THE St Catherine-based Eltham High School is now a single shift institution. The school has joined the list of 16 and growing secondary schools that are scheduled to come off the shift system during this academic year.

Board chairman Lenford Salmon says the decision to end the shift system is among the best things to have happened at the institution.

“We saw what it was doing to our students. They were being exposed to four hours of contact time, compared to the five hours provided to their colleagues in the traditional high schools, many of whom entered with better GSAT grades than the students who were entering Eltham,” he explained.

He said studies showed that students’ level of attention decreased throughout the day and, therefore, it was hard to be asking them to remain in class until 4:00 and 5:00 pm.

He said the decision to abolish the shift system was internally driven and was quickly embraced by staff, parents and students.

The extended day model involves lengthening the school day by two periods of 40 minutes each. Half of the students in each grade level begin school at 7:30 am and end the school day at 2:10 pm, while the second half begin school at 8:30 am and end at 3:30 pm.

Salmon said the transition from the shift system took place with the same staff complement and without any expenditure on the construction of additional buildings; even though more spaces will have to be provided in the medium to long term.

Eltham High, which has a student population of 1,500, is now poised to achieve improved education outcomes as students will benefit from additional contact hours as well as enhanced curriculum offerings, Salmon said.