By battlefordsNOW

Living Sky School Division looks at transiency and enrolment

Nov 9, 2017 | 6:00 PM

The local school division is turning its sights onto helping transient students graduate. 

The issue came up during Wednesday’s Living Sky School Division school board meeting when members reviewed recent enrolment numbers that showed an overall decrease from the start of the school year.

Following the meeting, Director of Education Brenda Vickers said she read an article on the topic that indicated it can be detrimental for some students to move from one school to another.

“We’re all doing the same curriculum but not necessarily every unit at the same time,” she said. “If you move around there will be gaps. Plus, you have to make friends all over.”  

The total enrolment for all schools in the division amounted to 5,599 as of Oct. 31, which is 48 less than the 5,647 from the Sept. 30 enrolment report. The projected number for the year was 5,526. 

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During the meeting Chief Financial Officer Lonny Darroch pointed out schools across the province see fluctuations with enrolment as students change schools so it isn’t something new.

While the division doesn’t know each particular case of why a student would change schools, they said there could be many valid reasons why they would need to move.

“It’s beyond people’s control,” Vickers said. “It’s life circumstances and for whatever reason they have to go. But does the number of schools that children attend have an effect on their learning? Absolutely.” 

Changing schools can add another challenge as students try to adapt to a new setting and at the same time earn enough credits to graduate.

“In my opinion, you have to have a sense of belonging,” Vickers said. “You have to feel comfortable. You have to have friends; you have to know the teachers. It’s a relationship.”

She added students switching schools also need to consider what courses they want to take that might have a pre-requisite they hadn’t considered.

“Transiency is one of the factors in how well students do in school,” Vickers said. “That can be tough to overcome.”

For students who are considering jumping schools for more personal reasons, because they are facing challenges at their existing school, Vickers recommends they consider talking about it first.

“Administrators try to sit down and have a conversation,” Vickers added. “When there is a relationship difficulty, we try to work these things out. When you are working with people every day there are going to be days when not everybody sees eye to eye. That’s relationships. Our hope is that we work through those things and go forward in a better way, actually.” 

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow