Nearly all students taking summer school courses in the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District passed their classes this year.
Close to 500 students attended summer school in the district, with 270 students in Grades 10 to 12 taking full-credit, 100-hour courses at Riverside Centre, and 212 students in Grades 8 to 10 taking remedial, 40-hour classes at Westview secondary.
More than 98 per cent of the students who attended summer school this year passed their courses.
“Summer school ... is geared towards students who could not be successful as opposed to those who chose not to be successful,” said superintendent Jan Unwin. “With a 98 per cent success, you know we’re doing something right.”
Junior and senior students were separated for the first time this summer, and the move seems to have been a positive one, district principal for summer school Bruce Grady noted in his report.
“Having remedial juniors in a separated environment from the seniors caused a noticeable increase in maturity,” he stated. “Teachers who had been involved previously in summer learning did notice the positive difference.”
However, Grady added that teachers at Westview felt isolated, and that housing junior and senior students in opposite wings at Thomas Haney secondary could be an option for next summer.