New initiatives at Foremost School this year

Commentator/Courier Photo Submitted. INITIAL DAY: Principal of Foremost School Stuart Shigehiro, left, standing with students Gus Haraga and Hayden Stryker in front of the newly built greenhouse.

By Samantha Johnson
Prairie Rose Public Schools Content Writer

Earlier this semester, staff and students at Foremost School, along with some parent volunteers, put together a greenhouse. Some students were part of the project for the whole day and others participated as classes allowed. On the initial day of the project, the frame went up and most of the panels.

“It was a good learning process,” said Principal Stuart Shigehiro. “We had to do line locates and get a permit from the village and students learned the proper process from this initiative. One of the biggest issues was reading instructions, everyone just wants to build it because they all know how to build. There were a few hiccups on the way, but we overcame them and got it up.”

Grade 5 student Gus Haraga and Grade 6 student Hayden Stryker were part of the group who participated for the whole day. “It was pretty interesting to build, and I learned the step-by-step process,” stated Hayden Stryker.

“It was fun to build,” added Gus Haraga. “I struggled with the instructions at times and stepped back to watch (the older students) and then when I knew what I was doing, I would catch back up again.”

The school occasionally has meetings with high school students and staff to generate ideas, which is where the plan to build a greenhouse originated. “The entire school will participate,” explained Shigehiro. “The younger students will help with watering and planting. The construction kids will build the irrigation unit. It is a whole school initiative.”

A staff member suggested growing bedding out plants in the greenhouse. The school was looking for a way to use the greenhouse that encompassed all their goals and outcomes but did not involve having to staff it over the summer. The plan is to hold a celebration event sometime in the spring next year where the bedding out plants will be sold.

Trustee for the Foremost area Nancy Haraga said, “I’m so proud of the students that took part in the build of the greenhouse. The Grade 9 boys shop class built the project with the help of Tyler Haraga guiding them in the right direction. At one point I think we all thought we had Ikea instructions. The instructions were hard to understand, but the boys managed to put their thinking caps on and pivot their way of thinking. Huge shout out to AgroPlus for helping us fund the project with $8,000 the school won through a Winfield United and Ag Retails contest, which donates money to small communities. Excited to watch the kids get their hands dirty!”

Outside the greenhouse there are some raised flower beds that aren’t used much because the deer eat anything grown in them. Shigehiro explained they intend to reclaim some of the beds and convert them into benches so the area can be used as an outdoor classroom.

Coming up next month, Foremost School will be holding a holiday carnival. “We are changing it up, it used to be a concert each year, so we decided to hold a holiday carnival where there will be games and activities throughout the school,” said Shigehiro. “Some classes are going to perform live singing and others will prerecord their performance that will be running on TVs around the school.”

Shigehiro is hoping the entire community will participate in the carnival, which will be a more interactive event than a concert. “We are going to do the carnival every other year because many people love the traditional Christmas concert, so we’ll rotate between them.” The inaugural Foremost School holiday carnival will be held on December 19 starting at 10 a.m.

Also happening in December is Skills Exploration Day. The younger students who are taking shop will be presented with an issue and will need to create a project around it. “They won’t know the issue; it could be water conservation or something else. They find out about it that day and they must create a project to help solve the issue being presented,” stated Shigehiro.

Eight high school students at Foremost who enrolled in the School of Trades have been travelling into Medicine Hat once every two weeks to learn how to weld at Medicine Hat College. “They love it. They love their gear, their hard hats and boots, overalls and learning how to weld. Some of the certificates they get, like confined space, some of the larger boys didn’t like that so much, but everything else they are really enjoying,” said Shigehiro.