Catholic school classes in unconventional places are a draw for families
A couple of months after Callista Sauvé began Grade 7, her stomach hurt every morning when it was time to wake for school.
Day after day, the strong learner who loved to write refused to get out of bed and go to school, which baffled her parents.
The homework some teachers sent home went untouched. That agonizing period, when Callista’s social anxiety kept her out of class for so long, is now history — and her parents couldn’t be prouder.
“I’ve seen her grow so much. She’s got so much self-confidence,” her mother Laurie Sorotsky said last week, smiling through tears.
Where Callista goes to school now, there are no bells, lockers or students clustered in halls.
She’s one of 14 teens in Edmonton Catholic Schools’ Personal Pathways class at the Clareview Recreation Centre in northeast Edmonton. It’s one of 24 classes run by the district’s Genesis School, which operates in unconventional spaces in City of Edmonton facilities.
Staff and families with kids enrolled say stepping away from a traditional school setting is a perfect fit for their child’s unique needs.
“I can’t believe we found this,” Sorotsky said, sitting at a rec centre café table on Friday. “I said to her dad, ‘There’s something that might work for her.’ And, I was really excited about it.”
Even when Callista strayed from school, the staff didn’t give up on her, dad Ricky Sauvé said.
Running school programs outside of school buildings began out of necessity when booming populations of little kids swarmed south Edmonton, leaving little room for preschool programs, said Kris Hodgins, principal of Genesis School.
The district arranged to run two preschool classes (which the district calls 100 Voices) out of Terwillegar Recreation Centre instead in fall 2011.
The parents loved it — they could go for a workout or a swim while their three- and four-yearolds learned and played. As part of class, the kids regularly spend time in the pools, learn to skate in the rinks, clamber in indoor playgrounds and tear around the gym.
The all-year 100 Voices pre-kindergarten expanded to more spots, including the Valley Zoo, Muttart Conservatory, and John Janzen Nature Centre. About two years ago, Genesis staff thought, “Why wouldn’t big kids be successful in this area as well?” Hodgins said.
In fall 2016, they created Personal Pathways for middle years students which now runs junior high programs in Clareview and Meadows recreation centres and a Grade 4-7 program in the Downtown Community Arena. Next year, they’re adding a junior program at the ACT Centre, and expanding the Meadows and Clareview locations to include high school grades.
Stephanie Malkin is the junior high teacher at the Clareview program. Alongside her are a behavioural assistant, a youth coordinator, and, part of the time, a social worker and a psychologist.
Many of her students cope with anxiety and depression. Some were misdiagnosed with behavioural problems. After Malkin determines where each student is at, she works through the junior high curriculum by personalizing lessons for each student. If teens need a break, they can head into the rec centre then return and refocus.
Students take turns making lunch for the class using the rec centre kitchen after researching recipes, and may go shopping for the food. They shadow some city employees to learn about their work.
“The kids who have really bought into this program, they fly with it,” Malkin said. Research points to the first five years of a child’s life as an important predictor of their future health and success.
When Janna Kirkup’s family adopted brothers Cameron and Jo from the French-speaking Democratic Republic of Congo, the teacher was concerned their lack of English would hold them back.
The boys also had speech delays, some stuttering, and she was worried about their motor skills. She enrolled the boys in the Terwillegar 100 Voices program, where they loved pre-kindergarten so much, they would battle each other to be the first to share the details of their day. “It’s a game changer,” Kirkup said.
Their speech improved, and their English is now outstanding, she said. Cameron, 6, is now finishing his first year of French immersion kindergarten, and Jo, 5, is ready for kindergarten in the fall.
The 100 Voices classes are free for English language learners and tots with mild to severe challenges. About 10 per cent of children are typical kids whose parents pay fees. On-site with teachers are speech language pathologists, social workers, behavioural specialists and early learning consultants.
Katie Fedor also looked for extra help when she saw how her twin girls, Olivia and Sophia, sat and watched while other toddlers their age chatted and climbed around. The three-year-old sisters were born 10 weeks premature and had speech and motor delays.
Each was saying about five words last fall, and now they’re speaking in sentences, Fedor said.
“It’s awesome to see them interacting with other kids now.”