Catholic school students in the area will enjoy new facilities this school year.

Makerspace rooms have been set up in each of the schools operated by the Northwest Catholic District School Board.

Education Director Jackie Robinson says it allows students to explore their imaginations by building things.

“All of this can be connected back to the curriculum,” says Robinson.

“It is a really fun way to reinforce what children are learning in their curriculum in math, sciences, social studies and other areas, and to be able to go into a dedicated space in a school to use those objects and manipulatives to build things and to invent things and to create things for themselves.”

Robinson says makerspace rooms were set up in a couple of their schools before the decision to include them in all.

Attention was also paid this summer to improving school grounds to enhance safety.

Robinson says this included upgrades to parking lots, playgrounds and the exterior of schools.

Staffing is also looking good for the start of the year.

“We were able to staff all of our schools with the same staffing levels that we had last year,” says Robinson.

“We do have open positions for education assistants in many of our schools, and we also have some long-term occasional teaching positions that we have posted.”