New Gibson-Neill school opens in Fredericton

Gibson-Neill Memorial Elementary School, the province’s newest school, opened its doors for the first time on Wednesday.

The new K-5 school on Fredericton’s northside is merging students who once attended classes at Alexander Gibson Memorial School and South Devon Elementary.

Sherry Norton-Graham, the new school’s principal, said it will take some time for students to adjust to the new school.

"I think there will be a lot of shock and awe. It's a huge facility and so it'll take them sometime to know where they are, where they're going and how to find their way back to their classroom and that will be the most surprising thing for them," she said.

"But they'll be excited by the newness of it. It'll be like Christmas morning all over again."

Norton-Graham said for parents the biggest adjustment will be traffic patterns. 

She said there were teachers and adult volunteers directing people where to go on Wednesday.

"The traffic patterns are probably going to be what they get used to first. And the drop-off or kiss-and-go spot is right directly in front of the school, so our main entrance is off Cliffe Street and the first driveway they see will be the parent-student drop off. And so we'll have adults out there to greet the cars and to let them know where to go and to move that process along."

Audrey Brewer, a Grade 1 student at the new school, said her first day was "great."

"We went to the gym, the small gym, so we ran around the room. I went five times, other people went six times," Audrey said.

She said she liked all the new "decorations" in the school and the different coloured hallways.

The new school has 520 students.

Norton-Graham said the preparation to move into the new school took more than a year.

She said administrators and teachers from Alexander Gibson Memorial School and South Devon Elementary held activities last year so the students would get to know each other.