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Lining up for slice of calendar cake

The school is full to the brim and there's a long lineup of teachers and students knocking down the door to get in.

The school is full to the brim and there's a long lineup of teachers and students knocking down the door to get in.

Suffice it to say, if the high demand to jump aboard the Spul'u'kwuks balanced calendar bandwagon is anything to go by, the elementary school must be doing something right.

The Terra Nova school has been working successfully off a "year-round" calendar since 2004 - when it switched from the traditional schedule to three three month educational sessions, each followed by a one-month vacation in April, August and December.

Contrary to what some believe, Spul'u'kwuks' students don't get any more school hours than kids in schools on the traditional calendar.

What they do get, according to their principal Darlene Shandola, are more chances to unwind and come back refreshed and the ability to retain more information.

"The retention (of information) after a shorter break for the ESL children is much better," said Shandola, acknowledging that she has no empirical data to speak of, just anecdotal.

"After a large break, they tend to lose a lot of that English. Some kids need more frequent breaks and then there are many families who want to travel for longer periods of time throughout the year.

"This calendar certainly suits them."

Shandola said their balanced calendar, which started off as a four-year project in 2004, is a "choice" thing that's so popular with the staff that teachers from other schools are now coming to them, asking if they can join up.

"The school is full, we'll have 412 students next year," Shandola added, pointing out that it has more than doubled in enrolment since the balanced calendar took effect.

"It's actually been full for three years, we can't take any cross-boundary students."

It's estimated that about 100 of those extra 200 students came to Spul'u'wuks for the chance to be on the balanced calendar.

Although difficult to gauge, the shorter summer break at the school - now at five weeks, as opposed to almost nine at other schools - does have a positive effect on the students, according to Spul'u'kwuks' PAC chair, Suzy Buckley.

"For smaller children, who before were in an unstructured environment for two months over the summer, it's difficult," Buckley said.

"September is now a lot easier here than at other schools, I believe. But a lot of that will depend on the child.

"School anxiety can be helped by the shorter break also. Some kids get very anxious coming back to school after a long break."

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