Sudbury Catholic District School Board is pleased to introduce students to Storwell, in support of their Foster Children Bursary Program.
Storewell offers an annual bursary of $2,000 in support of foster children to help them attend post-secondary schools and to offer a hand up as they make their way forward in life.
Your newest member of our provincial EQAO Student Engagement committee. WOW!
We want to congratulate Myra who was selected out of 250+ students to be on this very important committee to promote student voice and find ideas/ strategies that will help our school community become more inclusive. Myra and the 34 other students that were selected in Ontario, carry on a role of leadership in their schools by attending regular zoom meetings and have wholesome discussions around equity and student needs. Well done Myra, we are extremely thrilled to celebrate your accomplishment, while starting our grade 11’s off in the OSSLT testing this week.
November 1-7 is Treaties Recognition Week, an important time of year where Ontario students acknowledge and learn about treaties as well as the histories, perspectives, and contributions of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.
The Sudbury Catholic District School Board (SCDSB) is celebrating its participation in Treaties Recognition Week. This year, we honour Indigenous histories, perspectives, and contributions through meaningful lessons, presentations, readings, events and celebrations for students and staff at all our schools.
School Highlights
St. John
At St. John Catholic Elementary School, students in Mrs. Galipeau’s class learned about wampum belts in an activity where they could make their own belts out of Lego. Students in Grade 5 and 6 created the 1764 Treaty of Niagara wampum belt. Pictured are Nathan and Olivia, Jaguar students proudly showcasing their class’s completed belt. Wampum belts represent agreements and promises that last “as long as the sun shines and rivers flow”.
On Nov. 2nd, Grade 2 students in Mrs. Child’s class at St. Charles Catholic Elementary School read “Dakota Talks About Treaties.” Afterwards, they created a word web to describe what the word “treaty” means. Also, reading a story was Ms. Trudeau and Ms. D’Angelo’s class! “A Family Cookout” was read to help students explore measuring objects. Afterwards, Ms. Trudeau led an engaging lesson on making bannock where students used their knowledge in a real-life context. However, reading wasn’t the only popular activity. Mrs. Blakely’s grade 1 class learned all about the medicine wheel, smudged, made wampum belts and created their very own classroom treaty.
At St. David, a school-wide activity was implemented in preparation for the week. The Grade 5 class mapped the forested area in an educational exercise that touched on Indigenous identity, history, and ways of being. In an abundance of activities, students learned about treaties, promises, wampum belts and what it means to be indigenous. The school listened to “The Drum Calls Softly” and students created versions of the artwork in the video.
Over at Pius, Treaty Recognition Week was in full force. The school’s Grade 6 students took part in a lesson that included constructing their own Wampum commitment string. Wampum commitment string symbolizes an agreement of respect and peace. Collectively, all the strings will attach and form a family circle to honour Treaty Week.
To commemorate Treaty Week, the students in Grade 2/3 FI at St. James explored the significance of wampum belts as representations of promises that were made to last. They recreated the Treaty of Niagara wampum belt with Legos and other materials and mapped out some of our province’s treaties.
St. Benedict’s kicked off Treaty Recognition Week with Smudging available to students and staff. Classes participated in the Treaty Awareness dialogue. For example, Treaty is ‘Legally Binding’ and that there is also a ‘Sacred Element’ to the agreements. In addition, the school’s Life Skills Class learned and designed a Wampum Treaty Belt of their choosing. Tobacco was offered to our Indigenous Support Worker, Ms. Agowissa, for knowledge sharing. “We Are All Treaty People and are in the Robinson Huron Treaty region.”
Other highlights included secondary students participating in the Robinson Huron Treaty “Treaty Talks with Tomorrow’s Leaders”. Students were able to listen to different Ogimaak/Chiefs from RHT communities share treaty knowledge past, present and future about ‘Gweksijigewin’ (making things right). This knowledge was applied on Friday, Nov. 5th, with presentations from the students.
It truly is very exciting to see what beautiful things our schools are doing to honour this essential part of the learning experience. Thank you to all our staff and community leaders, who took the time to capture and share some of the many wonderful things they were able to participate in this week. For more school activity updates, check out Indigenous Education SCDSB.
We are pleased to announce that the SCDSB’s Monday, Nov. 19th PA day is multi-themed. A variety of professional learning opportunities will be provided including topics such as mathematics, literacy, mental health and wellbeing, etc.
On September 30th, St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School students and staff came together to recognize the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation by putting together and completing a Walk for Wenjack.
What is Walk for Wenjack?
Walk for Wenjack is a grassroots event that started in 2016. The first walk retraced the steps of Chanie Wenjack, beginning at the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Kenora, ON, and continued to Redditt, ON for a ceremony representing Chanie’s final resting spot near Farlane.
Since it’s been established, the Walk for Wenjack has provided Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada with the opportunity to participate in Secret Path Week in a meaningful way. The purpose of this walk not only empowers personal reflection, but further helps to acknowledge that everybody has their reason to Walk for Wenjack. No matter what that is, the walk is set up to help people honour their reason.
“Depending on the person, everyone has different connections to this day,” Says a St. Ben’s Grade 8 student who participated in the walk. “It doesn’t have one true meaning, but it is an opportunity for us to think about it together and what it might mean to yourself, and also to different people.”
