At WRPS our actions and decisions are always guided by what is in the best interests of our students and staff. An essential part of our decision-making is to seek and to honour feedback received from staff and members of our larger school community. We recently surveyed these stakeholder groups to take into consideration their input in the decision of whether to participate in a pilot of the Draft K-6 Provincial Curriculum. Overwhelmingly, the feedback we have received does not support our participation at this time.
As well, WRPS recognizes that during this past year our staff have courageously and diligently faced and continue to cope with the unprecedented and challenging circumstances caused by the global COVID 19 pandemic. The well-being of our school communities is of the utmost importance. Two of the Board’s key priorities for the 2021-22 school year are: a) to address and assess the learning gaps of our students and b) the safety and wellbeing of students and staff. WRPS believes that our time and energy are best spent on focusing on recovering from the impact of the pandemic. This will be our focus as we move towards the 2021-22 school year. At this point, it is uncertain to what extent school life will resemble pre-pandemic normalcy in the fall.
As such, given the ongoing impact of the global pandemic of Covid-19 and the significant ongoing challenges that our students, staff and families have faced this past year, we have decided that this is not the time to move forward with piloting the Draft K-6 Provincial Curriculum.
Board Chair, Lynn Ware, says, “It’s important to note that we are still in the midst of a crisis. If there were a tornado swirling around us, we wouldn’t emerge from the refuge of the basement to start building a new shed in the backyard. The current storm needs to pass, and it is then incumbent on us to assess and repair the damage before taking on new projects.”
A new curriculum is vitally important and will impact students for many years to come. For a new curriculum to be launched successfully, staff need to be afforded appropriate time, support, resources and preparation. Although WRPS will not participate in piloting the new draft K-6 curriculum next school year, we will engage with our administrators, teaching staff and stakeholders in a comprehensive analysis of the draft to provide meaningful feedback to Alberta Education. We also encourage our families to take the time to view the curriculum (click here) and provide input to Alberta Education. (click link)
Superintendent Barron shares, “Alberta Education is earnest in its desire to have feedback on their draft curriculum. We will do our part to make sure our perspective is shared; however, our attention in the coming year needs to be laser focused on the needs and wellbeing of our students and staff.”
View the full Media Release.
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