DG Report April 2024

Spending time with students engaged in their learning is truly a joy for me. April afforded me several opportunities to connect more with students and staff. Last month, I was very fortunate to visit many schools and attend a number of special events.

At the Clearpoint IB exhibit, I took in what grade 6 students had learned through their projects that explored such issues as human rights, diversity, gender inequality, and climate change. At St. Patrick Elementary, I attended a delightful musical that the students put on for their friends from Edgewater Elementary. At St. Anthony, I visited grade 5 and 6 classes to read to them as part of their “I love to read week” celebration. I also got to meet some of the wonderful students who participated in the Teen Summit that took place on April 17 here at Head Office. The guest speakers and breakout activities were oriented around the theme of EDDI, and I was honoured to witness the power of student voice and their desire to impart societal change.

Several boardwide events took place last month including Qui lira vaincra, a French reading competition involving 12 Lester B. Pearson elementary schools. Félicitations à l’école St. Edmund qui a remporté le prix cette année! Congratulations also extend to students at Macdonald HS for bringing home the championship banner at the annual Battle of the Books. The Ultimate battle saw students from Mac face off against Royal West Academy and Hebrew Academy. Once again, the Lester B. Pearson School Board demonstrated it was the one to beat, and I thank all of the librarians and ESD staff for organizing this celebration of reading.

Other congratulatory wishes go out to students from PCHS who competed in the Hydro-Quebec Expo-sciences Science Fair. Adam Hamdaqa, a grade 7 student at PCHS, placed first overall at the regionals for his award-winning project, The Guardian Helmet. Other regional winners included PCHS students Isolde McKay and Sophia Ross for their Hydropure project. Both projects moved on to the provincial level competition which took place the weekend of April 19 at the Cegep du Vieux Montréal. I am proud to say that the Hydropure project took home the award given by the Ministère de l’Économie, de l’Innovation et de l’Énergie. We are so very proud of these budding scientists!

We are also celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship this month. An astounding 717 projects were submitted by our schools and centres as part of this year’s provincial Entrepreneurship contest known as OSEntreprendre. 33 of these projects were named as local winners and advanced to the regional competition. Of these, two projects were recognized as regional winners. Congratulations and best of luck to Ms. Branston’s class from Terry Fox Elementary and Mme. Larochelle’s class from Edgewater Elementary whose projects will advance to the provincials next month.

A personal highlight took place on April 11, when I attended a very special music concert. This was part of a week-long event known as Nikamu Mamuitun that was organized by our Indigenous education liaison as part of the Festival de la Voix. Nikamu Mamuitun means chansons rassembleuses – unifying songs. This was a project that brought together 8 artists: 4 Innu musicians and 4 Quebecois musicians who toured different Lester B. Pearson High Schools the week of April 8th. The performance I attended took place at Lakeside Academy, with the audience made up of students from Beurling Academy and Maple Grove Elementary. All of the songs were written and performed by these artists and the concert culminated with the audience dancing around the school auditorium, led by an Innu drummer. At the end of the performance, students presented the musicians with honey produced by the beehives at Maple Grove and Lakeside. For me, it was a reminder that music is such a unifying force and it was a moving example of the truth and reconciliation efforts that we are undertaking to build points of connection between indigenous and non-indigenous communities here in Quebec.

All in all, April was a month full of learning and achievement, and I am very excited to see what the rest of May brings!