With big changes coming to the education system in across the province, Prince Rupert School District superintendent Sandra Jones outlined what parents, staff and students can expect in the years ahead.
"We have a Kindergarten to Grade 9 curriculum that is out and we are working this year to do as much implementation as we can and support that full implementation next year. We're kind of trialing that new curriculum ... Next year we are going to have a Grade 10-12 curriculum trial. We will have people coming to talk to us about that curriculum and then we will have two years to prepare and fully implement that," she told board members at the Sept. 15 meeting, noting the changes have her support.
"The new curriculum is very good. It is developed by teachers throughout the province and it answers some of the problem questions we have had over the year, which is the curriculum has too many pieces, is too vast and you could never finish it in a year. This tightens it up and makes it allows people to personalize that curriculum a bit more and use their passions and strengths together ... I think you are going to see students excel in some areas people want to see developed, such as teamwork, leadership, creativity, ability to think through and solve a problem and that kind of thing, in addition to basics like reading, writing and numeracy."
Along with changes to the curriculum, there will be changes coming to the Foundation Skills Assessment test and provincial exams to reflect the changes. However, the district is looking at modifying more than just the teaching in the classroom.
"In order to fully implement the new curriculum we want to talk about how we are going to communicate student learning to parents. We know that just giving an 'A' or a 'B' or a number isn't necessarily communicating most richly what kids are learning in school," she said.
"We have, with our teacher's union, developed a committee and will be working on how we will be communicating student progress to parents and families and looking at the new reporting orders as they are developed."