On September 26th students and teachers from across the division, along with superintendents and school trustees all came together for a light supper and the opportunity to sit around a table and discuss our schools. The event was held at Grden City Collegiate and the focus was on student voice.
WK had a contingent of students from Civic Leadership, Black Student Union (BSU) and other clubs and programs. The evening was facilitated by assistant superintendent Mr. Matt Henderson. Students from across the schools and grades were seperated into different groups and each group had a variety of adults who joined them. Questions were posed to the students who then shared in their own words what was going well, or not well at their various schools. It was great to talk to kids from other schools because we got to compare the different things, and discuss what we liked better. For example, WK has five periods in a day, but the other high schools only have four. We discussed how those students seemed to have less option courses and choices than students at WK do.
Another thing was, how would we feel if that one school didn’t have the same program as us, what would we do in that situation? A student said they would talk to everyone and get all schools to have the same program as them. It was neat because we got to share ideas with kids from other schools. We then switched groups one more time where we were given a chance to focus on a certain theme and discuss what our schools were each doing on that topic.
The group I was in talked about homelessness. This was cool because I was able to share our “Cushions of Hope” plastic bag project we were doing with the seniors. Other schools were very interested and now they want to join us. Another school wants us to come there and teach them the project. I was super excited by the idea and think that would be so fun to do. Overall my experience was amazing and I had a fun time!
Kati Siedler
