Students across the county have returned to school, and there are plenty of new features — both physical and philosophical — at many of the rural schools in the county.
Principals from five of those schools shared their thoughts for the coming school year with the Westlock News, and the one common theme throughout is the fact that with small populations, the rural schools become very much like families, with relatively high teacher-to-student ratios.
Busby School takes the notion of the school as a family group and pushes it even further, dividing students into different cross-grade family groups.
The benefit, according to principal Nadine Marchand, is helping the students get to know students in other grades and taking care of one another. “It’s about getting to know one another and creating that community feel at our school,” she said.
Each year, these groups focus on different topics. Last year the topic was science, but this year Marchand said they want to bring the focus back to the virtues program, which teaches the students about different character virtues. That program has been a part of the school for several years, but this year they hope to renew that emphasis. “We need to bring it back and highlight it again,” she said. “We’re really trying to revitalize that, and get our students thinking on a daily and weekly basis on virtues.”
From an academic point of view, the school will continue to focus on mathematics and athletics, while continuing to work with the school division’s framework of Assessment for Learning. The idea here is to provide students more regular updates on their progress, instead of simply giving them a grade after a test.
“We’re assessing on a continual basis where the children are at, and what we need to do to make sure the concepts are understood,” Marchand said.
Students at Eleanor Hall School in Clyde were able to spend the first week back at school using their new playground, which was built over the summer.
“That’s been a huge undertaking by the school,” principal Don Hinks said. The track and soccer pitch, which were put in last year, have also been maintained and made ready for the year.
He said the school is also expanding their use of technology in the classroom by adding a mobile computer lab, which will comprise a set of laptops, for the students in Grades 7-9. This will free up the other computer lab for students in Kindergarten through Grade 6.
“That means there’s more access to technology for the kids,” he said.
Teachers will also be taking steps toward increasing technology access by learning how to use their new iPad computers, which is the first step in creating a class based on the emergent touch-screen computer technology, Hinks said.
“Before we can teach anything, we need to learn how to use them,” he said.
What Hinks looks forward to most is continuing to work with students and parents in the village, and building on what he has previously accomplished in his three years in Clyde.
Dapp will also benefit in the near future from a new playground and some updates to the school yard, with more than $10,000 raised for playground equipment through the Laura Letts Beckett Memorial Fund.
Inside the school walls, however, some changes have already taken place, principal Wendy Scinski said.
The school will take a somewhat different approach to how they deal with math, which will now be similar to how they deal with language arts: working with students on an individual basis.
“We’re doing some differentiated instruction in math, basically meeting learners at their own level,” she said.
The school has also implemented a new way to teach virtues, using a new framework of Kelso problem-solving strategies.
“It basically helps children learn strategies to solve their own problems,” Scinski said.
Also noteworthy this year is the school’s artist-in-residency grant, which means the school will be able to hire a local artist to spend several weeks at the school working with the students.
The new playground at W.R. Frose School is one of the big highlights of the year, principal Lisa Gehring said, which is a testament to the efforts the community put in.
“Our community has been absolutely amazing,” she said. “We have a brand-new beautiful playground. Given the size of this community, it’s absolutely amazing.”
Although the playground was the big focus throughout the summer, she said the teachers and administration are looking forward to expanding the role of technology in the school and continuing to work closely with students and parents.
“They work so well together and continue to support each other, and this is just an awesome environment for learning,” Gehring said. “We have the privilege of having a small population and get to know our students very, very well. We can really individualize our instruction.”
Students at Jarvie School will have a slightly different schedule this year, with class lengths changing to one hour.
In this way, principal Martin Cairns said, students can have their core subjects in the morning making afternoons somewhat more flexible.
On thing that won’t change, however, is the school’s commitment to encouraging reading with a 20-minute reading block every day after lunch.
“We believe that in supporting reading, you increase their ability to be successful in their core subjects,” he said.
Another main focus for the year will be working with students to encourage them to take more responsibility for their own education, in terms of monitoring their own progress and ensuring they are prepared.
Parents will also be encouraged to stay involved with their children’s studies via monthly reports, which will cover the student’s grades and also provide insight into their behaviour in classes.
“Not only does it give them a mark, it tells them that the student has a good work ethic,” he said.
