Elementary
Why choose École Sainte-Catherine?
Simple: Thanks to École Sainte-Catherine, students enjoy going to school!
At École Sainte-Catherine, we think that each student is unique. Our main ambition is to provide each student with a pleasant environment where they feel comfortable, respected and where they can develop their confidence and their own abilities by becoming autonomous and self-teaching. Each student participates in their own development, while we have cultural events, sports and/or extracurricular activities in place to complete their academic experiences.
At our school, you can see classes in action! We have tons of projects, experiments, learning activities and other assignments! Our gift to our students is to let them discover their personal interests so as to get a sense of fulfillment and explore their talents!
The school offers a francization program and its main priority is to facilitate the integration of students. Your child will have the opportunity to gain knowledge, acquire oral abilities and develop a positive attitude towards the French language. Depending on his or her own experience, your child will build a sense of belonging to the francophone community by contributing to its vitality and vibrancy. We are a bold francophone school, everything is possible here, we have the future success of your child at heart, in French first, so that he or she becomes truly bilingual, and that is a gift that will last a lifetime.
Our staff will do everything in their power to optimize the school experience for each student, which will be inclusive so that they can learn better, develop their independence and fulfill their own identity.
The school team works closely with families and parents, who are also asked to help, for instance during field trips. Parents are always welcome at the school. Even if you do not speak French, you will have many opportunities to get involved in the life of the school. Parents are encouraged to give their name if they wish to volunteer and they will be assigned to appropriate activities according to their level of proficiency, in the language of their choice.
The overall development of our students is one of the priorities for the school staff, who will always work to fulfill the needs of the “digital” generation. Therefore we have to link learning with technology.
Literacy at the elementary level
The Daily 5 system is a framework for structuring literacy time so students develop lifelong habits of reading, writing and working independently. The method aims to develop independence for reading and writing at the elementary level and consists of 5 learning activities for students to work on daily, while the teacher can support individuals or small groups. The Daily 5 teach the teachers how to encourage the students to participate methodically and systematically in the five components of the program:
- Read to Self
- Read to Someone
- Work on Writing
- Listen to Reading
- Word Work
The CAFE System is a practical and simple way to assess the daily reading activities in the classroom. Based on studies done on skilled readers, the CAFE system provides a structure for one-on-one lessons, as well as a method to assess the evolution of the students and help them to be independent. This method helps teachers evaluate the needs of their students and develop a plan to reach their reading and writing goals. The main objective remains to develop the reading and writing abilities of the students and that is precisely what the CAFE method does. Here is what the acronym “CAFE” means at École Sainte-Catherine:
C omprehension
A ccuracy (reading)
F luency
E xpanding vocabulary
“GB +” literacy program at the elementary level. The “GB +” literacy program helps students develop their reading and writing skills. The collection has reading booklets with different sets and increasingly difficult levels, for a total of 354 titles and 30 levels. Based on the assessment procedures developed by Marie M. Clay, a world-renowned scholar, the material will help to:
– Find the appropriate reading level;
– Detect learning disabilities;
– Assess the students’ progress;
– Write reports for parents;
– Develop consistent practices within the school.
Math Daily 3. The Math Daily 3 system gives students tasks and activities so that they can develop deep conceptual understanding and mathematical proficiency, while meeting the Ministry’s standards. Very much like the Daily 5 method for literacy that is used to teach them to work independently, this approach allows them to have a better and deeper understanding of the topic. The Math Daily 3 program includes the 3 following components:
- Math by Myself;
- Math with Someone;
- Math Writing.
Many activities take place at the school, for example author visits, workshops from visiting first nations, spatial exploration with in a giant dome, etc. Furthermore, students enjoy outings. There are many museums and interesting sites to visit in Lac La Biche. To mark the end of the school year we also do field trips, for exemple to the Science Center in Edmonton or Drumheller to see the dinosaurs!
Our students are very active! In addition to the physical education classes, we offer skating and swimming outings. In Winter when the snow is nice we go sliding by the lake. In the Summer we organize mini-olympics in our nice yard. We are members of the LSAA. Our sport mascot is the wolf!