Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) wanted to hear what their students had to say, and they weren’t disappointed.
Heather Stromquist, director of community partnerships and engagement for NLPS, outlined the information gathered during Student Voice, a conference that brought attendees from across the division together at the Cold Lake Energy Centre in May.
The Student Voice to the Board is a council made up of two students from each high school within NLPS.
They were keynote speakers during the event and came up with the catch phrase for the day.
”The students themselves chose the We Want Your Voice as the kind of tagline for the Student Voice this year,” explained Stromquist. “We had a different one last year, and it was good for a group of young people to come together and choose something that they wanted to see as the tagline going forward.”
Students came in groups of about six from Grades 5 to 12. Throughout the day, they had the chance to write on a graffiti wall, participate in activities to get to know each other, and create posters with a topic that was important to them, such as mental health assistance and life skills.
A major focus of the day was getting answers to the board of trustees’ question: what can the school division do to prepare students for work, post-secondary education, and life after high school?
Due to the younger grades being present, Stromquist noted they “broke it down into five different questions, where we focused more on how does your school help you prepare for the next grade? Or the next transition you’re facing?”
”We broke them into grade level discussion groups so they would have conversations that were appropriate to where they were at,” she continued.
Some feedback they received was giving them a good start on their resumes, offering courses through dual credits, work experience, presenters coming in to talk about different careers, and operational leadership.
When the students were asked what their schools could be doing to better prepare them for the next step in their lives, Stromquist noticed one topic coming up repeatedly.
”I actually stopped the conversation at one point and asked, by a show of hands, about learning about taxes, budgeting, finances, and how they’re going to pay for things. The whole room, all the hands went up,” she exclaimed. “They’re just begging for financial literacy, knowing about credit rating, how they’ll buy a house, and all of those things that they may be not learning from other adults in their lives.”
Other suggestions included individualized information and preparation, mental health assistance, better sexual education, and teaching them more about themselves.
During Student Voice, the groups had about 10 minutes to discuss each question. They would then nominate someone to share their group’s answers.
NLPS board chair Arlene Hrynyk was blown away by the students who volunteered to speak in front of the crowd.
”I continue to be amazed by our students,” she expressed. “The level of confidence, even myself in a room full of adults I’m always skeptical of whether I want to speak, and just from what we’ve (heard) there seems to be a high level of confidence, willingness, and comfortability to speak their voice.”
Students said take your kid to work day, the 4-H program, teachers sharing their own experiences, and leadership activities were some ways schools were preparing them for employment.
The skills and supports they felt they needed included starting career counselling earlier, time management, and social skills.
When everything was said and done, Stromquist believes “we had a really great year, we had a great conference, and the students shared a lot of information to give you feedback on board question three.”
The Student Voice council also had some suggestions to make next year’s council even better. Participants stressed the importance of more face-to-face meetings for those involved.
”Students aren’t very good at checking their emails, and they’re not very good about logging into Google Docs. They’re better at social media, that bumps them to respond, and there are areas that can be improved to connect those kids because the geography is quite big (between them),” detailed Stromquist.
They’re planning to make changes to the group in the future, and a few participants have shared their interest in joining again next year.