A new recreation academy in St. Albert could soon help students spend their afternoons getting fit while having fun.
St. Albert Protestant School board members learned this week that two local schools had teamed up to create a district-wide athletics academy. Dubbed the St. Albert Protestant Schools Athletic Academy, it features a hockey academy for Grades 4 to 6 and St. Albert's first ever recreation academy.
These academies are meant to teach students leadership skills and healthy living habits, said Janet Tripp, principal of Ronald Harvey Elementary (one of the two schools behind the initiative). It originally started as just a hockey academy, but grew to include a Grade 7 to 9 recreation academy at W.D. Cuts Junior High when she learned of a similar academy in Edmonton.
The recreation academy will let students spend their afternoons trying out different sports, said Mike Tod, principal of W.D. Cuts. "The list is endless," he said, but could include rock-climbing, geo-caching and scuba diving.
Both academies are set to roll out this fall, Tod and Tripp said, and will require students to maintain high academic standards.
Board chair Joan Trettler said she was interested in the academy, particularly in how it would affect student health. "Many kids who are good athletes like variety," she said, and these academies could help them form lifetime fitness habits.
Academies
Sports academies typically split the school day between academics and intense sports development — math in the morning, hockey in the afternoon. The St. Albert Catholic school board runs soccer and hockey academies for its Grade 4 to 9 students. Paul Kane High School offers hockey and soccer academies for its students.
Leroy Knorr runs the recreation academy at Edmonton's St. Edmund School. Member students take their regular courses in the morning and spend four afternoons each week doing sports or taking health/religious classes. The academy had just 38 students when it started five years ago, he said; now, it's up to 117.
Recreation academies introduce students to a vast array of sports they wouldn't otherwise encounter, Knorr said. They do about 60 sports a year at St. Edmund, most of which happen off school property. "There's no way any of these kids would experience the 60 activities we do outside this program," he said — families just don't have the time or resources.
The aim is to inspire a love of daily exercise in the students, Knorr said, and to get them out of their comfort zones. "They have to take a bit of a risk in order to do these activities," he said, which gives them more confidence.
Parents tell him that the recreation academy helps keep students on track academically, Knorr said. Students need to learn to manage their time, and have to keep their grades up in the morning if they want to take part in sports in the afternoon.
Tod said he wasn't sure what sports would be featured in St. Albert's recreation academy, as he'd yet to hire its co-ordinator, but said students could expect to spend three afternoons a week doing them. The program would probably cost around $150 a student a month, and will eventually include Grade 4 to 6 students at the neighbouring Ronald Harvey Elementary.
The hockey academy will cost about $225 a month per student, Tripp said, and would eventually expand to include students at W.D. Cuts. Lead by former NAIT hockey coach Terry Ballard, these students will spend three afternoons a week at local rinks learning to pass, check, lead, keep fit, play goal and more.
Questions on the recreation academy should go to Tod at 780-458-8585. Hockey academy questions should go to Tripp at 780-459-5541.
