School tries to expand aboriginal education

With a growing number of aboriginal students in its classrooms, Pleasant Valley Elementary School is embarking on new programs this year to make all of its students feel welcome and included.

This year, about 65 of the school’s approximately 325 students are of aboriginal descent, a huge increase in the number of native students at the school that is largely the result of the closure of Mount Benson Elementary School in 2008 that saw a large number of students transferred to Pleasant Valley in the fall of that year.

In recognition of the fact that only about 45% of aboriginal students in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district are now successfully graduating from Grade 12 within six years of entering Grade 8, compared to a 75% rate for non-aboriginal students, the teachers and administration at Pleasant Valley want their school to lead the way in the district to make public education more inviting and important to aboriginal students and families.

During the first day of school, all of Pleasant Valley’s students were placed into one of four animal clans — eagle, bear, wolf and whale — and they will learn about the relationships between the animals and native culture in various activities that will be held throughout the year in an effort to foster positive relations between all students in the school and minimize cultural conflicts.

Stella Bates, the Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district principal for aboriginal education, said the program at Pleasant Valley was uniquely designed by the school’s teachers, administrators and parents with the hope that better exposure to all cultures will benefit all students as they progress in their educational careers.

“There’s a growing number of aboriginal families in all areas of Nanaimo and they are no longer mostly concentrated in the city’s south-end, so we’re very pleased that Pleasant Valley has decided to take this initiative on with such energy and enthusiasm,” Bates said.

Cathie Bell, one of the teachers who spearheaded the program, said Jerry Brown, an elder with the Snuneymuxw First Nation, attended a school assembly last week where he held a traditional welcome ceremony and prayer for the students in Hul’qumi’num, the language of his band.

She said Brown and members of other First Nations in the region will regularly visit the school over the year to teach their language and native traditions.

“We also have a full-time aboriginal teacher this year and a native educational assistant at the schools,” Bell said.

“It’s important that our aboriginal students have role models in the school.”