Volume 2, Issue 8 And from this corner

April 2011

SOUTH EAST CORNERSTONE SCHOOL DIVISION NO. 209

April—Mathematics Awareness Month

April 10-16—National Volunteer Week

April 11-15—Anti-Bullying Week

April 14— Pink Shirt Anti-Bullying Day

April 21—Kindergarten Day

April 22— Good Friday

April 23— World Book and Copyright Day

April 24-30—Administrative Professionals Week

April 27—Admnistrative Pro-fessionals Day

April 28—National Day of Mourning for those killed on the job

Resurrection of science fair in Carnduff leads to successes

After a five-year absence from the halls of the school in Carnduff, the resurrection of the science fair has quickly produced exciting results.

The Kindergarten to Grade 12 Carnduff Education Complex (CEC) held its first science fair since 2006 on March 10 for its middle and senior years’ science students.

Twelve projects were chosen to attend the 20th annual South-east Regional Science Fair, held at Midale Central School a week later. Seven of the 12 projects came away with awards, i n c l u d i n g o n e bronze, four silver and two gold. One Carnduff team also received a major award.

Grade 11 students Austin Lemieux and Shandi McMillen placed second in the Senior Life Science category for their project “The Effects of Energy Drinks on the Human Body.”

They also placed second over-all at the competition, which meant they qualified to com-pete at the Canada-wide Sci-ence Fair in Toronto in May. However, due to previous commitments, the pair won’t be able to attend.

So why the five-year absence of science fairs at CEC? Events were held in 2005 and 2006,

but as for why it was “put by the wayside,” vice-principal Jackie Verity explained she is unsure of the reason.

But the re-emergence of the activity was spurred on by the arrival of new teacher Jessica Morland, who had spear-headed the science fairs in Midale for the past few years.

“She is passionate about sci-ence fairs and getting kids to push themselves to come up with ideas,” Verity said in praise of Morland. And with more than half the projects at

the regional fair earning a medal, that says something about the abilities of the stu-dents and the efforts of Morland,

who prepared the students to be com-petitive for it.

What the vice-principal finds excit-ing is, with the num-ber of students who went to the regional fair, they will all be able to return with that experience and make next year’s school science fair even better.

Furthermore, they will be able to im-prove upon the level of ideas that were generated this year, which should be beneficial as CEC is hosting next year’s regional sci-ence fair.

With the two Grade 11 students having

qualified for Toronto, Morland would appear to have the “Midas’ Touch” when it comes to working with students whose projects do exception-

ally well.

Last year a Grade 12 team from Midale placed first overall at the regional science fair and at-tended the Canada-wide Sci-ence Fair, where they finished second nationally for their pro-ject about grain bin lids that open differently than conven-tional ones.

Continued on page 6

Carnduff student Abby Chicoine bounces a vinegar-soaked egg on the table, as she showcases her project during the Regional Sci-ence Fair held March 18 in Midale.

The parents will come to the school and par-ticipate in a variety of activities with the stu-dents during those two days.

For example, students and parents recently went sliding on the hills before coming back to the school to have some hot chocolate and cookies. The parents then played with their children and learned what the students are learning. Other times the class goes on small excursions outside or around the community.

The parents see how McCormac interacts with the children and the activities they do together. They also hear the type of age– appropriate language used at that age level. Lately the local speech-language pathologist has been meeting with the parents and giv-ing them some information to help increase

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Students in the Grade 3/4 class at Wa-wota Parkland School are quite excited after meeting their goal to buy a water pump for an African village in need.

The project started with the reading of a UNICEF book entitled “A Life Like Mine.” This book outlined the necessities kids need for growing up, such as food, wa-ter, shelter, play and safety. The book gave students a tour through other chil-dren’s lives in different regions of the world as it related to those necessities.

Teacher Megan Canfield explained the class was particularly shocked to learn about the sacrifices villagers are forced to make when they do not have an ample supply of clean water.

