TL;DR: We don't want to come back to RHS after IB exams, please sign if you agree. Below is a letter we will send to admin with the results of this petition.

To whom it may concern,

Recently, International Baccalaureate students at Richmond Secondary School and their families received an email in which they were informed that they would be expected to return to school and attend classes after the end of their IB exams. In light of this announcement, the IB student body would like to respond with a letter to explain why we do not believe this expectation to be fair for IB students. We understand that it is the responsibility of the administration to ensure that students receive a proper and adequate education, but we simply do not see the purpose in IB students returning to school after the exams. The reasons for this are as follows:

• The IB curriculum was designed to be completed before the exams. Thus, all IB students have already covered all of the course material required of them. We have nothing left to learn that is within the IB curriculum for our specific courses, meaning our courses should be considered fully completed. Our exams will determine our final grade, meaning there is nothing we can do to improve our marks at this stage. As such, we see no value in attending school daily after exams.
• We do not see it necessary to give additional work to IB students after exams, particularly as the work does not contribute to their final grades. Since the classes take place after exams and prior to the break, it is unlikely that students will be able to retain any information taught in class. Therefore, the time spent in class will not be utilized in any valuable way.
• If IB students are to return to school, IB teachers must organize a variety of activities for them on top of teaching provincial students. Between the end of exams and June 24, teachers will be busy grading provincial assessments. Making IB classes mandatory during this time will only place an extra burden on teachers as well as students.
• In previous years, returning to classes after IB exams was optional for students. Other IB schools such as Sir Winston Churchill, Semiahmoo, and R.E. Mountain do not require that students return after exams either. We would like to inquire as to why it is now mandatory for students at RHS this particular year.
• As COVID-19 is still an ongoing issue within our community, we would like to point out that mandatory classes will only encourage contact between students and staff, IB or not. This increases the rate of transmission and will make the school environment a less safe place for all students. Students should be given the choice to opt out of attending classes when it is not necessary to do so in order to protect their own and their families’ health. 

Despite the relatively low population of IB students at RHS, we would like to be given the same consideration as other students. The IB Diploma Programme is one of the most challenging and stress-inducing academic routes a student can take, and the last thing we want is to deal with a school that is unaccommodating to the structure of the programme. Since the pandemic began, IB students have had to endure both the quarter and semester systems, both of which provided additional challenges to and are incompatible with the 2-year time span of the IB programme. Other schools have not experienced the same issues that we have with integrating the provincial and IB curriculums. Currently, we do not see how post-exam classes will contribute to our education in the long term. Hence, we would like to request that attendance for classes after exams be made OPTIONAL as it has been in previous years.

Sincerely, 

The RHS IB student body