Watch above: After months of delays, the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Board opening up Holy Family School to the media for a tour. Meaghan Craig takes us inside the state-of-the-art facility that opens to students on March 9.
SASKATOON – The countdown is on. In just a few days, students attending both the public and catholic schools in Willowgrove will move over and classes will officially be in session.
Before heading into their new classrooms though, students were given an opportunity to take a tour of their school on Thursday and we were along for the ride.
Armed with individual school supplies, the Grade 2 students arrived at their new Holy Family Catholic School and filed to their classroom. Their excitement couldn’t be contained as they jumped in the air and bounced enthusiastically on chairs in alcoves outside of the classrooms.
Each room, hallway and even the equipment room in the gym was met with a “woah” and squeals of excitement as students got their first glance from inside the two-storey school.
Each child let their imagination run wild as the nearly hour-long tour had them file up and down stairs for the first time
“That has been one of the highlights of this move, the students watch in the door and before they even get to their classroom they’re oohing and ahhing and yesterday one little girl walked in the building and said ‘I think I’m going to faint’ and so that has been really, really exciting to see their reactions,” said Principal Connie Tenaski.
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Grade 2 teacher Sandra Weinheimer agreed. “The kids are so excited to be here, you should have been on the bus with us when we were pulling around the corner and they saw the school for the first time. The excitement in the bus just went over the roof, they’re just boiling over.”
The 340 students enrolled at the school, ranging from kindergarten to Grade 8, will have their first day of school on Monday, March 9.
This after several setbacks in opening the entire facility which contains two schools, a daycare and city recreation component. Construction was first expected to be complete last April.
READ MORE: Ambitious timeline for Willowgrove schools was a long shot
“It feels pretty cool that you’re one of the first people in a school, it’s pretty neat,” said Nicholas Goodwin, a Grade 2 student at Holy Family.
“I’m going to be really excited,” said Ella Blyth.
By the end of the tour, there wasn’t a doubt these children love their new learning environment.
“I’m really excited cause in the gym I just can’t wait to play on the rock climbing wall,” explained Goodwin.
Blyth said her favourite part of the school was easy. “I like the stained glass window and the library it was different from our old one because our old one only had one floor and this one has two floors and I also like the gym because it’s nice and big and our old one was kinda small.”
School officials say they do expect some hiccups in the new facility but they’re trying to be proactive.
“We’ve talked again long and hard about safety, with the students coming on Monday morning, there will be lots of traffic. We have additional staff, we’ll have police presence so we can ensure the kids are safe and the traffic is flowing smoothly,” remarked Tenaski.
The teachers say they may have a difficult time harnessing the children’s energy the first couple days but it’s a good problem to have.
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