The new schedule, as it appears in the student planner (Photo: Mr. John Spear).
For the 2022-2023 academic year, Northwood has introduced a new schedule. In recent years, Northwood’s schedule consisted of 7 classes with 5 periods in each day. This allowed students to have variation in their daily schedules. On Fridays, Northwood had “squish days,” which consisted of 30-minute classes instead of the usual 45 minutes. The shortened Friday allowed for athletic training and travel to begin after lunch without conflicting with classes.
This year, Northwood put in place a new class schedule, having 6 classes and 6 periods a day instead. This means that students will now have all their classes every day. Fortunately, this opens a new opportunity, as many students will have no classes on Friday.
Fridays now consist of specific “G Period” courses that meet for three hours only on Friday, including Applied Robotics, Choreography, Art and Music. The new Friday schedule also allows athletic teams to travel to competitions without the stress of missing school or to offer team-building activities. Fridays allow students to branch off more with their flexible time to try new things.
Noel Carmichael, the Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs, said, “Having a full day of classes on Friday is asking kids to be two places at once and is setting them up for failure.” In previous years, Northwood found that traveling athletes struggle more to keep up with assignments while missing Fridays during their playing season. Northwood’s new schedule allows students to stay busy and active without as much pressure if they are away.
Most Northwood students agreed that they like having no classes on Friday. For students new to Northwood, this is all they know. However, many returning students had more to add. Senior Maisie Crane has an art class on Friday. “I like not having traditional classes on Friday, but I don’t like how we have all our classes everyday Monday through Thursday.”
The majority of the returning students agreed with this statement. They feel that it is a lot for a day and will take some time to adjust. However, they also agreed with Nori Fitsimmons ‘24, who observed, “I would rather lose some free time on school days and be able to have Fridays off.”
Many of the new students don’t observe an overload in their class schedule but agreed that having Fridays to co-curricular gives them more time. “Fridays give me more freedom, and more time for my homework,” said Hudson DiNapoli ‘24.
The new schedule overall has had a good impact on Northwood. Students and faculty both agree that they enjoy the new Friday schedule with all the new opportunities it offers, and the amount of time it leaves open for them.
