THE DRAGON'S PEN
/WELCOME TO ANOTHER YEAR AT KING GEORGE!
Student Enrolment Now 640!
by Henry MacDougall
(click images to enlarge)
September was an exciting time for students at KG! So far in the first month of our school year, we’ve seen a lot of important changes to the King George environment, including that our enrolment count has grown to 640 students! In this October issue of The Dragons Pen, I’ll be going over what changes have been made and how they will affect King George’s programming.
New workout equipment on the gym stage. (Ewan Streit Photo)
UPDATES TO THE GYM
Students arrived on the first day to see huge changes to our gymnasium. The gym floor has been redone, all with a brand-new KG Dragons logo in the center. In addition, the gym stage is now home to a wide assortment of workout equipment, all to help students reach their fitness goals sooner. It was confirmed by Mr. Karmali that the redoing of the gym floors is rare — it’s an event that happens once every 30 years!
The shiny, new gym floor, complete with a new KG Dragon design. (Henry MacDougall Photo)
SCHOOL LIAISON OFFICERS RETURN
In other news, the School Liason Officer (SLO) program has returned to KG.
If you’ve forgotten, or are new to the topic, the program’s objective is to bring a specially trained police officer into Vancouver schools to support students with good decision-making and guidance to help avoid future involvement in criminal activity.
The SLO Program was reinstated by the ABC Party-controlled Vancouver School Board after the 2022 municipal election. The SLO program, established in 1972, was removed in 2021 following a review of the program that found it made some students and community members feel unsafe or less safe in schools.
The new SLO program has received some changes, some of which include equipping officers with new uniforms and smaller, hidden handguns. There were also claims that officers would be receiving new, improved training for the reworked SLO program. However, a report published by The Tyee in January 2023 — based on internal Vancouver Police Department (VPD) documents — revealed that no new training had been provided to SLOs.
In conclusion, VPD officers are back in Vancouver schools, and it's our duty as students to see how it plays out in our school and provide feedback about our experiences with the program.
TRUTH & RECONCILIATION DAY
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation took place on Saturday, September 30. However, Vancouver students will be given a day off on Monday, October 2 for the occasion.
INTERIM REPORT CARDS
Semester 1’s interim report cards will be published on Friday, October 13 on the MyEd BC website. For parents, this is the same place where your child’s schedule was posted at the beginning of the year. If you have any trouble signing in to MyEd — a common occurrence — you should reach out to the KG office at 604.713.8999.
CHANGES TO FIT
This year, we also saw the introduction of a new Flexible Instruction Time (FIT) schedule. FIT is meant as a block for students to catch up on missed assignments or tests. However, this year the schedule for FIT periods was shifted from two 50-minute FIT periods to four 40-minute FIT periods in a week, Friday’s excluded.
This year’s FIT schedule shifted morning FITs (Monday and Wednesday) to before first period. This change was welcomed by most students, as it gives an opportunity to sleep in. However, FIT was designed as a time for students to catch up on work, and sleeping in to skip FIT is a missed opportunity to better your grades. If it sounds like I am blaming the students for this at all, I’m not. Changing FIT to first period was a deliberate decision, and one which we can only guess the reasoning behind.
Personally, I doubt the effectiveness of FIT on the whole, as no extra time is being added to the day, only placed in a different order. Albeit in small chunks, time is often lost in transit between classrooms, with quick snacks, locker trips, and occasionally bumping into a friend.
These are issues that KG already suffers from between classes, which are now amplified further with FITs. A more efficient model was displayed last year, with morning FITs placed between the two pre-lunch classes. This kept class transition time to a minimum, as students were welcomed to stay in their first period class to complete work or move to their second period class in an effort to finish last night’s work before the start of the second period class.
Of course, students were free to spend time in their third or fourth period class during morning FIT, or even go outside for a snack with their friends, because that is completely within the rules of Flexible Instruction Time.
Overall, I don’t believe that this year’s FIT schedule is a step in the right direction, as morning FITs are causing students to miss important class time, among other FIT-related issues.
CLOSING NOTES
KG clubs are slowly starting back up again for the school year, please remember to stay involved in the King George community through clubs, sports, and extracurriculars.
Have a great October, KG!
RELATED LINKS
School Liaison Officers Received No Special Training. The Tyee.
