Mision
G. Theberge School is a safe and caring community that is dedicated to nurturing and celebrating the unique strengths of each individual.
A School and its Community
G. Theberge is a K-11 school in Temiscaming, Quebec situated at the top of the Ottawa River bordering Ontario. We offer English language instruction as well as French as a second language program leading to bilingual accreditation. We provide a before and after-school daycare program for our Primary students. We share a building owned by the Commission Scolaire Lac Temiscaming which affords us the ability to offer a cafeteria that serves hot meals everyday, a library staffed full-time by a librarian as well as full size gyms. We are also supported by a partnership with the Town of Temiscaming which allows for free use of the Community Centre for activities.
Our communities are located in the region of Abitibi-Temiscaming, which is a region rich in wildlife and natural resources. Our identities, lifestyles, livelihoods, and cultural connections are deeply tied to the land.
Our economy is largely based on natural resource industries including the local pulp and paper mill as the major employer in Temiscaming. Other important industries include outdoor recreation and tourism.
Students
Our students and staff come from local communities with diverse cultural backgrounds including Kebaowek and Wolf Lake Algonquin First Nations; currently our students are approximately 35% First Nations. The vast majority of our population have English as their mother tongue.
The past two years we have had 100% success on the Secondary 5 Ministry exams as well as 100% graduation rate.
Our small classes at Secondary can be challenging to program for however we have been improving our ability to design individual programs and schedules for students. We offer advanced Math, Chemistry and Physics on-line through LEARN Quebec.
School
As part of a concern from our community we have organized a full-time K4 (Multi-Age) for our students for the past four years.
We have a strong focus on early intervention specifically supporting literacy as well as social and emotional needs. We have resource offered at Primary and Secondary to support students with IEP’s.
We have a Secondary Lounge for students to hang out in at lunch and on breaks. We receive milk weekly for all of our students and have snacks available for any students who have need.
We have partnered with the French school to offer a Hockey option at Secondary. Our students share a lunch hour with the French school and are able to socialize with them. We are working to provide more opportunities for all of the students to participate in activities together; for the past two years we have invited the French school to join us in our annual Terry Fox Walk.
Staff
Currently we have 13 teachers and 12 support staff working in our school. We are have access to a Nurse from the CLSC as well as a social worker. We facilitate speech therapy programs funded through Jordan’s Principle for First Nations students.
Our dedicated staff and small class sizes support diverse learning needs of our students in a welcoming, small school environment. Our low student – staff ratio allows for close support for all students with many supports specifically for our students with special needs.
We have a PD plan that is focused on improving instruction in the classroom:
- 3 teachers are in a NANS network for French and Math
- All staff are working on Formative Classroom Walkthroughs to provide feedback to each other
- All staff are learning about Indigenous Pedagogy and how to better support our First Nations students
Families and Communities
G. Theberge School is designated an 8 in Socio-Economic Index by the Government. As such we are designated as a NANS (New Approaches New Solutions) school. NANS is a provincial ranking system that provides extra funding to schools made up primarily of families of low socio-economic status. Schools ranked an 8, 9 or 10 receive additional resources to provide support in early literacy and numeracy, support for students with special needs and additional support in core subjects.