Addressing Important Issues at Gretzky

Dear Families and Caregivers,

We want to provide you with an update on some of the staff and student work that we will be engaging with over the next couple of months.

 Unlearn

1. Staff will be trained by the founders of Unlearn to tackle racism, homophobia, gender inequalities, residential schools, and stereotypes that exist.  The goal is to challenge thinking.  Each month will have a different focus.  Please look for posts about the work we are doing with Unlearn in the coming weeks and months.

2. Addressing Anti-Black Racism Strategy

   As staff, we will be carefully examining and reflecting upon how we can alter our practices to align with the work of our equity team, while honouring Black voices in our school.  This resource will be used throughout the year, with a different focus in each session.

3. Microaggressions

   A microaggression is a subtle, everyday comment or action—often unintentional or unconscious—that expresses a prejudiced, demeaning, or biased attitude toward a member of a marginalized group.  We will be exploring this topic as staff in our upcoming staff meeting.

4. School-Wide anti-discrimination policy

   We have collaborated as a staff on a school-wide anti-discrimination policy, in an attempt to interrupt and educate individuals who use discriminatory language in school.  Staff is being empowered to hold students accountable while also working to repair the damage caused when discriminatory language is used at school.

5. Words Matter

This will be our third year of involvement with the Words Matter campaign.  Our team focuses on encouraging the use of appropriate, kind, and uplifting language while disrupting the use of discriminatory language.