March 26, 2021
Students at North Bay’s Sunset Park Public School hosted special dignitaries for a lesson in social studies.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce, along with Vic Fedeli, MPP for Nipissing, joined Mme. Anna Pearson’s Grade 6 French Immersion class on March 17 for a lesson on the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“As a strong believer in the value of parliamentary democracy and informed debate, it was an honour for me to engage with the students of Sunset Park Public School in a thoughtful conversation about the importance of human rights, freedom and Canada’s role on the world stage,” said Education Minister Stephen Lecce. “I sincerely thank Anna Pearson for the opportunity to meet her incredible students – they are today’s leaders.”
“It was really enlightening because some of the information that Minister Lecce told us was new,” exclaimed student Aerynn Kelly, who noted, “It was a really good learning experience for me.”
Echoing her classmate, Rory Corbeil shared, “It was really cool to meet with and ask the Minister a question. People don’t get to do that often and it was really exciting and fascinating to hear what he knew about human rights and the United Nations.”
Students asked Minister Lecce several questions including What is a right? In what ways are human rights important to Canadian citizens? and What do you think is the most important human right in Ontario?
Student Wilson Garbutt shared his experience with meeting the Minister. “It was really cool and exciting to have the Minister of Education visit us because for a lot of students, it’s a once in a lifetime experience.” He added, “I really liked when he answered all of our questions and gave us some questions to answer.”
“The students were very impressive. Their knowledge of Canadian rights and freedoms was inspiring,” said MPP Fedeli. “It was a pleasure to have this opportunity to chat with them, and share that those freedoms were hard-fought, and not found in every country around the globe. It was a fun experience.”
A thrilled Mme. Pearson noted Sunset Park Public School is an amazing school with awesome students and it was great to have Minister Lecce and MPP Fedeli see it first-hand.
“It was really nice that Minister Lecce touched upon some things that we are going to learn about in the rest of our unit on Canada and the global community,” she said, Mme. Pearson added that having Minister Lecce ask the students thought-provoking questions will help students make a connection later on in the unit. “It will be really neat because I’ll be able to pull those into the lesson and say ‘Do you remember when Minister Lecce was talking about this? Well, we’re going to explore that in further detail now.’”
NNDSB Board Chair Jay Aspin expressed his appreciation for the visit. “Our board is pleased that Education Minister Stephen Lecce and MPP Vic Fedeli provided their time to interact, in a most meaningful way, with our Grade 5-6 French Immersion students at Sunset Park Public School. We are very proud of the quality of our students and this opportunity provided first-hand evidence of that pride for our provincial leaders.”
“NNDSB has so many incredible learning opportunities happening in our classrooms each and every day,” said Director of Education Craig Myles. “We are thrilled to have Minister Lecce take notice and have him experience some of our offerings.”
“I would like to extend a sincere thank you to Sunset Park’s Grade 6 French Immersion students for welcoming our guests into their classroom, Mme. Pearson, and Principal Kim Pauli for their strong leadership and commitment to NNDSB’s core values,” acclaimed Director Myles, who shared his appreciation. “I also want to thank Minister Lecce and MPP Fedeli for attending Sunset Park Public School and actively engaging with our students. We look forward to welcoming you to NNDSB again in the future.”
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Information about Near North District School Board:
Near North District School Board is an English-language public school board serving the North Bay – Parry Sound – Nipissing area. The Board consists of approximately 10,000 students in 27 elementary schools, seven secondary/senior schools and various alternative learning centres. For more information, please visit nearnorthschools.ca and follow Near North District School Board on social media.
For more information, please contact:
Josh Casey
Information/Communication Coordinator
Near North District School Board
P. (705) 472-8170, extension 5083
E. josh.casey@nearnorthschools.ca
