Belonging: Diversity Equity and Inclusion

“Equity and inclusion are foundational to learning and leading, and are critical to success, wellbeing, and fulfillment. It is our mission to ensure that all of our students, families, and staff feel welcomed, are treated respectfully, and have a sense of belonging.” (Strategic Plan Priority 2: Equity and Inclusion)

Tuesday celebrates opportunities to explore identity, belonging, equity, antiracism, diversity and inclusive learning. Students grow in their personal and social identity as they explore who they are as learners and citizens in the school community and beyond. Throughout our schools, we are focused on building understanding, respect and acceptance in order to create communities where everyone feels a sense of purpose, connectedness and belonging. By learning more about one another and acknowledging our differences and unique needs, we become stronger. 

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Black History Month

To celebrate Black History Month, the Library Learning Commons at Richmond Secondary set up displays to highlight the achievements of prominent Black Canadians and Americans. Profiles included QR codes that students could scan to learn more about these historical and contemporary figures. There was also a selection of fiction books by Black authors and non-fiction books that focused on the contributions of Black people in Canadian history. Using these resources as a starting point, Grade 8 English and Social Studies students researched famous Black Canadians and created posters about them.

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Co-Constructing a Land Acknowledgement

Students at Cambie Secondary examined the purpose of Land Acknowledgements, exploring a number of examples and identifying key components. Students worked together to identify essential concepts of a Land Acknowledgment, and then constructed a collective Land Acknowledgement to be displayed in a shared space. 

"When we gather in this space, we acknowledge that our school community is on traditional, unceded and ancestral territory. We have deep gratitude and respect for the people of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language group for their resistance, their resilience and their stewardship of this land since time immemorial.  We would like to extend this gratitude to the Musqueam people who continue their culture, history, language, ceremonies, traditions and spiritual teachings on this land and in this place. This community, like so many other communities across Canada, is made up of settlers and their descendants who are here because of a long, deliberate, and sustained process of violent colonization. We do not call this oppression ‘history’ as that fails to recognize the legacy of government policies that continue to force assimilation and economic and social structures that continue to uphold white supremacy. When we gather in this space, we are committed to bringing together diverse ideas, experiences, and histories. We gather here to grapple with truths, to uncover stories unlike our own and to learn from the resistance and resilience of the First Peoples of this land. This space and the work that we do in this space reflects kindness, values collaboration, seeks understanding, celebrates achievement, supports respect and strives for balance. We hold each of these values as essential to learning. We acknowledge and commit this space to the work of truth and reconciliation, complex work that we will share with all who will listen. As this work continues, we commit to revisiting this acknowledgment every day, and revising it as we learn more and grow the values and commitments of this space, together. "

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Designing a New Canadian Flag

Grade 4/5 students at Grauer Elementary were invited to use the information they had learned in the "Righting Canada's Wrongs" unit in their Social Studies class to design a new Canadian flag that reflects our national diversity and history. The students had to be able to explain their thinking behind the flag they designed. This assignment combined elements of math (spatial awareness, fractions), fine art (pattern, colour, elaboration) and Social Studies (use inference, and imagination to clarify and define a problem or issue). 

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Everyone Makes A Difference

The Burnett Secondary Access Program is an individualized work experience program for senior students with complex learning and physical needs. Within the school, Access students can be seen regularly making deliveries and assisting with various in-library tasks. In the community, Burnett Access students volunteer on a weekly basis with the Richmond Cares, Richmond Gives “Shopping for Seniors” program and participate in a variety of work experience placements. 

These images feature students at school and in their community work experience opportunities.

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Gilmore Pride Club

This is the first year the Gilmore Elementary Pride Club has been open to the entire school. The school community is pleasantly surprised to have more than 70 members in their club! Once a week, they meet at lunch and take the opportunity to learn about a theme of the week(s), a task that promotes activism, and a safe space to hang out with peers and play games.

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Kristie Has a Big Heart

A story of one student’s actions to address diversity, equity, and inclusion. Kristie is a Grade 3 student at Garden City Elementary who loves to rollerblade, play on the slide, and run around with her friends at recess. She loves to participate in all aspects of school life, and she enjoys making connections with her classmates. She has close friends and a loving family. Kristie also has achondroplasia, which means that her body grows at a slower rate than other children.

Achondroplasia does not define or limit Kristie. It is simply a part of who she is, just as much as her huge smile, her great laugh, and her wonderful sense of humour are all parts of who she is.

Unfortunately, some of the younger children who did not know Kristie made comments about her height, comparing her to a kindergarten student, and even a baby. These comments were unkind, unexpected, and they hurt Kristie’s feelings. Nobody likes to be made fun of, and Kristie is no different than anyone else. She did not understand why the students would make fun of her.

