Students climbing the walls at NES

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/12/2018 (1949 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new and unique apparatus inside Niverville Elementary School’s gymnasium literally has students climbing the walls.

After more than a year of fundraising, the K-4 school in Niverville installed a brand new climbing wall for students in the school’s gym about two weeks ago.

Niverville Elementary School principal Tracy Beaudin said she does not know of many schools in the province with an indoor climbing wall for students, and the uniqueness of the wall is what has drawn students to it since it’s been set up.

“They absolutely love it,” Beaudin said, while watching students climb the wall on Monday morning. “It’s become a very popular thing for sure.”

Beaudin said getting the climbing wall purchased and set up was an idea she came up with last school year, and since then the school’s staff and students worked to fundraise the approximately $7,000 needed to purchase it and install it.

“I presented it as an idea here to our parent advisory council and they were really excited about it from the get-go,” Beaudin said. “We started fundraising last year, it took us a little bit of time to come up with the money and this year we got it up.

“The fundraising efforts here at the school have been amazing, and they have led to what we see here now, which is just great.”

The wall which sits eight feet high and 28 feet wide may be something a lot of students are excited about, but the school’s gym teacher said there are many real benefits to the wall for students, both physically and mentally.

“It’s been great in so many ways,” Niverville Elementary gym teacher Kathy Doell said while teaching one of her grade three classes on Monday.

“For their cognitive development they have to problem solve and think of the best way to get across, and with physical benefits it’s helping with balance, core strength, and bilateral movement.

“There are so many physical and cognitive benefits.”

The wall even came with its own resource book that allows teachers to create entire lesson plans around the wall.

“The resource book has amazing games and all sorts of ideas so you can work on all those things like physical and cognitive skills and things like critical-thinking skills, working together and team work, but also working individually and independently,” Doell said.

Doell added the wall has been a big benefit and confidence builder for a number of the school’s special-needs students.

“We have had special needs students that might usually struggle with their motor skills getting on there and really finding their confidence,” Doell said.

“It’s for everyone, and it’s really helping a lot of kids to build their confidence.”