For Denison College in Bathurst, providing maximum opportunities and meeting the individual needs of their students is the highest priority.
Thanks to a partnership with a leading a timetabling company, Denison is now able to achieve this more effectively.
Since being implemented, the newly implemented technology by Edval Education has boosted student engagement, improved the college’s use of resources and created better-balanced classes for improved teacher workload.
Established in 2007, Denison College of Secondary Education is a unique amalgamation between Bathurst High School and Kelso High School. The College was formed in order to provide a consistency of excellence across both campuses, enabling 7-12 students to have better opportunities and experiences.
One of the most obvious benefits of this shared college is the ability to offer a diverse and broad senior curriculum, with Year 11 and 12 students given more course options across the two campuses.
Prior to teaming up with Edval, the shared lines capacity between Bathurst High Campus and Kelso High Campus was unable to meet the subject needs for all students.
A case study involving insights from the College’s teachers found that students weren’t able to be given equal opportunity for courses, as the allocation of students between campuses was done as a manual process.
However, the adoption of Edval’s specially designed Shared Lines feature has had a significant impact on student subject selections for Year 11, 2020.
Moving from two campus timetables to one Denison College timetable using Edval software – especially the shared lines feature – has meant that more students than ever before are receiving their subject preferences.
“For several years Denison College has worked with Edval to find ways to improve the formation of the shared lines and timetabling processes used by the college,” The College’s principal, Mick Sloan, told The Educator.
“Thanks to software specific to the college’s needs, which was created by Edval, more students than ever before are able to do the subjects they want”.
Sloan said that for the first time, students from either campus can access any subject that is timetabled on a shared line, based on their preferences, regardless of the campus they attend, or which campus the course is delivered from.
“This is really important for our students, to set them up for success in their senior years and beyond,” he said.
Making subjects more available
Compared to shared lines organised for 2019, 90 students in Year 11 will be accessing shared courses in 2020, seeing an increase of 220% through Edval’s innovative feature. These 90 Year 11 students will be joining the 28 Year 12 students already studying shared courses.
The software ensures every subject on the shared lines is made far more available to students at both campuses, enabling students to be prioritised for the subjects based on their preference ranking.
The previous system, which prioritised students based on the campus they attended, meant some students missed out on their choices.
The increase in students getting their choices through this clever algorithm also has the benefit of improving the use of school resources, with the bus used to move students between campuses now being used at 100% capacity, compared to previous years at 68%.
Chris Cooper, Edval Founder and Director of Innovation said Denison College is the first school Edval has partnered with to develop software addressing a particular school need.
“It is wonderful to work with such engaged school teams, using the latest technology for the benefit of students,” Cooper said, adding that due to the success at Denison College, the company will be releasing the revolutionary shared lines feature commercially to other schools in 2020.