May 3rd, 2022

Each year, Education Week (May 2-6) provides us with an opportunity to celebrate teaching excellence and student achievement within the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB), and highlight all that public education offers our students.

For 2022, Ontario’s Education Week theme is Moving Forward. It recognizes our collective efforts to support student achievement as part of Ontario’s Learning Recovery Action Plan.

WRDSB is also focussed on Moving Forward, as we begin to reimagine what education looks like for our students post-COVID-19. We are currently developing a new strategic plan and discussing the future of WRDSB. Director of Education jeewan chanicka has shared his vision for equitable educational recovery in Ontario as a panelist at a Centre for Leading Research in Education at Wilfrid Laurier University event.

Director chanicka outlined a few priorities, which are research-based and addresses all areas of the upcoming Board Improvement and Equity Plan:

  • Early and continued interventions in reading and math
  • Additional supports for tutoring before and after school, and on weekends
  • Increased support for Special Education students
  • Recognizing that achievement and well-being are intricately connected, focus on placing supports in place to allow schools to be trauma-informed and support restorative approaches in addressing issues and using equity and sovereignty as the “how” of this work, because what is necessary for some is good for all
  • Improve parent engagement through dedicated system navigators who support parents to navigate
  • Support for staff through targeted, measured well-being strategies
  • Focused hiring practices that builds our collective capacity to support all students we serve

Thank you

As we mark Education Week, we ask parents and caregivers to join us as we express gratitude to the WRDSB education workers who make a difference in your child’s education and life each day.

However, we also want to thank our families and our community for their support, trust and partnership. Every day you send your child to our schools, you are entrusting us with helping to build their future – not a trust we take lightly. It takes a community of people – educators, parents, caregivers, and community members – to help our students succeed.