The last day of September holds significance in the school calendar. September is intense with new experiences, routines and relationships. What happens in September fosters the conditions needed to pursue deep and meaningful learning for the next nine months of the school year. September 30, National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, further deepens the significance of the day. Leading up to today, we reflect on our national history of the treatment of Indigenous child and youth in schools, which were often places of unspeakable mistreatment.
The simple phrase emboldened on our orange shirts - “Each Child Matters – Chaque Enfant Compte” – is a call to commit ourselves to a new path. Can Canadian schools become places where Indigenous youth, displaced youth from other places of conflict in the world, youth with unique differences of any sort - find a place to thrive? A place to embrace their personal identities and stories? A place to celebrate their languages and cultures? A place to learn in their own personal way? This call to action is taken with great seriousness at École Woodman School. Canada is experiencing intra-provincial and international population growth, and welcomes more Indigenous youth in urban settings than ever before. This can become a watershed moment. We want to build a nation in the right way. And each day we build it in schools, one child at a time.
Marlene Krickhan Principal
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