High school has not taught on Saturdays for the past 6 years

The school that "does not teach on Saturdays" has also achieved many achievements in teaching and learning over the past time. That is Tan Chau High School, Tan Chau town, An Giang .

Start school at 7:30 and finish school at 11:00

Students of Tan Chau High School in an extracurricular activity

Mr. Nguyen Thanh An, Principal of Tan Chau High School, said that with the old teaching schedule, morning classes started at 7:00 and ended at 11:25. Afternoon classes started at 1:00 and ended at 5:25. Each session consisted of 5 periods; between periods 1 and 2, 3 and 4, there was a 5-minute break. The first break (at the end of period 2) was 20 minutes. The second break (at the end of period 4) was 10 minutes.

This time frame is very inconvenient for teachers with young children, who have to wake up early to take their children to school and also have to rush to teach on time, so they often ask not to schedule the first period. In addition, teachers and students do not have enough time to eat breakfast before the first period, and by the fifth period (after 11am), students are hungry, tired, and cannot concentrate on listening to the lecture, just waiting for the period to end. For teachers, teaching at this time is exhausting, the teaching attitude is no longer the same as the first periods, greatly affecting the quality and effectiveness of the teaching hours...

From these shortcomings, Tan Chau High School met, discussed carefully, and reached an agreement to change the teaching schedule.

"With the new time frame that the school is applying, the morning class starts at 7:30 and ends at 11:00. The afternoon class starts at 1:30 and ends at 5:00. Each class has 4 periods; there is no break between periods 1 and 2, 3 and 4; the break time is only once (at the end of period 2) for 30 minutes. This creates favorable conditions for teachers with young children, teachers and students have enough time to have breakfast before period 1, contributing to reducing traffic congestion and traffic jams during rush hour...", said teacher Nguyen Thanh An.

Students of Tan Chau High School start morning classes at 7:30 and leave at 11:00. Afternoon classes start at 1:30 and end at 5:00.

The Principal of Tan Chau High School acknowledged that with a reasonable teaching schedule, it both ensures scientificity and practical significance at school, convenient for teachers with difficult circumstances; thereby monitoring the teaching and learning discipline of teachers and students better. This has contributed to creating favorable conditions for the health and working area of ​​each person; correctly assessing the capacity of teachers, reflecting the teaching and learning situation of the school in a fair and transparent manner.

No classes on Saturday

The practice of not teaching on Saturdays was piloted by Tan Chau High School from the second semester of the 2018-2019 school year and has been officially implemented since the 2019-2020 school year until now.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh An said that not organizing classes on Saturdays has a high consensus among the school community and society. On Saturdays, the school devotes all its time to extracurricular activities such as tutoring excellent students, tutoring weak students, organizing centralized tests, organizing clubs, activities of the School Youth Union, etc., so that students and teachers have a day off on Sundays. If the holidays of the year fall on Fridays, the school also gives students, teachers and staff consecutive days off on Saturdays.

"After a week of teaching and working, arranging teaching time like this helps everyone have time to rest, restore their energy, and prepare for the new week, which is extremely necessary," said teacher Nguyen Thanh An.

High schools do not organize classes on Saturdays

On Saturdays, the school devotes itself to extracurricular activities such as tutoring gifted students, tutoring weak students, organizing clubs, and activities of the School Youth Union...

However, Mr. An also affirmed that not organizing classes on Saturdays as well as changing school start and end times is a major policy that requires the consensus of parents, students and society. The school has had careful discussions, since the idea was born, it had to go through steps such as meetings between school leaders, the president of the Union and the secretary of the school's Youth Union to discuss. Meetings with key staff, meetings with the Party Committee to reach consensus. At the same time, this change must also be approved by the school's pedagogical council, especially a meeting with the parents' representative board.

"Over the past 6 years, the implementation of the innovation of teaching hours, starting school at 7:30 a.m. and not organizing classes on Saturdays has shown effectiveness, increasing labor productivity. In particular, the school'seducational quality has been maintained and increased day by day, Tan Chau High School is always in the top of high schools in the province. This change also helps us improve the environment, learning and teaching conditions; protect the health of teachers and students, and is supported by students, parents, staff, teachers and employees," said Principal Nguyen Thanh An.

Received a certificate of merit from the Ministry of Education and Training for innovation and creativity

Tan Chau High School has always achieved many achievements. In both school years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, the percentage of excellent students was over 53%; there were no weak students; the university and college entrance exam rate was over 90%.

In the 2022-2023 school year, the school has 14 provincial-level excellent student awards, 2 students are valedictorians of the An Giang province high school graduation exam.

In the 2023-2024 school year, the school won 27 provincial prizes, 1 third prize at the national level, 1 student was the valedictorian of the An Giang province high school graduation exam, and the average high school graduation exam score ranked third in the province.

The school has many achievements in teaching and learning as well as movement activities.

In addition, the school has many other achievements in organizing movements well, participating in competitions organized by the education sector, organizing online teaching activities well; combining direct with online flexibly and effectively.

Notably, Tan Chau High School is located in the southwestern border of the country. Most of the students’ families live on farming, many of them are in difficult circumstances (about 60 students, a rate of 3.6%). However, the dropout rate of students in recent years has always been 0%.

Mr. Bui Nhat Vu, Vice Principal of the school, said that at the beginning of each school year, the school establishes a committee to mobilize students to attend class, sends a list of students who were absent from school the previous year to the locality, the Association for Promotion of Education, and the Association of Former Teachers to coordinate the mobilization, and at the same time, the homeroom teacher directly goes to the students' homes to mobilize them to attend class.

Together with the parent-teacher association and parents, the school will keep a list of students at risk of dropping out of school to promptly find out the reasons and take appropriate support measures. For students in difficult circumstances, the school supports tuition fees, health insurance, sponsorship, emergency support... through mobilizing support, sponsoring scholarships, and gifts to help them go to school. For students with psychological difficulties, the homeroom teacher coordinates with the teacher in charge of psychological counseling to provide advice and help students overcome difficulties...

Students of the 'no Saturday school' high school are active in studying and extracurricular activities.

In the 2022-2023 school year, Tan Chau High School received a certificate of merit from the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee for "achievements in the education and training career of An Giang province, period (1982 - 2022)". In the same year, the school received a certificate of merit from the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee for the collective's excellent completion of tasks for 2 consecutive school years; emulation flag from the Provincial People's Committee; certificate of merit from the Minister of Education and Training praising the collective for its outstanding achievements in the emulation movement "Innovation in management, teaching and learning in the 2022-2023 school year".

In 2024, a teacher of the school was awarded the title of Excellent Teacher by the President.

The school is about to celebrate its 60th anniversary.

Tan Chau High School (formerly Tan Chau Public High School) was established on October 1, 1964, when it started opening the seventh grade class (now grade 6). By the 1975-1976 school year, it had developed into a high school.

The school has an area of ​​10,076 ^m2 , meeting national standards in 2008, continued recognition in 2016 and was recognized by the Provincial People's Committee as meeting national standards level 1, and recognized by the Department of Education and Training as meeting quality accreditation standards level 2 in 2022.

On September 28-29, the school will hold a ceremony to celebrate its 60th anniversary.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/ngoi-truong-thpt-6-nam-qua-khong-day-hoc-ngay-thu-bay-185240825092620671.htm