In the current 2024-2025 school year, the Flint Hill Upper School has seen some major changes to the semester schedule. Specifically, the first semester ended before winter break, and there are no longer fixed quarter grades. Many students have mixed opinions on both of these changes.

Prior to the 2024-2025 school year, the first semester typically ended after winter break. For example, in the 2023-2024 school year, winter break ended on Tuesday, January 2, while the first semester ended on Thursday, January 11. This left a little over a week in between the end of winter break and the end of the first semester. “I like that the semester ends earlier this year, I think it gives a clean break. Before, it was like you come back from winter break, and then there’s two more weeks of the first semester after you were just on break. I like how now, we’re just done at winter break,” says Junior Kostya Orlova. “It does make those three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas really stressful because every class is finishing up, but it’s fine. You know, trade offs.” Indeed, this year, the first semester ended the Friday right before the start of winter break, leaving students coming back to school with a fresh new semester and empty gradebook.

Another major change this year is the removal of quarter grades. While the school year is still split up into four quarters, quarter grades are no longer recorded in report cards, and the gradebook simply continues to roll past the first and third quarters. In previous years, quarter grades would be recorded and used to average out the final semester grade. “I wish we still had quarter grades,” says Junior Aubrey Durant. “It was really nice last year because I would have the opportunity to raise my grade if I didn’t do well in the previous quarter, or lock in my grade if I did well and feel more secure next quarter.” 

While these updates to the semester schedule have affected many students both positively and negatively, Flint Hill’s upper school students have quickly adapted to this change. Students have overall found that the earlier conclusion to the first semester has created a fresh start after break, as well as new classes for those taking semester courses. This gives students time over winter break to adjust their schedule, as well as prepare for a new semester. Additionally, the removal of quarter grades means students will receive teacher comments after the second quarter rather than the third. Overall, regardless of any changes made, the first semester schedule went smoothly for the Upper School community.