'A way we all should be teaching': Rural school wins national award

A rural New Brunswick school has been selected for a national award for breaking away from traditional classrooms in the earliest school years. 

Keswick Ridge School received the National Inclusive Education Award for its melding of ages and traditional grades to emulate real-world conditions. 

Until Grade 3, students who would normally be split into kindergarten, Grade 1 and 2 are taught collectively in one classroom. 

"In life you are not in a box working with people at all the same age level," said teacher Michelle Boreland. In real life, she said, people with different abilities and expertise sit at the same table.

"This just allows them to do this at a younger age," she said of the combined classroom approach at the school about 20 kilometres from Fredericton.

The Keswick Ridge system is reminiscent of schools from New Brunswick's past, when students learned in one-room schoolhouses.

But teacher Melissa Chetwynd said merging grades together these days offers a lot of modern-day benefits. 

"It's really a fluid environment, where the kids can learn at their own pace," said Chetwynd. "The award really illuminates what we do here and how we take the children's individual levels into account." 

With a daughter at Keswick Ridge School, Chetwynd gets a unique look at how the system works.

"Just knowing that she was going to be a part of this environment, that when she came in she'd be able to work at different levels, with different students and have all those different experiences that she wouldn't get in a straight-level classroom, it was really exciting for us,"  Chetwynd said. 

While the multi-age classroom model is uncommon in New Brunswick, it is not new at Keswick Ridge school. For more than two decades, students entering early education here have been mixed with students of varying ages and skills. 

"I've been in set classrooms before," said Karen Howland, who has been teaching in multi-age classes for nine years.

"But I do believe this is a way we should all be teaching. Six-year-olds should not just be learning with six- year-olds. It's something that I think as a province we should definitely be moving towards." 

Other provinces have expressed interest in the multi-age classroom. Last year Newfoundland promised to start introducing the model to its rural school system.

Keswick Ridge School's award is sponsored by the Canadian Association for Community Living.