THUNDER BAY – High school students and staff at Thunder Bay’s two largest school boards welcomed a return to pre-COVID class schedules Monday as the latest step back towards a semblance of normalcy.
Secondary students had been on a modified timetable of two classes per day, with each lasting nearly three hours, for close to a year and a half. The measure was introduced to make it easier to maintain separate cohorts and reduce the risk of spreading the virus.
The Lakehead District School Board and Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board announced last week medical officer of health Dr. Janet DeMille had given the go-ahead to move back to traditional schedules, after the province had allowed local health authorities to approve the step the previous week.
The province said the move was made possible in part thanks to high vaccination rates among high-school aged youth.
Superior CVI principal Ryan McDonnell said teachers and students alike had done a great job rolling with the pandemic punches, but the change back to a normal timetable would better support learning – as well as providing a welcome sign of a return to normal.
“Today was a big day for our kids,” he said. “When we returned to school in September, there was a real eager anticipation about coming back to school after having been home for so long. There was the same sort of excitement today to take one step closer to being more back to normal, with the four-period day.”
That was echoed by Mehar Mago, a Grade 11 student at Superior CVI, who said she had looked forward to the switch back.
“It was definitely difficult to stay engaged [with the longer classes], but I think our teachers did a really good job at giving us breaks in between,” she said. “They did the best they could in the situation.”
“We now have that even distribution of classes, so some classes that might focus more toward STEM, and other classes that are more creative, so you have that balance throughout the day.”
A pair of Grade 12 students at St. Patrick High School said they had appreciated some aspects of the modified schedule, but overall were happy to go back.
“It’s exciting to have some sense of normalcy in my life, and you get to see more people every day, so that’s nice,” said one.
Rotating from one set of classes to the next every second week had eased the stress of deadlines during the pandemic, he said.
“I honestly kind of liked the quadmesters, because you got a week to do all the homework. It’s a week on-week off, so you got a long break to study for your next test. Now it’s more crammed in, but we’ll get used to it.”
Another said the switch back amounted to one more in a flurry of changes over the past two years, but was hopeful this would be among the last.
“It’s nice we’re going back to semesters, because it… feels like we’re getting back into the swing of things, and getting back to normal at school,” she said.
Students like Sam Prezio, who’s in Grade 10 at Superior CVI, had only ever known the modified two-class-a-day schedule after entering high school during the pandemic.
“For a lot of people my age, the biggest change will be going back to how the system used to be, because through our first year and almost a half of high school, it’s only been two classes a week,” he said.
As important as the academic changes was the return this year of extra-curriculars like sports, he added.
McDonnell agreed.
“I think coming back and having a normal high school experience is huge,” he said. “Last year our schools were pretty quiet. When we started this year, we safely integrated intramurals, co-curriculars, sports and all kinds of things. That’s really created the school environment, it’s brought life back into our buildings and excitement and energy for our students.”
With files from Cory Nordstrom, TBT News.