Students also discovered that villagers, usually girls, had to walk all day to re-trieve water. Due to this commitment, they were not able to receive an educa-tion, play with other children and were frequently in danger on their travels.

pump through the UNICEF website. The organization will now handle all the de-tails for getting the pump to the correct village and help install it for the villagers.

Visit UNICEF for more information.

Students felt empowered through the Personal Context theme in the English Language Arts curriculum and decided they could take action to change the lives of these children.

Students created and adopted the slogan of Help Change the World One Drop at a Time, and with the great support of their fellow students, started fundraising to reach their goal.

With the g u i d a n c e of their t e a c h e r and educa-tional assis-tant, the Grade 3/4 class’ ef-forts paid off in Feb-

ruary, as they raised

enough money to buy the $509 water

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Wawota students buy water pump for Africa

communication between parent and child.

McCormac pointed out parents need to real-ize communication isn’t always just talking. Kids communicate in a variety of ways, so it is important for parents to encourage that.

“It’s just a way to get parents to come in and participate with their children. Lots of times moms and dads get busy, and they don’t have time to spend one-on-one with their children, especially if they have three or four kids at home,” she added. “Even if they can come in for 15 or 20 minutes and sit on the floor and read a book to their child, that’s quality time for them.”

Getting the parents through the door, making them comfortable about being in school, having them see what the program is about and getting them to ask questions

are the most important things when they come out to the Family Friday events and support their children.

This year, parents have been “really, really, really supportive” of the program and com-ing out to be with their child. The turnouts have also been good, with five to 10 parents visiting with their child.

“And (it’s) not always the same ones,” McCor-mac added. “I do have my ‘repeat offenders’ who come every time, which is awesome. But I’ve got some who come for 10 minutes on their coffee break so they can spend some time with us (as well, which is great to see).”

Involving parents in the classroom good for students

Students making and selling cookies as a fundraising project for Africa.

Photo courtesy of UNICEF

It is important for parents, guardians and schools to work together to build a solid foun-dation of necessary assets for students, says the division curriculum co-ordinator, because these groups can assist in students’ future successes.

“Family support, positive family communica-tion and parent involvement in schooling are three external assets that are essential for this future success,” explained Susan Nedelcov-Anderson.

“Researchers ... have concluded that ‘when parents participate in the education process, their children tend to have higher grades, better attendance, higher test scores, higher self-esteem and require fewer disciplinary interventions.’

“For those reasons alone,” she added, “it is critical to involve parents in their child’s educa-tion. The success of our students, both in school and in their future, relies greatly on effective parent/guardian involvement in schooling.”

For young children in MacLeod Elementary School’s Pre-Kindergarten class, parents and guardians come out to support the students two days a month during a program called Family Fridays.

“Family engagement in Pre-K is really important. In order to get the families involved and seeing what the program is all about, we have Family Fridays,” said Pre-K teacher Lana McCormac.

gym and will provide a space for the students and community to participate in a wide variety of activities together.

March 23 brought the presentation of the provincial budget in Regina. The government is doing a “rebalancing of funding” because of perceived dispari-ties from one school to another.

School divisions with high tax assess-ments, such as South East Cornerstone School Division, are negatively im-pacted by this rebalancing. However,

Hello again from the Board of Educa-tion. We are still waiting for spring to come!

Thursday, April 14 is the date for the grand opening of the new Kindergar-ten to Grade 12 Oxbow Prairie Hori-zons School. The Board is excited about the opportunities the new facil-ity brings to the students, staff and communities in that area.

The fundraising committee’s efforts have led to the enhancement of the

South East Corner-stone will continue to work within the capacity provided to us by the budget to provide the best possible opportuni-ties for students.

Happy Easter to all of you from the Board of Education.

Carol Flynn, Board Chair

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posted online. The exemplars will provide teachers with examples of student work for three ELA outcomes.

One major focus of the ELA project was the incorporation of technology. Stu-dents and project team members both had new experiences with technology. Tools such as Google Sketch Up, blogs, Photoshop, Audacity, PhotoStory, Adobe Premiere and the Internet were used.

