Northern Lights Public Schools will not be participating in piloting the new draft Kindergarten to Grade 6 provincial curriculum during the 2021-2022 school year.
“The last two school years have been very challenging for our students and staff and we need to focus on addressing the academic and mental health impacts of the pandemic and try to restore a sense of normalcy for our students,” explained Board Chair Arlene Hrynyk. “We support Administrations’ decision not to proceed at this time, as this will only add to the stress and anxiety our students and staff are already experiencing.”
While NLPS will not be involved in piloting the new curriculum, it will be conducting a comprehensive review of the curriculum with its teaching staff. This review will include providing feedback to Alberta Education, collaborating to evaluate and develop resources for teachers to use when the curriculum is implemented in 2022-2023, and providing professional development opportunities to teachers to help them prepare for the transition to the new curriculum.
“We want to encourage and stimulate a dialogue with our professional staff, review the curriculum and provide feedback, while not impacting our students,” said Superintendent Rick Cusson. “Providing our staff with time to work through things next year will be beneficial to our students when we are required to implement the new curriculum in the 2022-2023 school year.”
The Board is also encouraging stakeholders, including parents/guardians, students, and community members to participate in any opportunities available to them to provide input to Alberta Education.
“We value all of the feedback we have received since the new draft curriculum was announced and we will certainly use what has been shared with us when we are providing input to Alberta Education and our provincial elected officials,” said Hrynyk. “We believe strongly that parents play a critical role in education and their voices need to be heard in the decision-making process.”
Alberta Education is currently seeking feedback on the new draft K-6 curriculum through a survey: Draft K-6 Curriculum Survey. The full Draft K-6 Curriculum is available on learnalberta.ca.
The division will also be looking at ways to engage parents in discussions about the draft curriculum and collect feedback. Further details will be shared once they have been finalized.