The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board is adding new programs to get students more engaged in learning.
In September 2018, it is offering 13 new academies at eight different school, bringing the total number of academies to 33.
Academies are designed to focus on one discipline or subject, it sometimes takes place in the classroom or in a recreational complex, while the student still earns credits.
New academies this year include squash and basketball at Catholic Central, Hockey at St. Anne, and Villanova and martial arts at Corpus Christi Middle School.
Board Executive Superintendent of Innovation and Human Resources Dan Fister says attendance soars in these programs. "These programs, our academies engage students, they engage them intellectually, they engage them socially and engage them institutionally into their schools."
"It caters to their passion and when that happens, our kids are incredibly connected to themselves and their school," says Fister.
"The academies add value to classroom learning," according to Fister. "It is a bit of a hybrid that kids are there for part of the experience and in the case of where our academies are housed in the school proper, it becomes part of the ebb and flow of their day."
The academies include individual sports, a construction academy, a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) academy and manufacturing academy.
Information nights are set for parents at Central Park Athletics on January 24 at 7pm and at Cardinal Carter Catholic Secondary School in Leamington on January 30 at 7pm.