When May City Colony School first opened at the start of this school year, it felt like a homecoming for teacher Lisa McCaw. The new school is only five km from the one-room schoolhouse where her grandma started her own teaching career in the 1940s.

“It’s a perfect way to honour the tradition of the one-room schoolhouse,” said Lisa, who works with 17 students from Kindergarten to Grade 9. “The class has four groups of students of varying ages. We know each of them, and their skills and abilities, so well that we’re able to provide the best programming approach for each. May City kids love to read and they are all unbelievably avid readers, so ensuring the library was stocked was a huge priority. They are also very creative and artistic.”

Lisa is supported in the classroom by EA Catharina Enns, who transferred from Horizon School and was at Neudorf Colony School prior to that. The three other colony schools in Chinook’s Edge provide ongoing support, including sharing resources for the library.

“I also feel incredible support from the students and families at May City. The women come in to clean the school and they make sure we are all very well fed at lunchtime! Everyone has daily and weekly chores, and they all pitch in.”

photo of school

All four Colony Schools (May City, Neudorf, Pine Hill and Rainbow Colony) are supervised by long-serving Chinook’s Edge administrator, Daryl Brown, who visits each school every month. Lisa began her teaching career at a Colony School in 2002, and has been with Chinook’s Edge since 2008 as a teacher at Westglen Middle School and Delburne Centralized School. She was excited with the teaching opportunity after May City Colony opened in August 2021, and the school started soon after.

“This community is so supportive of the school. Literacy, Math and good behaviour is important to them and they have been very welcoming to me,” said Lisa. “There is also a great rapport among the staff at our Colony Schools and everyone is incredibly helpful – they are always just a phone call away. We work together every Collaborative Day to ensure we’re bringing our best to these students. They’re really great kids and I’m so happy to be with them!”

**Story provided by Chinook's Edge School Division