The Student Experience

Culture

Our school practice is grounded in language, culture, true history, and Indigenous identity. This learning is at the core of our practice and the reason for our existence. Students attending Children of the Earth and Adolescent Parent Centre can expect to experience their education in a cultural setting, from Indigenous perspectives, and according to Indigenous ways of Knowing, Being, and Doing. Traditional Indigenous education practices emphasize holistic and strength-based learning, and as an Indigenous high school, so do we. We aim to help our learners discover how they are smart, not how smart they are. 

Relationships

Students can expect to develop strong learning relationships with their advisors and other adults in the building. Students have one teacher for most classes (called an advisor). Advisors and students work together to develop relevant, interest-based projects that help students to find their purpose and meet the requirements of multiple curricula at the same time. Students will gain confidence, understand the world around them, use their voices, ask questions and find the answers, be challenged to set and meet goals, and know who they are as Indigenous people. This combination of relationship, relevance, and rigour inspires, instills hope, and gives all of our young people the opportunity to be seen, heard, and do valuable work. 

Student Centred Programming

Children of the Earth and Adolescent Parent Centre Advisors work hard to reject compliance based systems in favour of offering a student centred environment where critical thinking, revision, reflective, and independent thinking and doing, and asking questions/finding answers are valued over checking off boxes. Advisors emphasize teaching habits of mind through all project work so students can identify and express their viewpoint, evidence, connections, relevance, and conjectures. Students can answer the questions “What do I think? Why? Why does it matter?” 

Students can expect to experience school through the following approaches: 

• One kid at a time (Individual Learning Plans, Portfolios, and program planning)

• Advisory

• Real world learning

• Interest based projects

• Authentic Assessment 

Children of the Earth and Adolescent Parent Centre students leave our school prepared to live a good life, Mino-pimatisiwin - and whatever that means for them, they are supported. Our students leave our high school grounded in identity and ceremony, connected to their ancestors and the land, and ready to speak their truth in the way that most makes sense for them. 

Some students leave high school to go directly to work, and they have developed the social capital to find work that is meaningful for them. Others chose to go on to post-secondary - trade school, college, university, or any of the post-high programs offered in the community. No matter what our students choose, every pathway is equally valued and supported.