First week back at SWC guide ( Grade 10 )

The first week back at Churchill is a somewhat different experience than the other times’ school has started back up. For one, this is grade 10 and everything from your marks to credits from now on counts now as well with changes to the curriculum. Second of all, your courses can often get messed up adding to the fact that you have new teachers, sometimes finding that you have to deal with sprinting down the hallway 30 seconds before the bell rings trying to find room 201. Lastly, the start of the school year could actually be better compared to past first weeks. Let’s see how you can survive the first week of school; specifically, grade 10.

In grade 10, the graduation program starts. This means that every single mark, grade or credit counts towards your graduation and eventually, your post-secondary education. For example, what I'm writing right now counts towards that as well. Of course, this puts a little stress on all of us in grade 10 classes because getting a 30% on a test will destroy you (.Not really, but you get the point). In fact, on the first day back, a relief that it’s only 1 hour long, I’ve heard people groaning about this for the DURATION of the hour. Now don’t get me wrong since I was pretty bummed out about it myself but hey; what can you do? However, the great thing is, you don't have to do provincial exams. The government got rid of that last year. This will relieve you of much pressure of you thinking: "I'm gonna die on the provincial exam". Not only that, the old curriculum was scrapped as well. I don’t completely what this new curriculum has in store for the school so I can't tell much about it at the moment. Another thing that's changed is that we have new teachers now.

Unlike grade 8 or 9 where you have the chance of getting the same teacher in a row for a consecutive year, grade 10’s have minimal chance of getting the same teachers as last year. For the rest of the week, you rotate through all eight of your classes where you get course outlines, papers and on the rare occasion that a teacher decides to give you homework on the very first day in his class, some of that was well. Though most of the time, your timetable for the day is correct, there are some instances of having the wrong course that you have chosen because the schedules are fairly tight. In this case, I recommend that you head straight towards your grade’s designated counsellor right away. Otherwise, you may have to face the long lines and congestion that infects the stairwells outside room 206 where the counselors’ offices are. In other words, go quickly or forever hold your peace.

A major thing you will notice is that after you make the transition to grade 10 is that it will not be like your first 2 years. In fact, I may even say it could be better than your last two years. For example, you feel used to the school environment. You don't really feel uncomfortable like in grade 8 when you are new. Or not too pressured as in grade 11 when your marks are crucial. Grade 10 or even grade 9 gives you an introduction of what’s next to come and prepares you for the years ahead. It can compare somewhat to a niche in your high school career, making you feeling somewhat more comfortable with the new school year starting.

However, as you have experienced the “first week process” and if you are used to it, then the process may seem slightly tedious and overwhelming but once you get past the first week, everything just falls into place.