If you’ve got a question about Canada, just ask one of the students from Holy Cross School in Penticton.
A Grade 8 class at the school has demonstrated that they not only know what they are talking about when it come to being Canadian citizens, but managed to beat out all their peers from across the country, registering an almost perfect average score on the Canadian Citizenship Challenge.
Out of 900 participating classrooms across Canada, the highest average score of 98.8 per cent came from Michele Cumberland’s Grade 8 classroom at Holy Cross. However, it took a lot of hard work to get there, according to Ryan Keilty, one of the students in the class.
“We did a lot of studying. We took time out of every day just to learn this stuff and make sure that we knew it well enough to be able to take this test,” said Keilty.
Cumberland said the school is extremely proud of their students, especially since this is the first time they have taken part in the challenge.
“They worked really hard and had lots of enthusiasm,” said Cumberland. “We spent weeks reading through it and discussing it together. We tied it into our regular social studies program, where we study ancient cultures and were able to compare our lives as Canadians to the lives of people in the cultures we were studying.”
Kelsey Davey, another of Cumberland’s students, said it not only felt good to win, but also to learn so much about Canada.
“A lot of people who are born in Canada don’t know that much about Canada’s history, so getting to learn about it all was really cool; seeing how much we didn’t know and getting to learn more,” said Davey.
To celebrate the achievement, the Historica-Dominion Institute, which sponsors the countrywide challenge, hosted a citizenship celebration at Holy Cross on Flag Day, Feb. 15. Students heard inspiring stories from people like naval veteran Richard McDermott, who grew up in Britain during the Second World War, eventually joining the fight as a member of the British Navy and moving to Canada after the war. They also got a perspective on being a new Canadian from close at hand; Deb Jacyna, who received her citizenship in last year, is also the mother of one of the winning students.
“These students have shown impressive knowledge of Canadian history and an abundance of civic spirit. We congratulate them and all of this year’s participants,” said Brigitte d’Auzac, senior manager at the Historica-Dominion Institute.
Students from Grade 7 to 12 were eligible to enter the contest. Each student in the winning classroom also received a copy of 101 Things Canadians Should Know About Canada.
