SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A new 1,300 square-metre school slated for construction in Ndilo will be a facility designed for traditional leaning that includes and welcomes the input of community elders.

Principal Angela James at the new K'alemi Dene school, which opens in September 2009. - Ben Morgan/NNSL photo

The whole idea is to get the children and the elders together, explained Cecilia Beaulieu.

"When you walk into the new K'alemi Dene school you'll know that you're on First Nations land, she said.

Beaulieu is a councillor with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and chair of the education portfolio.

"The school will feel more like being at home," she said. "It's a part of the community."

Angela James has been the principal at K'alemi Dene school for ten of the existing school's eleven years in operation.

The new school, which will house up to 125 students, is slated to open in September, 2009.

She said as soon as you walk into the new school you'll enter the culture room.

"We'll have bannock and tea on the go every day" as a way of welcoming people into the facility, she said.

James said they want to create an atmosphere with the school that elders and other people in the community will always feel a part of. It's their school too, she said.

"The culture room will be an area where we will celebrate, honour and promote the culture, heritage and the language of the people," said James.

She said artisans and crafts people will often be working in the culture room, promoting communication between the young and the old.

"We have good relationships with our students, they like the smaller classroom setting and they like to learn through the integration of culture and language," she explained.

Part of the design of the school will contribute a large amount of natural light and an exposed outcropping of rock - where the students used to go sledding prior to construction of the new building - will add an aesthetic touch inside the school's main hallway.

"We'll have our birch bark canoe that the students made at the Yellowknife River last year on display here, so its going to be a really beautiful space," she said.

Beaulieu said students will be taught in all aspects of their learning with the culture and heritage of the Yellowknives First Nation in mind and that the elders are a big part of teaching the students the traditional methods.

"The elders teach them the history, anything from tanning hides to going out on the land," said Beaulieu.

"I think its exciting for our children of Ndilo to have a new school," said James.

She said the new facility will have a wide range of amenities including a full service kitchen, an activity room and a computer room.

"There will be a day when every student will have their own laptop," she said. "We're not reinventing high school, we're just providing quality education for those kids who choose to remain here in our building."