Morley Community School and its partners, the Calgary Catholic School District and Tsuu T’ina Dept. of Education, were recognized recently for a program designed to link students on aboriginal reserves with students in Catholic schools.
Gordon Breen, Morley Community School (MCS) superintendent, said Wednesday (March 16) the 2011 Mayor’s Excellence Award, was presented by the mayors of Calgary and area and the Calgary Educational Partnership Foundation,
MCS joined the five-year-old partnership last year, twinning language arts students in Grades 7 and 8 with students at St. Timothy’s Catholic School in Cochrane for a series of cultural, social and academic group experiences.
“The goals are to create positive relationships with the Stoney people, but we have an additional goal which is to have our children experience the academic culture of these schools and the academic work level,” Breen said.
The program, in part, allows Morley students to gain confidence as they begin to discover how they match up academically and gain assistance from their Cochrane peers in areas where they are not as strong.
“It is a measure of competency and where they stand. They will make the decision themselves of where they stand against people their own age.
“They will be pleased to know that in many regards they are at the same level, but I’m also expecting there will be areas where they will say this is an area they need growth in,” Breen said.
Breen said MCS is currently in discussions with the Calgary Catholic School District and Rocky View School Division to look at expanding the program so each class in Grades 1-9 has a twin at a different school.
“There will be a social part of the exchange, but just as important will be the academic exchange, with shared work projects that will have a literacy theme,” he said.
“We get closer because we are telling stories about ourselves.”
The award, Breen said, is a welcome recognition on its own, but, taken in its full context, it is the result of numerous successful programs over the years designed to improve and enhance academics at the First Nation school.
“What excites me, is we are now in a position with our students’ skills and abilities where we can step out of the boundaries out of the Morley Community School and engage in partner relationships,” Breen said, adding there was a time at Morley when that would not have been possible.
