St. Mary’s Elementary School students were ready to hop on the bus after their first day back from summer vacation on Sept. 5. Jeannette Benoit-Leipert
Lloydminster Catholic School Division (LCSD) teachers and support staff officially welcomed students back to the classroom on Sept. 5, the first day of school.
Although it was a very chilly morning, students received a warm welcome.
“We’re just super excited to welcome all of our children and our families back into the buildings,” said LCSD director of education, Nigel McCarthy.
“This is another year of hope, another year of faith and another year of family, where we’re going to work to give the very best to our children and to build the community around us,” he said.
LCSD students had the chance to have a sneak peek the week before going back, during the back-to-school bash.
“Hundreds of kids just running into schools to meet their teachers and see their classrooms and check out their locker or their desk. That’s the feeling kids have now, and the parents and the community are excited for it,” said McCarthy.
LCSD enrollment has grown significantly across the board, with a ‘larger than usual kindergarten class’ this year.
“Certainly, the schools are all growing. It’s a growing community, and the successes of the community are the successes of our school system,” said McCarthy.
Students at Holy Rosary High School are coming back to some big changes this year.
“We’ve completed our bio-mechanics centre, which is a sport and sport sciences centre. We have completed our new cosmetology lab, as well we have a beautiful, expanded library, and an outdoor classroom that’ll be opening to our students on Sept. 22,” said McCarthy.
“Innovation is exciting, and preparing for the jobs of the future means that we can do things differently in our high school.”
The idea for an outdoor classroom came a few years back when McCarthy went and spoke with HRHS students about what they would like to see in an outdoor learning space.
“It will be a place of reflection, it will be a place where they can go as a class, but also just a place where they can sit outside and perhaps read a book or take their Chromebook or their iPad and do a little bit of classroom work in an outside environment,” said McCarthy, adding they chose to build the outdoor classroom where they noticed students congregating the most.
“The biggest thing kids told me is build us a space that’s out of the wind, and that’s what we’ve done,” said McCarthy.
“I think both teachers and students will find it an educational space but just a space to be them, and to let imagination come together with what they learn.”
McCarthy says it’s important to look to the future. He has seen some major changes in education throughout his career.
“When you’ve spent nearly 30 years in education, you see waves of change come into our classrooms. I remember when the internet was brought into the schools. I remember when social media started to be an influence on kids. I remember the advent of smartphones,” said McCarthy.
“And today, I see artificial intelligence is the next step forward, which we have to prepare kids for. Students have to be taught the tools, and taught how to use the tools so the tools don’t use them.”
For example, in HRHS’s new bio-mechanics centre, athletes can brush up on their technique but the new technology can also spark interest in other types of careers, such as physiotherapy, medicine, or coding just to name a few.
“I have the most innovative group of teachers, support staff, central office staff, that I’ve ever worked with in my career, and their ability to bring these lessons to the kids is what I’m really excited to watch,” said McCarthy.
“Our job is to support everyone by giving them what they need to do their job well. What I’ve seen with our people is that when we give them the tools, they can do extraordinary things.”
