After School for Educational Fuel
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- Created on Wednesday, 11 December 2013 18:42
- Written by Kevin Kelleher
BARNET - With funding provided by a grant that came from the Caledonia Central Supervisory union, students of the Barnet School have been able to take advantage of additional opportunities to further their education in a new after-school program.
The Twenty-First Century Extended Learning Opportunities Program, started at the Barnet School back in October, and has grown rapidly in its first few months.
By providing a variety of afterschool educational workshops, the program's developers hope to "Engage learners and enrich lives through activities that promote academic achievement, curiosity, wellness, creativity, and lifelong learning," according to their mission statement.
The school was motivated to start the program because of the need for "A place where kids can come after school to have some social time to do some additional learning, an opportunity to have a choice about the clubs and activities they have participated in," said Barnet Principal Shawn Gonyaw.
Gonyaw feels that giving the students the opportunity to have their own choice as to what workshops they want to be involved in, is one of the main reasons for the programs success. "I love writing, so I went right to the young writers project," said Barnet School sixth grader Jordan Barbour. A few of the other workshops currently being offered are Math Games, P.E. Activities, Rubber Band Powered Cars, Yearbook and Social Media, Legos Club, Lights Camera Action, and Snowmobile Safety.
The Barnet School consists of Pre-Kindergarten through eighth grade students, and has a total student population of about 235 students. However, the program is only for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. This means only 193 students are actually eligible for enrollment in the program. Out of those 193 eligible students, 94 of them are already enrolled. That's about 49% of total eligible students who are already participating.
Gonyaw knew that "from the start it would be popular," but he, as well as other staff members, were still shocked with the overall attendance turnout. "We didn't really know it would be this great at the second session."
Sessions occur in eight-week intervals, and the Barnet School is now in the first week of their second session.
With each session attendance grows, and Gonyaw anticipates that "in the third session we'll probably have more students, with more offerings, and more engagement."
The Barnet School isn't the only school to start the Twenty-First Century Extended Learning Opportunities Program, as Peacham also started back in October. Walden and Danville both started the program this week.
