Summer Literacy Camps will return to Prince Albert for another year after the Government of Saskatchewan announced camp funding for the Prince Albert Catholic School Division.
The Literacy Camps news was part of the Saskatchewan Budget Day announcements. Since 2023, the division has received enough funding to provide three camps after originally hosting just one. This is the 17th year the division has received funding for the camps.
“We’ll be able to run three weeks of camps for students at three different schools,” Director of Education Lorel Trumier said. “Even children that don’t attend those schools but attend our system, they would be able to participate in those literacy camps.”
St. John Community School, St. Catherine Catholic School and St. Michael Community School will all host camps this year. Ecole Holy Cross hosted in 2024 because of renovations ongoing at St. John Community School.
“We’re just going to strategically place them at three different schools across the city,” Trumier said. “If you live in the East Flat, you’ll be able to participate at St. John, but if you want to drive from and you attend St. Francis, you’re welcome to register for those. We’ll get some communication out to parents regarding that.”
The camps are intended to help better prepare children aged 6 to 11 for the new school year. The main goal is to support and improve reading and writing skills.
The camps moved ahead one week this year because of the way Canada Day Long Weekend landed.
They are inviting children in Grades 1 to 3 and 4 to 6 to attend. The schedule is July 13 to 17 at St. John Community School, July 20 to 24 at St. Catherine and July 27 to 3 at St. Michael.
Children are eligible to attend more than one camp.
“That’s an example of how students across our school division will be able to participate in three different opportunities of a week-long camp. It’s exciting, it’s great, and our children really love it,” Trumier said.
The morning session from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. is for children ages 6 to 8 and the afternoon from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. is for children aged 9 to 11. Each camper will receive many books each week to create their own reading collection.
Trumier is happy to see the funding return year after year.
“We don’t take it for granted,” she said. “We’re certainly very happy to have it. I can tell you that it’s always such a relief and something that we look forward to hearing about.”
The division will hire two teachers and one support staff position for the camps. michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
