The new year can be a roller coaster for grade 12 students in Ontario. After years of settling into the high school groove – perfecting the cycle of semesters, mid-terms, projects and finals – students take the first months of a year to look toward an unknown future. Many prepare for the next stage of their educational career: post-secondary school.

With the holidays over and gifts unwrapped, students across Ontario cast their attention to the semester ahead. For many students, it isn’t a gift that lies ahead; it’s the near-opposite. It is, of course, the dreaded “exam season.”

School can be demanding. When you aren’t gearing up for a final exam in English, you’re plugging away at an assignment in History. When you aren’t racing to meet the OUAC deadlines for university applications, you’re racing toward three other deadlines for end-of-semester. Sometimes, it can feel like a spinning plates act – a nerve-wracking attempt to keep everything from crashing down.

Across Ontario, we’re beginning to see blankets of snow, gusts of whipping wind, and ice slabs forming in the vast Great Lakes. And if you’re a student in Ontario, you’ll notice that it isn’t just the weather changing; all around you, you see Ontario students gearing up for a long break from the classroom.

The winter break, which lasts roughly two weeks and spans the major religious holidays, makes a modicum of sense in the context of brick-and-mortar school education. The winter break gives teachers and administrators time to hit the reset button, arriving at a new semester freshly rested and ready to corral a large classroom of students for another semester. It also gives parents a rest from having to commute their kids to school.

If there has been a positive to emerge from the last couple of years, it’s been the renewed societal appreciation for healthcare workers. In a sense, it’s unfortunate that it took the world reeling from a global pandemic to shift its sympathies and gratitude to frontline professionals – but whatever the reason for this overdue gratitude, it’s heartening to see.

Amid the pressure of rounding out your senior year at high school, you might feel an additional twinge of stress: choosing the perfect post-secondary school. It’s not an easy ask. Here you are, trying to focus on the present – your assignments, tests, projects and social life – and everyone around you is asking about your plans for the future. You’re just trying to make it to the weekend!

So you’ve decided to enroll in an online high school full-time or part-time. Excellent choice! Online education gives you more freedom and the ability to pursue courses that may not be accessible at a regular school. Aside from these advantages, online education allows you to become more self-sufficient and disciplined, skills that will be important for the rest of your life.

Over the last few years, online learning has grown significantly as the internet and education have combined to allow people to master new skills. During the pandemic, the world realized how valuable and essential online education can be.

In fact, in Ontario, the government has introduced a new online learning requirement, in which students must receive e-learning credits to be entitled to graduation.

Below is more information about this requirement and what it means to take an online course at OES!

In Ontario, grade twelve is often the final milestone in a student’s education before going to postsecondary learning. Thus it is a critical year for preparing students for life after high school. Students’ understanding and abilities are further developed during this year to prepare them for college, university, and in their future careers in life.

If you’ve ever considered the advantages of online high school or online learning, you’re not alone! Online learning is expanding quickly! More people are taking advantage of distance learning, particularly self-driven individuals who want to gain a competitive edge. Online education allows you to continue managing your schedule and it’s flexibly when it comes to its course load, which is a big part of its charm. However, a lot of parents are afraid to take this step.