Mortlach School

One Big Family

Peter Mills 


Nearly a dozen bicycles lay unlocked around the Mortlach School grounds. A sign tells bikers to please use the racks but only one adheres to the instructions. It’s really not a big deal though – no one would steal a bike from someone as close as a relative.

Mortlach School’s acting principal, Corinne Cobbe, moved to the village 21 years ago. All the teachers she started with have since retired. Cobbe has worked in Mortlach much longer than the current seven teachers and is the only one living in the village.

“Before I came here for work I had no connection to Mortlach,” said Cobbe.

Nearly half of the 73 full-time students at Mortlach School live outside Mortlach. Students and teachers, whether they live in Mortlach or not, share an intimate relationship one likely wouldn’t find in a big city school.
“It’s different,” said Toronto-born student Jake Kairbie of his first year in Mortlach.

For one thing, Mortlach School has to simultaneously be a first step for children and a springboard for adulthood.

Every student at Mortlach’s K-12 school is in a combined class – there are essentially only four classes; kindergarten to grade 2, grade 3 to 5, grade 6 to 8, and grade 9 to 12.

“Combined classes are beneficial because older kids can help the younger kids learn more and students learn how to work as a team,” said Cobbe. 

Teacher Cori Saas loves being able to provide untraditional learning opportunities to such a diverse student body. Saas, who’s only been teaching in Mortlach for a year, lives in Moose Jaw and makes the 20-minute commute to work every day.

“It’s been fabulous. The students are wonderful, the staff is supportive and Corinne is beyond encouraging of my practices and the way I want to do language arts,” she said.

Most of Saas’ new ideas are met with, “Do it, do it, do it!” because the teachers value difference and diversity and everyone is treated like as a valuable member of the team, principal Cobbe explained.
“With a smaller school, where they can get smaller group sizes, it just feels more like home. We’re like one big family in this school even when we go to different rooms,” said Cobbe.

While still a relative newcomer to the Mortlach community, teacher Saas has noticed the family dynamic at the school.

“We are really a family here. When you become a part of the school you become a part of the community. I have no desire of going any place else,” said Saas.

Unfortunately for Saas, sometimes such decisions are out of your control.

Chaplin, a village 20 minutes West of Mortlach, shut down their school in 2009. 

Considering in 1989 well over 200 students walked Mortlach’s halls every day, and now there are just 73, it’s not unreasonable to think Mortlach may one day face the same fate as Chaplin.

Many communities would be destroyed after losing their only school. Students from Chaplin were given choices of what school they wanted to go to and Mortlach received around 30 students. In September 2009, Chaplin’s school re-opened its doors.

Cobbe said having the Chaplin students was a special experience for her school.

“That was a positive thing that happened because it blended or communities together. The (Chaplin) students were excited to go back but the relationships are maintained by co-op (sports) teams,” said Cobbe.

The sports teams definitely benefited. Mortlach School offers basketball, volleyball, badminton, track and field and curling. When Chaplin students spent the year in Mortlach, the volleyball team had 10 players. With those students back in Chaplin, grade 12 Mortlach student Kevin Buck said they might not be able to have a team this year.

Like the rapid loss of grain elevators in Saskatchewan, some towns and villages can only salvage their teams, buildings and businesses for so long. 

The original Mortlach School was a beautiful three-storey brick building until it was torn down in 1994. Corinne Cobbe loved the old school even though it didn’t serve a purpose. But it always felt important.

The destruction of the school was ordered because it was deemed unsafe. Little resistance was made because Mortlach students had already been using a new school since the 1960s.

While the long-term future of schools in Mortlach and Chaplin may be uncertain, the students don’t stop dreaming. 

For the K, 1 and 2 students in Mortlach, their dreams are written on paper shoes and posted in halls. Whether they dream of being a professional hockey player, getting a Hunter Safety Certificate or becoming a rancher like dad, Mortlach’s faculty and students dream of a future together – as a family should. 

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