By Anna Griffin
Ottawa school boards will be keeping an eye on a new school in Riverside South later this year to monitor a year-round schooling pilot project by the French-language Catholic school board.
The project will take place at Riverside Sud where children will begin attending year-round classes in August. During the project, youngsters will receive a week-long vacation in October, three weeks at Christmas and two weeks in March in addition to some time during the summer.
“That’s how it was when my mother went to school,” says Beatrice Moffitt, whose granddaughter attended Cambridge Street Community Public School in Centretown. “Personally, I think it’s a good idea, so it would be interesting to see how it works.”
Year-round schedules have gained popularity because children are able to retain more information over shorter vacations. A 2003 study suggests children show increased mathematical and linguistic skills during a year-round schedule.
However, some children seem less receptive to the idea.
“I love how school is now,” says Cassidy Richards, Moffitt’s six-year-old granddaughter. “It’s perfect!”
Children don’t have to be concerned about changes for the time being. According to the Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board this hasn’t been an issue for the board to date, but it is open to new ideas.
“We’ll be interested to see how the pilot goes,” says Camilla Martin, superintendent of staff development, evaluation and research for the school board. “We’re always open to the possibility, but we’d have to see how our students and our parents felt about it.”
The Catholic board organizes each school calendar after consultations with parents, teachers and principals. To date, none of these groups have seriously approached the topic of a year-round schedule. However, if the statistics come back favourably, Martin says the board would be open to the idea.
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board considered year-round schooling about eight years ago, according to vice-chair Lynn Scott. The board recognizes the potential of year-round schooling, but is currently testing children’s performance using the balanced school day schedule. This allows students two 45-minute breaks during the day.
“The objective was to see whether it would enhance student learning,” says Scott, who suggests the board will continue to try to find ways to encourage students, including the possibility of year-round schedules. “The next step would be to look at what the impact is if you reorganize the school year.”
Some Ontario schools are already testing the new schedule to see if year-round schooling is beneficial.
Roberta Bondar Public School in Brampton opened as a year-round school in August 2005 after the board received many requests from parents to implement the five-year pilot project.
“I think it’s the best system that I’ve ever worked in,” says Marla Cook, a librarian-teacher at Roberta Bondar, who welcomes the sporadic breaks. “It was great for staff morale, and students have found because they have no big two month gap in the summer they have better retention.”
Steve Robinson, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, says although the final decision is up to local school boards, evidence suggests that year-round schooling is good for children.
Children often forget what they have learned during a long summer vacation, according to Robinson. He says sporadic vacations instead of longer summer holidays increase a student’s capacity to learn, as well as their memory.