As much as teacher Jean-Ann Stene believes in the talent pool within her classroom, she confessed to being stunned by her students scooping a national citizenship prize.
In fact, Stene, who teaches a Grade 6/7 split class at Ferris elementary, was so taken aback at winning Historica Canada’s Citizenship Challenge, she had to get colleagues to verify the notification.
“It was a bit of a shock,” she told the Richmond News, after her 30-strong class was honoured by Historica Canada at a special ceremony on Monday at the central Richmond school, near Gilbert and Blundell roads.
“Were they really the winners? I had to get some colleagues to look at the note to make sure they’d actually won.”
The students beat more than 1,000 classrooms and more than 88,000 Canadians for the win. They studied for several weeks, before taking the mock citizenship exam, based on the version taken by actual citizenship applicants.
The Ferris students managed an 82.4 per cent average score, after answering 20 questions about the oceans, government and the Indigenous people of the country.
“They weren’t easy questions, I can tell you that.
“The kids were very excited when I told them,” said Stene.
The secret to their success, said Stene, isn’t totally apparent, other than the school’s “strong leadership/volunteering culture.”
“The school is big on service in the community; everyone is very involved and the students are encouraged to meet challenges head-on. Maybe that was a part of it?”
More than 500 students at the school gathered Monday to cheer the winning class and hear from Historica Canada’s Memory Project speaker Jack Purdie and its Passages Canada speaker Raz Chan, both of whom shared their views on the importance of active citizenship.
The students from the winning class also participated in a Citizenship Bingo Game to further demonstrate their Canadian knowledge and civic pride.
“The Citizenship Challenge lets participants see how their knowledge of this country measures up against fellow Canadians,” said Anthony Wilson-Smith, president and CEO of Historica Canada.
“These young students do Richmond proud — and set them on course to be active, engaged citizens in years to come.”
