A different school system experience

 Hi everyone! 

 Today I will be writing about the main facts of the Canadian school system from my experience. I finished my exchange and there is so much to talk about as it is very different from our French school system. 

       

Small intro: 

In my Canadian high school, we start school at 8 a.m which is similar to St.Charles, and either the students take the yellow school bus or drive to school (people drive earlier than we do because they can have their driver's license at 16). In the Ontario school system, there are four years of high school unlike in France where we have three and you have the choice (for the last two years of high school) to choose between 3 or 4 classes, most students take 4 as it is more beneficial for universities. However, in grades 9, 10, and 12 there are some classes that are obligatory. 

How does the courses work? 

You have the choice between many different classes such as : visual art, drama, photography, foods and culture (basically cooking), yoga, outdoors sports, fitness, technology, French (as a second language), English, history, geo, Canadian and world studies, guidance and career education, co-operative education, healthy and active and lifestyle education, maths, physics, biology, business, international language certificate, and many more classes !! (you also have the choice to take a "spare hour" where you basically have 1h in your school schedule to do your homework. 

So, as I said, they get to choose 3 or 4 courses every semester (there are 2 semesters). For one semester they choose 3 or 4 classes (ex: maths, bio, physics and art) and for the second semester they change and take  new classes (ex: yoga, anthropology sociology psychology, fitness, French). This also means that they finish earlier, in my high school we finish at 2:15 p.m compared to France where we can finish at 6 p.m. 

I chose anthropology sociology psychology, yoga, cooking and English for my classes. In my anthropology sociology psychology class we are studying psychology and how the brain works, in yoga we are talking about well-being, and breathing and we did some postures, in my cooking class we cooked some Canadian and Indian specialties. Every week in cooking we choose a country and we cook its specialties and  we talk a lot about culture. Finally, in English we are studying different books by indigenous writers and we concentrate on Contemporary First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Voices and Perspectives literature and we analyze it.  I really enjoy my classes because I don't get the opportunity to have them in France. 

How does a normal school day take place? 

- I wake up in the morning at 5:50 a.m and then take the yellow school bus, I arrive at the high school around 7:40 and start class at 8 o'clock. 

- At 8 o'clock there are the morning announcements: they start with the national anthem (you have to stand up), then they talk about any important information happening during the day or if there is any sports team who won a game. 

- On day one my classes are anthropology, sociology, and psychology (it is one class), yoga, foods and culture (cooking), and English, and on day two I have: yoga, anthropology, sociology and psychology, English and cooking. 

-  Every of my classes last 1h15min, after each course we have a 10min break to switch classes or buy something at the cafeteria or at the vending machines to eat. 

- Our lunch break starts at 10:40 and ends at 11:35 (which is very early for lunch!!!).  

- During class, we can have our phones, listen to music, eat, drink, and depending on the teacher we can go to the washrooms without asking. 

- the bell rings at 2:15 and students either stay later if they have a sport training or extra help for homework or a course or they take the school bus or drive back home. 

- After school, a lot of students have jobs or they have activities such as a sport training. 

• On some school days, there will be some dodgeball matches between the students and the teachers, they can also be contests in the cafeteria such as a pie contest! Also, sometimes we will have to go to school dressed as something depending on a theme. For example, there is Twin day (you come dressed the same as someone else), celebrity day (you come dressed as someone famous), Halloween day (you come to school with your Halloween costume) and there is also pyjama day (you come to class in your pjs) and a lot more fun days like that! 

Is there a dress code? 

There is no particular dress code, everybody can wear what they want except inappropriate, racist, homophobic slang or words on their clothes.  You can also wear religious clothing such as a hijab which is different from French high schools that are secular. 

• At the high school there are two main offices: the guidance office and the administration office. The guidance office is similar to the CPE and "conseillère d'orientation" office for us. and the administration office is like a mix of "la vie scolaire" and the CPE aswell. 

What I like about this system is that students have more time for them after school even though they don't have a lot of holidays or even if they sometimes have to work after school or go to trainings. They still have time to advance in their homework. Also, there is a vast option of different classes that we can take which I find interesting and they study these classes for a whole semester so teachers can go in-depth with the courses. Students can also use their phones, listen to music, eat and drink in class and they also work with computers which is for me better.  I feel like the schools are more understanding of students' mental health and that there are more activities organized by the school. 

I really enjoyed this exchange and discovering a new way of lifestyle and will definitely try to visit Canada again to see my friends:))

Thanks! 

- zeinab:)