Submitted by Lisa Abreu, Richland Academy
Silence was heard throughout Richland Academy on Thursday, November 18th, as students, staff and faculty participated in their second Vow of Silence event, supporting children’s well-being worldwide. Each year, youth around the world “pledge to stay silent for up to 24 hours to support children who are silenced by the denial of their basic rights.” In honour of the Vow of Silence, each student created their own unique beaded bracelet, worn throughout the week in support of children around the world. During the hour of silence, students worked in complete silence with no speaking, no emailing, and no note-writing. Students expressed that the Vow of Silence was important because it gave them the chance to see what it was like for the children who do not have the right to speak up for themselves. The reality is, many children around the world do not have a voice to speak their ideas, thoughts and opinions. The Vow of Silence is a Free The Children initiative that is “meant to attract as much attention as possible to raise awareness and create real social change”. Richland is proud to support such a worthy cause that develops students’ awareness and understanding of the unfair conditions by which other children may live. As member of Peaceful Schools International, Richland will continue to build awareness about the lives of other children around the world.
View some images of Richland’s Vow of Silence Day:
Vow of Silence: A Moment of Silence for a Worthy Cause from Richland Academy on Vimeo.
Thank you to Melissa our ‘Marketing & Events’ Faculty Member and Felicia ‘Creative Design & Technology’ Faculty Member for creating these pieces for us.
Our membership in PSI has provided us with an important school-wide focus, bringing together staff and students towards a common goal. In the beginning, we undertook initiatives within our school to promote a culture of peace. PSI newsletters, emails and their website gave us an abundance of ideas and sparked our own thinking. As a school, we held assemblies, created peace books and poems, made Kites for Peace, adopted a school mascot (Harmony, the Good Gorilla), acknowledged acts of kindness on a daily basis, had “Hand-Off/Peace On” weeks, created a large Peace Mural and performed a school show based on “making a difference”. We knew our efforts were producing results when we overheard a student reminding a new Kingslake student that, “We don’t do that at Kingslake. We’re a peaceful school.” It has provided teachers with a common language when discussing behaviour and expectations. We have also been able to incorporate our school board’s Character Education goals into our peaceful school initiatives. It has provided a meaningful way to teach many of the character traits, as well as curriculum expectations in Literacy and Social Studies.
On Tuesday afternoon at Gilmore Community School, which has been undergoing major seismic upgrades the last couple years, there was a moment of peace–in more ways than one.