Completion eyed Gabriola Health Clinic getting close to opening day. PAGE 7 Shared success Business leaders gather in city for annual conference. PAGE 19 Music history Origins of Nanaimo Concert Band traced back in time. PAGE 3
Pirates get first victory PAGE 24
Judged the the Judged Judg community aper bbest newsp best newspaper in B.C.in B.C. TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2012
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Gifted students face challenges in new program I ONE DAY a week spent together with enrichment teacher. BY JENN McGARRIGLE THE NEWS BULLETIN
High-ability elementary students across Nanaimo are learning together for the first time this year. Jan Thorsen, the district’s part-time gifted/enrichment resource teacher, started a new program for students in Grades 3-7 who could benefit from an extra challenge in the classroom. The students, divided by grade level, are taken to an empty classroom at the former Dufferin Crescent Elementary School site for one day a week over a fourto six-week period. Thorsen spends the time developing problem-solving, critical thinking and research skills, and encouraging creativity. But most importantly, she provides a gathering place for like minds. “The biggest thing is for these kids to come together,” said Thorsen. “It’s
lonely being the only. They need a peer group that challenges them, accepts them and understands them.” Thorsen describes the type of students who benefit from her enrichment challenge program as those with an advanced vocabulary for their age, out-ofthe-box thinkers with sometimes unusual ideas who are often asked to be tutors or leaders for their peers. “These kids aren’t seen as needing a tremendous amount of help in the classroom,” she said. “They get frustrated sometimes. This is one way of providing these students with extra opportunities.” In previous years, Thorsen would go out to schools and provide enrichment activities for whole classes or groups of students, but a pullout enrichment challenge program in another district gave her the idea to bring the kids to her. “Travelling from school to school is hard,” she said. “You can only do so much with two and a half days a week.” ◆ See ‘ENRICHMENT’ /5
VOL. 23, NO. 148
TASTY TREASURE
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Hospital comparisons offered by website tool BY JENN McGARRIGLE THE NEWS BULLETIN
RACHEL STERN/THE NEWS BULLETIN
Erika Norum, 2, picks out an Easter egg from a basket hidden in the bushes as her parents Kurtis and Shelley look on from a distance. The family was out searching for eggs Saturday morning during the sixth annual Morrell Nature Sanctuary Easter Scavenger Hunt.
A new tool is available for Nanaimoites to compare how Nanaimo Regional General Hospital stands up to different hospitals across the province and country. The Canadian Institute for Health Information developed the tool to create a set of standardized, comparable hospital performance indicators. People can access the online resource at www.cihi.ca to look at how their hospital stands up to others on measures such as deaths after a major surgery, readmission rates following knee and hip replacement surgeries, and caesarean section rates. Jeremy Veillard, vice-president of research and analysis, said the organization worked on the reporting tool for a number of years and the response since launching it on Wednesday was overwhelming – 15,000 people viewed results in the first 15 hours after launch and staff tripled the capacity of the web server in an effort to meet demand. It gives health professionals practical information on where they stand compared with others and how they can learn from facilities that are doing better in a particular indicator, said Veillard. ◆ See ‘RESULTS’ ‘ /5
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