HeadStart to Grade 9
REGISTRATION is WAITING LIST ONLY.
Please scroll to the bottom of the page to register for the waiting list.
At the end of August each year, Get a HeadStart to Grade 9 is offered. HeadStart is a voluntary, value-added summer support program offered for FREE for Grade 8 students entering Grade 9 only at one of our five WCDSB Catholic Secondary Schools. Although this program is NOT mandatory, separate registration for HeadStart is required.
This program is only available to students enrolled in our Catholic Secondary Schools each September. Students and parents tell us how timely and transformative this program is.
How does HeadStart make a difference?
HeadStart is an in-person preparatory program which provides students with those preliminary tools to be academically successful at the beginning of the school year. Activities are infused with literacy and numeracy activities and the all-important social adjustment factor.
Learn to:
- What is the 2021 -2022 school year likely going to look like for high school students?
- What does in-class, online and remote learning look like in a high school setting
- How to manage a semester system for both in-person and remote learning
- Follow your timetable, find your classes and meet your new peers who will join you – ahead of time
- Navigate around other parts of the school and how to access people resources
- How to physical distance in a secondary school setting
- Feel a part of a new school community before the first day of school
“ Excellent initiative for Grade 9 students! As a former SMH Grade 9 student when it was located downtown, this would have been a great intro to high school back in the day. For my somewhat shy and apprehensive daughter, this program was a great icebreaker, a chance to find her comfort zone and start the first day off on the right foot. Congrats on a well-developed program, great communication ahead of time. A bonus for any new Grade 9 coming into SMH.”
– parent of St. Mary’s HeadStart student
In years, prior, we have accommodated close to 1000 Grade 9 students entering our five Catholic Secondary Schools and the program does reach maximum capacity. While we do not know what the pandemic status will be by August, we are prepared to keep numbers of students manageable for everyone’s safety.
Nervousness about starting high school is natural for most students in the days leading up to the first day of Grade 9. HEADStart can alleviate some of that anxiety.
Since 2010, St. Louis Adult Learning and Continuing Education Centres and the Waterloo Catholic District School Board have worked together to create a phenomenal program that addresses academic and social anxiety, provides Gr 8 students going into Grade 9 with the tools of academic readiness, study and organizational skills to achieve success and a chance to connect with peers (old and new) in meaningful ways during this transition.
FOUR Awesome Days ! (MORNING or AFTERNOON)
Get a HEADStart to Grade 9 is a four-day program and will be filled with activities that because of Covid-19 will be limited to small group activities throughout the school, so students can gradually adjust to the “largeness” of high school. As we prepare for this significant transition, HeadStart is offered just before the new school year begins. HeadStart program dates are Monday August 23 to Thursday August 26.
Commitment to attend HeadStart ensures optimal learning, the greatest benefit and the least disruption within the limited hours the program is running. If students cannot attend at all for whatever reason, please let us know in advance if you can. All students who are able to attend HEADStart will be encouraged to pay it forward and show their peers a few tips they learned once school begins.
Transition to Grade 9 in so MANY WAYS!
Every Waterloo Catholic high school has a team of students and staff that will help before school begins.
- Read the Entering Secondary School Transition Guide
- Attend a pre-recorded Grade 8 Information and Pathway Presentation evenings for Parents and Students
- Ask questions about courses, different levels and different pathways when you meet the school guidance teachers
- Students may be able to attend virtual class tours in their Family of Schools Secondary School in Spring – ask your day school if this is happening
- Participate in virtual Transition Meetings arranged by your Elementary School
- Register May 3rd to June 30th to attend HeadStart at the end of August.
HEADStart merely gives Grade 9 students a bit more support, more time to adjust to the transition, and gain more confidence to cope with the first few weeks of high school … and as a benefit, they will be able to focus more on course learning and achievement and making choices regarding involvement in other school activities rather than “sweating the small stuff”.
Get excited and BE PREPARED for those first few weeks/months of Grade 9 at our Catholic Secondary Schools next September. Grade 9 is an exciting, yet challenging milestone.
- What is the 2021 -2022 school year likely going to look like for high school students?
- What does a blend of in-class, online and remote learning look like in a high school setting
- How to manage a semester system for both in-person and remote learning
- Follow your timetable, find your classes and meet your new peers who will join you – ahead of time
- Navigate around other parts of the school and how to access people resources
- How to physical distance in a secondary school setting
- Feel a part of a new school community before the first day of school
Don’t be nervous. Bring out your Best!
Students and Parents alike have repeatedly shared how this program “transforms” them. Even in uncertain times, confidence increases, attitude toward school is positive, bonds with new friends are meaningful, and achievement in course work is focused. This brief program is only ONE piece of the whole transition to high school, however this concentrated effort by each Catholic Secondary School is making a difference!
SESSIONS
Reminder: HEADStart is a summer program and not mandatory, however you will be required to register separately for this summer program.
Morning Group
Monday, August 23 to Thursday , August 26 (4 days) 8:30-11:30am (FULL)
OR
Afternoon Group
Monday, August 23 to Thursday , August 26 (4 days) 12:00pm-3:00pm
Get a HEADStart to Grade 9 is offered at all five Catholic Secondary Schools with the Waterloo Catholic District School Board.
If your child is registering to attend the following high schools in the Fall 2021, then they should be encouraged to register separately for this summer program as well.
- Monsignor Doyle CSS, 165 Meyers Rd., Cambridge
- Resurrection CSS, 455 University Ave., Kitchener
- St. Benedict CSS, 50 Saginaw Pkwy., Cambridge
- St. David CSS, 4 High St., Waterloo
- St. Mary’s High School, 1500 Block Line Rd., Kitchener
Please Select the High School your child is planning to attend this Fall 2021.
Registration is CLOSED. To be placed on the Waiting List, please click below.
Decisions for the Waiting List will not be determined until Friday, August 2oth.
Please contact stlouis@wcdsb.ca if you have questions.