As SECSD curriculum co-ordinator Susan Nedelcov-Anderson explained, “We all had the chance to step outside our box of comfort and try something new. Our technology skills were pushed further. That’s a good thing. We grew in our com-

fort with technology, our willingness to take risks with technology and in our attitude toward it.”

The second project, Grade 7 Math as-sessments, involved the creation of divi-sion-wide assessment tools for the four goals of mathematics: number sense, logical thinking, spatial sense and mathematics as a human endeavour.

Three teachers, the Ministry of Educa-tion math consultant, curriculum con-sultants, SECSD math consultant and

the curriculum and assessment co-ordinators were involved in the project. Tasks for this project included creating the assessment tools, creating the scoring rubric, piloting the assessments, provid-ing feedback and creating support pack-ages.

The long-term goal for the math project is to create a process for developing math assessments that could be applied to other grades in the future. The assess-ments wil l enable SECSD to “longitudinally” view student achieve-ment in all of the four math goals.

“Both projects are a lot of hard work for both the teachers and consultants,” Nedelcov-Anderson added, “but once we are done the whole process, I hope they will all have found it to be a valuable learning experience.”

Two out of seven strategic alliance pro-jects with the Ministry of Education involve South East Cornerstone School Division (SECSD) teachers this year.

The applications for both the Grade 6 Eng-lish Language Arts project and the Grade 7 Math assessment project were chosen by the Ministry out of numerous applica-tions from across the province.

Taking Flight is a Grade 6 multi-disciplinary unit involving ELA and Science. The alli-ance project involved six Grade 6 teachers from across the division, the assessment co-ordinator, the curriculum and instruc-tional technology co-ordinators and con-sultants. Project teachers were asked to pilot the unit and give feedback to the Ministry.

The Ministry ELA consultant was involved in working with the project team to en-sure everyone fully understood the charac-teristics of an effective ELA program, the importance of creating and using prompts and the application of the Ministry’s holis-tic rubric to student writing, speaking and representing products.

The ELA project team created an analytical rubric to use in addition to the Ministry’s holistic rubric when scoring student work. This enabled the teachers to narrow their focus to specific ELA Compose and Create outcomes. Student exemplars will be

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SECSD partners with Ministry on two strategic projects

April Greetings from the Board Chair

Consultants, co-ordinators and teachers discuss student projects at a March meeting.

Thank a volunteer during national volunteer week

The week of April 10-16 is National Vol-unteer Week in Canada, which recog-nizes those who give of their time and effort in their community.

More than 12.5 million Canadians dedi-cated their time across the country. Vol-

This is the 68th annual National Volun-teer Week, first proclaimed in 1943 to draw attention to women’s contributions in the war effort on the homefront.

If you are a volunteer, thank you. And if someone does volunteer, thank them.

unteers are on the front lines of many services—health care, sports and recrea-tion, heritage and arts, environmental protection and advocacy, disaster relief and volunteer firefighting—the list of posi-tions is endless.

Pre-Kindergarten students in Moosomin are getting a head-start on proper nutri-tion, thanks to a local program that provides nutritional advice and offers child-friendly programming.

One of the priorities in Pre-Kindergarten is making connections in, and being a part of, the local com-munity. Since October, 18 Pre-K stu-dents at MacLeod Elementary School have been making that connection with the Moosomin Family Resource Centre, located a block and a half away from the school.

The students have been going twice a month to the facility, which provides a nutrition program based on a grant from the provincial Community Initiatives Fund. The class will continue going to the Family Resource Centre until June when school ends.

“They teach the kids about healthy eat-ing, which is really important, and we make a snack with them and we make a craft with them,” explained Pre-K teacher Lana McCormac. “They have a drop-in play place, so there are lots of things for the children to play with.

“We’re really lucky they’re that closely located, so we can walk and don’t have

various food groups, the Canadian Food Guide pyramid and what healthy

versus unhealthy eating is. All this makes it a “really good program.”

