Ile des Chenes School plans balanced day pilot project

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This article was published 12/06/2024 (354 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The school day is going to look different at Ile Des Chenes School in September.

Pending provincial approval, the school will be initiating a pilot project called balanced day. Seine River School Division’s (SRSD) board approved the first-of-its-kind schedule for any school in the division at its last board meeting.

What that means for the 240 kindergarten to Grade 8 students is rescheduling the day to longer learning blocks, a longer morning recess, and a later lunch. If it is successful in Ile Des Chenes, SRSD will look at implementing it other schools.

Principal Elizabeth Hammond said it is about efficiency and learning.

“How do we engage our kids a little bit better without so many transitions and interruptions throughout the day,” explained Hammond.

“Not having to transition to a short 15-minute recess and then transition back into class. This just allows for a much better flow throughout the day for our kiddos that have trouble transitioning or our kids that really need a longer break. Once you get outside, 15 minutes is not very long.”

Two recesses will become one 30-minute break instead at the dual track French immersion and English school.

“They’re not constantly being interrupted for little shifts here and there. Especially for our little kids just for that time that it takes to put on all their outside stuff in the winter, then come back in and take it all off and hang it all up,” said Hammond.

Combining subjects

Longer learning blocks require longer focus, which can be a challenge with the younger kids. Parents voiced that concern during consultations, but teachers have a plan.

“So it’s working with the teachers to really talk about OK, so you’ve got the kids for an hour-and-a-half without any interruptions. What’s that going to look like? What are you going to do in the classroom to make sure that they’re still engaged; that they’re getting the movement breaks that they need and they’re not too restless by the end of it?

“We do still have phys-ed and music in there so they’ll be able to transition to those so they can get a break from the classroom,” said Hammond.

She explained that many subjects are integrated now, with the variety helping kids focus by including their favourite areas of learning with their not so favourite subjects. There was the example of mixing art with math or science for artists who get bored with numbers, or scientists who find crafts tedious. Combining subjects has been a focus of the teachers that can more easily be done with longer teaching blocks, according to Hammond.

Nutrition

Another challenge can be getting used to lunch an hour later and keeping the kids fueled up. A bigger morning snack coinciding with the new provincial and federal nutrition funding could play a role.

“We have not ever offered a nutrition program at this school just because we haven’t had a need, but that might be something that if we’re finding that kids aren’t having enough breakfast to get them through, are we going to offer a snack in the morning,” said Hammond.

She said right now there are snacks for the few students who may occasionally need it, but a formal program with access for all kids could be used. The principal believes changing the schedule this way would make it easier to make time for nutrition programming.

“Every kid could use an extra snack. I’m sure every family would appreciate that being taken off of them,” said Hammond.

Then the later lunch would keep kids from an end of day crash.

“Lots of feedback from other schools (in other divisions) that do it said the parents were finding the kids weren’t coming home and inhaling everything when they got home. They were OK to wait until supper,” said Hammond.

Leadership and clubs

Staff were also consulted before the board’s approval of the schedule change. They saw some new opportunities for their students.

“It’s very difficult to do our sports and clubs after school, so we’re looking for more times throughout the day to be able to offer different clubs and different activities. And so that bigger recess would allow a teacher to run an intermural for example, or an art club or a games club, or different activities,” explained Hammond.

“We want to create an opportunity for more of that non-academic learning.”

This is especially an opportunity for kindergarten to Grade 4, where there are no divisional sports.

For the older kids, there are more leadership opportunities with the younger students.

“They can be running a club or activity. We do have some kids that do recess supervision. It could be if they wanted to start a leadership group and do some fundraising for a community group,” said Hammond.

The pilot project can be renewed another year, and then a couple years at a time after that, according to Hammond.

Parents will see a survey on what they think of the pilot program’s schedule change likely sometime in February. Those results will be brought to the board in April, where they can consider whether the change is something that can benefit other schools across Seine River.