Students at Alexandra Middle School learn the basics of building in a construction class.--SUBMITTED PHOTO
reporter@medicinehatnews.com
A working group of all middle school administrators within Medicine Hat Public School Division was created to explore programming alterations along with exploring new offerings for students.
“Interestingly, because they didn’t necessarily work together, they brought back a structure that looked quite similar across schools, so we took that to try to build something that fit together,” explained Corey Sadlemyer, associate superintendent of learning.
The MHPSD Hockey Academy will be launched in September this year at multiple schools across the division and Ken Dzikowski has been brought on as the program co-ordinator. Sadlemyer stated, “Kids will get a minimum of 36 ice slots during the year; if you are in hockey academy it will either be on a Monday/Wednesday afternoon, or a Tuesday/Thursday afternoon. Students will get an hour of ice time and an hour of dry-land training or, as Ken is calling it, hockey IQ where he has themes built out.”
Seven schools across the division will be participating in the hockey academy, and students will come together in groups. While the hockey academy is being offered at the most schools, some will also be offering a variety of other academies for students to enrol in, and all will be launched in September.
Medicine Hat Christian School will run a hockey academy for Grades 4 through 9 and is planning a drama academy. Ross Glen School is offering a Grade 4-6 hockey academy as well as an athletics academy, which will have a variety of supports to run parallel to the hockey academy.
Dr. Roy Wilson Learning Centre will have a Grade 4-9 hockey academy as well as a number of royal academies for Grades 7, 8 and 9. One of the royal academies will focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), another on manufacturing and technology, a third on athletics along with one in culinary arts.
Crestwood Schools is still offering STEM-centred learning, which was successfully soft-launched last fall.
“They’ve had a great year working through what (the STEM program) looks like and every six weeks they have a celebration and get tons of families in,” said Sadlemyer.
Connaught Ecole School will have a Grade 4 -6 hockey academy as well.
“As of this morning, we have 154 pre-registrations for the hockey program and one-sixth of those are from Connaught, so a really good turnout there,” stated Sadlemyer. “We are only accepting internal registrations right now but will open up early bird registration for those external to the system on Jan. 15, so for people moving to the community or those who want to come back to the system.”
Alexandra Middle School will continue to run its Sports Institute as well as offering STEM, arts, trades and technology academies.
“They are working through how to offer all those parallel to one another to give students a greater choice,” explained Sadlemyer.
Dr. Ken Sauer School will continue to be an arts-centred learning environment for Grades K-6. Vincent Massey will be the elementary school in the north part of the city providing a hockey academy for Grades 4-6. Crescent Heights will have a Grade 7-9 hockey academy as well as a Heights Academy, which will provide volleyball, basketball, golf, football and soccer as areas of focus students can dive into.
More information on the new academies can be found at mhpsd.ca/academies. MHPSD will also be holding two open-house expos, one at Crescent Heights High School on Jan. 24, hosting all public schools in the north part of the city, and another at Medicine Hat High School on Jan. 25, hosting all public schools in the south part of the city. Information will be available about the new academies in addition to all the other programs and supports available within the division.
