Grade 7/8 class acquired the Peter Henderson Bryce Award from the First Nations Youngster and Household Caring Society for the 2021-22 college 12 months.
This previous September, Juniper Faculty trainer Sheri Porth and her Grade 7/8 class have been nominated for and acquired the Peter Henderson Bryce Award for the 2021-22 college 12 months. In accordance with the award notification letter from the First Nations Youngster and Household Caring Society, which bestows the award, Porth and her class had been chosen partially due to their “collective advocacy for bringing consciousness to MMIWG2S.” Porth herself could be very humble about receiving the award.
“It got here as a shock to me,” she says.
Peter Henderson Bryce was a public well being doctor in Canada from the late 1800s to the early 1900s and, amongst different skilled pursuits, he advocated for the right therapy of kids in residential faculties. In Porth’s phrases, Henderson Bryce was “a whistleblower; he was courageous sufficient to say youngsters are dying at residential faculties, their residing situations are horrible … every thing about that is improper. He was courageous sufficient to step up when no one else was.”
Porth’s educating profession spans 14 years and he or she admits she continues to be studying the historical past of Canada which she then passes alongside to her college students. She is enthusiastic about educating her college students on the historical past of residential faculties, lacking and murdered Indigenous ladies and ladies and two-spirited folks, Orange Shirt Day, the Secret Path and the Downie Wenjack Fund and the ‘60s scoop. Porth says her college students are very receptive to studying these very darkish items of Canadian historical past however she feels that educating them “the reality” is what’s necessary. She ensures her class participates in Orange Shirt Day advert the Wenjack Stroll. As effectively, they stroll to the bridge to tie ribbons for MMIWG2S and twice a 12 months go to the airplane on the bridge “to speak about what that symbolizes and what meaning”.
Porth and her class acquired the award that comes with a $500 money prize because of the nominations by two of her Juniper coworkers. Porth says she is going to let the category determine what they’ll spend it on.
