St. Albert and Sturgeon County students are headed back to school in person this week, some for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Thousands of St. Albert-area students kicked off the 2021-2022 school year this week. While Sturgeon Public students start classes Sept. 1, St. Albert Public and Greater St. Albert Catholic students held staggered start dates from Aug. 31 to Sept. 3 as a way to reduce hall congestion and the risk of spreading COVID-19.
About 150 parents and students at École Secondaire Sainte Marguerite d’Youville got an even earlier start Aug. 27 through the school’s Starting Block program, which gave Grade 7 students a chance to explore the school before classes officially started on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1. The halls brimmed with the chatter of excited youths as they picked up textbooks, wrangled lockers, and hugged old friends.
Junior high is a big step for students coming out of elementary school, explained ESSMY principal Monique Aultman. Students have much more freedom in the form of option classes and the ability to go off-grounds at lunch, but also much more responsibility. There’s no more homeroom teacher keeping you on task, for example, and a much greater requirement to budget time for homework.
“Trying to learn how to open a combination lock is always a challenge,” Aultman said.
Grade 7 student Isabella Rubuliak said she figured it out eventually, and now has her lock’s combination memorized.
“I was very confused for the first five times, but then a teacher helped me and then I could do it,” she said.
Nearer to normal
St. Albert Public students will have to wear masks at all times in school for at least this September, the board announced Aug. 30. That's a change from last September, where masks were voluntary for Grades K-3 and required for Grades 4-12.
Greater St. Albert students will also see masks return, but less often. On Aug. 30, the board announced that it would require all K-3 students to wear masks in common areas and whenever classes mixed, such as during assemblies. Grades 4-12 and staff members had to mask up in common areas and were strongly encouraged to wear them in class.
About three-quarters of the parents and students at the ESSMY Starting Block event (which happened before Monday's announcements) wore masks, with all the students interviewed by The Gazette saying they planned to keep wearing them this fall.
Avlyn Virani, who ran up and down the halls exploring ESSMY with her friends, said she was a little nervous about the start of school, having spent the last year taking classes online. She also had to brush up on her French, as she lost some of her proficiency due to the less immersive nature of online learning.
“I’m really happy to see my friends and really excited to start junior high,” Virani said, and excited by the prospect of eating lunch in an actual lunchroom instead of just heading upstairs for a sandwich.
“I think it’s going to be a cool new adventure.”
Asher Schalk said he was also a little wary about starting junior high, having spent the last seven years at École Marie Poburan next door, but is excited to meet new friends and try out for the school’s volleyball team.
Schalk’s father, Kyle, said his family was glad to see sports and other activities back on the school agenda, and hopeful that more stringent COVID measures would not become necessary.
“I think there’s an element of excitement, maybe even more so than in past years, of hopefully getting back some kind of normalcy.”
Aultman said ESSMY students will spend their first few days at school learning about digital citizenship and practicing fire drills. Their first big school event will be the Terry Fox Run in mid-September.
