Tag Archives: student voice

Students design the school

Seven years ago a student and her father wrote a grant proposal and got money to beautify the school. Most of the money went to get concrete picnic benches in our courtyard, but there was also money earmarked for an outdoor mural.

The student who submitted the grant and 3 of her friends started polling students about what to put on the mural. At the time, we had a school slogan of, “Connect, Create, Learn”, and these students came up with the most popular adaptation to this: “Dream, Create, Learn.”

I hated it. We were a very small school with no catchment, meaning every kid must choose to come to us rather than a school near their home, and I thought the word ‘Dream’ was not a good word to recruit students or their parents. “Parents don’t want to send their kids to a school that’s about dreaming,” I would say. “We love it. and that’s what we want the mural to say,” they responded I acquiesced. The mural was created as the students wished.

Now, the dedicated self-directed time we give students to work is called DCL… their time to Dream, Create, and Learn. This idea I originally hated has become woven into the vernacular and culture of the school.

This year, we had the Grade 10’s design murals for the school as one of their SCRUM projects. Here are the designs they came up with.

One of these murals is a play off of DCL, Dream, Create, Launch. While this won’t replace DCL, it’s an idea inspired by one of our teacher, John Sarte, who is our STEAM teacher, (except the ‘M’ isn’t for Math, it’s for Marketing). John loves the notion of seeing Inquiry Hub as being an idea incubator, with students designing real world solutions and projects. I love the student design, and that this mural is at the entrance to the part of the building that is our school.

Allowing students the opportunity to create these murals, and giving them a lot of choice about what to design and where to put them is something that I think makes them so appealing. ‘Your journey starts here’ is in our office. ‘Nature calls’ is in our bathrooms. Our pentapus mascot (a 5 legged octopus named ‘Ollie’, also chosen by students) and ‘Live your dream’ are in our learning commons. And, the sunflower mural livens up a beautiful atrium that most people didn’t even notice we had. Oh, and our school logo, also designed by a student.

Students ideas and artwork bring our school alive.

Empowering students

Inquiry Hub is a small school. We don’t have a lot of grads, but we have grown enough that we need to switch venues for our Annual/Graduation. We run this event together, for our entire school community, so that our grads have a full auditorium at their ceremony.

For this special event, the presentations and entertainment are organized by our students and teachers together. At the event, our students run the show, with teachers handing out awards, and students providing the entertainment. Last year we packed the small auditorium, and with 8 more grads this year, the search for a new location began.

Two of my grads did the research and presented me with a couple options. We started inquiring about dates and costs, and by ‘we’, I mean my students did, presenting the final suggestion to me. My job, pay the deposit and set up the first technical visit.

That visit was today. We looked at the stage set-up, I shared my thoughts and ideas, and while a few were taken, a few weren’t. When the meeting with the booking coordinator was over, we thanked her and she said, “It’s funny, this whole time, until you came in today, I thought I was corresponding with teachers.” She had no idea that all the setup and communication (other than me joining in to sign the papers and pay) was done by students.

I thanked her and told her that these students, Jazmine & Antoni, would continue to be her main contacts for the event, other than final payment. The first 5 minutes of the drive home, the car ride was silent, while these two students made notes on their phones.

The one big realization that I needed to remind them of was that unlike last year, they would be in grad gowns in the front seats, and other students would have to work back stage. They assured me that the 2 students that were being groomed last year were ready to take on the challenge, and they were not available today or they would have joined us. I guess I should have known that already, but if I didn’t trust them then I wouldn’t really be empowering them.

I’m not pretending that there won’t be a lot for myself, my teachers, and my PAC (Parent Advisory Council) to do, to ensure that the event goes smoothly. But, I also know that what will make this celebration extra special is that it will look and feel like it was student run, with a level of quality that surpasses what you’d expect from a student run event. Why? Because when students feel truly empowered, they shine.