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The Pines offers unique experience

The Pines Senior Public School is one of the few Grade 7-8 schools around. Students from Newcastle, Kirby Centennial, Orono and Newtonville public schools all come together for two years to get ready for high school. Since the Pines is a junior high it has many unique aspects that prepare us for our high school experience.

The Pines is located right on Hwy. 35/115 across from Clarke High School. Because Clarke is such a close walk across the driveway we are more exposed to the high school.

The Pines works on a rotary schedule. Every class goes around to different classrooms with different teachers for each subject. This gives us all a taste of what things will be like when we get to high school. Rotary lends itself to teachers specializing in their subject area. This benefits students in classes like art and music. Rotary gives students more responsibility because they have a different teacher for each subject. We are expected to know and remember due dates for all our different classes.

There are many perks at The Pines you wouldn’t normally get in a K-8 school. On the first day we are all assigned lockers and are expected to put our backpack and gym clothes in there. We have a special music program and get to play instruments in class. We get to go on one 3-4 days trip each year; to Ottawa in Grade 8 and Camp Olympia in Grade 7. We have yearbook, Operation Pride, Peer Helpers, dances, talent shows, art club, spirit days and each year the Peer Helpers host a charity week. I feel more than ready for my walk across the road to Clarke High School.

Sarah Osborne is a Grade 8 student at The Pines Senior Public School.

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The Pines provides senior class act

May 26, 2007 By: Jennifer Stone

NEWCASTLE -- For some people, being in a building filled with 12- and 13-year-olds all day, every school day, would be the equivalent of a nightmare.

Not so for Jennifer Hermiston-Toth, principal at The Pines Senior Public School.

That age “is my favourite group because they change so much over the two years,” said Ms. Hermiston-Toth -- or, Ms. H-T, as she is known around the school. “They’re thinkers and questioners. I think they change more over these two years than junior kindergarten and kindergarten.”

The Pines draws Grade 7 and 8 students from Newcastle, Kirby, Orono and Newcastle public schools.

After this school year, it will be the last senior public in Clarington and one of only two stand-alone senior public schools across the entire Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. The board got away from the intermediate school idea over the past decade or so, largely due to community preference, said Bruce Shaw, a KPR superintendent.

But the senior public setting allows for a number of positive aspects, said Ms. Hermiston-Toth. For example, due to the rotary system, the students are taught by subject specialists. The library can be specifically geared to the age group and curriculum.

“People worry because ‘junior high’ seems that much more mature,” said the principal. “It turns out they’re just coming to a great school, not the great unknown.”

The setting allows for a great deal of student leadership, she noted. And arts and drama go a step further than in other settings.

“The dramatic production goes beyond something that’s cute,” said Ms. Hermiston-Toth. The combination of the “expertise of the teachers and the talent emerging in students” makes it so.

Students at The Pines also have the opportunity to take part in an array of student-led activities and often help out with charitable causes in the community, said the principal.

“The kids are thinking that way -- they’re compassionate and aware of other people,” she said. “They are thinking they are members of the broader community.”

A whole school full of tweens and teens brings with it a number of peer and social issues, said Ms. Hermiston-Toth. But it’s somewhat easier, because the kids are largely going through the same things at the same time, she said. There is also a lot of peer-to-peer communication, which helps. “That’s more effective sometimes than an adult intervening,” said Ms. Hermiston-Toth. Students coming in from the four feeder schools are given plenty of opportunities to learn the lay of the land at the senior public, she said. They are invited to arts night in May, as well as the school play. Then, they do a half-day orientation in June. In September, all the Grade 7s are taken away to camp. All-in-all, parents worried about their kids making the jump to junior high needn’t fear, said Ms. Hermiston-Toth.

“It’s a great place to bring kids,” she said.