“In Pre-K, the parents provide the snacks, so we want to make sure the kids are asking for those healthy choices because they are stuck with what mom and dad sent them. So we want to make sure the kids are using their voices and saying, ‘Send me an apple, send me some canta-loupe, not this Dunkaroo,’” McCor-mac added with a laugh.

“They love going there, the kids do. It’s awesome for all of them. The Family Resource Centre is where the parents are supposed to take their kids to and there is programming for them, (such as) crafts and games,” the Pre-K teacher said.

“It’s not a drop-in place where you drop your children off, it’s where you drop in and play with the kids and do the pro-gramming with them. We’re really lucky (they) provide the programming for us.”

For more information on proper nutri-tion and exercise for young children, visit the Ministry of Health’s website.

“The DPA Manual is an excellent tool to support schools in their efforts to achieve these goals,” Richardson said. The manual, found at www.saskatchewaninmotion.ca, contains over 150 activities that Kindergar-ten to Grade 8 teachers can use to imple-ment activity breaks throughout the

school day. The ideas are grouped into sections so teachers can easily find activi-ties that suit their needs.

Most activities don’t require equipment and can be used in classroom teaching across the Saskatchewan Education cur-riculum.

“We hope you will add this manual to

With only 15 per cent of Saskatchewan children and youth – four kids in a class-room of 25 – receiving the recom-mended minimum of 60 minutes of physical activity a day, Saskatchewan in motion has produced a Daily Physical Activity (DPA) Manual with numerous ideas for activities.

In motion is asking schools to do three particular things to get their students active, explained Graham Richardson with in motion.

They are asking schools to: become an in motion school by providing 30 minutes of physical activity every day for every student; provide a quality daily physical educational program; and implement a daily physical activity policy as outlined in the Ministry of Education’s “Inspiring movement: Play Well, Learn Well, Live Well” policy framework and guidelines.

your … resource library. We are excited to continue to work with (school divisions) to ensure our province’s children and youth have the health, energy, strength and opportunities they need to fulfill their full potential,” Richardson said.

Over 450 schools in Saskatchewan have joined the movement and committed themselves to ensuring every student in their school has access to physical activ-ity opportunities.

Whether your school is in motion or not, Saskatchewan in motion invites schools to take advantage of the resources avail-able that will assist in achieving the daily physical activity recommendations.

The Daily Physical Activity Manual, along with other ideas about physical fitness and activity, can be found at www.saskatchewaninmotion.ca.

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to worry about transportation. And we get to get out of the school too.”

This is the fourth year the Resource Centre has been offering the nutrition program. It provides snacks for when the students visit, allowing the children to help cook or make the snack before gobbling it down. The facilitator also reads a book with them during circle time.

Since teaching proper nutrition and pro-viding that type of programming “is their main focus,” the Family Resource Centre’s facilitator has an entire plan mapped out.

McCormac explained the facilitator sepa-rates the program into a new food group each week and reviews it with the chil-dren. She also has literature about the

A N D F R O M T H I S C O R N E R

SAsk . In Motion creates manual to help get kids active

Pre-K students in moosomin get advice on proper nutrition and healthy food

Photo courtesy Lana McCormac

The Canada Food Guide is a great tool to help you and your kids develop healthy eating habits and make health-ier food choices.

About 30-60 per cent of kids do not get enough calcium in their diet for the optimal development of bones and teeth. Dairy products such as milk and yogurt are good calcium sources.

Kids only need one serving of juice a day; that’s ½ a cup. If kids drink too much , then it competes with their in-take of milk, thus less calcium intake.

Topping the nutrient chart for juice is orange juice. When purchasing juice, look for 100 per cent pure juice with no sugar added. Be cautious with high sugars in apple juice especially.

Yogurt is a great source of calcium, pro-tein and needed bacteria for a healthy digestive system.

Proper nutrition and plenty of exercise are two of the ways young children and adults can stay healthy and maintain a balanced weight. Here are a few nutritional and healthy-eating facts you can use, courtesy of Hillcrest Elementary School in Estevan.

