New Westminster Secondary students who want an extra study block or two will have to apply for them.
The change comes two weeks after Grade 11 student Kinsale Philip launched a petition calling on the school district to reinstate study blocks after school administration announced that next year’s Grade 12 students would have to take a full course load of eight classes.
Philip, quarterback for the varsity Hyacks football team, had been planning for his final year since Grade 10, as had many of his fellow students. He’d received nearly all the credits he needed to graduate and had planned on taking the remaining two next fall and then graduate early in January.
But the new mandate meant he’d have to fill his schedule with six other classes, keeping him in school until June.
More than 1,300 people signed Philip’s petition, and, after some deliberation between NWSS staff and the school district, students will now be able to apply for extra study blocks.
“Students that require the flexibility for various reasons, whether they’ve taken online or summer courses to free up time in their schedule, or perhaps they’re elite performers or athletes that require a different kind of schedule to accommodate various levels of training, all those will be considered and accommodated by a study block application,” associate superintendent Karim Hachlaf told the Record.
The intention of the application process is to create a dialogue between the school, students and parents, ultimately improving engagement at the high school, Hachlaf added.
Last week, NWSS principal John Tyler met with students and the parent advisory council to explain the new process and to reduce any anxiety students or parents felt over the change, Hachlaf said.
He admits the change to study blocks could have been implemented in a more transparent way and that the whole situation would have benefited from a thorough consultation with senior students.
“It’s not about phasing out study blocks; it was about engaging in a more formalized process,” Hachlaf said.
“We’ll need to adapt accordingly as more changes certainly come on the horizon with the redesigned curriculum. We’d like to keep this open and keep the engagement with our students ongoing.”