Kristie spoke with her mother about what had happened at school. They decided to tackle this problem head-on by providing information about achondroplasia to the students in her school.

They created a video to explain achondroplasia in a way that would be easy for all students to understand. They worked with Garden City Elementary to figure out how best to tackle this subject, and how to address issues around diversity, inclusion, and equity. A plan was formed for all students to take part in a session facilitated by the school librarian. The session would include a book reading (Kristie chose the books that she thought would help the discussion), a viewing of Kristie’s video, and a class discussion. Of course, students have discussed diversity and inclusion many times throughout the year, but this was a perfect opportunity to re-visit these topics.

Kristie’s hope was that this session would provide all students with information specific to achondroplasia but would also address diversity and inclusion in general. At Garden City, there are students of all shapes and sizes, students who use wiggle cushions and students who use wheelchairs, students who have different backgrounds, beliefs and ethnicities, students who speak one language and students who speak four languages! There are students who love band and others who love basketball, some who love to read and others who love to draw. 

Kristie wanted to help our students understand that even with diversity, we are all humans, who deserve to be treated with kindness and respect. We have more in common than different, and it is our uniqueness and our individuality that make our community strong!  

The whole school community is so proud of Kristie, and her bravery. It takes courage and tenacity to tackle such a personal challenge head-on, and to come up with a solution that will help our community become more informed, more understanding, more thoughtful and hopefully a little kinder.

 

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Music as a Platform for Communicating About Social Issues

Students at Burnett Secondary chose a song that was meaningful to them and presented their thoughts on the social issue(s) addressed within the song.

Students were encouraged to reflect on:

  • What events were occurring in the world when these songs were recorded?
  • What effect did the songs have on the world at the event?
  • What lyrics and/ or musical elements in the song impacted/ spoke to you? 

Example 1: Social Issues Through Music Project 

 

Example 2: Social Issues Through Music Project

 

 

 

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Social Awareness Displays

Burnett Secondary is using a variety of different displays to promote social awareness.

The first display is for Women’s History Month and each poster spotlights an iconic woman.  

The second display includes posters highlighting a variety of social justice holidays. Black historians are spotlighted on the left side for Black History Month and the right side features educational posters about Ramadan and Pink Shirt Day. 

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Student Voice

This spring, students from Cambie, MacNeill, and Spul'u'kwuks have been engaging in a series of sessions about identity, belonging, diversity, equity and inclusion. More importantly, students have been invited to share their lived experiences, perspectives, and insights about what belonging means to them. Through listening and learning, students have been able to identify actions that can be taken to create a greater sense of belonging for everyone.

 

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Student-led Presentation on Having a Visual Impairment

At the beginning of the school year, a student from McKinney Elementary explained to her classmates what it means to have a visual impairment, what was her unique experience and how she was able to use an array of tools to learn alongside her classmates. By leading the presentation the student proved herself to be an excellent advocate as well as showing her classmates that she is secure in her identity and confident in her abilities using alternate access tools in the classroom.

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Using Adaptations for Clear Vision in the Classroom

A visually impaired Grade 2 student at Maple Lane Elementary uses a high definition video magnifier (provided by SET-BC) and an iPad (provided by the Richmond School District) to help with distance viewing during instruction in the classroom. The slantboard helps to bring text closer to his eyes during reading and writing activities. Eraseable black pens are also used for his written work. These various adaptations have helped the student to become a curious and confident learner.

 

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Viola Desmond Movie

Grade 5/6 students from Hamilton Elementary planned to create something that could be shown during their school's virtual assembly for Black History Month. The students learned about Viola Desmond and decided to make a movie that would inform the community about this famous Black Canadian.

This project was connected to the Grade 5 social studies curriculum which involves learning about "examples of individuals who have fought for change and spoke out against injustice."  This group of students worked collaboratively to present this information using the iMovie app.

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Communicating Inclusion on the Playground

Communication is such an integral part of life. It is key to connecting with others and building relationships. Every day students are connecting and interacting in classes and on the playground. Some of these students are impacted by communication impairments and face barriers to connecting and interacting. This impacts the inclusive community that we are striving to embody here at the Richmond School District. One way to mitigate communication impairments is with the use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) which supports an individual's ability to express themselves with friends, family, teachers, and others.

Some students use communication books and devices in classrooms throughout the district. However, carrying an AAC system onto the playground presents challenges in being able to use both hands to play freely. The Speech and Language Pathologist (SLP) and Inclusive Support Team (IST) teams worked together with John T. Errington school to reduce this barrier for students.

On February 17, a Community Communication Board was installed on the playground at Errington Elementary to allow students with limited verbal skills to more easily communicate without the use of AAC devices.

