House of Assembly – Nova Scotia October 25, 2009
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DEBATES AND PROCEEDINGS
Speaker: Honourable Charlie Parker
Published by Order of the Legislature by Hansard Reporting Services and printed by the Queen’s Printer.
Available on INTERNET at http://www.gov.ns.ca/legislature/HOUSE_BUSINESS/hansard.html
First Session
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2009
HON. MARILYN MORE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure today to welcome our delegation in the Speaker’s Gallery. They are from numerous areas of Scotland and they are representing the Scottish Continuing International Professional Development Program. They are here to learn more about English and Gaelic language programming in the school system in Nova Scotia and, as well, through discussions with the Office of Gaelic Affairs, the group has been very interested in seeing how Gaelic development at the community level has been an important building block in terms of Gaelic’s presence in the provinces and this can help inform institutional learning programs.
I would like to personally thank Laureen Murphy with the Strait Regional School Board for her work in assisting in the organizing of the delegation’s schedule while visiting the province. Mr. Speaker, since the late 1700s Gaelic-speaking Scots have been settling in Nova Scotia. In fact by the mid 1800s, Gaelic was the third most common mother tongue in
pre-Confederation Canada. As we all know, after many centuries of change, the language still lives on in Cape Breton and in pockets of mainland Nova Scotia where Gaelic, a cultural linguistic tie to our past, is very much alive.
Since 2002, Nova Scotia has had a memorandum of understanding between the Government of Nova Scotia and the Highland Council in Scotland. This is a memorandum that seeks to develop closer co-operation between our province and the Highland Council in areas of language, kinship ties, culture and the exploration of economic opportunities. Mr. Speaker, 36 projects have been completed to date as a result of this agreement.
[10:00 a.m.]
As you can see, Mr. Speaker, it is through co-operative agreements like this one and the continued support of governments, that important delegations like these colleagues can come together with the Department of Education and the Office of Gaelic Affairs, to look at best practices, exchange ideas and work to maintain the vitality of our history, culture and languages.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to close by wishing the delegation success in its mission to Nova Scotia, with hopes that our continued work together encourages our youth to learn and enjoy their rich heritage. Fàilte gu Albainn Nuaidh, fàilte dhan roinn bhòidhich againn – which means welcome to Nova Scotia, welcome to our beautiful province. (Applause)
I’d like to ask the members of the delegation to rise as I call each of their names and to remain standing as the honourable members welcome them to the House: Audrey Kellacher, Monica Sanz-Malet, David Findlay, Ann MacDonald, Donalda McComb, Catriona Hay, Lisa Snedden and David Sheratt. I ask my colleagues to warmly welcome them. (Applause)
MR. SPEAKER: We certainly welcome our special guests here this morning and do hope they enjoy their time here in Nova Scotia.
The honouable member for Cumberland South.
HON. MURRAY SCOTT: Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to rise to my feet and say a few words about Bill No. 2. Before I do, I want to welcome our guests to the gallery as well, I want to welcome them to New Scotland. For those who haven’t been to Scotland before, I have and it’s a beautiful country and the hospitality is second to none. We
appreciate you coming to see us and we hope you have a great stay while you’re here and enjoy yourselves.
Ministry for Gaelic Affairs October 20, 2009
Posted by gedes in : Day 3 - Tuesday 13th October 2009 , add a commentTuesday 13th October 2009 - Antigonish
After our visit to St FX university we travelled through Antigonish to meet Lewis MacKinnon CEO of the Office of Gaelic Affairs. He gave us an interesting overview of the work of the office and the priorities for the development of the Gaelic language in Nova Scotia. It was amazing to think that nearly 11% of Nova Scotian’s spoke Gaelic at the beginning of the 20th century to just hundreds at the beginning of the 21st century.
