Recently added to select school schedules as of this year is study block, a half hour period in which students are presented with time to do any work of productive nature. The newly created 5th period adds one more period to the daily school schedule in between 4th and 6th. To accommodate the time that is needed to have this class, which is  30 minutes, the schools have skimmed 7 minutes off of each period. Within this period students can work on whatever they choose, as long as they are busy with what they are doing. The rules of study block that are applied are simple enough, no sleeping, students must always be occupied and no talking. If a student is caught breaking these rules they must then sit in the hall, where hall monitors called “sweepers” collect them and take them to a room within the school known as the “reflection room”. The room in which a student must attend study block, changes after every three weeks, and each class has a mixture of grades from 9 to 12. The schools hope to obtain better results in student achievement now that students have a period free to work on that day’s homework as well as receiving targeted interventions if they need help in certain classes. Teacher at JMH Mrs.Corlett says in her opinion "Study block is working very well, and there have been no legitimate complaints from students or staff. It is all part of our pyramid of intervention that aims to better our students". The pyramid of intervention also includes homework lunch sessions, Boomerang tutoring and enrichment activities. Overall Study block appears to be a successful way to help students. Written by: David Hawkyard