Overview

Special Programs

Feeding More Than One

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
Mother Teresa

Children are provided breakfast, snack and lunch every day at St. Teresa of Calcutta School. We are so excited for our new partnership with Breakfast Club of Canada. Please explore this link to find out more about this incredible organization. Our breakfast will be changing to reflect the mandate of the organization. Ask your children about what they will be enjoying for breakfast. https://www.breakfastclubcanada.org/school-breakfast/

School Food Bank & School Clothing Bank Programs

St. Teresa of Calcutta has a food hamper program that is funded largely by donations to the school. Our food bank is accessible to any of our school family who are in need of extra support to provide nutrition for their families. Our School Clothing Bank can provide some of the basic needs that a child might be in need of, that is also supported largely by donations. Along with individual donations, we receive some winter items through Organization donator programs.

Roots and Wings

St. Teresa of Calcutta has bee very lucky to received the services of a Roots and Wings Worker, through the Family Center. Please see the poster to find out if you could benefit from the support that can be provided. Our New Roots and Wings Worker is Nigel Bucknor. To reach out to him please call at 780-691-8706 or email at nigel.bucknor@familycentre.org.

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.

Keyboards For Kids

The Keyboards for Kids Program offers opportunities for students to participate in piano lessons during lunch break, under the direction of local volunteer professional piano instructors. This program is made possible by the support of the Alberta Music Education Foundation.

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."