Principal MESSAGE

Dear Parents,

Thank you for trusting us with your child. The middle school years are critical to the long-term social, emotional and academic success of our students. The staff at Jemtegaard Middle School understand the importance of these years and do not take this responsibility lightly. I have been fortunate to be the Principal at JMS for the past seven years and am proud of the work that our staff has done to support our community’s children. Our school mission is pretty clear:

To ensure that everyone gets what they need to thrive academically, physically, socially and emotionally.

The ‘Husky ’culture is strong for a number of reasons. Our students are proud of the school that the community built for them three years ago. They respect the gift that the community has given them. This community has also helped to create the most giving, accepting students that I have worked with in my 25 years in education. When a new student turns up to school, they will normally have four friends by lunchtime. Our staff understand that the first key to success is building healthy relationships with students.

Students must feel safe and supported at school in order to learn. At Jemtegaard we focus on the why behind each student’s behavior. Our Student Support System, which has been in effect for the last two years, has led to a significant drop in student discipline that resulted in students removal from class. With the support system, students are staying in class and learning from excellent teachers. Our support system allows teachers to teach instead of spending valuable learning time on student discipline. Middle school students are going to have rough days. We have the staff and the system to support them in the good times and bad. We’ve got your child. We also focus heavily on students solving their own problems. JMS has successfully implemented a restorative approach to help students resolve conflict, repair relationships and ‘make things right.’ This has been well received by students and staff.

Our teachers focus on developing student-centered learning opportunities in the classroom. We believe in the ‘gift of struggle.’ Staff encourage and support students to work with each other to support and learn together. The staff will help facilitate the lessons but the responsibility is on the student to think, plan, collaborate and grow. We are fortunate to have quality teachers using curriculum such as Amplify for Language Arts, Illustrative Math for math and Project Lead the Way as an elective. These high quality learning opportunities continue this year in an online format as we strive to help students thrive during the COVID-19 shutdown.

Jemtegaard is focused on the whole child. The JMS staff provide quality learning experiences every day to help students explore, find their passion and build on their many strengths. For example our regionally recognized band and choir programs challenge our students in a ‘family’ environment. Our art program explores many different modes, focussing on the why behind the art as well as the rich history.

To further support the whole child, JMS offers a robust extracurricular activity program. Students can be involved in many athletic activities, including: cross country, football, volleyball, wrestling, basketball and track. We also offer Knowledge Bowl for all grade levels. Along with athletics, we also offer after-school clubs on Monday and Thursday afternoons. Students are offered a snack and a variety of learning opportunities from 3:00 to 4:20pm. JMS provides transportation to get students home at the conclusion of the clubs. Last year we had over 30 activities to engage our students, help them find their passions, support their local community and foster new relationships with peers.

We care about each child that walks through our doors and love to see the growth that occurs in the time that we have them. This can only be enhanced by a strong working relationship with you. You are your child’s number one advocate so please let us know what we can do to support your child in these important middle school years.

GO HUSKIES!

David Cooke

Principal

Jemtegaard Middle School