An Adelaide High School Is Ditching Years 8, 9 and 10 (Oh, And Letting Students Sleep In)

A South Australian high school is ditching Years 8, 9 and 10 in a new plan to create the state’s first “transformational school.”

According to The Advertiser, Fremont-Elizabeth City High School principal Rob Knight has detailed plans to course-correct his struggling school by replacing traditional Year 8, 9 and 10 classes with groupings based on academic progress rather than age.

Each subject area will have five streamed “levels” and any student who scores a ‘D’ grade or worse, or doesn’t submit assessments, will be transferred to a support team until they begin to average a ‘C’ grade.

It is Mr. Knight’s hope that after three years in this program, students will be better equipped to take on their SACE in Year 11.

“If we can make this work in one of the most disadvantaged and marginalised communities in Australia, then it can become a blueprint that can be rolled out in other schools,” Mr. Knight said.

His radical re-tooling doesn’t stop there.

Lessons, now called “learning blocks”, will run up to 80 minutes in length and begin at 9:30am. It is believed the later start time will better suit students, as found in "international research on adolescent sleep patterns and learning."

The school, however, will be open from 8am until 5pm to allow students access to study sessions before and after classes.

Also, a martial arts organisation will run a violence diversion program for the more “troubled” students.

There are several more moves in the $10 million, three-year plan which you can read about here.

Let us know your thoughts on the scrapping of Years 8, 9 and 10 below.