Summer might not be over officially for another three weeks, but summer holidays for most area students comes to an end next week.
Summer might not be over officially for another three weeks, but summer holidays for most area students comes to an end next week.
Tuesday, September 3 is when schools start back up for the 2019 / 2020 school year, and with the new school year, officials from Northern Lights Public Schools have some new priorities to focus on. This includes improving the mental health and wellness of students — already a weighted topic of many discussions in recent years. In addition to mental health, Northern Lights school officials are again putting a priority on the improvement of numeracy skills of students.
This long-term education plan with the two main focus points has been determined as a result of an ongoing consultation process involving feedback from not only parents and staff, but the students themselves, says Northern Lights Public School Communications Officer Nicole Garner.
"The NLPS Board of Trustees undertook an extensive stakeholder consultation process last year to get feedback on what priorities should be included in the division's new Three-Year Education Plan. The input received from parents, students, and staff, as well as the data collected, strongly showed a need to address mental health and wellness," Garner said.
"After reviewing the feedback, the Board selected (mental health), along with numeracy, as division priorities for 2019-2022. They will be included in the Three-Year Education Plan that will be approved in November," she added.
As of now, the details have not yet been formalized when it comes to the implementation of the new priorities in the three-year Education Plan. Because it is a long-term plan, the development of strategies would be a continuous process gradually included and implemented within the plan, Garner confirms.
"I don't have full details on what initiatives we will be introducing or changes we will be making yet. The strategies we will be using are still being developed and refined for inclusion in our Three-Year Education Plan. They will be shared with stakeholders as we finalize our Three-Year Education Plan and start implementing the strategies that are included in it," she said.
Mental Health Checklist
As part of their focus on improving students' mental health and wellness — and to kickstart the campaign, the school district has shared a Back to School Family Mental Health Checklist to help parents and students get prepared for the new school year.
The checklist (and its details) can be found
here .
Some of the things addressed on the checklist have a lot to do with how to deal with change. As follows are some of the items to 'check' off the checklist in order to be better prepared for the upcoming school year.
- Get back into a routine
- Visit some professionals
- Check for changes
- Organize yourself
- Give them the script
- Plan for healthy meals & snacks
- Schedule child care
- Find some extra
- Meet your team
- Celebrate summer
Board Business
The NLPS Board will hold its Organizational Meeting and first regular meeting of the 2019-2020 school year today, August 27, at their Bonnyville division office.
The Organizational Meeting starts at 10 am. An in-camera, private session of the meeting will follow, and the public session will be open at 1 pm.