Parents and teachers are the most influential role models for children. Let your kids see you eating healthy!

As a parent, remember you are in charge of what is coming home for groceries, not your child. Help them get to know food labels so they can see why the choice is healthy.

Kids who eat breakfast have better academic performance in school, bet-ter moods, more energy and eat better during the rest of the day.

Kids who are involved in grocery shop-ping and meal preparation are 20 per cent more likely to choose whole grains and more fruits and vegetables.

Cavities and tooth decay are on the rise in kids. Part of the reason is the in-creased intake of pop, candy and fruit roll-ups.

Trust and positive reinforcement work better than fear and punishment when trying to facilitate healthy eating habits in kids. For example, don’t scold kids for not eating all their lunch or threaten them if they don’t eat all their veggies. Be the example.

All foods fit into a healthy diet. That includes the pops and chips, but just not very often. Work with the 80/20 rule which suggests trying to eat healthy food choices 80 per cent of the time and allowing treats up to 20 per cent of the time.

Mealtime atmosphere is as important as the food being served. Choose to sit together. Talk about your day. Take time to eat – aim for 20-30 minutes eating together.

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Tips for eating healthy foods for youth

around on whatever it is – as your creativ-ity allows you to make up each move as the challenge presents itself. You don’t know you’re not supposed to be able to do these things, you just do them.

Patch ‘O’ Fitness is for children ages five and up, and everyone who engages in this unique, tried-and-true exercise program will reap the extraordinary bene-fits. The movements you used for physical play as a child are the same movements you use when working with the course.

The course’s exercises engage every muscle in a person’s body like no other exercise program or machine. This creates a non-stop,

heart-pumping workout that a person has total control over.

Patch ‘O’ Fitness also engages the thinking and exercising of the brain. Instead of sitting on a bike or walking on a tread-mill, the user exercises his or her brain as they think ahead to their next exercise or formulate how to position their body to execute a bear crawl or other movement.

Patch ‘O’ Fitness exercise incorporates movements in every conceivable physical plane, the press release added. Training in this manner will, as a natural byprod-uct of the movement, align a person’s musculoskeletal system in its original and correct alignment. When your skeletal system is in perfect alignment, you can experience the flexibility your body was designed for.

Queen Elizabeth School in Weyburn has become the first school in Canada to bring in an innovative and unique fitness course designed to challenge students creatively as they engage in physical activity.

The school recently received the “Patch ‘O’ Fitness Course”, an indoor play structure made up of beams, bases and tops that can be put together in a variety of combina-tions to challenge its users. Made in San Diego, CA., by the Egoscue Foundation, this is the first Patch ‘O’ Fitness Course to be sold outside of the United States.

The school was able to bring in the course through the generosity of community sponsors, as the apparatus cost $5,000.

Since Queen Elizabeth has a large contin-gent of rural students, the course was brought in as a way for those students to keep active after long bus rides to school, as well as during winter recesses when the weather is too cold to play outside.

According to a news release, the best way to describe the Patch ‘O’ Fitness is for you to transport yourself back to when you were between five and 10 years of age. You are playing on the jungle gym, monkey bars, a pile of rocks, mound of dirt, on a log or some old tires.

You have no inhibitions or restrictions – you duck, crawl, jump, climb, leap and roll

V O L U M E 2 , I S S U E 8

F itness course challenges users mentally and phys ically

reliability of such critical infrastructure of Mathematics Awareness Month (MAM) is held each year in April, with the goal of increasing public understanding of and appreciation for mathematics.

MAM began in 1986 and, even though it was proclaimed in the United States, is still something to take note of here.

This year’s theme is “Unraveling Complex Systems.” Complex systems are seen eve-rywhere in life, including insect colonies, ecosystems, power grids, transportation networks and even the World Wide Web.

According to the MAM website, “deciphering the mathematics behind such systems can unravel well-structured networks and discernable patterns in natural and artificial structures … Under-standing these complex systems can not only help us manage and improve the

everyday life, but can also allow us to interpret, enhance and better interact with natural systems.

