Is the clinic period effective for King students and staff?

This year, R.H. King reintroduced the clinic and mentor periods which were paused for two years due to the the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a unique feature of King and it is now back!

Clinic occurs everyday except for some Wednesdays which is when mentor is held instead. Clinic is a 50 minute long period after students first period class, where students get time to complete homework and assignments in school. They can request to use the library during this time by signing up before first period or at the end of the prior school day. During the clinic period, students can also write tests which they may have missed during school, instead of having to come in early, at lunch or after school.

When the clinic period was first introduced, R.H. King’s ratings increased rapidly since students now had the opportunity to do their homework and assignments at school during clinic. Mr. Hudson, a teacher at King believes the clinic period was far more effective in previous years.

“Students had clinic from Grade 9 so by the time they got into Grade 10, 11 and 12 they were used to it and knew what to expect. I currently have grade 11s that didn’t have clinic period in grade 9 and 10 so they don’t exactly know what it’s about. That culture here of understanding what the clinic period is for and embracing it, is missing right now,” Mr. Hudson explains. He finds that students don’t use their time during clinic wisely in a productive manner as much anymore.

Caitlyn Jacob, a Grade 10 student at King finds that the clinic period isn’t very effective because people in her classes don’t use the time to do work which can be distracting. In contrast, other students find the period to be quite helpful.

“I find the clinic period useful as I have the opportunity to ask for help from any of my teachers. Compared to last year, I find myself having less workload thanks to clinic,” says Gelnar Hammoud, a grade 10 student at King.

Opinions on the clinic period seem quite divided among students and teachers, some finding it useful, while others not as much. The bottom line is that the clinic period is a self-directed time for students to choose what they want to do with it, so its effectiveness depends directly on how well students make use of their time during it.