As kids rushed into school last week, some may have noticed a few changes that occurred over the summer. In Standard, students would not have even cleared the doors before seeing something new.
    This year the school is boasting a brand new playground, which to some students may well be the coolest change they’ve seen.
    “Last year we had a parent council committee that went ahead and got government grants. At the end of June we had work crews ripping out the old playground and installing the new, so kids could spend all summer testing it,” said Janice Reagan, with Standard School.
    The old playground was built in stages over the years. The old pieces of equipment were built 35 years ago and many were from 20 years ago.
    “It always looks nice to see a new playground in the yard. Parts of it were here for at least 35 years. That’s how long we hung on to our old equipment. It was time for a change,” said Reagan.
    An added feature of the playground is that if/when the time arises and the school shuts down in favour of a new school to serve a large chunk of Wheatland County, much of the equipment can be reinstalled elsewhere.
    “It’s installed on moveable tracking. A lot of the equipment can be moved to a new location, but parts of it will stay in the community,” said Reagan.
    For staff, the school welcomed its new associate principal, Amy Van Vliet. The position had been previously been vacant. In addition, the school welcomed a new caretaking staff.
    There are few changes this year inside the school. Everything is on hold until the future of the consolidated Wheatland East K-12 school is certain.
    “All major things are kind of on hold and everything is status quo until the government has made its decision about Golden Hill’s application for a stand alone school,” said Reagan.
    There are about 20 new students to the school this year, bringing the total to 200 students.
    For now the school is working as normal, though many students are undoubtedly looking wistfully at the new playground from their desks, just waiting for recess to begin.

    School has been in session for a week now, with students excited to see their friends, teachers, and what’s new in school.
    Hussar School has had a couple changes over the summer, which got students rather excited.
    “We got a colour printer at the school and the Grade 5 class got a new couch, which got the kids pretty excited” joked Grade 6 teacher Linda Moczulski.
    Aside from that, there are new teeter-totters and benches in the playground. Most of the playground had been replaced recently, but the teeter-totters were remnants of the old playground.
    However, the biggest change the school is working on, one which students may not immediately notice, is a change in the way they are assessed and subjects taught.    
    “We’re trying to make everything kid friendly, so they understand why they’re doing each assignment. Often times in the past they would do an assignment, but not know what the purpose was,” said Moczulski.
    Rather than ask a student to learn material and then integrate everything to show why it makes sense, the school is going with the reverse approach. Students will be motivated to learn by being shown the end product and then be taught how to arrive there.
    “We’re working backwards now and show what they should be able to do and then asking how we can get there. For example in science you can set something up like a crime scene investigation, rather than just saying we’re going to learn about fingerprints today,” said Moczulski.
    The school is also working with Golden Hills School Division to standardize the report card grading between all schools within the division.
    Hussar School will continue to offer instruction outside of the formal classes through its specialist teaching program, which starts tomorrow.
     “We have a specialist program here, where special instructors come in each Tuesday. We have an art instructor coming in this week to teach art, which is new for us,” said Moczulski. “Then we’re going on to our cooking program, which is popular. Then we’ll do dance.”
    This is not the first year the program has run and the school hopes to continue to bring in specialists for their students.
    “It’s something we do above and beyond for our students. The kids look forward to see who the next specialist will be,” said Moczulski.
    Enrollment for the year is up  slightly, with 56 students from kindergarten to Grade 6. There are no new teachers or staff at the school.
    For now the school is just looking forward to what the new year will bring.
    “First day went well,” said Moczulski. “We’re excited to be back.”