Timetables will be changing permanently for lots of Richmond high school students next year.
After two years of COVID-19 scheduling changes – from a district-wide quarterly system to a district-wide semester system - eight high schools in Richmond will run on a semester system starting this fall, compared to only three before the pandemic.
Cambie secondary ran on a linear system before the pandemic, but principal Mike Jaswal told the Richmond Board of Education at a recent presentation on the changes, that students, parents and staff “overwhelmingly” wanted to make the switch.
The message wasn’t that students “hated” the linear system, rather, students wanted fewer courses at the same time.
“They wanted us to know that they felt overloaded with the responsibility to school, community and their families,” Jaswal said. “The message was simple, simply a human message, students were asking for fewer things on their plate at the same time so that they could do their very best in their learning.”
“Our decision at the end was not about personal preference – semester or linear – it was about what students and parents required to be successful,” Jaswal added.
Across the 10 high schools in Richmond, 6,500 people were surveyed, including students, staff and parents.
In a semester system, student take four courses for half a year, and then another four for the second half of the year. In a linear system, they take eight classes at a time, four on one day, and four the next day, switching back and forth from "day 1" to "day 2."
Anita Kwon, principal of Richmond Secondary, said figuring out whether to remain a linear school or to adopt a semester system was a “very rich process.”
For parents, it was about learning, but for students, it was also about social-emotional connections, Kwon explained to the board.
In the end, they decided to stick with the system they had before the pandemic, namely, a linear system.
In making the decision, staff had to take into account competing interests in the school, for example, three specialized programs, the international baccalaureate program, the Colt Young Parent program and the Youth Train in Trades culinary program, Kwon said.
She added there were a lot of “deep conversations” about the school timetable, and the topics varied from focus, workload, social-emotional connections, stress and anxiety and retention of learning.
“We found our students were very open-minded and they weren’t necessarily polarized in one direction or another,” Kwon told the board.
Prior to pandemic, Boyd, Cambie, MacNeill, McMath, McRoberts, Palmer, Richmond secondary schools were on the linear system.
Only MacNeill and Richmond Secondary will continue on the linear system.
The eight schools that will be on the semester system permanently starting this fall are Hugh Boyd, Cambie, McMath, McNair, McRoberts, Palmer, Burnett and Steveston-London secondary schools.
Before the pandemic, only Burnett, McNair and Steveston-London were on the semester system.
