Despite the warmer weather in Thompson in September, summer is definitely winding to a close - especially for elementary and high school students in the city that have already started a fresh new year of school.
For many students and staff, the new school year not only represents a new year of learning but also a new year to grow personally and form important friendships.
The Wapanohk Community School has average enrollment this year and is focusing on offering students not just a great education but also resources throughout the community to help them and their families succeed.
Bonnie Rempel, principal of Wapanohk Community School, says her school is unique because it provides services for students and parents through partnerships with agencies from the community that come to the school. The school's integrated services board meets in the school each month and represents 15 different agencies that offer services to students and parents, including Neighbourhoods Alive, the Thompson RCMP, the City of Thompson and more.
"It takes a community to raise a child, not just one person. We have certain things that we offer in the school, but when you look at all the community and what it has to offer to parents and staff and students, we sometimes just sit back and let connections and networking happen," Rempel says.
Wapanohk is continuing with its breakfast program, which sees 60 to 80 kids fed a nutritious breakfast on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The school has also been awarded the Royal Bank of Canada's after school program grant for $29,000 that will go towards activities for children when they come into the school on weekday afternoons from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m.
Rempel says many of the students and staff are excited about the new land-based education program that will be commencing shortly.
"Students will go outside and learn trapping and fishing and hunting and safe fire building and just some traditional teachings as well as safety in the wilderness," she explains.
The school is also offering its Lighthouse program, which is a drop in centre for kids ages 10 to 16 that happens Mondays and Wednesdays from 6 to 9 p.m. Rempel says the school is also working on expanding its family literacy program, which started last May.
The Grade 5 class at Riverside School is already learning about such important issues as respect and inclusion of others thanks to teacher Mandy Wamboldt. This is Wamboldt's first year teaching at Riverside. Before, she was teaching junior and senior high kids.
"Grade 5 is different, but it's actually quite fun. With this group of kids it's going to be fun," she says. "They love school. They're excited - they want to do stuff. And in junior high and senior high you don't get that."
The first science unit that Wamboldt's Grade 5 class will learn is weather patterns.
"We're going to start forecasting the weather from day to day on the announcements. That's something that Grade 5's are going to do, is predict the weather throughout the year."
She says another important issue she's teaching the kids in their first English unit is respect.
"It's such a big issue in middle school - it's more than just 'don't bully.' All the kids hear don't bully, don't bully, but they forget when they have a new kid to include them. And it's not because they intentionally leave them out, they just forget," she explains. "And we have a lot of new kids. We've got four new kids n the class and some of them are from outside Canada, so they need to be included because they won't just push their way into a group."
Wamboldt says her students are also very eager to start learning more about mathematics.
At R. D. Parker Collegiate the Grade 11 students are already thinking about which courses to take to better serve their post-secondary education and career goals.
Katie Buchanan teaches Grades 10, 11 and 12 in courses like Canadian History, World Issues and Credit Recovery. She says most of the students are happy to be back in school for another year.
"It's very exciting. Every year it's like a new year for us, with all the anticipation of what's going to come ahead," she enthuses. "They're excited to be back with their friends and getting together - some of them already have homework!"
Buchanan says that right now she is teaching the Grade 11 students about Canadian history, and next semester she'll teach them about current events like terrorism and human rights in her World Issues class.
Buchanan says she thinks this year will be a good one for students no matter what grade they're in.
