Balanced School Day report

Waterloo Region DSB, 2005

This report by Waterloo’s Superintendent of Instruction on the implementation of balanced day in the district explains the rationale, and favourably assesses the impact of implementiSng a Balanced School Day.

The Balanced School Day breaks the instructional day into three, 100-minute blocks of time separated by two, 40-minute nutrition/activity breaks. The students eat during the first twenty minutes of the break and engage in outdoor activity for the second half. Schools will designate one of the breaks as the “going-home” break for those students able to do so.

The main purpose of the Balanced Day was to increase the availability of long, uninterrupted blocks of time for instruction and planning. When students have longer blocks of time to learn supported by regular nutrition breaks and physical activity, their concentration and readiness to learn increases.

Reports from site visits to other districts and from an evaluation in five schools suggested that the change was beneficial and that it had indeed provided more instructional time, fewer transitions, kids eating more and being less hungry, and a better school climate.  The change affected collective agreements.