While most kids are still enjoying the summer holiday, some Edmonton students are back in the classroom.
Students at Mother Teresa, St. Catherine and St. Alphonsus returned to school on Monday as part of the Catholic School Division’s year-round program.
“It helps to condense the learning gap that a lot of our students feel after having, let’s say, eight weeks off during the summer,” Edmonton Catholic School Division spokesperson Lori Nagy said.
“It’s actually nice because summer, for me, gets boring, so that’s why I kind of like it that it’s early but sometimes I don’t,” St. Catherine’s Grade 5 student Selena Salas-Patterson said. “It really depends.”
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READ MORE: Back to school for Edmonton’s year-round students
The year-round program means the normal eight-week summer break is cut down to five or six weeks.
Students in the program have the same number of school days (190 days) as regular programs because they get additional time off throughout the year, which includes two-week breaks in October and March, as well as the Christmas holiday.
“Parents have been extremely supportive. I marvel every year at how excited students are to be back and they wish they didn’t have that long a break,” Nagy said.
“It’s okay because kids do get bored, so it’s okay if I send him to school early,” Selena’s mother, Melanie Salas-Patterson, said.
READ MORE: Edmonton Catholic opens doors for its year-round schools
All three catholic schools that are part of the program are located outside the downtown core.
“We’ve chosen areas where parents are both working, perhaps they can’t take eight weeks off in the summer, kids are perhaps learning another language, that’s always a good time to reduce the learning gap as well,” Nagy said.
“So we found this was very beneficial for these three communities.”
The year-round program has been running for nine years.
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