School District adds two Non Instructional Days for curriculum familiarization

Teachers will use two
non-instructional days
in 2016 to review a
new curriculum for the province

Students will have two extra days away from the classroom in 2016 as School District 52 looks to make use of those days to provide teachers with more opportunity to familiarized themselves with changes to the curriculum.

Last Month SD52 circled two days on the calendar for the additional non-instructional days,  with a day in January and another in March felt as the best option for further review of the education program.

The new curriculum was introduced by the Ministry of Education this year after consultation with the British Columbia Teachers Federation. As part of its introduction to the province's education system, School District's across the province have been asked to add ten hours of non-instructional time to the school calendar.

The advisory to parents was issued in mid November with the School District noting the discussions held with the PRDTA to come to an agreement when it came to the days for non-instruction.

A revised school calendar
for SD52

"In collaboration with our local teachers' union, we have selected Friday, January 15th, 2016 and Wednesday, March 30th, 2016 as the two non-instructional training days. Both days were selected with a mind to minimizing the impact on families and student learning.  The March date attaches to Spring Break, which allow families to take advantage of an additional day for travel or other activities." -- From a letter to Parents and Guardians released by School District 52


More on the introduction of the new curriculum can be found from this Province of British Columbia information release of September.

A more expansive review of the new direction for education in the province can be examined here.

You can review the letter issued by the School District here, the decision to approve the two extra days was made as part of the proceedings of the November 10th School District meeting. A revised calendar for the remainder of this year and into 2016 was also included as part of the School District's information release.

For more information related to education on the North Coast see our archive page here.