SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A lot of changes have taken place at Kaw Tay Whee School in Dettah over the past six years, and those changes have caught the eye of the Prime Minister.

Kaw Tay Whee School teacher Neil Penney, back left, and his wife and teaching principal Lea Lamoureux recently won a Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence certificate for the work they've done, along with the community, at the school in Dettah. Students such as 11-year-old Joseph Charlo-Lafferty, left, Cameron Martin, 5, Laiza Koyina, 8, and Ariana Sundberg, 9, were a huge part in that success. - Candace Thomson/NNSL photo

Teaching principal Lea Lamoureux and her husband Neil Penney were nominated as a team by the Dettah District Education Authority for the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence Certificate last year.

Just last week, while dropping into Purolator to pick up mail for the school, they found a letter signed by Stephen Harper commending them on their work, and the work of the school community to improve Kaw Tay Whee School.

Their team was one of 38 winners across Canada this year.

"It's a big honour to us but the students have worked really hard, and the whole staff has worked really hard," Lamoureux said.

"We were here six years ago when the big changes started and we started some of those changes, but a lot of people have been involved in making the changes effective and making them stick."

The couple met while working their first teaching jobs, Lamoureux in Fort Good Hope and Penney in Norman Wells. After spending a few years in New Zealand, the couple returned to the North to teach together in Fort Simpson. Lamoureux said she got homesick for the North while on the other side of the world.

"I enjoyed the first community I was in a lot and people were wonderful, they made a strong impression on me," she said.

The teaching team arrived in Dettah after spending two years in Fort Simpson, and since then the school has become a thing of pride for students and staff alike. The two began their work with goals to increase enrollment, raise reading and academic achievement levels, and make the school something the students could consider their own.

"I think that had a really strong impact on the students sense of belonging and the motivation to achieve. In the rooms here they picked out the paint, the flooring, the wood, they did the art, picked the furniture Š it's their community school and it's crucial they love it and that it belongs to them," Lamoureux said. "In order to meet our high expectations and the expectations they have of each other, I think it's crucial for that sense of ownership to happen."

Before they arrived, enrollment at the school was down as were reading and academic achievement levels. Parents in Dettah were driving to Yellowknife to take their children to school, but now, the reverse has happened. Lamoureux and Penney said two families now make the drive from Yellowknife to Dettah instead. They also have been teaching Grade 7 for two years now, where before the school only went up to Grade 6.

Enrollment at Kaw Tay Whee has gone up so much that another classroom had to be built, reading levels are up to par, students are passing academic achievement tests and taking advantage of interactive programs such as a school garden, birch syrup collection, snowshoeing and blogging their experiences online for the world to see.

"We are fortunate to have had very strong support from (Dettah District Education Authority), Yellowknives Dene First Nations and Yellowknife Education District No. 1," Lamoureux said. "We had a lot of support and strong mentorship from a variety of people so that we were really lucky with that. We have good relationships with a lot of our parents and they support us in a lot of ways."

"There were some key people that worked very, very well and very, very hard and most of them are still here," Penney added. "We have very, very dedicated staff."

The students have been instrumental in achieving the goals the couple arrived with ­ especially the emphasis on reading.

"The kids enjoy reading. They're involved in everything from the selection of books, to what books the library has," Penney said. "The kids have really taken ownership of that."

For the future, Lamoureux said the plan to is continue working on the school's new preschool program, improving academic achievement scores, and on infusing more technology into the curriculum.