for an alternative approach to their pen-and-paper and trial-and-error methods.

Graham Stafford, information and communications technology co-ordinator at Springwell Dene School, Sunderland faces a timetabling task which, on the surface, appears to be a very simple one: 65 pupils to timetable into a total of 15 rooms with 16 teachers available. In reality, with a varying mix of students of different abilities and learning capabilities, timetabling takes on a greater complexity. This added complexity is derived from a number of other issues that are faced in establishments of this kind, such as taking care to put together groups of pupils who can work at a similar pace, in a particular environment, and with certain other pupils. This is one of the real challenges for a school like Springwell Dene.

Springwell Dene was thus looking for a system that afforded them greater flexibility in their increasingly complex timetabling tasks, facilitating easy modification of their timetables for the unavoidable last minute changes that take place in this kind of school.

After evaluation of several other products positioned on the timetabling market, Springwell Dene opted for ADE by ADESOFTware. The results were quasi-instantaneous : "I sat down at nine o clock and did the timetable in two hours," said Mr Stafford. "It paid for itself the first time we used it and did a better timetable than we could have." A rapid return on investment was not the only advantage that Springwell Dene has derived from ADE, in fact Graham Stafford finds that ADE offers more options than he has at this moment been able to integrate into his timetabling.

« It paid for itself the first time we used it and did a better timetable than we could have »

Timetabling at Springwell Dene is a question of finding the right balance between the best use of limited resources whilst providing a one-to-one education for pupils. ADE, according to Graham Stafford, significantly improves Springwell's provision of "a better solution in line with restrictions" that the school faces.

For example, in a small school such as Springwell Dene, there is always the danger that a class will spend half or full days studying different subjects but with the same teacher. Using ADE, Graham Stafford finds that he can very efficiently align his courses so that pupils will never be taught for long periods by the same teacher.

In small schools such as Springwell Dene, the pressure on classrooms is always a major problem. With only 15 rooms, several of which are often too small to accommodate classes, Springwell needs to make sure that if they allocate a class to a room, it will be able to accommodate all the pupils. Using ADE, Springwell can define the room characteristics and capacity beforehand, thus if a student group is too large ADE will simply not allow the class to be placed there, erradicating such problems.

Springwell Dene is delighted with the solution that ADE brings to their school, and Graham Stafford really feels that "the ADE software is a perfect solution for our problems." No-more trial and error, no-more pen and paper, and a solution that is highly adapted to Springwell Dene's problem.

Springwell Dene School : Special Needs School Calls for Special Timetabling Solution