It’s back to school already for some students
On Thursday morning, hundreds of Calgary Catholic school students will cut short their bliss-filled summer and head to the first day of class.
It’s only the second day of August, and to the outsider it might seem cruel punishment to drag children back to school during one of the most glorious Calgary summers in recent memory.
But elementary school teachers Bev Dutton and Brina Moriarty, both at Monsignor Neville Anderson School in Sandstone, don’t consider themselves the bad guys. Far from it.
They say the students enrolled in the school’s yearround program are refreshed after a four-week holiday and ready for a little learning in the classroom.
“I find the year-round students are more eager to come back now than the students that come in September,” Moriarty said. “They haven’t had a chance to get bored.”
Monsignor neville anderson is one of six Calgary Catholic School District schools that offer year-round education, which last year drew in 681 students.
In essence, year-round schooling significantly short- ens the summer break to about four weeks. In return, students take two weeks off in October, and an extra week over Christmas and Easter.
It means they spend the same amount of time in class as students on the traditional schedule, which features long summers and shorter holidays the rest of the year.
Modified calendars have been tried extensively in the United States, but have also found favour in some schools in Canada.
For its part, the Catholic board says the potential gains include: improvements in child behaviour, less forgotten over the summer, better holiday times for some families, and faster improvement for students learning English.
In 1995, the Calgary Board of Education’s Terry Fox School in Falconridge was the first year-rounder in Canada. Today it runs on a modified calendar, with students due to return on Aug. 16.
Part of the impetus for yearround schooling is significant research showing “learning loss” over the two months or more of summer holiday.
What’s less clear, however, is whether year-round calendars actually improve performance.
Recently, British Columbia announced plans to eliminate standard calendars, opening the door to “creative scheduling options.”
That renewed the debate on the efficacy of year-round schooling. The union there is urging caution and said many teachers won’t want to give up their two-month summer break.
In Alberta, there appear to be less strident views about year-round schooling. Alberta Teachers’ Association president Carol Henderson said members don’t raise any concerns.
“If they’re applying to teach in year-round schools, then they’re pretty happy there,” she said.
Both Dutton and Moriarty said they would take the year-round schedule over the traditional calendar any time.
August is a wonderful month for students to paint outdoors, play sprinkler games at school and head off on field trips without worrying about bad weather.
Vacations can be taken outside of the summer peak. And the shorter terms and longer breaks outside of summer help teachers and students fend off burnout.
“The burnout is a huge thing,” Dutton said. “Then you get crabby kids. And when you get crabby kids, you get a crabby classroom.”
Studies out of the United States have found students, particularly those in lower socio-economic situations, regress during a long summer holiday.
Research in 1996 found the summer learning loss equivalent to one month of instruction, based on test scores in the fall that showed declines from the previous spring.
Math facts and spelling suffered the worst.
The question, however, is whether year-round school changes that trend.
A study five years ago out of Ohio State University found test scores for students on a year-round calendar didn’t improve over those on traditional schedules.