Lewis outlined that the main language focus would be on adult classes using community support from many volunteers and learners of the language. A great deal of work had already taken place through Government support for the language including the appointing of a cultural officer, funds becoming available for teaching Gaelic in schools and the development of a cultural strategy embracing history and language heritage. During a question and answer session Lewis was asked by John what his vision for the language was 10 years from now. He replied “An increase in the number of speakers and the establishment of Gaelic Medium schools”. With people like Lewis driving developments we are in no doubt that this will succeed. He was also asked by Claire about his roots and his sense of being Scottish. His interesting response was that he was not Scottish but that he was a Nova Scotian Gael.
Later that evening we enjoyed a lovely dinner with musical interludes from both the Nova Scotian Gael and the Scottish Gaels. We also had some “Burns” thrown in for good measure and no-one was asked to leave the restaurant!
Halifax Regional School Board October 20, 2009
Posted by gedes in : Day 6 - Friday 16th October 2009 , add a commentFriday 16th October 2009
Half the group (John, Liz, Gillian, Lorraine, Sue, Eilidh, Claire and Lyndsey) took the short Ferry to meet with the Halifax Regional School Board.
As soon as we entered the building we noticed their school board moto as well as other signs promoting a positive workplace where it’s important to share ideas.
We spent the morning discussing the similarities and differences between the Canadian and Scottish Educational Systems with Geoff, Kim, Alison, Judy and for part of the time Alan (the Executive Director of Public Schools in the Province). We learnt a lot about their mentoring/coaching scheme. This scheme ensures that a mentor for literacy and numeracy visits every school and analyses how these elements are being encorporated into the curriculum. We discussed the position of Professional Learning Communities in Scotland and in Canada and how they hoped to make more use of them. Currently, staff are allowed sometime within the academic session to meet with other teachers of the same level to share ideas and practices. The Board was very interested in GLOW as it connects every teacher in Scotland – a facility currently not available in Canada. They also shared their system of analysing school and staff performances.
We shared Curriculum for Excellence, AiFL and HGIOS 3 with the Halifax Regional School Board – all of which they found very interesting – particularly the Quality Indicators of HGIOS 3. They felt this document was slightly further ahead than their current system.
For part of the meeting ,we were also privileged to talk to the Head of Education for the Province who gave us an overview of the situation in schools.
The rest of the group joined us for the end of the session and were able to share their insights and learn about the Canadian education system. The group felt this visit was particularly beneficial at the end of the week as we were able to discuss the theory behind the good practice we had observed throughout our school visits.
Taramac Education Center October 20, 2009
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Taramac Education Center has a role of 680 pupils and the school day is from 8.45-2.25pm for all pupils from Grade 1 upwards. The school catchment area is varied and many pupils come from family backgrounds where pupils need to work away from due to the economic climate in Cape Breton.
We were welcomed here by a group of Highland Dancers who performed several dancers for us. The girls were aged 6-12 and were very proud of their Highland dancing and compete throughout Canada – dancing 11 out of 12 months in a year.
Once we had a discussion with the Principal of the school, he took us around the junior and senior end of the school and we were able to speak to teachers and pupils about their culture and heritage. The first class we visited was a group of Year 7 and 8 students studying science. We did distract them slightly from their topic and asked them about their favourite part of school to which most responded Sport. We then shared information about Scotland and introduced them to Football, Rugby and Shinty. After this we visited Art and Social Subjects. One of the displays which interested us was entitled “I am Canadian” – a project which allowed pupils to research people/places etc which they associated with Canada.
The Grade 5 class we visited were studying the rainforest and were incorporating all aspects of the curriculum including literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing into their topic work.
We also had the opportunity to talk to a Resource Teacher (Support for Learning) who was able to tell us about their role both within and outwith the classroom. Not only do they work on a one-to-one basis with the pupils, but they support in class as well as take over lessons allowing the class teacher to work with a smaller group of pupils.
In Taramac, 1/3 of the school is taught in French immersion – approximately one class per grade. with a maximum class size of 25 pupils. Not all the parents who choose French immersion for their children speak French. However, parents feel that it puts their children at an advantage as many provincial and federal government jobs request applicants to be bilingual.
As a result of the French immersion programme, signs within the school are all bilingual as is the school moto “Together We Can”.
