Living the Rainbow

Students have now been living into the new student class schedule, which follows the colors of a rainbow, for nearly half the school year. This schedule was originally designed to help meet the growing needs of the school. After spending the better part of a year talking to stakeholders and brainstorming ideas, a new schedule was implemented.

The schedule standardizes the block lengths and schedule between divisions while also allowing time for the needs of wellness, diversity and inclusion programming, and special events like drama previews or guest speakers during the new ‘flex time.’ one class that meets on back to back days, which lessens the amount of homework a student needs to focus on each night. Another benefit of the schedule rotation is that it spreads out the major assignments making it a rare occasion that a student sees more than one a day.

“A later morning start and a more consistent and predictable daily class load were identified as ways to prioritize student wellness when this schedule was constructed, and so far, both have delivered real benefits for students,” says Davidson.

MIKE DAVIDSON, MIDDLE SCHOOL HEAD

“There’s been overwhelmingly positive response to the collaboration with students on the types of justice-oriented themes we’ve covered this year (during flex time),” says Krishna Davda, Assistant Upper School Head.

The schedule also includes a mid-week late start on Wednesdays which allows dedicated time for adult collaboration and gives students time to prioritize their wellness mid-week.

“Students have been very appreciative of the later start to classes on Wednesdays. They are able to use that time in whatever way most benefits them and their wellness. Most choose to sleep a little later and enjoy a more leisurely process of getting ready for school, while others use it as an extended time to get school work done and maybe go to bed earlier the night before knowing they have that extra time in the morning,” says Mike Davidson, Middle School Head.

Davda reports that Upper School students appreciate the extra time to rest or get work done but have also used the Wednesday late start to work on group projects outside of class time.

So far, the schedule has been fairly well received. Students are learning to manage their workload through the seven-day rotation. With only four class blocks per day there is only ever