According to the Walk for Wenjack website, for some individuals, this day could be a moment to honour Chanie. While for others, it may be an opportunity to raise awareness of the true history of residential schools. Nevertheless, both the school and Walk for Wenjack organization expresses that each walk is genuinely unique and has helped community’s understand how this day can impact and mean different things to different people.
Details of the Walk
The walk took place outside, on the St. Benedict’s school track. It was done over the course of the day by one class at a time to maintain safety and social distancing. At the end of the walk, each class tied an orange ribbon around St. Benedict’s “Every Child Matters” flag pole to help create awareness and promote togetherness.
In addition to the walk, signs were posted around the field to help remind people of the purpose of why they were walking. Each class also had a student representative that carried an “Every Child Matters” Indigenous flag, which was proudly displayed in the school’s front hall after the event.
“Though we could not walk altogether, our flag pole was a strong visible display that has helped unite our staff, students and community members together by showing our support is something we all participated in.” Says Merrill Sanowar, Vice Principal of St. Benedict’s.
Future Action
The event is just one of many that their school will hope to participate in the future. As of this year, St. Benedict has signed up to be a Legacy School.
To be a Legacy School, entails that the Downey Wenjack organization will provide educational resources and program development to help ensure that Indigenous peoples’ unique interests, rights, and perspectives are recognized and implemented in St. Benedicts education and community. The Legacy Schools program is a free national initiative put on by the Downey Wenjack organization to engage, empower and connect students and educators to further reconciliation through awareness, education and action (#reconciliACTION) and will help create a close knit environment people can be comfortable and express themselves in.
“This is a commitment towards action. As an entire school community, this will be successful by all sharing and participating in this together. Every Child Matters isn’t exclusively talking about our Children. Every person was a child at one time. We want to show that we are doing this together and wish to let the community know.” Says Laura Kuzenko, Principal of St. Benedicts.
Skills Ontario has officially opened registration for its July virtual workshops so students can explore skilled trades and tech-related workshops, demonstrations, virtual tours and presentations that pique their interest.
Sessions will run from July 5 to 30 and there is no fee to participate. Another session is set to run in August, with sign-up opening June 21. The virtual workshops are being held in place of summer camps.
Virtual workshops are open to all ages however are typically suited to Grades 7, 8 and 9. Each event’s individual registration page provides details regarding difficulty level and required skills and some sessions include a free hands-on kit that will be shipped to registered participants.
Staff and students took part in Franco- Fun Day: a day dedicated to celebrating French language and Franco-Ontarian culture! Here are just a few ways our schools joined in on the fun:
St. Charles College students were treated to a live concert by Steph Paquette!
Holy Trinity Catholic Elementary School staff and students got into the spirit by wearing white and green in honour of the Franco-Ontarian flag.
Immaculate Conception Catholic School students participated in a workshop by Ariko. They loved learning how to play the spoons and learning the dance steps. They listened to the song Mon beau drapeau and discussed the meaning of the Franco-Ontarian flag. The students then drew their own flag while listening to les chansons à répondre!
The Sudbury Catholic District School Board joins communities across Canada in honouring and praying for the 215 Indigenous children whose bodies were discovered on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Tk-emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation territory.
To honour their lives, flags at all SCDSB schools and board buildings will be lowered for nine days (May 31-June 8) – a total of 215 hours to represent each of the 215 children. As a sign of our collective mourning, the Board will also be participating in the National moment of silence at 2:15 p.m. today as we honour and acknowledge the children who never returned home.
“Today, we honour the lives of the 215 Indigenous children who will not be coming home. It is a heartbreaking tragedy and while there are no words to truly express the deep mourning those impacted are experiencing, we humbly offer our prayers that they and their families will find healing. We also acknowledge the pain and trauma this brings to all Indigenous peoples across the country, and we recognize the need for ongoing truth and reconciliation. May God continue to watch over the 215 souls and their families,” said Michael Bellmore, Chair of the Board of the Trustees for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board.
“All Sudbury Catholic District School Boards schools and facilities are standing in solidarity with communities across Canada in honouring the 215 Indigenous children. While it is indeed an unspeakable tragedy, we send continued prayers and healing to all those affected and to the Indigenous communities in the Sudbury area and across the country. We have lowered all flags for 215 hours and will join the National moment of silence at 2:15 p.m. As a system, we are also wearing orange shirts on Wednesday, June 2 and will unite in a collective prayer service as a reminder that every child matters,” said Joanne Bénard, Director of Education for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board.
They just submitted their video to smash a world record!
Skills Ontario is excited to announce a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ attempt event. We would like to invite everyone to participate in making history by helping them to break the record for Largest Online Video Chain of People Passing and Using a Screwdriver!
The call went out yesterday to Sudbury Catholic staff and students to help Skills Ontario. Both staff and students have been eagerly participating. Kent MacNeill, remote learning teacher assigned the challenge to all his grade 7 & 8 science students!
Anyone of any age, across the province can join the fun! Skills Ontario’s minimum goal is to receive 251 individual video submissions.
All participants must sign a photo/video release form when uploading their video. Participants 18 years and younger must have a parent/guardian sign the form.
All participants will be added into a draw for a chance to win 1 of 20 $50 prizes!
