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S StAr | Thursday, January 14, 2016
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Many primary students can’t read at their grade level By MONIQUE TAMMINGA Aldergrove Star
ART BANDENIEKS PHOTO
Laura Grandberg (at left) battles for ball possession in Aldergrove Youth Soccer’s U14 Nemesis girls’ hard fought game with Central City Breakers (Surrey) Hurricanes on Saturday, Jan. 9. Aldergrove lost 2:4 in BC Coastal Girls League Championship play but Nemesis is still in play with five more games in their group.
Primary students in Langley are not reading at a level they have in previous years — a fact that concerns school district officials. At the last board of education meeting, superintendent Suzanne Hoffman tabled a report showing that when 274 students left Grade 3 they were still not reading at grade level. Of these, 155 were not meeting general grade level expectations. Blacklock Fine Arts, Parkside Elementary, RC Garnett and Richard Bulpitt saw the most Grade 1, 2 and 3 children in need of literacy learning support and summer sessions. “We plan to track vulnerable students,” said Hoffman. “We are having ongoing meetings and seeing where support is needed.” There was a significant drop in reading level achievement in 2014. According to assistant superintendent Gord Stewart, some of that momentum was lost due to the teachers’ strike. Not only did children lose classroom time, summer sessions weren’t offered that year. “The labour action hurt literacy,” said Stewart. “But there isn’t one single factor we can attribute this decline.” The board asked staff to find out why reading levels are in decline. Stewart said learning conditions in the classroom over the years are becoming more complex, with as many 30 per cent of students in some classrooms facing significant
behavioural challenges, from anxiety to autism. A number of district initiatives were outlined in Hoffman’s report, including the implementation of Reading Recovery programs in every school and the implementation of a new kindergarten screening protocol designed to identify vulnerable students. The Kindergarten Protocol is being rolled out this month. “Parents have anxiety about this screening because they don’t want their kids to be labeled, but it is really for the teacher to have this information. “If we identify five or six kids lagging behind, that information can be given to the Grade 1 teachers so they have tools ready to help those students succeed,” said Stewart. Trustee Megan Dykstra was glad to see the screening taking place in kindergarten. “If these issues are caught early on and worked on, the benefits show up later,” she said. By Grade 3, it is much more difficult to improve literacy. Stewart said ensuring kids are ready to enter the education system and their readiness to read, starts with parents. “Having pre-kindergarten kids take part in our Read, Set, Learn events and attending our Strong Start programs makes the transition to kindergarten so much better,” he said. But many parents work and are unable to take advantage of Strong Start. Stewart said they are looking at offering evening Strong Start programs next year.
Variety makes a difference to Aldergrove families By KURT LANGMANN Aldergrove Star
There is a lovely little girl who lives in Aldergrove who has been helped by Variety - The Children’s Charity. Five year old Ola Maksymiuk was born with Down syndrome but is
otherwise healthy. She lives with her mom and dad and older sister Poppy in Aldergrove. Funding from Variety - The Children’s Charity allowed Ola to have specialized one on one speech therapy through the Down Syndrome Research Foundation.
Without this funding it would not have been financially feasible, and they want other families to know that Variety is there to help. Ola’s mother Leanna says that Ola’s “speech has improved greatly since receiving her funded therapy, but one thing that happened was she
said ‘Mum help shoes’ to me, and I cried because finally at four years old I feel like I got to have a conversation with my daughter. Not being able to ‘talk’ to her has being a trying experience for both of us, but thankfully that is improving!” Ola wears glasses and AFO braces
on her feet, has had ear tubes put in twice for fluid but besides a multitude of colds and sinus infection in the winter she has been relatively healthy. They work constantly at speech therapy and are working on toilet
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