This article appears in todays Milton Canadian Champion. HVPS is home to many great teachers (not that all teachers arent great!) including a teacher of the month Mrs Sheldrick.
Enjoy…and congratulations to Grant Clatworthy…the Principal of HVPS…GREAT JOB!
School ranks among top 25 in country
Melanie Hennessey
Published on Aug 17, 2007
When it comes to learning institutions in Canada, Hawthorne Village Public School gets an A.
The local school was ranked as one of the top 25 in the country in the recent edition of Today’s Parent magazine, placing in the ‘all-round cool schools’ category.
“It’s exciting,” said Hawthorne school principal Grant Clatworthy. “The most satisfying part is it indicates parents are satisfied with the school.”
The article says, “While it’s not technically an arts school, Hawthorne weaves the arts into traditional curriculum areas daily and co-curriculars are crammed into every possible time slot — whether it’s basketball at 8 a.m., Lego robotics at 10:55 a.m. or clay class at 3:30 p.m.”
The story highlights the Arts Beats assemblies the school holds once a month. Clatworthy explained the assemblies give students a chance to present something they’ve been working on, such as poetry, a drama presentation or even a musical/dance number on recycling.
“It’s designed to provide an opportunity for kids to showcase the learning they’ve done through the arts,” he said. “And the kids have become really appreciative of each other’s presentations. They show a lot of respect.”
The magazine highlights the school’s “creative and industrious” teachers, “encouraging” principal and the estimated 200 parent volunteers that help make things happen.
Clatworthy emphasized that his staff works extremely hard from day to day.
“It’s really a big team effort,” he noted.
The school opened its doors in September 2005 on Bennett Boulevard with a vision of rejuvenating the arts in students’ lives. It made a point of bringing on staff members who have backgrounds in the arts.
Even the school’s design helped contribute to the arts focus, such as the specially designed music room with vaulted ceilings to allow sound to escape.
Burlington’s Alexander’s Public School also made the top 25 this year in the ‘overcoming a challenge’ category, since it had to deal with a construction delay by operating in three different schools.
Today’s Parent readers nominate the schools for consideration on the list.
Melanie Hennessey can be reached at mhennessey@miltoncanadianchampion.com.
Hi Mike,
We’re actually moving into Hawthorne Village this summer. My wife and I are both artists, so we were thrilled to hear this about HVPS when we first read your post awhile back.
Our son Brody who’s 5 will be attending HVPS in SK this Fall, so I guess we’ll get to experience the school first-hand as well. We’re looking forward to it.
If anyone has any more specific info of some of the activities or examples of little things that make HVPS such a great school, I’d love to hear them! Please post them back to this blog entry.
Dave
I go to this school and it’s amazing! Nothing more to be said. GO HUSKIES!!!