“Mathematical models can delineate interactions among components of these systems, analyze their spontane-ous and emergent behaviours and thus help prevent undesirable developments while enhancing desirable traits during their adaptation and evolution.”

Some activities that could be done in conjunction with this event include: hav-ing a math scavenger hunt, where stu-dents have to answer questions to qual-ify for prizes; discuss how math is used every day in the workplace, at home, at school or the community; or a math competition to see who can answer the most questions correctly.

few science fairs when she began teaching in various places, and once she got to Mi-dale she helped revive the event there. Upon coming to Carnduff, she helped res-urrect the event there as well.

“It’s not my success, it’s the kids’,” she reit-erated. “I would like the kids to see it’s OK to like science. I’m glad the Big Bang The-ory is on TV right now. It’s OK to be a sci-ence geek. We’re starting to build a culture that is appreciating this venue.”

She added science fairs are a great place

Con’t from page 1 Morland places the success of the students squarely on the students themselves.

“It’s just drawing it out of them and push-ing them to a higher level,” she remarked. “It (the projects) has to be something that interests them ... They take more owner-ship of it if it’s something they enjoy.”

Morland’s interest in science fairs built up from her time back in university, when her professors made the students go out and judge science fairs in Regina. There were a

for students to meet others whom they normally may not meet at a sporting event. They have more time to mingle and talk with other students about their projects, in an environment that is dif-ferent than a sporting event where they might not talk at all on the court.

“I want more kids to experience this,” Morland added. “I want more schools to get involved. It’s a great venue to host for kids who aren’t athletic.”

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Celebrate how math is used in the world during Mathematics Awareness Month

Carnduff ’s Science fair success due to students

The following students will be compet-ing during the two-day event::

DJ Hamelin and Tanner Mack (Architectural CADD)

Alyssa Harris and Alexis Hucaluk (Aesthetics)

Paige Lindsay (Baking)

Ryan Olsen (Cabinet Making)

Ashlie Challner and Caitlyn Heath (Hairstyling)

Gavin Sauder, Kyla Deitz and Riley

Gyorfi (Mechanical CADD)

William Forrest (Precision Machin-ing)

Kelsey Wyatt and Vi Giap (TV/Video Production)

John Elder and Blake Alexus (TV/Video Production)

Brittany Blackburn (Welding).

Skills Canada is a national organization that works to promote skilled trades and tech careers among Canadian youth.

Seventeen students from the Estevan Comprehensive School will be compet-ing in the 13th annual Skills Canada Provincial Competition, held this year From Thursday, April 14 to Friday, April 15, in Moose Jaw and Regina.

This event gives students, who are in a trade at school, the opportunity to com-pete against others from across the province. Competition categories range from aesthetics, cooking and graphic design to electrical wiring, plumbing, autobody repair, robotics and mechani-cal CADD.

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Estevan students participate in Trades competition Estevan students participate in trade skills event

Carnduff success at science fair due to students

P A G E 7 A N D F R O M T H I S C O R N E R

Sports Sports Sports Sports Sports Sports

Reid Richard (back row, second from right) won a bronze medal as a member of the Saskatchewan Wheelchair Basketball team at the Canada Winter Games in Halifax in February. Richard is a Grade 11 student at “33” Central School in Fillmore.

The Weyburn Comprehensive School senior boys curling team won gold at provincials in Regina in March. The team is made up of coach Ray Colbow, Austin Kot, Jeff Nikolejsin, Dane Colbow and Brendon Ryan.

The Weyburn Comprehensive School senior girls curling team won silver at provincials in Regina in March. The team is made up of coach Danette Tracey, Shelby Bendtsen, Brooke Tokarz, Jordan Maas and Ashley Skjerdal. The Redvers School senior girls basketball team won

bronze at Hoopla (provincials) in the 2A category, in Moose Jaw at the end of March. The team is made up of Brittany Pirlot, Claire Alexander, Shana Yates, Brooke Patron, coach Alaina Pirlot, Cassidy Pirlot, Sylvianne Poirier, Marissa Pirlot, Kate Pirlot and Gabrielle Poirier.

