King George Community School, built in 1912 but with extensive upgrades, is located within an affordable community close to the South Saskatchewan River and downtown Saskatoon.
We are a safe and caring school and, along with the character education curriculum taught in classrooms based on Michelle Borba's book Building Moral Intelligence, we provide a virtue of the month mini-lesson each day during morning announcements.
Since our school has a Community School Coordinator, it is a hub for educational, social, recreational and cultural activities. We know the benefits of early childhood education and that is why we offer both a morning Pre-Kindergarten program as well as a full-day, alteernating Kindergarten program. Our enrolment of around 160 students, with approximately 65% of aboriginal ancestry, is diverse and comes from a variety of strong multi-cultural backgrounds.
As a way to assist working families, we partner with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and the YMCA to offer a free, supervised Before and After School Program. A breakfast, morning recess snack and lunch Nutrition Program is also available for students that need it. We also have many other generous partners who support us throughout the year.
Literacy is a key learning priority in our strategic plan. Improving students' reading comprehension skills is a major focus and our work has been guided by Debbie Miller's book Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades, and Tanny McGregor's book Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading. All of our teachers have been trained to use The Fountas & Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention System (LLI), a small-group, supplementary intervention designed for children who find reading and writing difficult. The program is designed for children who need intensive support to achieve grade-level competency. In the spring of 2011, we were awarded a $35,000 Indigo Love of Reading Grant which will augment our literacy priority over the next three years.
Math is also a major focus at King George Community School and we will compliment the work we are doing in reading by using the resource Comprehending Math: Adapting Reading Strategies to Teach Mathematics K-6 by Arthur Hyde.
The school and community will celebrate their centennial anniversary on Friday, June 1, 2012. A committee of alumni and community members is planning a celebration from Friday to Sunday, August 17 -19, 2012. More information about this event can be found at kinggeorge100saskatoon.com or by emailing kinggeorge100@hotmail.com
Everyone is welcome in our school and we pride ourselves on building strong relationships and working as a team. In every King George Community School newsletter, students and parents/caregivers and staff are reminded: Remember, together we are better!