Schools around Winnipeg are welcoming students back to classrooms this week, and educators say their goal is to make school a place kids want to be — not just something they consider a chore.
“I think it’s pretty easy, especially if we give the students the opportunity to speak up and express what they like,” Meadows West School vice-principal Paul Kelvin Ong told 680 CJOB’s The Start.
“(To express) what their strengths are, ensuring that their voices are considered in the decisions that we make.”
Ong said the elementary school strives to foster a positive environment for its 500-plus students — a sentiment shared by many other school administrators across the city.
Bairdmore School principal Allison Ward told Global Winnipeg that preparations have been underway for months already, and her school’s teachers and support staff are looking forward to the new year as much as the students are.
“We are so excited. I woke up early this morning,” Ward said. “We have been getting ready for students … and we’re just so excited to welcome them here this morning.
“Our teachers have been in and out of the building, working on classrooms, putting up bulletin boards, setting up their spaces, getting supplies ready.
“This building has been very busy over the past few weeks.”
Ward said many parents — especially those whose kids are attending their first day of kindergarten — are likely feeling some anxiety, but the focus should be on fostering a positive, welcoming environment for the new students.
“Be excited for your children,” she said. “It’s OK to have that little cry, but maybe do it after you drop them off at school.
“It’s such a milestone … we want our students to feel that excitement.”
