Throughout the past year, the Wilfrid Jury school community embraced the notion of “Student Voice” and offered their students a variety of opportunities to showcase and celebrate the power of involving students in school-based decisions.

Early in the school year, our school was selected to partner with the City of London in the Real Voice Project ~ A neighbourhood action project dedicated to connecting youth and making a difference in London.  A group of our grade 8 students worked with community partners, including students from Banting to produce a video and share it at the year end celebration in June.

 In January, when we held our second Wilfrid Jury Community Forum, we invited about 20 of our students to attend and share their opinions and suggestions as we continue to work to enhance the amazing things happening at Jury.

 In February, we were one of three elementary schools asked to take part in the Secondary School Student Voice Conference at the Hellenic Center. Our group, “Ready To Be Heard” was so excited about the potential of student voice at the elementary level, that they came back to school and held their own Student Voice conference for their grade 7 and 8 classmates. With the feedback from the conference they were able to create short term and long term action plans, wherein students will have more involvement in school-level decisions.

 In June, we invited Dan and Mary-Lou Smoke, along with Ashley Sisco, our Thames Valley First Nations Education Advisor to assist us with a Student Voice session with about 15 of our First Nations students. The session provided both the school and the Board with some effective feedback as to how we can better support First Nations students at the elementary level.

 For the past two years, our Grade 8 students have designed and painted a four panel mural, along with the assistance of Tara Nurse, an artist, as their parting gift to the school. The murals hang proudly in the school library. The theme of the poster is something which captures the final year for our students. This year, they decided that they would combine two themes ~ Student Voice and Technology. It was an incredible way to embody the success of Student Voice for our 2012-2013 school year.