Herald School teacher Kerry Bloomfield, vice principal Kaylen Christiansen, principal Katrina Corbett and teacher Gregg Ferris present to the public school board at its meeting Tuesday.-NEWS PHOTO JEREMY APPEL
Teachers and administrators from Herald School presented to the Medicine Hat Public School Division board at its Tuesday meeting about efforts to enhance school culture and promote literacy.
One wing of Herald provides students with a basic Grades 1-6 education, while the other offers specialized programming for those with disabilities, ranging from about Grades 5-12.
“There are some things you would consider different for the specialized area,” says principal Katrina Corbett. “Sometimes they need longer processing time. Expectations that are taught are way easier for them to understand and carry out, but those aren’t too much different for the kids who are on the graded side, so it’s almost a universal strategy for both sides of the building.”
Corbett, who presented alongside vice principal Kaylen Christiansen, and teachers Gregg Ferris and Kerry Bloomfield, says the school has developed a “positive behaviour support system,” which is, put simply, a series of expectations for everyone in the building.
There’s an acronym for it based on the school’s hornet mascot – SWARM, which stands for safe, welcoming, achievement, responsibility and mindfulness.
“Those are the expectations we have for our students in all areas of our building,” said Corbett. “The teachers work through a matrix to decide what those expectations would look like in every area of the building and then they taught them to students.”
To that effect, administrators implemented a “student incentive program,” where students are rewarded with prizes for exhibiting SWARM traits, said Corbett.
She says that literacy is a major focus of Herald School, because reading is the origin of all learning.
