Living Sky looks at starting new sport academy

Lehman noted Global Sport Academy also tailors the academy to include various sports activities, in addition to hockey.

The school division is moving ahead with its plans for the program.

“We are committed to having this happen,” Lehman said.

Youth participating in the program would have a roughly 2.5 hour on-ice session each week at the Access Communications Centre in North Battleford, as well as a 1.5 hour off-ice session each week for training and education.

“[The program] will be connected and relevant to curriculum outcomes,” Lehman said. “Students will not only be working on their passion and their skills, but they will be connected to their learning they are having within the classroom. It keeps that connection between school and sport.”

Global Sport Academy will work with the community to provide local expertise to support coaching for the program and within the school.

“That will be a great benefit to both the students and staff at NBCHS,” Lehman said.

While there will be a cost to students taking the sport academy program through Global Sport Academy (GSA), Lehman said it should not be a hindrance for those wanting to participate.

“We’re looking at what that will be and sharing that with our families, the public, and those interested,” Lehman said. “But we also definitely don’t want that to be a barrier. We are going to be working with Global [GSA] as well as our school [and] our community in North Battleford to look at different opportunities for families that may not be able to afford it, to ensure that it is not a barrier for students participating in the program.”

LSSD next plans to make sure families have all the details they need about the program.

“We want to have some information sessions for families to understand and meet the great people at Global Sport,” Lehman said. “We also want to make sure we look at enhancing our local clubs and our local programs, and that we are not doing a competition with Battlefords Minor Hockey, or anything else. We want to involve them in the conversation as we move forward.”

Registration likely start sometime this spring.

Discussions between LSSD and GSA for the project first began a few years ago.

“They [GSA] also work with other school divisions in Saskatchewan. Both PA [Prince Albert] and Moose Jaw are also involved with Global Sport Academy,” Lehman said. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all program. What they guarantee and what has been a connect for us at Living Sky is really they work at our community’s needs… They look at creating a program, [factoring in] what does North Battleford Comprehensive High School’s students, families and community need at this time, and they make it localized.”

She said the sport academy program will be a good addition to Living Sky’s programs, to provide students a more focused education to enhance their skills.

“It’s really about student engagement,” Lehman said. “That’s really a critical piece, developing young athletes, and offering them passion. It’s really pushing us to think about moving the classroom outside of a brick-and-mortar wall.”

Through the program, kids will have more opportunities to learn outside of the traditional classroom setting, so they can take part in “valuable experiences that we credit as educational experiences,” she said.

Lehman added NBCHS is a strong advocate of having a sport academy program, and first brought up the idea for the school division to consider starting the initiative.

“They have seen this as something that would enhance programming for students at their school…,” she said. “Right now, it will be at NBCHS. But that doesn’t mean that’s where our limits will stop by any means.”

–

Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow

by Angela Brown

Living Sky looks at starting new sport academy

This Week in Flyers

This Week in Flyers

What's Trending