Kenora Catholic's bright, welcoming learning spaces profiled globally in VS America Case Study.
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Kenora Catholic's learning spaces are being profiled globally in a Case Study recently published by VS America. The glossy pages and high-resolution images of students and classrooms at Kenora Catholic tell the story of the board's journey from traditional classroom setup, to the flexible and dynamic spaces that are evident across the system today.
Since 2014, classroom and learning spaces within the board have intentionally been designed with input from parents, teachers and students, focusing on rethinking the spaces to put student learning first.
Jamey Robertson, Vice Principal at Pope John Paul II School and Innovation and Creativity Coordinator is the board's lead on
this initiative. “I am proud that we've involved our parents, teachers and students in creating bright and welcoming spaces that enrich learning, support wellness, and encourage community. We've approached something that could simply be a procurement process - buying new furniture - and turned it into a learning initiative that is aimed at improving student outcomes.”
The Case Study shows images from classrooms at École Ste-Marguerite Bourgeoys and St. Thomas Aquinas High School as well as the new Learning Commons at École Ste-Marguerite Bourgeoys.
VS America
looks for Case Studies that tell a unique story, and the fact that Kenora Catholic involved input from its community and is creating new spaces without new construction created an interesting story.
“We were drawn to Kenora Catholic's project as a Case Study because of the extensive design process. The classrooms meet all the hallmarks of the 21st Century learning environment, and as we move further into the 21st Century these spaces will respond and adapt to modern learning and teaching initiatives,” says Andrew Lowes, Canadian Sales Manager of VS America. “Kenora Catholic is future-proofing their spaces to support instruction and learning of future skills required for jobs that don't even exist yet.”
The Kenora Catholic VS Case Study will be used as a positive example and educational tool by VS America within its newsletters, website, social media spaces and with its employees, architects, designers and educators across the US and Canada. The Case Study will also be printed and shared for professional development purposes.
“It's a privilege that our project is being featured in print among a very limited and reputable group of organizations including the Khan Lab School and Discovery STEM Academy,” said Robertson.
“The board's work thus far, reflected in the Case Study, is only a starting point and isn't a completed project,” continues Robertson. “This is the establishment of the foundation for us to build upon and apply feedback to our work. As we move into new projects, our focus will be to continue to improve and refine our design process and learning spaces.”
St. John School is currently configuring their new Learning Lab, which will be ready for use in January 2019. Pope John Paul II School is presently in the process of transitioning their library to a space that effectively supports the development of multiple literacies. The library space will be transformed during the Summer of 2019 to increase capacities for learning.
A link to the final version of the Kenora Catholic Case Study is available on the VS America Website: