Blog Post
Special Project: Shamrock School DEI Learning
February 11, 2025
Shamrock School DEI Learning - June 2024
Submitted By: Brittney Casavant
This year, as a staff and as a community, Shamrock School has done great deal of learning in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. What began in November with reports of racist comments and negative behaviour blossomed into a powerful year of conversations, reflection, teaching, learning, and celebrating.
In November staff members met with 2 students from each class in grade 5-8. These 40 students were asked to share their experiences of Shamrock School. Many of them spoke about incidents of racism, sexism, homophobia, and general negative behaviour between students. What students disclosed was heartbreaking and much more widespread than we had anticipated. When asked what we as a school should tackle first, they agreed racism was where we should begin. Students wanted us to work and learn together with a place to share and celebrate the many cultures at Shamrock.
What followed next was 7 months of intense staff and student learning, work, and school wide celebration. As a staff we examined the feedback shared by students. As we began our staff learning a student voice group was also formed. Our hope was that the students would have a place to continue to share their experiences and guide us in our work.
June was a month of cultural celebration at Shamrock! In addition to all our Pride celebrations and learning we planned a huge number of culturally focussed school wide activities in June. Guided by a group of staff volunteers including teachers and educational assistants, we planned and ran a day of cultural workshops for the entire school. On June 6th, every student in grades 1-6 participated in 3 cultural activities and the grade 7/8’s took part in 2 longer workshops. The workshops were led by teachers, educational assistants, and community members. Each workshop consisted of an activity and some learning about the culture or country where it was from. Supported by the LRSD board office, our parent advisory council and the Manitoba Association of Multi Age Educators, the workshops presented were:
• Sushi making
• Indigenous drumming and story telling
• Bocce ball
• Cricket
• Halo Halo
• Indigenous beading
• Pinatas and Latin dance
• Nigerian story telling and music
• Hungarian games, art, and dance
• Perogy making
• African drumming
• Metis finger weaving
• Indigenous rock painting, feather wrapping and teachings
• Tae Kwon Do
• Henna art
The entire day was a huge success! The energy and enthusiasm throughout the building was amazing. Students and staff were so engaged and excited. Everyone was proud to share their stories and culture and loved learning about the cultures and traditions of others. We already have plans for an even bigger day next year!
Other activities in June include classroom activities such as games, art, language learning, potluck lunches, songs, and dances from around the world. As a school, we will get the chance to hear from special guest Gurdeep Pandher the Indian motivational speaker from the Yukon. We are also planning a school wide fashion show where students and staff will have the opportunity to show case their traditional cultural attire as they walk our red carpet.
We have had a powerful few months of learning and reflecting at Shamrock. What started out as conversation and ideas grew into impactful school-wide experiences and education. We recognize that our work is not complete and in fact is only beginning. We have so much more to learn, experience, share and celebrate. As a staff our next steps include using our DEI lens in subject areas and classroom activities. We want to continue our learning in this area as well as expand to other marginalized groups such as the LGBTQ+ community. We are committed and looking forward to continued growth and development as we continue our exciting journey of diversity, equity and inclusion at Shamrock School!