Western Canada High School

We left Tara home today to research Western Canada High School online, due to a recent outbreak of measles at the school.  We arrived early and parked in the student car park. The school is located on17th Avenue, which is similar to being located on O'Connell St. in Adelaide or Lygon St. in Melbourne. We had time for a coffee at Starbucks (a stone's throw from the school) and later discovered that Starbucks organises their staffing based on the school schedule.
We met principal Kimberly (Kim) Hackman, he was quick to ask us where we had parked and suggested we move to the gated staff area. Later we discovered a visiting Japanese group had their car towed away for parking in the wrong spot!

INTRODUCTION
- Western are one of the top 10 performing schools in Alberta
- Currently there is an issue to be resolved with their school sporting logo. 'The Redmen' and the graphic is the head dress of a First Nation (indigenous) warrior. The Calgary Board of Education have decided that it must change, so the school is looking at alternatives. One suggestion has been The Red Hawks.
- The school has just been through a $35 million development over 3 years.
- There are 140 staff members and 16 of those are Learning Leaders.
- Students can stay at school until they are 20 years of age.
- The school focuses on Academics, Athletics (Sport) and Fine Arts ( Music, Drama, Dance, Art)
- All students are expected to carry a full course load to take advantage of the many programs offered at Western Canada High School.  A full course load is defined as follows:  Grade 10 minimum 8 courses, Grade 11 minimum 7 courses, Grade 12 minimum 6 courses – 3 each semester.
- The school year starts roughly on the 7th of September and the first break is about December 19th. During this semester there will be PD and organisational days where students are off site. Between December 19th and January 6th students and staff have their winter break. They then return to school and have 4-5 days of classes before they go into 2 and 1/2 weeks of exams. Students don't attend school when they don't have exams. Teachers can mark during this time and do prep for next 
semester. Reports are also written during this time. Semester 2 starts around February 3rd and goes thru to early March, followed by spring break for 10 days. The semester continues from the end of March until early June. Again during this time there are PD and organisational days set for teachers. From June 7th until the end of June is for exams, once again students are only onsite when they have an exam. Teachers use this time to plan for the following year. July and August is their summer vacation break.
- School fees are only $132, however, there are a lot more costs that parents pay during the year depending on the courses studied. Most courses have individual costs e.g basketball is $600 due to the travelling expenses.
- Around the school and in main buildings/corridors TV screens are mounted with continuous bulletin notes or relevant quotes. This has been seen in both schools so far.



SCHOOL PROGRAMS
- International Baccalaureate is offered at the school. The IB program is designed to be a challenging alternative for academically motivated high school students.  Students may pursue either a Certificate (partial) program (with a minimum of 2 subjects) or a Diploma (full) program.
- The school offers the following international languages: French Immersion, French, and Spanish. 
It is a special achievement to maintain a successful standing in three courses offered in French.  Those students receive an award of a French Immersion Certificate when they have earned 45 credits, which include FLA 30, Social Studies 30F, and Math 30PF.
- CALM (Career and Life Management) is a mandatory course related to healthy living and finance, which students must pass. It is worth 3 credits. It can be done online but students must meet once a week with the teacher at lunch. This course is under review due to the amount of mental health issues in society, the belief is that there needs to be more emphasis on the content. 
- Individualised programs are offered for example there are quite a few athletes performing at the 
Olympic level and need to have their programs modified. Another example is a student who was 12 
years old when they began studying Maths and by the age of 16 had finished his whole Maths requirements for the Diploma. 
- Alberta has a National Sports School which means that all subjects are taken online. Western also have many high level athletes who attend their school, they choose to do so because of friends, but programs are adapted to allow them to do courses online.
- Kim predicts there will be no handwritten exams in 2 years time. 

RESOURCE ROOM / THE CLASS 
- There are 2 areas that support students with special needs.
- The Resource Room has a Learning Strategist available to help students who would like assistance with their school work.
- All students who require extra help or have special learning needs can receive services such as,individualised  assessment, and learning strategies including: organisational and time management skills, study and test-taking skills, managing test anxiety, and self-advocacy skills.
- Assistance finding a peer tutor is also available.
- The Class is for students with anxiety.
- The students are coded depending on their level of disability. A level 50 is for mild to moderate, 42 is severe. 200 students are coded and require individual program plans but this also includes the gifted students.
- In the Resource room students get credits for undertaking the program Learning Strategies.
- 5 schools in Calgary offer 'The Class' program. It's really for the introverts and those who internalise issues. Students are carefully screened because there is a fine line between mental health and behavioural issues. There is a ratio of between 5-7 students to 1 support person. Sometimes this is a teacher with a support person. 
- Dr Stankutcher (Canadian Psych Specialist) has written a mental health curriculum.
- Once a week there is a meeting with a psychologist, psychiatrist and family education officer.  

