New school about embracing change
More students and fresh look for Cambridge’s St. Vincent de Paul
CAMBRIDGE — The name is the same. Just about everything else has changed.
Families marvelled at two floors housing 26 new classrooms at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Elementary School when the school reopened Tuesday after expanding to add 240 students and a daycare.
“I think it’s going to be a really exciting opportunity to meet a lot of new people at this really big school,” said Jayden Glover, 10. She’s entering Grade 5.
Her brother Jordan Glover, 9, was keen to meet his Grade 4 teacher. “There’s all this cool stuff,” he said, eyeing the new building.
“I’m sure there will be the latest technology. So that’s good for the children to start learning,” said their father, John Glover.
Families gathered in the playground before students entered for the first time. At more than 600 students, the school on Faial Road is the biggest most have ever attended.
“I’m kind of scared,” said Lauren Rodrigues, 13, who’s entering Grade 8. “It’s really big.”
The new St. Vincent de Paul includes students formerly at St. Francis Catholic Elementary School. St. Francis closed in June, concluding a sevenyear-process to consolidate Catholic schools in southeast Galt.
Serena Luxton, 7, attended St. Francis. She was nervous to start Grade 3. “Because it’s a new school,” she said.
“You have to embrace change,” said her mother, Mieke Verhoeven. “I’m excited to see what the new year will bring for my kids.”
Debbie Martins knows about embracing change. Three decades ago she attended St. Vincent de Paul when it opened. The school was so new it had yet to add its gymnasium.
Now she’s sending her son James Huber, 12, to the new version of her old school. Only the gymnasium has been retained in the expansion.
“I have seen a few transformations.
It’s exciting,” Martins said.
Wayne Smith, 13, is returning for Grade 8 to enjoy art and gym classes. “Now I have to get used to this school again,” he said.
The Waterloo Catholic District School Board relocated Wayne and other students for two years while St. Vincent de Paul was reconstructed.
His mother, Althea Smith, is surprised to see the new school already has portable classrooms.
Built for 550 students, St. Vincent de Paul reopens with almost 630 amid surging Catholic enrolment. Three portable classrooms help to handle the overflow.
Expansion cost $13.5 million including the daycare. The new school has air conditioning, an updated wireless network, heated kindergarten floors, an outdoor classroom, a small chapel beside the library, and flexible classroom furniture.
Desks and chairs are not assigned. To encourage collaboration and help fidgety kids learn, classrooms provide stools, rockers, and chairs of varying heights, placed around shared desks of varying heights and sizes.
“When a child has to sit still and it’s hard for them, they’re concentrating so much on sitting still they’ve lost connection with the teacher,” principal Susan Sawyer said. “This seating will allow them to move, and they can engage.”
Sawyer has spent part of two years helping St. Francis and St. Vincent students get to know each other. There have been picnics and soccer games and pen pals and a pilgrimage walk.
“Pooling two communities together was really exciting,” she said. Together, they’re writing a new chapter for a school that knows change.