High school breaks from the norm
R.H. King Academy introduces one-week November holiday, trading a week in the summer
Nikita Samin can feel the November crunch coming.
Mid-terms, assignments and report cards loom. Teams, clubs and student council are in full swing. While Grade 9 students are still adjusting to high school, Samin and her Grade 12 classmates face the added pressure of deadlines for college and university applications in the next few months. Who wouldn’t need a break? Samin, 17, is relieved to be getting one. She’s among 1,200 students at R.H. King Academy in Scarborough starting a week off on Monday, thanks to the school’s new November break.
The weeklong holiday — a first for a Toronto school — is aimed at reducing stress and helping kids recharge so they can approach the second half of the long and demanding fall term with renewed energy and focus.
“November is a really hard month, really crazy,” said Samin, who’s on the student council executive and juggles other school leadership duties, a part-time job and trying to get top grades so she can get into an international relations program at university next year.
“Reducing those stress levels (with a break) is definitely a lot better for mental health, for Grade11and12s especially,” she said. The week off school “is a nice way to take a break before the storm comes.”
The trade-off is a shorter summer. Students and staff were back at school on Aug. 29 this year, a week before other Toronto District School Board schools.
R.H. King’s new break is part of a growing move to modify school calendars by shortening the two-month summer holiday in order to provide more vacation weeks throughout the 10-month school year.
Those in favour argue it would reduce the so-called learning loss during summers off and that more frequent holidays would boost focus and productivity.
Some high schools in York and Durham regions already have November breaks, and a number of Ontario universities have introduced fall reading weeks.
The November break at R.H. King, also referred to as a “wellness week,” is part of a three-year pilot that’s already being watched with interest by other schools in Toronto and elsewhere, says principal David Rowan.
“It’s a natural time to break,” said Rowan, who has been at the school since the idea was first proposed by a teacher three years ago.
“Last week, I was walking through the halls saying, ‘How are you,’ to kids and I could see some students were really stressed.”
The school has a strong focus on academics and leadership, and many students are engaged in multiple activities.
Ali Javeed, 17, says he’s among those feeling the strain.
“Grade 12 hits you like a pile of bricks,” he said, so the fall break “is a relief.”
Initially, he was against the break, fearing the earlier return from summer holidays would interfere with his summer job as a day camp counsellor. Turns out it didn’t, and now he’s looking forward to the down time.
To discourage kids from spending the week on homework, teachers cannot assign anything due during the first three days after the break.
Drama teacher Alice Walter polled her students and found an assort- ment of plans. Some Grade 9s planned to join parents during the annual Take Your Kid to Work Day on Wednesday, while older kids were heading to visit friends at university to check out campuses. Other activities include: logging mandatory community service hours by volunteering at daycares and schools, taking a driver’s licence test, paintballing, sleeping, working at part-time jobs, chilling and “rethinking life.”
Putting the pilot in place took three years of research and consultations, culminating in a vote by students, staff and parents.
The plan needed overwhelming support from teachers and approval from at least 60 per cent of students and parents, including incoming Grade 8 students, who approved it last winter. Students and parents will fill out surveys following the breaks each November.