{"id":526284,"date":"2026-03-10T07:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/526284\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T07:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:19:10","slug":"its-an-empowering-culture-at-st-johns-ravenscourt-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/526284\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s an empowering culture at St. John\u2019s-Ravenscourt \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

Science lessons are out of this world at St. John\u2019s- Ravenscourt School (SJR). <\/p>\n

When Kaitlynn Buffie asked about sending a weather balloon, loaded with cameras and sensors, up to the edge of the stratosphere as a project with her Grade 7 and 8 students, the response was immediately enthusiastic at the Winnipeg independent school. Soon, her students were calculating flight paths, launching the balloon from eastern Manitoba, then trekking across a farmer\u2019s field to retrieve it \u2014 along with images of the upper atmosphere and the curvature of the Earth. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an awesome opportunity for the students; however it\u2019s expensive and there\u2019s a lot of expertise that goes into a project like this,\u201d says Buffie. \u201cBut anytime something is good for students and professional growth, it is supported.\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Middle
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMiddle School Principal Steve Landreville at St. John’s-Ravenscourt School.<\/p>\n

Buffie, who joined SJR last year to teach middle school, is now a senior school science teacher and head of the science department. She says the feeling of belonging began even before she set foot on campus. Hired in the summer, she received a video from a colleague she had never met, welcoming her to the school. <\/p>\n

\u201cI immediately felt included and excited to start,\u201d says Buffie, who found that supportive culture continued throughout the school year. \u201cTeachers are very passionate people. In many other schools, there are barriers to truly enjoying your job. At SJR, most of those barriers have been removed so we can create enrichment experiences. It opens up the opportunity to focus on teaching. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have more prep time, more access to resources and additional learning opportunities. Everything that you would want to have to become the best teacher you can be is available to you.\u201d <\/p>\n

As middle school principal, Steve Landreville sees his central role as empowering the teachers around him. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are constantly assessing how professionals use their time and build in more prep time so they can create enriched experiences for the students,\u201d he says. \u201cTeaching is hard, and in five years, teaching will be even more complex. We need to recognize teachers as professionals and allocate more time and resources so they can be builders and thinkers \u2014 not go home and be doing the work at 10:30 at night.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Sign<\/p>\n

One of his favourite aspects of the job is listening to people like Buffie outline a plan to send something to space and track it \u2014 and have the kids do the work. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy instinct was to support it, then get out of the way and let this passion run wild,\u201d says Landreville. \u201cI want teachers to be seen and heard. I want them to feel valued. They are the experts. It\u2019s my job to empower, support, and remove barriers.\u201d <\/p>\n

Landreville has been at SJR for 16 years, having joined straight out of university, and never looked back. The school fully funded his post\u2011baccalaureate and master\u2019s programs and now he \u201csigns off on those regularly\u201d for his faculty. In his division alone, he notes, \u201cI have five faculty working on their master\u2019s, fully supported by SJR.\u201d <\/p>\n

He attributes much of his own career success to the mentors he had at the school who encouraged him to pursue his \u201cNorth Star.\u201d Today, he extends the same support to his staff, protecting time in his mornings for informal \u201ccollision coffee\u201d conversations and building a collaborative culture where everybody has a seat at the table. <\/p>\n

\u201cCulture does not take shape without purposeful, deliberate intention,\u201d says Landreville. \u201cWe are very intentional about booking off our time to connect \u2014 whether that\u2019s taking 230 students to camp as a grade retreat or organizing social outings for staff and their families. For me, this is more than a job, this is a community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Science lessons are out of this world at St. John\u2019s- Ravenscourt School (SJR). When Kaitlynn Buffie asked about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-526284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}