We are nearly wrapped up with pre-scheduling of students. Once that is complete, we will be able to finish our master schedule and place students into the classes they requested. If students are not able to be enrolled in all of their requests, the office will reach out to the student and the parent to determine an alternative. If a student wishes to make a change to the requests they have made, they should contact the office.
Middle school parents: please be sure that you have filled out the Fine Arts Request Form. If we don’t have a request from a student, then we will place them in the course that they have this year.
Middle School Field Trip: Parque Diversiones Friday June 9th: Please follow the following document:
CDS Middle School Field Trip - Parque de Diversiones.pdf
Daily Schedule: 2023-24 School Year
For the 2023-24 school year the Secondary School will be adopting a new daily schedule. This new schedule will apply to both High School and Middle School.
A bit of history may be helpful: Before the pandemic, CDS had a secondary schedule that included 7 classes that rotated through the 5 days of school. During the period of COVID virtual learning a schedule was adopted to best serve that mode of instruction – 8 classes that met every other day but were longer in duration. It was determined that this approach was more conducive to virtual learning. That schedule remained in effect, even after students returned to in-person instruction.
Changing the daily schedule was identified as a need by the previous administration, parents, and teachers going into this year. Throughout this school year, additional input was received from the current administration, parents, teachers, and students about what schedule would best serve CDS students. Here are the key points that drove the development of a new schedule:
The need for more instructional time in class. This issue is twofold: the need to spend more of the school day in class and the need to have more frequent class time for AP classes.
Free periods within the school day for upperclassmen in HS to work on AP classes.
The need to have an Advisory program for students to support with organization and time management, particularly in the Middle School.
The value of having some extended periods (like current blocks of 75 minutes), particularly for assessments and labs.
As a result of this input, we developed an updated daily schedule aimed at addressing some of the state gap areas. Below is a summary of the highlights of the new 2023-2024 daily schedule:
Students will spend more of their school day in class. Each class will meet an average of 50 minutes more per week in the new schedule.
We will continue to allow Seniors to take one free period (per day) and allow one free period (per day) for any student who has 2 or more AP courses.
The middle school will have a daily Advisory class. During Advisory, teachers will support students with organization and time management needed to be successful in secondary school. The high school will meet once a week in Advisory (on Friday).
Every Friday will have an extended periods, with classes alternating between weeks. Teachers will be able to plan longer lessons, labs, assessments, etc. for these days. Please note in the schedule below that on an A-Friday the schedule will include A,C, E, and F periods and on an E-Friday the schedule will include B, D, Flex, and G periods.
Flex Period will be a time for student activities: pep assemblies, student assemblies, student clubs, etc.
Middle School
| Time | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
| 8:00-8:10 | Advisory | Advisory | Advisory | Advisory | ||
| 8:15-9:00 | A | E | A | E | 8:00-9:20 | A/B |
| 9:05-9:50 | B | F | B | F | 9:20-9:40 | Break |
| 9:50-10:05 | Break | Break | Break | Break | 9:45-11:05 | C/D |
| 10:05-10:50 | C | G | C | G | 11:15-12:35 | E/Flex |
| 10:55-11:40 | D | D | D | D | 12:35-1:10 | Lunch |
| 11:40-12:20 | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | 1:10-1:30 | Advisory |
| 12:20-1:05 | E | A | E | A | 1:40-3:00 | F/G |
| 1:05-1:20 | Break | Break | Break | Break | ||
| 1:20-2:05 | F | B | F | B | ||
| 2:15-3:00 | G | C | G | C | ||
High School
| Time | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
| 8:00-8:50 | A | E | A | E | ||
| 8:55-9:45 | B | F | B | F | 8:00-9:20 | A/B |
| 9:45-10:00 | Break | Break | Break | Break | 9:25-9:40 | Break |
| 10:00-10:50 | C | G | C | G | 9:45-10:00 | C/D |
| 10:55-11:45 | D | D | D | D | 11:25-12:00 | Lunch |
| 11:50-12:40 | E | A | E | A | 12:00-1:20 | E/Flex |
| 12:40-1:15 | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | 1:20-1:40 | Break |
| 1:15-2:05 | F | B | F | B | 1:40-3:00 | F/G |
| 2:10-3:00 | G | C | G | C | ||
The CDS High School Drama Department will present “The Play that Goes Wrong” on June 2nd (6:00 PM) and June 3rd (7:00 PM). Cost of admission is 5,000 colones each, with a family maximum of 15,000 colones. Please use the following form to RSVP for the performance, payment is made at the door: The Play that Goes Wrong Tickets.
We are winding down the course selection meetings. I have already met with most of the rising high school students. This will be the basis for the Master Schedule that Mr. Balding will be working on during the upcoming weeks.
Country Day School is trying to find a way in which our student may have all necessary tools for their optimal performance in the classroom and outside of it. This is why CDS will be implementing a Career and College Counseling software called BridgeU. This software will allow students to do better university searches around the world, use Parchment, take interest, personality, and vocational tests available on the platform, and finally have all documents in one site in order to better distribute them throughout their selected universities. this web-based software will improve the college application process for our Senior class.
Summer break is just around the corner. I invite you to have dynamic conversations with your children about what they will be doing during this summer break; may it be a program, an internship, a job, or a passion project, the idea is to be active, to de a change-maker, and to leave a mark with whatever they want to do.
