The Primary Division: Grades One and Two

Classes for Holy House’s youngest students aim to introduce students to the rich liturgical and academic rhythms which characterise The Gilbertine Academy and Holy House, to foster an awareness of history and a love of literature and learning in general, and to support parents in teaching basic literacy and numeracy skills.

Primary students attend Morning Prayer, Mass, and Evening Prayer along with the older students, and focus on the same monthly virtue. They listen to a variety of classic children’s literature as well as stories related to the historical time period being studied at Holy House that year. Time for free reading as well as listening to read-alouds ensures that they have an exposure to a broad range of literature along with the best in children’s picture books. They work on reading and writing using the All About Reading and Lively Letters programmes, while phonics readers, letter practice, copywork, and grammar and writing activities are provided to work on at home, according to each student’s skill level. Calendar skills, counting, and other math skills form part of the daily schedule, though math is not formally taught as part of the Primary Division classes. History lessons are taken from The Story of Civilization and The Story of the World and supplemented with colouring pages and other activities. Latin is introduced using Song School Latin from Classical Academic Press. Primary students also participate in Schola Cantorum as part of the St. Nicholas Schola, singing and playing time-honoured children’s songs, games, and dances while learning the fundamentals of music literacy. Finally, plenty of time is provided for physical activity both outside, weather permitting, and in Holy House’s full size gym in Calgary, or in the church hall at St. Emeric.

Depending on the number of students and staff, primary students may be combined for some of the day and separated into smaller groups for literacy (phonics, spelling, literature, printing, cursive etc.). Students will not be placed into smaller groups by age or grade but rather by experience and mastery of skill in consultation with the parents. Holy House strives to give each primary student the best place to start and depends upon active parental involvement for the child to progress.