STEPHEN RICCIO
MANSFIELD ET PONTEFRACT Oct. 24, 2020
École secondaire Sieur du Coulonge (ESSC) received recognition for its dedication to academic improvement on Oct. 24, as the Fraser Institute ranked it as the best performing public school in the Outaouais in it’s 2019 rankings of Quebec secondary schools.
According to past Fraser Institute reports, the Mansfield et Pontefract school scored a . . .
2.4 out of 10 in 2016. It’s come a long way since then, hitting a 6.8 out of 10 in the latest rating from the conservative think tank.
“We leapt from 420th position to 139th, but first in the whole Outaouais,” Principal Julie Martin said, noting that the three schools that performed better in the region were private schools. “It was ‘Oh my God’, those are private schools in front of us, so we’re pretty happy about that.”
The ranking system evaluates student results on examinations within five subjects: language of instruction, second language, history and citizenship education, science and technology and mathematics.
ESSC has seen significant improvement in all five subjects from 2016, and has also seen it’s rate of delay, which is the number of students who don’t graduate on schedule, drop from over 40 per cent in 2016 to 31 per cent in 2019.
That rate of delay improvement is a measure that makes both Martin and Vice-Principal Gabie Paré enormously proud, because as they pointed out, 47 per cent of students function with an individual learning plan.
The two principals, who have both been embedded in the Pontiac for much of their lives, said that an improvement plan that emphasized rethinking the class schedule and students embracing their cultural identities began roughly five years ago.
“Instead of 75-minute classes, it’s [now] 63 minutes,” explained Paré. “Teachers see their kids more often, they have more French classes, more history classes.”
With the shortened classes, students now have five classes every day instead of four and Martin said they have found this optimizes concentration levels.
She said another crucial aspect to the improvement has been promoting cultural activities aside from academics.
A second round of buses at 5 p.m. accommodate students who wish to stay after school for activities or homework and who live in the areas of Shawville and Chapeau. For students who come from as far away as Quyon, Martin said they had to make an additional adjustment.
“We included [extra curricular activities] in the schedule,” she said. “So now this year, every day six and 16, [students] have chances to do some cooking classes, Spanish classes, computers and everything. But it’s all cultural.”
“Because even [though] lots of them come from English families, what we’re trying to do is make them understand is that they can have two cultural identities.”
The class schedule revamp is certainly innovative, as both Martin and Paré said the idea was purely experimental as they were not aware of other schools implementing a similar setup.
Their students’ progress would not be possible without their principals’ passion and commitment, as both Paré and Martin said they have found themselves at the school until 11:30 p.m. planning out class schedules.
“All the hard work doesn’t come overnight. It’s a long process that is really thought through,” Paré said.
Martin said they are lucky to be at a school where so many of the teachers have such big hearts.
“We’re pretty proud of the work,” she said. “We’re not only working on the schooling, that’s very important [to mention], we’re working on motivation, behaviour, perseverance.”
To view the Fraser Institute’s full report on ESSC, go to https://www.compareschoolrankings.org/school/qc/secondary/774001.