The Weyburn Junior High B boys basketball team won gold at the Southeast District championships, held in mid-March at the WJH. The team is made up of: Tyler Kwochka, Troy Brock, Jack Carleton, Donovan Lumb, Jay Hopfe, Cam Evans, Nicholas Cuthbert, Wil Quist, Tyler Ochitwa, Kashtin Hunter, Michael An, Bryden Rumpel, Mitch Bellefleur and coaches Will Cuthbert and Brian Cuthbert.

school and would hardly or never be seen. If students are in a wheelchair, though, they might be in the same high school as students without any challenges.

With the Weyburn Comprehensive School including all students and having the Functionally I n t e g r a t e d Program (FIP), R e i n h a r d t says that is a good thing as it teaches people to be more respect-ful. He added he is not an “expert” and doesn’t know if there are similar programs in other big cities in Canada, but thinks it is “pretty good” to see students with disabili-ties included.

The other difference Reinhardt has no-ticed about schooling in Canada is the length of time in class.

“We have less class hours here and more time to go do sports or other events. There is a closer relationship between teachers and students,” he explained. “It’s less aca-

For Benoît Reinhardt, attending school in Saskatchewan has shown him a number of differences between the education sys-tem in France and in Canada.

The 17-year-old has been living in Wey-burn since mid-August and attending school at the Comprehensive school, as part of Rotary International’s student ex-change program. The Grade 12 student, is from a small community in northern France about an hour from the city of Lille.

Two of the big differences between French and Canadian education Reinhardt has noticed since coming to Weyburn are including students with physical and men-tal disabilities and the amount of time spent in class on a daily and weekly basis.

The exchange student has noticed that in Canada, physically and mentally chal-lenged students are included in school life, and not segregated or hidden away from the rest of the school.

“That is something I really appreciated when I first arrived here. People who need FIP have special helps at school and a class for them. In France, after elementary school and junior high, all these kinds of people would be in a different school, like cut from the normal people. You never see them in regular high schools.”

Students with special needs, particularly mental disabilities, would have their own

demic here.”

In France they are in school for nearly nine hours a day, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and then again from 1-5 p.m. School runs from Monday to Thursday, with four hours of schooling on Saturday morning. It is be-cause of the amount of time they spend in school that makes it so “academic” for the French student, he continued. But with that much time spent in school, it also means there is less time for outside activities such as a part-time job or extracurricular activities.

“Here people make their own money and do their duties,” he added.

Students in France also begin school at a much earlier age. Youth begin school when they are two years old – “It’s not called kin-dergarten,” Reinhardt explained – and eventually do 16 years of school by the time they graduate. With that much school-ing, does that mean the French are smarter than their Canadian counterparts?

“I don’t know if it’s really better. It doesn’t make us smarter, it just means less time for after school activities,” he remarked. “Most of the time teachers don’t like it when you are in a sport and have to miss class (because of a game). Here it’s way better. Teachers ask you if it was fun and how you did. They are not mad at you if you miss class.”

French Exchange student enjoys Canadian inclusivity

80A-18th Street Northeast Weyburn, Sask.

S4H 2W4

Phone: (306) 848-4795 Fax: (306) 848-4747

E-mail: jason.antonio [at] cornerstonesd [dot] ca

SOUTH EAST CORNERSTONE SCHOOL DIVISION NO. 209

We’re on the web! cornerstonesd.ca

South East Cornerstone School Division No. 209 serves over

8,000 students in 38 schools across southeast Saskatchewan.

Stretching from Ogema in the west, to Maryfield in the east,

to Estevan in the south, to Rocanville in the north, SECSD

covers nearly 31,000 square kilometres. With a mission of pro-

viding passionate and committed leadership and a vision to

ensure success for all students, South East Cornerstone School

Division is a leader in instructing students and showcasing

and utilizing technology to enhance education in all schools.

Benoît Reinhardt