Summer holidays are almost over.
And next Monday, Aug. 31, marks the official end as students in Busby, Clyde, Pembina North, Westlock Elementary and R.F. Staples will be back in class, while St. Mary School students will be in their desks the following day, Sept. 1.
This week the Westlock News talked to the principals of the in-town schools to get a sense of what students and parents can expect for the coming year. See next week’s News for reports from the rural schools.
R.F Staples School
The new school year marks principal Courtney Lawrance’s first at the helm of the Grade 7-12 school.
Lawrance joins R.F. Staples after spending time in Grande Prairie and replaces former principal Dave Garbutt who left to take a position at the Pembina Hills head office.
“I’m just excited to be here to work with the staff and students we have here at R.F,” she said.
“The community has been incredibly welcoming to me so far and they should be incredibly proud of their kids.”
Lawrance said among the changes at R.F. Staples for the coming year include continuing with the provincial high school redesign program.
“We’re starting the process of looking at high school redesign, that’s a growing movement across Alberta,” she said.
“There are nine foundational principals and as a staff we’re going to go through those and look at one or two that we think are a good fit at R.F for our students, staff, and our parents.”
Lawrance added she’s not sure what exactly that will look like because it’s still early in the process. She added the first major event of the school year is Friday Night Lights on Sept. 11.
St. Mary School
St. Mary School principal Sheila Glebe said they’ll also adopt elements of the high school redesign program.
Glebe said the program will provide students the opportunity to spend time working on whichever area they need the most help in.
“We’re going to work with a flex afternoon and it’s to allow students to engage in those areas of study where they need extra assistance,” she said.
“Students struggling in math can sign up for a math workshop, which will be lead by specialist teachers. If it’s language arts they’re having difficulty with they can get help on that.”
She said the program will also allow students the opportunity to work on group projects during school hours.
For their elementary teachers, Glebe said the school will continue to work with a learning coach.
“Our learning coach is a certified teacher working with teachers to assist them in implementing initiatives from Alberta Education and developing their teaching skills,” she said. “That program is in its third year and is really taking hold now. It’s a very positive move for teachers.”
Glebe also added St. Mary is going into its second year pre-kindergarten program.
“We’re very excited because we’ve got the first year under our belts,” she said. “It was a very successful program.”
Westlock Elementary School
Principal Pierre Ouimet enters his second year at the helm of WES and said among what’s new at the school is a new anti-bullying initiative.
“At the end of last year we did a little bit of work around bullying — a bit of research,” he said, adding they partnered with Barrhead Elementary School to attend a workshop called Dare to Care. “We did some work around that and we’re going to bring in some elements of that program into our building this year by way of bullying awareness and reduction.”
Ouimet said WES will participate in the division-wide school online payment program called KEV. He said it will be up and running this year and parents can make online payments for school fees.
Last year almost a fifth of the staff at WES was new, Ouimet said, and this year there are only three new teachers which helps create consistency.
“I’m looking forward to my second year now kind of knowing the ins and outs of an elementary school operates,” he said.
“WES has a rich history of supporting kids and putting the kids and the programs first, I look forward to continuing that.”
