The Rocky View Schools’ Community Learning Centre is a school where everyone belongs. Some students are working with teachers at our campuses and some students are working from home. Some students are building houses and others are fixing cars. Some are learning skills for the workplace and some are earning post-secondary credits. While our students are working in non-traditional settings, all of them are working towards personal and academic success and all of them belong.
The CLC serves students in Rocky View Schools through a variety of programs. The CLC includes an Outreach school with three campuses spread throughout the division, which works to remove barriers to learning and offers the flexibility and independence that some students require. The CLC also offers the flexibility of summer school, allowing students to learn during summer months when the traditional schools do not operate. There is also a supervised Home Education program for families choosing to educate their child at home yet wanting some support from their school division. It is also made up of the Beyond the Classroom Programs, with Building Futures Airdrie and Cochrane, RVS Mechanics Training Centre and RVS Leadership Academy. Each of these programs focuses on teaching high school students through authentic, real-world tasks and enriching those experiences through community partnerships including home building, mechanics and leadership skills. The CLC also offers Off Campus Education, which includes Work Experience, Workplace Readiness, Green Certificate and Registered Apprenticeship Program, allowing students to learn valuable work experiences and skills, as they earn high school credits. Finally, the CLC offers Dual Credit, where students earn college credits while in high school. While these programs may seem unrelated to each other, they are linked by two key factors; at the CLC we build strong relationships with the students and families we serve and teachers create authentic alternative learning opportunities for these students.
At the CLC, it is a priority for students to feel safe, welcome and cared for, and this starts with the relationships that staff build with students and with parents. When students have a sense of belonging in their school, they will be more likely to take risks in their learning, advocate for their own needs and find greater academic success than without. Ultimately, forming positive relationships between staff and students will allow even the most reluctant learner to feel comfortable and achieve personal and academic success.
Our other focus is creating strong learning opportunities for our students. Learning at the CLC is authentic, with real world skills and implications attached to it. Students at the CLC are strong and capable, best served when the assessments given to them move off the page and into the real world. Our teachers ensure that this learning is both rigorous and accessible for students as they are engaged by challenging problems and feel supported and know what they need to do to be successful.
At the CLC we focus on building relationships and building the skills that will lead to future success. We know that if we create learning that is real, rigorous and accessible our students, with support from their teachers, will find success.
Sincerely,
Greg Rankin, Principal