The new staff members at Kindersley Composite School include (above left toright) Katy Sully, who’s a teaching intern, student support teacher Alison Roddam, educational assistant Becky Smith, new English teacher Jordan Halkyard, and educational assistants Kayla Doering and Kayla Horwath. Missing from the photo is new educational assistant Jen Peardon.
Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
A new year is well underway at Kindersley Composite School (KCS) and the high school has started the year with several new staff members including three teachers.
In addition to the three new teachers, there are three new educational assistants working at KCS. The school also welcomed two new educational assistants part way through the previous year, according to Principal Blain Hilbig. One of the three new teachers is an intern.
The three new educational assistants for this school year are Kayla Doering, Kayla Horwath and Jen Peardon. Becky Smith and Shawna Tryuba are the educational assistants who started in the 2017-18 school year. The new teachers for the year are Jordan Halkyard, Alison Roddam and Katy Sully, who is the intern.
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Hilbig said there is always a level of excitement to the beginning of a new school year with new faces in the halls including the staff and students. Everyone from the students to the administrators are looking to achieve success.
“Everyone’s eager and wants to see the success in the building, but also in the students and just as a whole KCS community,” the principal said, recognizing that the start of a school year is when the staff and students set the goals they hope to achieve.
The school has developed a new mentorship program, Hilbig said. Each student at the school has been matched up with a staff member and the staff members will be mentors to students for the year, he explained. The mentorship program is brand new to start the 2018-19 school year.
Hilbig said the school has built-in mentorship time on Fridays, and the mentorship groups meet on every second Friday. The mentorship program will help to build relationships among the staff and students, he added.
Halkyard, one of the new teachers, said he was born and raised in Regina. He attended the University of Regina where he first earned his Bachelor of Journalism degree, and then he went on to earn a Bachelor of Education post-graduate degree in Secondary English.
The newcomer will be teaching English Language Arts for the semester. The teaching position at KCS is Halkyard’s first in the education system, and the teacher said he looks forward to having his own classes, being able to interact with all of the students and staff, and being able to grow as a teacher.
He noted that his goals for the year are to build on his skills and teaching practice while learning new skills and techniques to help make the English Language Arts accessible to the largest group of students possible.
Roddam, who moved to Canada more than three years ago after growing up in England, said she has settled in Brock after moving from her home in Boldon, in northeast England. She said she received her post-secondary education at both the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Sunderland in northeast England.
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