Schools

Dawson Trail School

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Dawson Trail School is a Kindergarten to Grade 8 rural, public school with a student population of 310 and a staff of 45 teachers and paraprofessionals. Dawson Trail School also houses the town's nursery school program, as well as a local pre-school playgroup. The school's catchment area includes the town of Lorette, Manitoba as well as many smaller outlying communities and more remote farm areas.

The presence of a high number of special needs students has given our school a relatively low student to staff ratio (due to the presence of educational assistants or paraprofessionals), which provides us with the opportunity to implement a number of innovative programs to assist these learners. The focus of these programs is based upon both the need to meet the individual needs of each student and our commitment to the inclusion of all learners in our classrooms. Frequently, this focus is spearheaded, or augmented, through the implementation of technology in the classrooms. A wide range of hardware and software is utilized to permit the integration of all learners through:

Ø Individualizing programs
Ø Augmenting communication skills
Ø Providing a common ground for co-operative learning
Ø Researching new and unique pedagogy through use of the Internet

Realizing the potential of this technology to bring down the barriers that formerly separated some students from their peers, we have ensured universal access in our school to these tools. A school wide net links all of our classrooms, with Internet access. All of our students from Grade 2 to Grade 8 have been instructed in the use of e-mail and have e-mail addresses through www. gaggle.net.