Overview

Special Programs

Technology

St. Teresa of Calcutta School is committed to enriching the lives of our students through the use of technology. This is accomplished both by instructing the students on how to use technology, and using technology to facilitate learning. All students have access to a wide range of educational software, as well as hardware (digital cameras, projectors, mini netbooks). Grade Six students also take part in live video announcements, which are shown in each classroom. Students are responsible for personally written daily prayers, Treaty 6 Acknowledgment, sports updates, school news and birthdays.

Music

Our music program is based on the Orff-Schulwerk approach to music making and learning. The students create music with Orff instruments, handbells, percussion instruments, movement speech and voice

In-School Mentors

In cooperation with Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Canada, St. Teresa of Calcutta School offers an In-School Mentoring Program. Students in grade 1 through grade 6, are paired with an adult buddy, who spends an hour a week with the students in various educational activities, spending time as a big brother or big sister with them. A further mentoring program involves high school students from Austin O'Brien school. Students arrive weekly and are paired with students from Grades 2-6, further providing one-on-one relationship building and support.

After School, Before School, and Lunch Programs

The Keyboards for Kids Program offers opportunities for students to participate in piano lessons during lunch break, under the direction of professional piano instructors.

YONA Sistema and YONA Explorers Programs

"It's a common scene. A school bell cuts through the afternoon's silence, and an army of animated children with multicolored jackets and too-large backpacks appear, scurrying towards school buses and parents with a host of stories on their lips. What's perhaps less familiar, however, are the events surrounding a number of our students for whom the afternoon has only begun.

The Youth Orchestra of Northern Alberta - Sistema (YONA-Sistema) is modeled on the ground-breaking EI Sistema project in Venezuela which uses music for social change, and teaches the values of unity, harmony, and mutual compassion. Five days a week, for almost three hours each day, fifty-four students receive group instrument lessons, led by qualified teachers, at no cost to their families. In this caring environment, students are given nutritious snacks, homework help, and engage in free play and physical activity, and are then bussed safely home. Another twenty-four students meet once per week in a "YONA Explorers" program, building their musical and social skills in an introduction to the YONA philosophy.

By engaging students in a peer-mentored orchestra format, the YONA program has flourished in achieving what was initially envisioned in Venezuela, and has altered the lives of countless individuals and communities in multiple countries and cities. Indeed, this is a very exciting thing to be a part of."