Highlights of the items discussed at the latest meeting of the Creighton school board, held Oct. 23:
• The chairperson of the Creighton School Community Council, Tiffany Ealey, presented trustees with an overview of the council’s plans for the upcoming school year.
Highlights of their plan are to increase membership on the council, increase their visibility as an organization supporting the school, and develop family programming opportunities.
The Creighton school board has provided the council with a dedicated classroom space to hold their meetings and provide family programming opportunities.
Some of the planned family programming opportunities include a Kids First North story hour, a presentation on positive self-worth by the Mamawetan Churchill River Regional Health Authority’s Mental Health department and a CADAC presentation on keeping kids drug-free.
• From Oct. 6-10, all the Directors of Education in Saskatchewan were involved in a strategic planning process to develop a draft provincial plan for education.
In previous years the province would identify four to five annual priorities, and each school division would develop their own unique plan to support the priorities.
This draft plan is scheduled to be finalized in February and implemented starting the 2014-15 school year.
Once the strategic plan is implemented all 28 school divisions will be working on a unified strategic plan and using common strategies to achieve the outcomes identified in the plan.
• The Ministry of Education is now requiring school divisions to report on the reading levels of all Grade 1-3 students three times a year.
Creighton Community School is implementing a new reading assessment and reading intervention program called Fountas and Pinnell.
At the October meeting, Janel Pearson, the Creighton Community School literacy coach, informed the board of the results for the Fountas and Pinnell reading assessment.
These results indicated that 38 per cent of the students in Grades 2 and 3 are reading below grade level expectations at this time.
All of the students reading below grade level will participate in a reading intervention program designed to bring their reading scores up to grade level.
During the intervention program the student’s progress is monitored on a bi-weekly basis to ensure that the strategies being used are making an impact on student learning.
This process of assessment and intervention is an ongoing cycle as all grades 1-3 students are screened three times a year.
• Earlier in the month, on Oct. 7, Saskatchewan Lieutenant Governor Vaughn Schofield visited Creighton Community School to present the Northern Student Achievement Awards.
These awards recognize outstanding students at each grade level from grades 7 to 12 in northern Saskatchewan schools. This program has inspired students to focus on their studies, keep up good school attendance, explore cultural traditions and become involved in their local communities.
Recipients of the award this year included the following Creighton students:
Grade 7 - Megaan Sutherland, Jeremy Tait, Brady Farkus, Aline Nasselquist
Grade 8 - Bradley Fox
Grade 9 - Alyshia Soshycki, Tyler Williamson Grade 11 - Daniel Ratt
Grade 12 - Marley Williamson
In addition the Lieutenant Governor presented the Lieutenant Governor’s Award of Excellence to Daniel Ratt.
Only six students across northern Saskatchewan, one at each grade level, are chosen to receive the prestigious Award of Excellence each year.
