Key takeaways
- The curriculum is a structure (blocks, bands, sets, options), never a flat course list.
- A student takes one subject per block, which is what makes patterns collide.
- Option patterns are judged by satisfaction rate: the share of students who get their choices.
- Below roughly 150 students or five forms of entry, the year group is the band.
The vocabulary of structure
A block (also called a column, line, or pool) is a set of activities timetabled in parallel; each student takes one subject per block. A band is a sub-division of a year group, often by pathway; below roughly 150 students or five forms of entry, the year is the band. Setting splits one subject into parallel groups by attainment. An option pattern is the full arrangement of choice subjects into blocks.
These are the attested planning terms, and they earn their keep: every hard catalog question (can these two subjects be taken together, can this be staffed) is a question about this structure.
From choices to a pattern
The sourced sequence: collect, arrange, measure.
- Collect option choices from students within the options window.
- Tally demand per subject and identify single-class subjects early.
- Arrange subjects into option blocks; a senior staff member owns the arrangement.
- Compute the satisfaction rate the draft pattern delivers.
- Rework the columns where popular combinations collide, within staffing limits.
- Publish pattern and satisfaction rate together for sign-off.
Judging a pattern honestly
Satisfaction rate is the quality measure: the share of students who get what they chose. It trades directly against breadth and staffing cost, and the trade should be made in the open. A pattern that satisfies 96% with existing staff and one that satisfies 99% with two new appointments are different proposals, not better and worse versions of one.
The collisions that remain deserve naming too. If Physics plus two languages cannot be taken together, that is a design decision leadership accepted, and the record should say so before a student discovers it.
How to do this in Smootables: study units per campus
The curriculum lives under Teaching offering as study units, built per campus, so a multi-site school's offer reflects what each site actually runs. A study unit that needs to run in separately scheduled parts is split into named parts, and a placement can carry several student groups, which covers shared modules referenced by more than one pathway.
Bulk entry comes through Import data with the Teaching offering mode (a list of study units), so a catalog drafted in a spreadsheet loads with column mapping and a preview rather than re-keying.
Where the structure goes next
A signed-off structure flows two ways: into staffing, where the curriculum audit meets the staff loading chart, and into governance, where the options window and sign-off gates put dates on the sequence above.
For programmes built around individual choice rather than year-group options, the vocational version of this problem is individual pathways.
Questions planners ask about curriculum structure
Why can't every student have every combination?
Because blocks force choices: subjects in the same column cannot be taken together. The sourced example is a student wanting both Geography and Computing, finding them in one column, and dropping one. Single-class subjects, staffing, and demand make some collisions unavoidable; the design question is which collisions you accept.
What is a good satisfaction rate?
The sourced practice measures the share of students who receive their choices and treats it as a trade against staffing cost: more columns and more groups raise satisfaction and cost. The useful discipline is publishing the rate alongside the pattern, so the trade is visible when leadership signs it off.
How do split classes and shared modules fit the structure?
Structurally, not as tool features: a split class is parallel groups of one subject, and a shared module is one record that several pathways reference. Describing them this way keeps the catalog honest about what actually runs.