Province recognizes excellent program at Stratton school

By Jack Elliott
Correspondent

Excellence in Education includes more than reading, writing, and arithmetic. Just take a look at Our Lady of the Way Elementary School in Stratton.
Recently the Ontario Ministry of Education has singled out 15 schools in Ontario that have excelled at keeping their students active, fit, and physically as well as mentally challenged and stimulated. The Ministry is so impressed they are sending a consulting firm to those schools to determine just how they do it.
So what’s happening at Our Lady of the Way?
It’s a whole collection of things explained principal Brendan Hyatt, a native of the Barwick area. With 17 years teaching under his belt, 11 in the Toronto area, four in Fort Frances and now his second at OLOW, Hyatt exudes a passion for the well-rounded education.
“We start with healthy living habits,” Hyatt said pointing to the trays of fresh fruit snacks ready to be served mid-morning to all the students.
The ‘fresh’ program, designed with the expertise and support of Public Health Nurse, Heidi Ivall of the Northwestern Health Unit, certainly costs money. But Hyatt thinks it’s important enough to devote budget resources to it, and raises additional funds from other sources. The snacks are provided, free of charge to all students.
“If you want brains to function properly, they need food and oxygen, so we make sure our students get lots of both,” stated Hyatt, explaining all students get a minimum of 30 minutes of supervised physical activity a day. Grades five and six receive an additional 15 minutes and seven and eight, an additional 20 minutes. A neat, well-stocked, and well used athletic cupboard in the gym boasts a good compliment of equipment including field hockey, volleyball, soccer, basketball. The cupboard’s organization is handled by the students.
And its not just the staff directing the activities, under PROP, older students organize activities with the lower grades, encouraging leadership skills development.
Off the school grounds the student body enjoys other recreation development opportunities including an additional ball diamond and the Stratton Curling Centre.
Even swimming lessons, which involve considerable travel to Fort Frances, a distance of 40 miles, was undertaken by the Kindergarten to Grade four students this past year. “With our lakes and water recreation opportunities, swimming is a very real survival skill for our area, and we’re simply not going to let geographic disadvantage limit our access to facilities,” stated a very determined Hyatt.
But not all activities and opportunities have to be expensive or at long distance. The most wildly popular student physical activity is one called Predator and Prey. Undertaken in OLOW’s own little campus forest (planted in part by Hyatt’s father, Mark, during his teaching days at OLOW), this smorgasbord of tag, hide and seek, nature study and wits, is an inclusive, rather than exclusive exercise.
Participants are designated a predator or prey species. Rabbits, for instance, have to survive by their wits and physical prowess, collecting food and water coupons located throughout the forest, while avoiding being “eaten” by a fox, owl, or wolf. “Lives” are used up in relation to your species designation with rabbits and mice having lots of lives, while foxes may have only three.
But why you ask might a fox hunting rabbits, need an extra life? That’s when disease or man steps into the picture and Mr. Fox, “Bang, you’re dead!”
Originally introduced to the concept at a school board in the Toronto area, Hyatt’s version uses local species and situations. “In a way it mirrors what happens in real life in the real world,” he said.
Last Tuesday Science Outreach coordinators from the University of Toronto were running workshops with two classes.
In the afternoon, senior grades were treated to a presentation on goal setting- its pitfalls, challenges, and rewards, by local NHL New York Ranger draftee, Greg Beller, and younger brother Jeremy, a Junior A player for the Penticton Vees.
Setting goals and sticking to them is a tough process said Beller. You have to be careful you pick goals you can attain, preferably fairly short term ones, ones that are for you not others, and be prepared to face some setbacks. Beller’s goal of playing for an NHL team has yet to be completely realized. He felt he was a little shy on talent so set very stringent practice goals for himself to hone what skills he had by doing things like making 500 practice shots a day. After being drafted by the Rangers a couple of years back he was off to a farm team in Wisconsin. In his first game he broke his collarbone and was off for several weeks. On his return to the ice he re-fractured the bone and required the insertion of a plate to mend it. That ended his season and then a knee injury in a soccer game put him under the knife again.
“I was laying on the couch recuperating, and it would have been so easy to quit right then,” he recalls, “But I didn’t”
Staying focused on his goal he mended and is again back in playing shape for his second season at Yale. And yes his eye is still fixed on that NHL goal.
Questions from the students followed including “Do you know Sidney Crosby?” Later, in the gym they all got to test their slap shot as the radar gun rated their speed.
Oh, and at noon the full concert orchestra was busy practicing. Every minute seemed jam-packed. Busy, challenged students don’t have time for trouble. “We don’t have discipline problems here. We have discipline,” quipped Hyatt.
We can’t all be Einsteins, or astronauts, or Olympic athletes, but we can all participate broadly and fully. Without a broad education including, the Arts and Athletics, as well as scholastics, my own development would have been much poorer, claims Hyatt on a more philosophical note.
Our Lady of the Way, constructed some three decades ago was originally designed for 120 students, but with expanded program facilities, including the computer lab, today houses 77 Kindergarten to Grade 8 students. A small school, but a recognition as attested to, by the Ministry’s interest, excellence is not necessarily dependent on size. Kudos to all at this exceptional school.