Education
Empress students travel to the Warren Peers School in Acadia Valley for their elementary schooling (k-9) a distance of 36 kilometers.
Students attend South Central High School in Oyen for senior high school (10-12), a distance of 67 kilometers. While emphasis is placed upon preparing students for post secondary education, qualified staff working with modern facilities and equipment also helps students to achieve excellence in business education, home economics, and industrial arts.
Extra-curricular activities are equally important. Teams from Acadia Valley & Oyen schools compete in regional and provincial sporting, academic, and cultural activities.
The Big Country Adult Learning Council (403-664-2060) provides a variety of learning opportunities for adults. Areas of programming include ESL, Community Issues, Employability Enhancement and General Interest (eg. Fitness, Crafts). Supervision of distance learning exams and post-secondary resources are also provided. The council also hosts an Adult Basic Literacy Education Program to help adults improve reading, writing and math skills.
Empress and area schools are part of the Prairie Rose School Division #8 headquartered in Dunmore.
Our communities are very proud of our schools. The table below shows how our schools consistently place above the provincial average, as well as having a higher percentage of students completing grade 12 and a higher percentage of students eligible for the Rutherford Scholarship. We also have excellent sports programs, with baseball, curling, basketball, volleyball, golf, badminton, etc. Many of our teams have been provincial champions.