This year, the Board has developed a new strategy to engage with students throughout the Division.

Through revamped school visits, Trustees are now able to gather input on what works, from the student perspective. The format of the visit varies by school, but typically begins with a fine arts performance or a student-led tour of the building. Trustees then break into small groups with students for a brief presentation on School Board governance, followed by engaging in conversations to determine what excites them about their school.

In true democratic fashion, the groups work together to come up with three words to describe what makes their school special. The words are entered into a ‘Wordle’ – a digital application used to create a visual word cloud in which words that appear most frequently are given greater prominence – which is then printed as a poster for the school. Woking School's Wordle is pictured below.

Photos: Students at Woking School (top) and Clairmont Community School (bottom) engaged with Trustees during school tours on October 15, 2015.