New THRIVE Program To Re-Engage Students

A new program hopes to encourage younger students to get back to class.

At its meeting this week, School District 72 heard about the new THRIVE program that will be starting at École Phoenix Middle School in September to re-engage students who have not attended school, or very sporadically attended, since before the pandemic.

As the presenters shared, THRIVE is an acronym for the philosophies of the program standing for: Together; Honour Indigenous ways of knowing and doing; Reflect student needs, goals and passions; Innovative and inclusive; Voice of students; and Engagement.

The program will offer grade 6, 7 and 8 classes for students who have not attended school regularly over the last 2-and-a-half years for a variety of reasons, whether it is transportation issues, family and household circumstances, a history of negative experience with school, illness, or injury.

The classes provide a different environment than a conventional classroom approach and will be responsive to the needs of these vulnerable students, working to remove any barriers to accessing education.

Through a survey, students indicated that the hardest part of returning to school was often that they were too far behind and felt pressure to be like a “typical” student when they returned, as their usual classroom teachers would need to catch them up while still moving the rest of the class ahead.

The THRIVE classes are being planned in a way that addresses what students shared as the hardest parts of returning to school and how that could be made easier.

THRIVE classes will be responsive with regards to pacing and flexibility and will allow for students to be with the same teacher all day to try to build their confidence and re-establish their identity as a student.