While the school year is coming to a close, school work isn’t, prompting an even greater need for the Wednesday asynchronous schedule.

Before COVID-19 hit, Wednesdays were late start days meaning that classes began at 8:45 allowing students to catch up on sleep. With the new pandemic schedule, Wednesdays are reserved for at-home asynchronous learning, meaning classes won’t meet via Google Meet. Still, teachers may assign up to 30 minutes of homework per class. This schedule allows for students to meet with clubs, affinity groups, and music classes virtually, or attend a tutorial time for one on one help.

Students have high praise for Wednesdays because it has allowed them to catch up on missing assignments, meet with teachers for extra help, and prepare for the rest of the week. (not to mention catching up on some extra sleep).

Sleep isn’t always on the front of the mind when school work is so heavily prioritized throughout the SPA community. With the current Wednesday schedule, sleep can become more focused on which benefits mental, and physical health. Not only does it have health benefits, it also allows students to refresh after charging through half the week, many running on very little sleep.

During the abrupt start to distance and hybrid learning, many schools were finding that creating a new hybrid schedule actually had more benefits than harm. Students can carry on throughout the day at their own pace, it can allow for a more flexible learning environment, and even increase productivity. So why should we have to abandon this new way of learning? If this new schedule proves to be so beneficial, do we really need to transition into all in-person learning in the 2021-22 school year?

Students seem to be leaning towards leaving the Wednesday schedule how it is; however Head of School Bryn Roberts is eager to get things back to normal. While normalcy can be nice, change is important in accommodating the student’s needs, especially when it comes to sleep.

With busy sports schedules and extracurricular activities, Wednesdays seem to be the only time to relax and catch up on work. So if so many are in favor of this positive change, why are we returning to the normal schedule back in the fall?