SCHOOL TIMETABLE
- 80 min. periods  - Monday- Thursday 
- 8:35-9:00 Tutorials, 9:05-10:25  (Block 1), 10:30-11:50 (Block 2), 11:50-12:30 Lunch,12:35-1:55 (Block 3), 2:00-3:20 (Block 4), 3:20-3:40 Tutorials.
- Friday - 8-9am Meetings, 9.05-10.05 (Block 1), 10.10-11:10 (Block 2), No Break,11:15-12:15 (Block 3),  12:20-1:20 (Block 4), 1:20 - Dismissal

SETTING OBSERVATIONS
- Every school has their own Casino fundraiser. Representatives from the school help to run it, which result in the school earning $50,000 -$100,000! This money then goes towards purchasing equipment etc.
- Students on work free periods (frees, spares, private study lessons) are required to be out of the halls at the period bell and in one of the following locations only: library, cafeteria, study hall or off campus.
- Card playing (or games of chance) are not allowed.
- Staff meetings are held once a month as are faculty meetings. Thejustification for this is that smaller groups are far more productive. There is virtually no whole school T&D.
- Kim as principal gets pulled out of school so much that the 3 APs are like principals of their own groups (Alphabet system). Each AP has their own secretary and Guidance Officer. They are also responsible for taking yard duty down 17th Avenue. This is important for maintaining a positive culture and ensuring students don't take their privilege to leave school grounds for granted.
-If there was an attendance issue a staff member would send an email to the relevant AP and Guidance Counsellor. If there was a health issue the teacher would send an  email to the Guidance 
Counsellor, but would cc the AP in the email to keep them in the loop. If a teacher thought there was a subject placement issue with a student they would email the Learning Leader, who would follow up with the AP and Guidance Counsellor. 
- Technology is limited in the school due to lack of power points and the age of the building. There are a number of SMART boards and many data projectors in use.
- We asked Kim about other good models of education in the world. He spoke highly of China and Singapore, but one interesting comment was about Denmark. From K-9 it is a very 'motherly' environment, but in year 10 students can choose to travel for a year, work for a year or go on exchange, because this is a time when they are still trying to work out what they really want to do. Denmark stream early and their technical schools are phenomenal.
- Canadian teachers max out at $90,000 and $96,000 for a Learning Leader.
- Principals are respected for their highly developed communication and managerial skills and some will move into the business sector in human relations.
- The 3 guidance counsellors do not teach.
- Western choose to have bigger classes, 40-43 students is common, to allow for the Resource room and The Class. 

MOBILE PHONES
- Mobile phones must not interfere with the learning environment.  They must be turned off and be out of sight during instructional times (i.e. when classes or tutorials are in session) and in instructional areas (hallways are considered instructional areas during class time).  Students who use cell phones in class, without teacher permission, can expect the following: confiscation of phone for a period of time decided on by their Assistant Principal, contact with parent, suspension.  Western Canada High School has an office phone available to students for emergency use.

EXTRA-CURRICULAR
Fine Art:
- There is a strong choral program, which occurs from 7-8.30am or from 7-9pm. This occurs outside of school hours because students don't have time to fit it into their schedule. This equally applies to drama productions and bands. 
-There is a close relationship with the Calgary Philharmonic orchestra. 165 students are going to Chicago for a 10 day trip as part of their extra curricular activity with school bands. The school will charter a flight with the extras having to be fitted on a regular flight. Due to past litigation there is a mountain of paper work required for each trip. When deciding on who goes staff have to ask themselves the question, "Do you know your kids well enough that you trust their mental health?" On every major trip a member of the leadership team goes with them. 
-Teachers often apply for grants, which allows them to use expertise outside of the school area.
-On Saturday night there was the annual Arts celebration which is a festival of art work, mini productions (dance and drama) and Art work is auctioned at the end of the  night. From that they raised $50,000. 

Fitness Centre:
- The school has a Fitness Centre available to all students from Monday through to Thursday in the mornings, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.  If a student is a fitness club member ($50 for the full year, $25 for 2nd semester). On Fridays it closes at 2:30 p.m.
- Western staff are available during these hours to answer any questions that a student might have concerning the equipment and how to use it properly.
- Equipment includes - free weights, 4 squat racks and lifting platforms, weight machines, cardiovascular equipment including: treadmills, elliptical trainers, rowing machines, lifecycles and spin bikes, various fitness accessories including: fit balls, medicine balls, skipping ropes, bosu ball, styrofoam rollers, fit sits, and plyometric boxes.

Clubs:
- Western offers 22 different clubs
- The Gay/ Straight alliance club has 65 student members. Gay staff may choose to be involved.
- One of the 4 leadership members are expected to be on site for every activity whether morning or night. Leaders schedule their supervision at the beginning of each week.
-There is a review of stress points. The aim is to maintain standards but some things may need to be 
let go in order to be sustainable.

ALBERTA HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA REQUIREMENTS
- Definition: Courses that start with '30' are Year 12 subjects, those that start with '20' are Year 11 subjects and courses that start with '10' are Year 10 subjects. If they are followed by a '-1' (dash one) they are the top level courses, '-2' (dash two) are a level down.
- After six semesters of high school, students must meet the following requirements in order to graduate:
1. Obtain a minimum of 100 credits
2. Complete and meet the standards of the following courses: English 30-1 or English 30-2 or French 30, Social Studies 30-1 or 30-2, Math 20-1 or Math 20-2 or Math 23, Science 20 or 24 or Biology 20 or Chemistry 20 or Physics 20 (or Science 10 and any other 5-credit science course) 
3. Complete and meet the standards of the following: Physical Education 10 (3 credits), Career and Life Management (CALM) (3 credits), 10 credits from: -  Career and Technology Studies (CTS) or -  Fine Arts or -  International Languages or -  Physical Education 20 and/or 30, 10 credits, in any combination from any 30 level courses (including locally developed), in addition to English 30-1 or English 30-2 and Social Studies 30-1 or 30-2.

CONCLUSION
Another fantastic experience, thanks to Kim and his staff at Western Canada High School. The length of this blog is testimony to how much we gained from our visit.
Skye and I were also very impressed to return home to a clean house and freshly laundered towels, courtesy of the house-bound Tara who couldn't sit still!