Hybrid studying and new seats coming to overcrowded Surrey colleges this fall

Amid the long-running problem of overcrowding in Surrey colleges, the varsity district is piloting a hybrid-learning program for secondary college students this fall, whereas the B.C. authorities says it’s including a whole lot of recent scholar seats to 3 elementary colleges within the district.

The pilot, introduced final December, will supply on-line and in-person class choices to college students in Grades 10 to 12 within the province’s largest college district. 

“Students will attend some blocks in class with their teacher and some blocks online,” reads a Dec. 17, 2024, letter to oldsters, which additionally describes the pilot as a strategy to put together college students “for the world of hybrid work.”

“Online blocks provide students with the flexibility to work from home, work in a flexible space in the school, and collaborate online with teachers and peers.”

It’s one of many newest strikes by the Surrey School District, which serves 83,000 college students, to handle overcrowding.

Recently, it introduced it will undertake staggered begin occasions for some colleges, the place hours would begin earlier and finish later. 

Mixed response from lecturers

Violette Baillargeon, vice-president of the Surrey Teachers’ Association, stated they have been instructed the courses could be voluntary — that means each lecturers and college students can enroll in the event that they’re all for doing the hybrid-learning program. 

She stated this system may contain lecturers operating digital classes that college students can observe from house or on campus, or making educating supplies obtainable forward of time for college students to entry later. 

She stated their member lecturers have had a “mixed” response to this system.

“There’s a lot of trepidation,” Baillargeon instructed host Michelle Eliot on BC Today.

She stated this system may see lecturers’ workload being doubled, as they will want to organize classes for each in-class and on-line studying — and assess college students’ work for each.

Baillargeon added that lecturers know that “being online can also decrease meaningful engagement.”

“We know that students learn best when there’s a relationship built, and they’re in front of you, and they can speak and hear and ask questions and engage.”

Parents scrambling to adapt, spokesperson says

“When we first heard that hybrid was coming, a lot of families had that reaction from the pandemic,” Anne Whitmore, president of the Surrey District Parent Advisory Council, instructed BC Today.

“We had kind of small-‘T’ trauma where everybody was scrambling.”

However, Whitmore stated she sees the way it may gain advantage some college students.

“For some students, they thrive in this environment,” Whitmore stated.

“They’re in their home environment, they’re in their comfy clothes, they’re in their safe space. It allows their brain to relax and to be engaged in their learning and to do it sometimes at their own pace.”

“For other students, it’s absolutely critical that they have a person to co-regulate with, that they’re connected to their teacher, that they are engaged in the learning and that they’re drawn along and inspired in that way.”

New scholar seats for Surrey elementary colleges

The B.C. Ministry of Infrastructure additionally introduced on Tuesday afternoon that it’s offering more than 700 new student seats this fall, together with 400 to Woodland Park Elementary, 100 to Walnut Road Elementary, and 225 to Theresa Clarke Elementary.

“Surrey is one of the fastest-growing communities in the province, and we’re working hard to make sure infrastructure keeps pace, especially when it comes to schools,” Garry Begg, parliamentary secretary for Surrey infrastructure, stated in a press release from the province.

The ministry stated development has additionally begun on greater than 2,300 new seats for Kwantlen Park Secondary, Martha Currie Elementary, Old Yale Road Elementary, Latimer Road Elementary, William Watson Elementary, George Greenaway Elementary, and Guildford Park Secondary.