Pink Shirt Day is here and schools across the nation (and even around the world) are talking about what it means to be an inclusive school where everyone belongs and feels connected and safe to be themselves. At General Currie, we have taken this important day as an opportunity to talk about what it means to Care for Others and how our school wide language of the Currie Cares models relates so strongly to the message behind Pink Shirt Day.

An assembly was held to celebrate who we are as a community and the manner in which we care for eachother in our community. By coming together in the gym, we are provided with an opportunity to bring attention to the importance of inclusion and identify the expectations we have for one another during all of our interactions throughout the school day. Prior to the assembly, a working group of staff members came together to talk about what activity we could have the students engage in that would support and build upon the messages of inclusion that were exemplified in both our Currie Cares model and the Pink Shirt Day movement.

Once again, our district support teacher who is leading us through the creation of this framework brought two stories forward that we might want to build upon and design an activity around. The two titles were I Walk with Vanessa: A Story of Simple Acts of Kindness by Kerascoet and All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman. Both are enlightening stories about how each of us can make a positive impact in the experiences of others and how we all have the potential to create positive and welcoming communities for all. If you have the opportunity to read these stories with your child, we guarantee it will be time well spent.

After reading these empowering stories, students engaged in class conversations about the importance of inclusion and what strong communities looked like and were asked to think of ways in which they could Care for Others in our school community. Each student created a visual art piece with the sentence start of I Can Care for Others By ________________. and included visuals and design elements. Each piece was powerful and unique, much like each of our students, and placed on the walls in the gym for our assembly.

When looking through the art pieces you will see what our students value and what they are telling us about how they are Caring for Others in our school community. When our students are interacting with one another in the school, both in the school and on the playground, you will see these messages in action. We continue to be proud of their growth and where they are headed when it comes to how they are treating one another.

For more samples of our student's art pieces, please see the following video: