Conflict Management: Where Do You Compromise?

You are well on your way to completing your timetable but there are some stubborn conflicts that remain. What are your options?

Teacher conflicts may arise for a number of reasons – overloads, part-timers pushing classes onto particular days, or specialist room requirements. Whatever the cause, here are options to consider:

• Split classes: allocate another teacher for the conflicting activity.
• Spreads: perhaps relaxing spread requirements will allow the teacher to take the class conflict-free.
• Teacher change on the class: particularly if part-timers have caused the issue, a change of teacher may give you the flexibility needed to resolve the conflict.

Space conflicts can be addressed in a similar way. In addition, if specialist spaces are oversubscribed, consider creating child classes to allocate a different space to single periods – if your software allows.