Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 07/01) - Hanging above lockers and corridors on the first floor of St. Patrick high school is a portrait gallery.

Featured there are the faces of youthful promise, about a dozen chosen from across the grade levels every year since 1994. They are school leaders, chosen by teachers for the school's annual Northern Lights awards, recognized with a plaque and a professional photo sitting.

Dominika Dombajova reads up for a project in the library. The Grade 9 student was doing a religion project focusing on dating, violence and abuse.

The awards are just one component of a school working to have its students succeed in school and in life.

The Links program is part of that effort. Every day, nine students work with English teacher Kelly Hiltz in the school's kitchen. They prepare the lunch of the day, served for a nominal fee at the Rock Cafe.

"It's a transition program between high school and the workplace," said Hiltz. Students are responsible for planning, preparing and serving meals, as well as counting cash and doing cleanup at the end of the day. The goal is to give them skills and experience that will give them an advantage in the working world.

The Rock Cafe serves meals to students who would otherwise go without. Students can purchase food using a generic card. The school gives cards, which can be used for breakfast and lunch, for free to those who can't afford to eat.

In addition, the school's inter-agency area provides students with services they might not normally be able to access, including a public health nurse, a drug and alcohol counsellor and a personal counsellor.

Principal Johnnie Bowden said the school is trying to be more relevant for the different needs of students.

Bridging the gap

"We have to take a hard look at providing more options for students, more meaningful ways of moving from high school into an apprenticeship," he said.

The Bridges program works on that principle. The award-winning program lets students take part in job shadowing, where they gain course credits for work experience and do Skills Canada testing. Since not all students are destined for university, this program tries to make high school a more meaningful preparation for work, said Bowden.

The school is also trying to be more relevant to different cultures. About 35 per cent of school's student population is aboriginal. The wildlife leadership program, run in partnership with the resource and wildlife economic development program, was created to teach kids more about those cultures.

"It enables students to get a cultural-inclusion course where they go out onto the land and go winter camping, winter fishing and learn how to set a trap line," said Bowden.

Fifteen students per term participate in the program, which in the past has brought them out to an island in the middle of Great Slave Lake to work and learn with Dene elders.

A Catholic school

St. Patrick high school is a Catholic school, and students are required to take religion classes.

"Being able to offer religious programs is a bonus," said Bowden. "We have kids explore their own spirituality -- including native spirituality -- just to get them thinking about it."

Although teachers are not required to sign a faith statement, the expectation is there that they will serve as spiritual leaders as well as teachers.

Teachers also serve as personal counsellors and home liaisons, much of which is done through the school's Teacher Advisor Program (TAP). Each student is assigned to a TAP group, which meets much the same way home-room classes meet in other schools. Five students from each grade are included in every group, and students remain with the same teacher as they progress through school.

TAP groups also comprise one of the building blocks of the school hierarchy. The 24 TAP groups are divided into four houses. Each house has a lead teacher who has a seat on Cabinet, the school's governing authority. The 17 members of Cabinet are teachers, upper administrators, support staff, parents and one student representative.

Sports are an important part of St. Pat's school life.

Two of the biggest events of the year are the Challenge Cup and the Cager, the hockey and basketball tournaments against rival Sir John Franklin high school. St. Pat's girls won the match with their intercity rivals, while the boys lost and teachers' game ended up in a draw.

Soccer has also brought glory to the school. Last year, the St. Pat's boys team represented the territory at the Arctic Winter Games, and won gold in the Junior Male division.

This spring, a team of St. Pat's players won the Virginia Beach Sand Soccer tournament against teams from all over the world.

Students are active in more informal activities as well.

A noon-hour intramural program is complemented by a range of non-athletic alternatives: a chess club, computer games club, and even a radio station operate at various times.

Groups like the school's Students Against Drinking and Driving (SADD) and student council provide an opportunity for activism.

The SADD group is a particular bright spot for the school, having won a number of national awards in the past few years.

An open, safe environment

The school building itself is only four years old, although the school and its district are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. When the building opened, it was already crammed for space -- more than 500 students in a school designed for 400.

To compensate, classes were held in teachers' offices.

However, with the construction of Weledeh Catholic school, whose halls run into St. Pat's, the school has access to four more classrooms to alleviate the crunch.

In the two years prior to St. Pat's construction, students were consulted about what they wanted in a school.

They asked for open spaces, and got it: large common areas opening onto walls of window lend an air of openness.

The school is also designed with different learning styles in mind: classrooms open onto each other to encourage team teaching, and each class has a "breakout room," where students with different learning needs can work on their own while still having easy access to the teacher and fellow students.

Another added feature is the 12 cameras that constantly monitor school hallways. Video footage is kept for a week, and referenced in case of student conflicts or damage to property.

"The cameras have helped reduce vandals in school and have helped identifying people here for wrong reasons," said Bowden.

Students and spirit

A school is nothing without students, and those who walk St. Pat's halls seem to like theirs.

"There's a lot of school spirit around here," said Grade 11 student Elise Babyn. "It's a good school and you feel you can trust everyone that they won't put you down.

The teachers are really good and so are the classes."

The school has its share of drug, alcohol and student attrition problems. During the course of a year, more than 100 students will come and go.

But school efforts at supporting students are working, said Crystal LeGros, also in Grade 11.

"Teachers look out for students' needs," she said.

"They always try to get you to do your best and make you not smoke or do drugs."