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We have some exciting program announcements to make, please take the time to read carefully.

Language Program Update
With the work of our consultant Mr. Lawrence Feld and our teaching team we now offer the highest level language development program available in any elementary school. We can say this confidently because we now have the statistical assessments from last year that indicate that there was demonstrated progress made in all the language skill areas measured. The most important set of statistics shows that many students actually progressed beyond what would be expected under average circumstances. This means that the program is giving these students new skills at a higher level of performance. These students through this program are increasing their ability to get on track for a university and college education.

Mathematics Program Update
The teachers at the Village Academy have always used an eclectic approach to all of their curriculum programming. This year we have reviewed this approach with a special focus on our mathematics program. We have decided to continue an eclectic approach drawing from resources on the internet and using several different texts as well as the knowledge and experience brought to the task by our teachers. However, this year we have reviewed our mathematics program and we have decided to use Nelson Mathematics as our core textbook. Each mainstream publisher has mathematical texts books and workbooks, however, it is the opinion of our teachers that the Nelson Mathematics set would be the closest to our overall skill progression philosophy. In consultation with some parents we were encouraged to have both the text book and workbook available to each individual student. The result is that we feel at the Village Academy that we should introduce the new core program this month in both Mrs. Greenshields and Miss Gallants class. Students will be expected to purchase these new textbooks and workbooks. (This does not mean the students start over from the beginning... they have been learning the essential skills in the last two months and the program will now blend in the new resources to continue this process.)

Student Response System Update
We are excited to announce a second new initiative at the school. This initiative is a continuation of our effort to focus on measuring academic skill change. To that end, we have decided to purchase a new learning tool in the market that will allow us to immediately assess each student's performance throughout class instruction and thereby adjust the instruction accordingly. This is an electronic feedback unit that is similar to a TV remote control device. It sends an FM radio signal from the student to the teacher's computer. The student can answer a teacher's question by pressing a button on the remote which they have at their desk. The teacher immediately can see on her/his computer the answers of the class as a whole, each individual student's answer and these answers can be recorded immediately; allowing the teacher to know who in the classroom has or has not caught the concept being taught. This also means that the series of questions on a test are automatically marked allowing the teacher to spend more time teaching and less time marking. From the students perspective (or maybe we should say the parent's perspective) the essential difference is that no-one can stray off task allowing some other student to be the one that raises their hand and always answers the teacher's questions.

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