GREENSBORO — St. Pius X School kicked off an exceptional new school year Aug. 23.
Parents and students were greeted by new floors, fresh paint colors, and new water fountains. However, these were not the only changes that caught students’ attention.
Third- through fifth-grade classes found new science and reading textbooks in their desks from publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Elementary Spanish students began their first week of school enjoying a new Sonrisas Spanish curriculum with bright word cards, fun cultural posters, and integrated technology features. Middle school students began to reap the benefits of a new Friday writing lab, where they revised and published their summer reading essays.
All students are also enjoying a few changes to the religion curriculum as each class K-8 began writing Mass homily responses right after Mass on Tuesdays. Students are also encouraged to participate in weekly stewardship by bringing a canned good to Tuesday Masses. In addition, all classes are getting in the habit of saying the Angelus prayer together as a school each day just before noon.
Parents are enjoying new advancements as well. The school’s website now features syllabus, rubric, pacing guide, and technology links for parents, along with a new set of “Parent Learning” videos posted through Vimeo.
St. Pius X School has many new enrichment programs happening before and after school allowing students to participate in extracurricular activities such as a Foreign Language Lab, dance, chess, sports, drama, geography and spelling bees, Battle of the Book competitions, choir, and the opportunity to learn a new instrument.
All these new features in the school go far to demonstrate that the student is the center of St. Pius X School. Classroom instruction is differentiated within all subjects, especially during a dedicated reading and math morning block. Teachers assess students frequently to learn each student’s individual needs and provide constant feedback to parents and support staff. Teachers also use adaptive math technology such as Redbird, Khan Academy and ALEKS to add additional supplementary math practice to the students’ day. This year parents are also receiving weekly newsletters from teachers, as well as email communications, and constant access to the Renweb platform giving parents grades, lesson plans, uploaded documents, and classroom calendars.
As the year progresses, St. Pius X School hopes to offer alumni events for past graduates all the way back to the Class of 1955, as well as a parent book club As St. Pius X School leads the way in academics and faith formation, students can look forward to an engaging new elementary STEM lab and being able to communicate with students around the globe through collaborative 21st century projects. The school also hopes to add enough Chrome book labs for students in each class to have one-to-one access to technology.
— April Parker, Special to the Catholic News Herald. April Parker is the director of curriculum and instruction at St. Pius X School in Greensboro.