More and more private high schools are adopting spring break in the fall to give their students and staff some respite. In Montreal, Notre-Dame College has just announced it for next year. This is a formula which, for the moment, does not find an echo in public establishments.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
By combining five pedagogical days in November to make it a spring break, Notre-Dame College in Montreal is following other schools that have done so before it.
The general manager announced it to the parents at the beginning of the month. He says he has felt in recent years a fatigue among students and teachers before the holiday season. “We said to ourselves: ‘Why not try it, knowing that the formula exists elsewhere?’ », explains Lotfi Tazi.
COVID-19, he adds, may have contributed to greater fatigue among young people, as among their teachers.
At Collège Sainte-Anne, in Lachine, we opted for an additional week off in the fall nearly 20 years ago. Students at this private school also have weeks off in March and April.
Back to school on August 16
Next August, this same college will open another establishment in Dorval, where we will opt for a schedule that is “not completely crazy”, but nevertheless different from what we see elsewhere, explains Isabelle Senécal, director of secondary of this school.
Students will start school on August 16 (two weeks before most schools in Montreal), then have two weeks off in the fall, the traditional Christmas vacation, two weeks rather than one in March, in addition a week off at Easter.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Isabelle Senécal, director of secondary school
Saint Anne
“We start earlier, because it is impossible to finish later. That’s what I would have preferred, but because of the educational system, we have to hand in the end-of-year grades on a specific date in July,” explains Ms.me Senecal.
At Mont Notre-Dame College in Sherbrooke, we have adopted fall break for about five years. It was “a bit to stand out”, admits Éric Faucher, director general of the secondary school, but also because of a “certain fatigue” of students and staff.
Since then, we have observed that this week off has a “very marked benefit”, says Mr. Faucher, who also notices that absenteeism is down.
For both students and staff, the energy is much better during the last weeks of November and in December.
Éric Faucher, Director General of Mont Notre-Dame College
The break in November is a “time for students to rest, relax, and then go until Christmas,” also notes Ms.me Senécal, of the Sainte-Anne college.
Few effects on students
Professor of educational sciences at the University of Quebec at Rimouski, Jean Bernatchez observes that spring breaks have no positive or negative effect on learning and school perseverance.
It is primarily a question of social consensus, explains the professor, who recalls that in the Quebec City region, school service centers explored the idea of a spring break in the fall a few years ago. , without finally applying it.
“It can be difficult to change things. If we want to act on the school rhythm, it must be done over a long period of time. For example, the Ministry of Education could provide that, within five years, we will shorten the summer holidays and provide for more holidays during the school year,” illustrates Mr. Bernatchez.
The Fédération des centers de services scolaire du Québec indicates that, to its knowledge, no school service center has a fall break week or is studying the possibility.
The calendar moves more privately
If the fall break is more popular in private establishments, it is because they have fewer constraints, “fewer people to consult”. “It is much easier [pour les écoles privées] to play in the school calendar,” observes Mr. Bernatchez.
The professor notes that the question of school rhythms is rarely raised in Quebec, unlike in Europe. In France, this question was the subject of discussions within the framework of the presidential campaign!
Why would anyone want to take time off in November, when the days are getting shorter and the weather is getting colder? Adding a week of vacation to this period also allows some families to go on a trip at a lower cost, we note in the schools that have chosen this formula.
“Do parents go on trips more? We think so. It gives them an extra week, in a less busy period than spring break,” says Éric Faucher, from Collège Mont Notre-Dame, adding that this is not what motivated the addition of this week off. .
“In our environment, there are a lot of people who travel,” also says Isabelle Senécal.
No matter how the timetable is arranged, one thing remains: all students in the province must be in school 180 days a year.