Christ the King pursues elite academic program
Would be first elementary school to offer learning strategy in primary grades
Students at Christ the King Catholic elementary school are about to step into a whole new world of education.
The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board has applied to the Switzerland-based International Baccalaureate education foundation to establish its IB program at the south Windsor school beginning with junior kindergarten to Grade 3 classes.
If the board is successful, Christ the King in September would become the first elementary school in Windsor-Essex County to offer the IB program in primary grades. WECDSB offers the IB program to Grade 7 and 8 students at Cardinal Carter secondary school in Leamington. Cardinal Carter is also working toward authorization for the high school diploma IB program. The board also has approval to teach the program to Grade 7 and 8 students at Assumption College high school, which has offered the diploma program for almost 15 years.
“The main thing is education isn’t just limited to the classroom,” said Joseph Ibrahim, a superintendent of education. “(IB) opens it up to real world applications (and) helps students to become broader thinkers on a global scale and to take the curriculum and to apply it to their own lives.
“That inquiry-based learning, that begins early, recognizing who they are and their place on the global stage.”
Officials expect to be notified early in June if Christ the King school has been accepted as a candidate for accreditation, which can take two years to achieve. The goal is to eventually offer IB programming to all grades so that students could continue through elementary school and on to an IB program in high school.
Ibrahim said the International Baccalaureate program, established in 1968, is a framework that the board would build its curriculum around. It provides additional resources and research-based techniques for teaching and learning. Students from across Windsor and Essex County would be eligible to attend the program at Christ the King. Approximately 140 students are enrolled in the middle school program at Cardinal Carter and more than 300 students at Assumption. Ibrahim said those numbers “have consistently grown” over the years.
Christ the King is a dual-track English and French-immersion school that will become completely French immersion in 2024. Principal Marta Marazita travelled to Seattle, Washington, to begin her initial IB training. Marazita said her staff are excited to begin the new program. “During the candidacy phase, all teachers in the primary program will go through some extensive training — what I too will be going through,” she said, adding the school will be assigned an IB coordinator, if approved, to ensure the program meets all necessary criteria.