Flexibility, collaboration key as new schools welcome kids

It’s back to school for Regina kids! Some students have brand new buildings to learn in.

The P-3 schools in Regina are welcoming students for the first time, including the new joint use school in The Greens neighbourhood.

École St. Elizabeth and École Wascana Plains School were created with flexibility and openness as the key drivers behind their design.

Students will have access to whiteboard desks, which they can write on using whiteboard markers, movable chairs and taller desks for students to stand at.

Teachers can also move around their classrooms as they see fit, or even go to a different room.

“In this case, you can use a studio, you can move your whole classroom to a studio or if you want you can bring four classes together, you don’t have to cancel anyone’s gym classes for example,” said Jeannette Revet, principal of Wascana Plains.

The schools also have televisions throughout, including an interactive one that can show the power usage and other facts about either of the schools.

While the schools will share a kitchen area, which has two similar kitchens within it, every school has their own gymnasiums, libraries and music rooms.

Open concept washrooms

Another key improvement has been the washrooms. Instead of having separate boys and girls washrooms, there are “open concept washrooms” which anyone can use.

Revet said washrooms have often been a place where kids feel they can joke around and are outside of teacher supervision.

“In this case, there’s only one person in a washroom at a time.” The sinks have also been placed outside the washrooms.

For teachers, they get the opportunity to collaborate and work with each other.

“I think it’ll definitely benefit the kids because there’s going to be a real emphasis on group work and kind of sharing amongst classes instead of kids being closed off into the traditional classroom,” said Colton Crawford, who will be teaching grade 7/8 french immersion core french for grades 1-8.

Wascana Plains is expecting to have 390 kids enrolled for the upcoming school year.