Antigonish Education Centre (AEC) is a Pre-primary to Grade 4 school located on 30 Appleseed Drive in the County of Antigonish, bordering the Town of Antigonish.
AEC fosters student well-being through the creation of a positive, safe, diverse and inclusive learning environment. All students are taught the ‘bucket-filling’ philosophy of expressing daily kindness to others – a metaphor for understanding the effects of our actions and words on the well-being of others and ourselves. Students also receive social emotional learning instruction through the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) Program, which is an intervention that improves children's social and emotional competence, promote self-control as well as reduce challenging behaviours.
The school facility houses two fully equipped music rooms, a large gymnasium with a divider curtain, a performing arts room, cafeteria, a Youth Services Facilitator (YSF) room with kitchen and laundry facilities, a shared school counselling/SchoolsPlus suite of offices with kitchenette, a Reading Recovery training suite, five learning support classrooms, a library and a meeting room. AEC also has Grades 2-4 Running Club and choir, and hosts sports field days and a peer helper group.
Classrooms are equipped with current technology such as LCD projectors and MIMIO. Each student in Grades 2 to 4 has a Chromebook and iPad technology is shared in the lower grades.
Teaching staff has access to peer mentoring in literacy and math as well as regional support in literacy, math and science. Programs and services offered to students include French Immersion, learning support, speech and language, school psychologist, African-Canadian student support worker, Reading Recovery® and school counselling. Antigonish Education Centre is a leader in student services delivery with a strong school planning team. The School Advisory Council meets monthly.
Approximately 95 percent of our students are bused to school. Antigonish Education Centre receives students from the communities of St. Joseph's, Lochaber, Ohio, James River, Addington Forks, Ashdale, Old South River Road, South River, Lanark, Lakevale, Livingstone's Cove, Cape George, North Grant, Pleasant Valley, Town of Antigonish, and some students from Pomquet and St. Andrews. When the school opened in 2000, Antigonish Education Centre combined the former Dr. Hugh MacPherson Elementary, Braemore Elementary and St. Joseph's Consolidated Schools.
Upon completion of Grade 4, students attend St. Andrew Junior School for Grades 5 to 8 and then move on to Dr. John Hugh Gillis Regional High School to complete Grades 9-12.
The main industries in the Antigonish area are St. Martha's Regional Hospital, St. Francis Xavier University, farming, fishing and forestry. The school has a wonderful community partnership with St. Francis Xavier University and benefits greatly from their local facilities and the leadership provided by students who attend the University. Our school gym is used regularly by community groups, local sports associations such as volleyball, minor basketball, cadets, 4-H clubs and senior pickleball.