Due to parent complaints, the school has decided to change our schedules to require unplanned absences to be covered by substitute teachers, instead of being free periods.

Our concerns about this policy change are as follows:

1. It was changed without consulting any students (as the ones affected) in a way that takes away certain privileges that every other year cohort up to now has had, due to reasons that:
2. Were not necessarily our fault; it's much more convenient for the school to position this change as due to us not completing work set during cancelled lessons, when in fact the main cause of discontent amongst parents is the sheer volume of cancelled lessons, rather than if students are doing work. Parents see such a large number of cancelled lessons as being unacceptable due to the absence of teachers, whom they view as integral to learning, rather than the absence of work. The solution should not be to keep the number of cancelled lessons by using substitute teachers who may not know the subject well enough to teach it; rather, it should be to attempt to reduce the number of cancelled lessons in the first place.
3. The new policy circumvents this issue by allowing students to have revised free periods if teachers give notice of at least 2 days in advance. However, considering how many cancelled classes there have been with notices of less than two days, and that there's no incentive for the teachers to change (i.e. students now get a cover lesson instead, which they may even view as better, because it removes the responsibility / accountability from the teachers to not miss their lessons as it placate parent's concerns about free periods while not necessarily being more effective) it is suspected that most teachers will disregard this and carry on their previous practices as usual.

As a result, the following courses of action are suggested

1. Sign this petition so we can get a general sense of student sentiment as to the grievances listed above
2. Send this petition to other students to sign
3. Carefully observe if there are any changes in teacher behaviour and the number of cancelled classes following the implementation of this policy, despite the doubts laid out in point 3
4. Cross-observe and discuss with each other as to whether or not substitute lessons are preferable to free periods in terms of productivity, as laid out in point 2
5. Discuss these concerns with your parents

This petition is not suggesting any changes to the new system - yet! as it has just been implemented, and some time is needed to test its effectiveness, rather, it is a statement of concern that comes from students instead of parents and aims to spark discourse to create a solution that is both more effective and tolerable to students and teachers.

If you have any more concerns (or feedback!) with these changes that you think should be listed here, please submit them to this Google form:

https://forms.gle/NnFZPGDCjZ2g8pAE8