The Citizen, 2015-09-17, Page 9THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015. PAGE 9.
Crowley to address conflict with HOAP system
Students and visitors to Maitland
River Elementary School will see a
new face with Principal Angela
Crowley.
Crowley, who is in her 10th year
as principal, lives in Wingham and is
very happy to be able to work at
home.
“I’m very happy to be here,” she
said in an interview with The
Citizen. “It’s going to be a lot of
work, but I think this will let me see
the community through new eyes.”
Crowley has lived in Wingham
since she was 19 and, over the past
several years, worked in several
different area schools.
She was the principal at Listowel
Central Public School for the past
five years and, the four years prior to
that she was principal at Colborne
Public School. Prior to that she was
Vice-Principal at Wingham Public
School and Victoria Public School in
Goderich for one and two years
respectively. She also taught at
Turnberry Central Public School
and, before that, worked at the
Wingham Children’s Centre,
now the North Huron Children’s
Centre.
Crowley went to the Institute of
Child Study in Toronto for teachers
college after working at the
children’s centre and, after teaching
for some time, earned her Masters in
Global Literacy from Charles Sturt
University in Australia.
Crowley said that when she
arrived at the school, she could tell
there was a lot of good work done
there. She said that any changes she
makes will be based on the two main
goals of the Avon Maitland District
School Board and the Ontario
Ministry of Education: to create
positive and inclusive learning
environments and to maximize
student outcomes.
To that end, Crowley said she is
looking at setting up a new system
to help deal with conflict at
the school.
“I want to take a school-wide
approach to conflict,” she said. “It’s
inevitable. We have more than 500
people using this building, so
conflict will happen.”
She said that whatever form
conflict comes in, whether it’s
differing opinions, bullying,
aggression or teasing, she plans to
address them all.
She plans on implementing a
system she has used at previous
schools to mediate problems
between individuals at the school.
The program, called HOAP
(Honesty, Ownership, Apology and
Plan) focuses on conflict not as
something someone should be
blamed for, but something that needs
to be admitted, owned, dealt with,
and learned from.
“I want to move away from
authority telling students how to deal
with conflict and get to a point
where we’re helping them through
this process and teaching them,” she
said.
“I had a lot of success with HOAP
at Listowel, both socially and
academically,” she said. “I know that
it isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution
though, so we will use it as a
platform and adjust it as necessary.”
Crowley also saw an opportunity
for improvement in terms of how
modern the school is, as she
hopes to implement the practices to
match.
“We have a 21st century building
here,” she said. “We need to start
using 21st century practices to match
that. I want to integrate traditional
values with those 21st century
practices to help prepare our
students for the future.”
Crowley also plans on
implementing school-wide
terminology when it comes to
education to help academic
improvement.
She said that having good
communication, not just with
students but all the community
stakeholders, will help the school
become the best it can be.
Officially open for fun
During the first week of school, Maitland River Elementary School’s new Principal Angela
Crowley got to help open the new equipment on the school’s playground. Crowley, left, holding
the ribbon, was joined by former principal Alice McDowell, holding the other end of the ribbon,
for the big day. The two principals were joined by members of the Building Bridges to Our
Future committee, who has been fundraising for the equipment as well as other projects
around the school, and the school’s ambassadors, students who are specially trained to
represent the school and show people what’s great about Maitland River Elementary. The
ribbon cutting was held on Friday, Sept. 11. (Denny Scott photo)Stay Connected
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By Denny Scott
The Citizen
The best kind of help
Keenan Courtney, left, was ecstatic to be able to dress up like his grandfather, ‘Kernel’ Gary
Courtney and help hand out corn during the three corn roast suppers held at the Blyth and
District Community Centre as part of the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association’s
54th annual reunion over the weekend. (Denny Scott photo)