“The school division is also in the process of hiring a French immersion teacher for the upcoming school year. We are also working closely with the Ministry of Education to ensure that we have all of the supports in place to begin this program in September,” said Dan Manning, principal at Assiniboia Park Elementary School. Lori Meyer who has been hired as a French language consultant. “Lori has a great deal of experience and knowledge with French Immersion and she has been a tremendous support already,” said Manning. A dual track education system will be introduced at Assiniboia Park Elementary, where students have the opportunity to learn in either of our two official languages from staff that are fluent in either English or French.
Anderson and Kiliwnik, the two professional leaders, tag-teamed the offering as they explored the data and charts that were offered online to bolster their verbal report. Kiliwnik said educational support was offered on three tiers that included core, targeted or intensive. She said 80 per cent of the general student population responds positively to Tier 1 supports while five per cent require intensive support. Anderson noted teachers in all of the division’s 38 schools and online services support the strategy and research for early intervention, which they suggested was a key to success since intentional planning can then take place and the type of intervention required is sorted out more immediately and total learning needs of all students are then known.
“The school division is also in the process of hiring a French immersion teacher for the upcoming school year. We are also working closely with the Ministry of Education to ensure that we have all of the supports in place to begin this program in September,” said Dan Manning, principal at Assiniboia Park Elementary School. Lori Meyer who has been hired as a French language consultant. “Lori has a great deal of experience and knowledge with French Immersion and she has been a tremendous support already,” said Manning. A dual track education system will be introduced at Assiniboia Park Elementary, where students have the opportunity to learn in either of our two official languages from staff that are fluent in either English or French.
“There have been more families asking for it,” said Little. Currently, the only school in the division that offers French immersion is the Estevan Comprehensive School where students from Grades 9 to 12 can become engaged in the more complete program while others may work with Core French programming if desired. In the past, families of elementary public school students in Estevan who wished to immerse their youngsters in French in the elementary system relied on the immersion program offered by Sacred Heart/Sacre Coeur School, a member of the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division that are ongoing scholastic partners with SECPSD.
Aaron Hiske, the superintendent of education for Cornerstone, said Cornerstone has been closely monitoring Reopen Saskatchewan guidelines in an effort to figure out how to safely offer band and choir programs for both elementary schools and high schools. “We felt we could offer programming with reduced risk within these guidelines, and we’re pleased to offer this to our students,” said Hiske. Once the school division saw some leeway, it met with the conductors to discuss how the programs could look. Superintendents of schools have been working with principals for a resumption of programming in school buildings. Changes released on Jan 11, including a reduction in the required distance between performers from four metres to threes, allowed Cornerstone to resume programs.