It’s not your average school IMAGINE YOU'RE taking a strol] through North Van- couver’s Queen Mary Elementary School. Imagine yourself walking up the stairs to the third floor, walking through a set of double doors and being confronted by several stu- dents dressed in Egyptian garb conducting some kind of ceremo- ny. ———— By Surj Rattan News Reporter Rn Imagine yourself having just entered the ‘Windsor House Zone."* The students are in fact all enrolled in Windsor House school, which has its base of operations on the top floor of Queen Mary Elementary school. One of their current projects is to learn about the country of Egypt. But Windsor House is not your average school. In fact, not many people are aware that the school exists. It is one of the few parent par- ticipation schools in the Lower Mainjand and has a staff of on- ly 242 full-time teachers. Parents of the 35° students enrolled in the school spend time helping out the staff and working with the students, The school was started 20 years ago by Helen Hughes and runs from Kindergarten up to Grade 7. Twenty years ago. Hughes was a teacher in a parent participation pre-school,and some of the people there decided tu establish a parent participation elementary school in North Vancouver. Hughes ran the school as a private institution for the first four years before the North Van- couver District 44. School Board offered to run it. Jackie Bradley has taught at Windsor House for the past 10 years and said she was first at- tracted to the concept of parent participation schools when she us- ed to be a parent in one of them. Later, she got her teaching degree and decided to teach at Windsor House. “tt was looking for a situation NEW ZEALAND. AUSTRALIAN & BRITISH TAX PREPARATICN . Sunday. March 31, 1991 - North Shore News - 37 * eee STUDENTS ENROLLED at Windsor House school in North Vancouver are currently learning about the country of Egypt. An ordinary visitor to the ‘Windsor House Zone"’ may think the activity taking place at the school is strange, but it's just another average day to the school’s students, teachers and parents. where | could be involved in my child's education "ve only aught in alternate schools and like being in a situation where parents and teachers and students work trgether as a team."* says Bradley. Dawn Cressman has a son enrolled in) Windsor House and said she likes the school because she can be involved in her son's education. “My involvement with other schools is that they either don't welcome parent participation or HEAD OFFICE: CAPILANO MALL 201-935 MARINE DR., NORTH VANCOUVER they can't co-ordinate it. The people who work with my child have the same basic values as | have,”* says Cressman. “te takes extra time to be in- volved in this school. For the results we see in our children, the parents feel it’s worth it,” Cressman says. And how did Windsor House get its name? When Hughes first started the school, she can it out of her house, located on Windsor Street. FROM $200 980-0321 FAX #987-9388 METROTOWN SURREY LANGLEY 1660 ROBSON (DOWNTOWN) TORONTO & OTTAWA LEVOLOR| |CRYSTALE PLEATED SHADES} sug. 0 retail ex. 48x48’ $165.00 NOW only $415.50 * extensive colour range * multitudes of designs * UV impervious A pemaleing i Binds ang Dranenes tor aver © years . 4877 Marine Drive, N.Van. 984-41 01 #4-38918 Progress Way, Squamish 892-5857 Whistler 932-6617