THE DRAGON'S PEN
/BACK TO SCHOOL PLANS AND CHANGES
And Comparing Online and Summer School
by Henry MacDougall
(click images to enlarge)
It’s August, and King George students are enjoying their summer, working jobs, hanging out, and in the unfortunate case of some, attending summer school. All the while, the beginning of the school year looms only a month away. This summer issue of “The Dragon’s Pen” will go over some of the changes coming to KG in September, as well as the perspectives of students attending summer school and online classes.
THE 2025/26 SCHOOL YEAR …
To kick off the school year, all students in Grade 8 will meet in the gym on Thursday, August 28 from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. for some welcoming activities.
The first day of school will be a couple days later, on Tuesday, September 2. Grade 8s will have their orientation from 10 a.m. to noon in the KG gym, while parents of Grade 8s will have an information session at the same time in the cafeteria.
Students from Grades 9-12 will show up later in the day, for one hour from 1 to 2 p.m. at their homeroom (Semester 1 Period 1) class. Students will claim lockers and receive forms to sign during this time.
Students will gain access to their 2025/26 class schedules on Friday, August 29 at 3 p.m. on MyEducation BC. With our school being as overcrowded as it is, many classes may already be full, and students may not have much luck getting a class swapped out with the help of a counsellor.
CHANGES AT KING GEORGE …
A lot is changing at KG this year. This year, students will be missing teachers such as Mr. Warrington, a longtime French teacher who is retiring, as well as Ms. Mullen, a popular math teacher who has transferred out of KG.
The 2024 MYP Personal Project Fair, in which Grade 10 students showed off their months of hard work to parents and students. (Henry Macdougall photos)
In other goodbyes, KG and other VSB schools have dropped the International Baccalaureate program. This means that students from Grades 8 to 10 will no longer be marked on the notoriously confusing IB grading scale, known at KG for being inconsistent and unclear.
Teachers at King George will often have widely different interpretations of the grading system. This marking system operates on a scale from 1 to 8, with 1 being the failing grade, and 8 indicating an “extending”, or above 100 percent.
With the departure of the IB system at KG, Grade 10 students will no longer complete the MYP Personal Project, and will no longer host the MYP Personal Project Fair in January. This assignment is necessary for graduation, and students who do not complete it in Grade 10 must complete a similar assignment, the Capstone project, in their Grade 12 year. Students who have already completed their Grade 10 MYP Project do not need to complete a Capstone assignment, since they have already received the credit.
SUMMER SCHOOL OR ONLINE?
Earlier this year, when students were completing their course selections online, a message was posted on Microsoft Teams, used as the school’s private communications platform. The post stated that not all students would be able to get into their Grade 11/12 math course, because of issues with a larger number of students from younger grades taking courses above their grade level.
If a student still wishes to take one of these classes, they are given two options, which are taking the course during summer school, or taking the course online. I interviewed two KG students to talk about their experiences with summer school and online classes.
First up, here’s how Matei Liuta, a Grade 12 KG student, describes his experience so far taking a summer course.
Henry MacDougall: What course are you taking during summer school and why?
Matei Liuta: I’m taking pre-calculus 11 during summer school, after I had a really bad experience with my teacher in Grade 11. Lots of the class did not get good grades, and about 60 percent of the class dropped the course like I did. In general, the course routine never worked for people. Often, material would be taught poorly, and we, the students, would be told to “Go figure it out on our own with your classmates”. This is why I dropped the class. Currently, I’m taking pre-calculus 11 as a summer course, which takes place at Charles Tupper Secondary.
Tupper secondary, during summer school session. Everybody is hard at work!
HM: What is your schedule like? How hard has your course been?
ML: My summer school schedule is from 12:20 p.m. until 4:20 p.m. This is one of the hardest courses I have ever had to do because all the material is packed into about three weeks. We have quizzes that are worth 50 percent of our mark and there are three of them every day, so if you don’t study, that quiz grade won’t be that great. I sometimes lack the time to even be able to do anything else with my day, for example going to the gym.
HM: How would you describe your experience in summer school so far? Would you recommend summer courses to other students?
ML: To be honest, I’ve hated summer school so far, and it’s been hard to even have a life outside of it. You need to find a good balance where you can still have fun during the summer and still know when to not have fun and to study. I wouldn’t recommend summer school, at least for pre-calculus 11, since it has been really hard to get the grade you want while wanting to have a life outside of it too. I’ve also heard from a close friend of mine that he shared the same experience I had with pre-calculus 11 in summer school. He thought the same as me.
Here is my second interview, this one with an anonymous Grade 11 student who recently took an online course.
Henry: What course did you take, and why did you take it online?
Anonymous: I took pre-calc 11 online, and the reason why I took it was because my teacher’s methods were quite difficult to configure and understand and with online courses being available to any student it seemed like a good idea at the time and it was a very good option.
H: How was your experience with an online course? Did you like it more than a normal course?
A: I would say yes, but the thing is I rushed it a bit more than I should have. So, if you are someone who is consistent and organized and you have a desire to switch to online, definitely go for it, but if you are someone who isn’t exactly consistent, that’s okay too! The course spans a full year, which means you get plenty of time to work on it. But it takes a lot of time, effort and dedication, so if you feel determined to finish with a good mark then I would recommend it.
Based on these interviews, it seems safe to say that online courses are generally a more pleasant experience for students, but summer courses should be considered if you are willing to sacrifice your time during the summer break.
Thanks for reading, and check back next month for an in-depth look at the clubs offered at KG!
