The Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division has released its enrolment numbers for the 2022-23 school year.
Accordion to Gwen Keith, director of education with Holy Family, their enrolment is on par with previous years and coincides with the division's expectations.
"We're status quo," Keith said in the interview with the Mercury. "As of September 30 of this year, we have an actual enrolment of 1,317 students. So, really status quo with the last year, both in terms of what September 30 looked like comparative and also in terms of our projections. So, we're certainly pleased to hold our own, and we are excited about working with our students this year."
Holy Family, which has schools in Estevan, Weyburn, Radville and Wilcox, had 1,318 students registered as of Sept. 30, 2021. Estevan's St. Mary's School has 273 students enrolled, and Sacred Heart/Sacré Coeur enrolment was at 350.
Keith noted that kindergarten enrolment was a bit down from previous years, but that was expected.
"What we do is really look at analyzing the projections in each school. And we sometimes have to make a few shifts of staff, but overall, what was predicted actually turned out to be where we ended up, so no big surprises here," Keith said. "We take a look at how many students are in communities and work from that. We really work very well with the schools as they analyze their local communities and what's happening in each of our five sites. And we're getting better all the time in terms of predicting where we're going to be."
Now that there are no mandatory measures or health orders related to COVID-19, the schools are mainly working at pre-pandemic levels with a few hardly-noticeable changes in place to accommodate their students and staff.
"We've come out of a couple of years of COVID, and as we normalize as much as we can, COVID is still out there. We're really working on the priorities of the one-year plan that the government has put out for us. And our goals align to the ministry expectations around the academic side of things, our learning responses and mental health and well-being," Keith said.
Holy Family has their Safe School plan published on their website. Keith said the last two years taught them a lot about cleanliness and using common sense, which affected their approach to the school environment.
"When it comes to people that are ill, stay home. We have a full supply of PPE for those that want to use it. If they want to use masks, they can, certainly not mandated at all. And we are doing as much as we can do in the cleanliness area, we have certainly the kinds of disinfectants that we've been using for a couple years now and continue with that. And we really, really watch mental health and well-being of both students and staff," Keith said.
"We just want people to be as safe as possible, but more importantly, to feel as safe as possible. We've had really very few COVID cases reported. But it's flu season coming in and as we move through each month, we'll have our challenges, but our attendance is good, and we're just trying to normalize as much as we've had. There is certainly the excitement of being able to have our schools open for parents to be in the buildings, and to be able to involve with extracurriculars the way we'd like. But we are doing all of these more normalized things with a sense of caution and a lot of good common sense and good communication."
Keith added that while restrictions years were tough, the school division picked up many good things from those times that they plan on using going forward.
As they analyze how their students are doing, they are trying to find the best ways to support each student with their needs.
"There may be gaps in certain places, and we're working with our teachers around how to support any gaps that we might have. So we look at ... how we can do learning leaps going forward and do it in a whole-build kind of a way … We've got a diverse population, and the needs of one child might not be the needs of another. And so we are sensitive, and I'm really honouring our staff, as they support everybody moving along to wherever level they started with moving forward, whether there're some cultural changes that need work, or social ones, or emotional ones, or academic ones, for that matter," Keith said.
The division chose Keep Going with God as this year's theme, and they are working to ensure that they provide hope and a pathway for each and every one of their students, Keith said.
"Obviously, as a Catholic school division, we permeate our schools and classrooms with Catholic distinctiveness, and we're very respectful of working through the framework that we have been given around reconciliation as well," Keith said.
She praised all of the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division staff and parents.
"Just a big thank you to all of our parents that they've been able to work with their children and [helped to have] a good successful start to the school year in our schools. And I really have to commend our staff. It doesn't matter whether it's central office staff or school staff, we're certainly here to serve students and we really keep our communication lines open and listen to the feedback that we're getting and we're working as a family. That's what Holy Family is, just one big family. And that's how we like to nurture and grow everybody in it. It's a wonderful opportunity to look at what challenges we have and move forward in a successful faithful way," Keith said.
