Junior high can be tough. These kids started their own 'kindness awards' to help

Karina Zapata · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 28, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 infinitesimal ago

At Lakeshore School, roughly three retired of 5 students don't consciousness respected. That's beauteous modular for inferior precocious kids successful Calgary, but the fig shocked eighth grader Toby Harris.

He's a tall, soft-spoken lad astatine Lakeshore School who likes sports and was picked by his teachers to beryllium 1 of the school's pupil wellness ambassadors. They looked astatine their school's statistic astatine a wellness symposium past fall, then helium started reasoning astir the struggles of kids helium knows.

Other kids person told him: "'I don't privation to spell to school. There are immoderate radical that aren't being nice; I conscionable don't privation to spot them today,'" helium said.

"A batch of radical consciousness similar they're giving respect but not getting arsenic overmuch back. That's what we're trying to enactment on."

Harris and his squad are portion of a caller effort to amended kids' happiness and intelligence wellness that's taken disconnected passim Calgary's nationalist schools. 

At Lakeshore School successful the southeast assemblage of Auburn Bay, the students decided to effort kindness awards — tokens of appreciation for erstwhile they witnessed different students being benignant to each other, aboriginal displayed prominently connected the partition adjacent the beforehand office.

It's lone been a substance of months truthful far, but Harris believes it's already making a tiny difference. He's besides been checking successful connected those kids who didn't privation to spell to school.

"I cheque up connected them and they say, 'Yeah, I'm fine. I'm coming to school. I'm really blessed now.'"

Student well-being enactment teams are an expanded inaugural launched 2 years agone by the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) to make a civilization of well-being successful schools and amended yearly pupil survey results. There's present a team that's focused connected tackling wellness head-on established astatine each azygous mediate and precocious schoolhouse successful the city. 

Dropped your pencil? Got it — if a teacher is looking

At Lakeshore, Grade 7 wellness ambassador Tia Soliman said she noticed a alteration successful students close away.

But successful ways that marque her laugh.

"Once they larn that we're looking for these things, they go precise intelligibly fake kind, the students successful my class," said Soliman.

Classmates driblet pencils truthful their friends tin prime it up for them — portion making definite their teacher is watching. Others accidental bully things sarcastically, oregon marque melodramatic oculus interaction with her erstwhile they bash bully things to marque definite she sees it.

Soliman said she's not upset because, successful her eyes, immoderate affirmative enactment tin beryllium beneficial. And fake oregon not, she believes it could promote others to besides bash bully things.

"It's a bully happening to get into due to the fact that you'll announcement arsenic it goes farther on, it'll go a habit. So alternatively of purposefully dropping your pencil and getting idiosyncratic to prime it up immediately, they're conscionable going to spell and prime up that pencil retired of instinct," she said.

And Soliman said the biggest quality is really however she feels astir herself. Before moving to Lakeshore School erstwhile it opened 3 years ago, she said she wasn't arrogant of who she was. Now she is.

"I've been trying to beryllium kinder to others; I announcement that I'm overmuch happier now."

Focusing connected mediate schools

David Dyck, the CBE's acquisition manager of well-being, said this enactment is particularly important arsenic Calgary continues to grow. With grounds numbers of caller students joining the schoolhouse system, helium said galore of them astir apt don't consciousness similar they beryllium — yet.

In addition, helium said there's a beardown tendency for transportation aft the pandemic.

"We person an affectional gap, learning spread arsenic well, societal affectional spread — not conscionable an world learning gap," said Dyck.

"So recognizing that, capitalizing connected these opportunities to find retired from students themselves [is critical] — what is it that you request oregon what are you looking for successful bid to determination into that adjacent measurement of success?"

This enactment initially started with precocious schoolhouse students. But aft Dyck and his squad noticed little pupil survey results among mediate schoolhouse students, they included that property group.

The CBE conducts 3 pupil surveys passim the schoolhouse twelvemonth — 1 of which is legislated by the provincial authorities to cod among definite grades. Results are shared with parents online.

Dyck said Lakeshore School's survey results are average. They see figures similar 58 per cent of students consciousness students respect each other, 60 per cent consciousness students attraction astir each other, and 68 per cent person a precocious consciousness of belonging.

"As students modulation from an simple mounting into a mediate school, there's tons of changes going connected successful their lives.… The format of inferior precocious schoolhouse is antithetic from elementary. There's caller radical successful your school," helium said.

"All of these variables successful the civilization of the schoolhouse marque for a clip of adjustment."

However, 1 of the challenges with the surveys is that officials similar Dyck don't cognize however students interpreted the questions. That's 1 happening he's hoping the pupil enactment wellness teams tin assistance him understand.

"Why is it that you're feeling similar you're not connected astatine the school? We person each of these things disposable — what's successful the way?"

Connection week

At Centennial High School successful Calgary's southeast, the enactment squad has been doing this enactment for astir a twelvemonth longer than the mediate schoolhouse students. 

At their symposium, they noticed their pupil surveys showed a circumstantial occupation with feeling connected with staff. So this month, they held "connection week" — 5 days filled with trivia games and dodgeball, and "Coffee with Joe," an accidental for students to chat with main Joe Sturgeon.

Rosie El Mehtar, successful Grade 12, said students and teachers walk truthful overmuch clip unneurotic successful the schoolroom and it's important that they spot each different arsenic quality beings.

"I've personally felt that erstwhile I bash benignant of person that idiosyncratic enslaved with the teacher, I'm much encouraged successful the class," said El Mehtar.

"This week is to springiness those students who possibly are a small spot much shy erstwhile they are communicating that accidental successful a non-stressful environment, [with] nary pressure, conscionable to person immoderate fun. And we're hoping that volition promote students successful the schoolroom arsenic well."

Grade 12 pupil Kyla Layton said the extremity is for her classmates to consciousness excited astir going to school.

"Coming to school, it's not conscionable a spot to larn and instrumentality your classes. It's a spot wherever you truly travel and you marque connections and you thrive."

Each pupil well-being enactment squad crossed Calgary is present gathering photograph and video grounds of the interaction they've made truthful far. They'll beryllium sharing those presentations with CBE officials by the extremity of May, and are hoping to spot advancement reflected successful their pupil statistic and happiness for years to come.