Students point to pictures on the communication board, which mimic the displays on personal AAC tools, to express their thoughts, feelings, needs, and choices. By using this board, students have access to another means of communicating and interacting for social purposes. The board was designed to encourage a sense of community as well as an inclusive, more equitable play environment.

The playground Community Communication Board will not only bring awareness to AAC, but also increase equity for those children with learning and communication differences. The board helps foster a sense of community and an inclusive, equitable environment while exposing all students who use the elementary school playground to AAC technology. With the installation of the Errington Community Playground Board, staff and students received training on how to model language and interact with students using the communication board. Each class participated in an interactive information session and was guided to have a hands-on turn at the board.

The Errington Community Playground Communication Board is an innovative approach for creating more inclusive experiences for students with unique abilities and represents a promising step toward building a stronger sense of inclusive community within the Richmond School District

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Digital Literacy

Digital literacy is supported and encouraged in a variety of ways in our district. As digital tools become increasingly integrated into our daily lives, students need to learn how to use them in an intentional way:

  • to access, grow and document learning
  • to understand coding
  • to create and engage with the affordances of various tools
  • to identify the best tools for the task
  • to use criteria to identify which tools meet their needs and will provide them with access points to learning

Story

Story has always been an important part of teaching and learning. We use playful storytelling to build oral language, understand characters and the importance of place and to explore complex ideas. We use digital storytelling to amplify this learning.  Sometimes we document stories students have created with photos. As students build confidence they learn to build and animate stories using a variety of tools and animations. They take photos, add backgrounds and animate characters. Through digital tools, students are encouraged to consider the language they want to use, the feel of their story and how they might use the tools to help them convey their story.

Digital tools allow learners to decompose stories, considering how they want to construct it in an interesting way. Learners have the ability design and build their story, to construct settings both physically and digitally, add digital drawings and impose backgrounds. Additionally, digital storytelling allows entry points for all learners. The possibilities are endless, and we love seeing what students come up with!

Story Invitations

This year we’ve had the pleasure of creating story invitations at Byng and Blundell Elementary. In both schools we based our story on the Fraser River in winter. We projected falling snow on the classroom walls, had the sounds of nature on QR codes for learners to scan and allowed students to play and explore. We a provided writing materials the iPad for capturing their stories. Learners were encouraged to consider what this place sounds and feels like, what animals live there and what stories might take place during the coldest months on the Fraser River. Digital landscapes, sound and documentation tools meshed with the previously explored tools for creating stories, make for a rich and inviting learning experience for students.

Westwind Elementary: We captured the mathematical thinking we do with materials and used annotation and editing tools along with voice recording to explain our thinking.

Blundell Elementary: We were able to explore a fallen tree during a windstorm with the iPad. We reflected and annotated how we used our Core Competencies. 

McKay Elementary: We used digital tools to illustrate and convey our understand and reflect on social emotional learning. We also went outside to learn how using a camera allows us to look closely.
 

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What Influence Has Terry Fox Had on the Development of Canadian Identity?

Students from Grauer Elementary reviewed the Terry Fox story and discussed “Why is his image on our money?" "Why was Terry Fox awarded the Medal of Honor?” "Many people raise money for cancer, but what was it about Terry Fox that turned him into a hero?"

Students were encouraged to think and dig deeper into what makes the Terry Fox Story such an important part of our history. From these discussions, students learned about what is Canadian identity and defining what makes a hero.

This lesson was the cumulative activity of the class's Social Studies unit – What influence has Terry Fox had on the development of Canadian identity? 

After a few weeks of study, the students used inference and imagination to brainstorm and identify key words that they felt represented the contributions Terry Fox has made to Canada. The class voted for the top 10 words they wanted to use.

Students then painted these “key words” on to strips of paper.

Students demonstrated understanding by each writing an individual paragraph which answered our “big thinking” Terry Fox question. Students were encouraged to use “Terry Fox key words” in these paragraphs. 

The students also collaborated on an art installment to communicate and express meaning to an audience through the arts. 

They wove the “Terry Fox Key Words” into a Canadian flag to represent the importance these words have to our Canadian identity. This flag is a visual representation that Terry Fox connected our country, and his legacy is woven into our hearts.

 

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City of Richmond: Community Connections

Self-Guided Walking Tours

See the City through new eyes

Our new historic walking tours will take you back in time to meet early farmers and artists, feel the pulse of roaring crowds at the horse racetrack, smell the fishy action of clanging canneries and hear the humming busyness of our rich, diverse wetlands.

Click here to find our more information about self-guided walking tours in Richmond.

City of Richmond: Community Connections Self-Guided Walking Tours