There was a very positive ethos in the school and both staff and pupils were full of questions for us, as were we. We observed that lots of self-assessment was carried out by pupils. Furthermore, there were lots of posters promoting positive behaviour. All the staff were happy to help us on our very brief visit.
The pupils were very excited by our visit and even wanted our autographs – Audrey found it very difficult to move in the corridor!
Pictou – Ship Hector October 20, 2009
Posted by gedes in : Day 5 - Thursday 15th October 2009 , add a commentWe visited the Hector Heritage Quay museum in Pictou enroute to Halifax. Pictou is known as the birthplace of New Scotland. This visit was a great opportunity to learn about the first boat that took people from Scotland (departing from Loch Broom and Greenock) across the ocean to Pictou, Nova Scotia. This journey took them 11 weeks in total due to bad weather. Onboard there were outbreaks of smallpox and dysentry resulting in 18 children dying on board. 189 passengers arrived in Pictou on the 15th September 1773.
Many of the displays had sourced information from the Highland Folk Museum in Kingussie as well as the Ross and Cromarty board. We were able to board a replica of the boat (opened in 2000) which allowed us to imagine and experience first hand what the people went through in order to start a new life.
Dalbrae Academy October 16, 2009
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The vice-principal of this school, M Beaton (who originated from Eriskay), studied education at Jordanhill before coming to Canada 35 years ago to teach Gaelic (you can still make out the Scottish twang in her voice). The school role is currently 275 but this has dropped from approximately 450 due to the economic climate. She also commented on variation in popularity of Gaelic language throughout the years – peaking at different points – the last time in the late 1990s when it was deemed ‘cool’ to be involved in all things Celtic. She is hopeful that through the support of Gaelic Affairs Office and the good work currently being carried out in the early studies that interest will increase again. All signs in the school were bilingual in Gaelic and English. However, other cultures such as the M’ikmaq community were also represented through flags and displays at the school entrance.
We were given a tour of the school and shown many facilities which promote positive behaviour. We were also informed about strangs their curriculum which gives pupils a very rounded education by allowing them to do extended work experience. Another strand of the curriculum included courses in dance and music which incorporate a sense of heritage. Some of the pupils who follow these courses gave us an informal performance.
Bayview Eduction Center (Junior School) October 16, 2009
Posted by gedes in : Day 5 - Thursday 15th October 2009 , add a commentThursday 15th October 2009
We were welcomed by the Principal Janice Campbell who allowed us to experience first hand what goes in their classrooms.
Some of the group went to Years 1-8 whilst Liz and Gillian went to Grade 3 and 6 music dances and Donalda and Anne went to the Gaelic class. The Grade 3 music class were very interested to ask questions about Scotland and we discussed their heritage, our heritage, musical instruments and things which define Scotland. They continued their lesson with some Cape Breton step dancing – which Liz and Gillian made a brave attempt at. After this, we then taught them the steps to a Dashing White Sargent – they picked it up a lot quicker than we did step dancing and they thoroughly enjoyed it. We also discussed the similarities in the learning outcomes for music in Scotland and Nova Scotia.
Anne and Donalda spent time with the Gaelic teacher and their class and were sung to by the a group of school pupils in Gaelic.
Others from the group were given the opportunity to go to different classes and experience the curriculum across different age ranges as well as observe wall displays promoting positive behaviour and ethos within the school.
The school’s caring ethos was apparent throughout the visit but particularly in memorial library which had been created in memory of a pupil that had passed away from brain cancer.
Highland Village, Iona October 16, 2009
Posted by gedes in : Day 4 - Wednesday 14th October 2009 , add a commentWednesday 14th October 2009
This was a very atmospheric account of the clearances of Scotland and the trip Scots made to make a new life in Cape Breton. We learnt about the history through traditional story telling, some of which were very moving. We were guided through time from the days of the Black House to late Victorian times by experiencing their lifestyle – visiting people of different backgrounds in their own home. It felt like you were witnessing history as it happened. It reinforced the cultural and historical links between Scotland and Cape Breton. The candlelight tour lasted for two hours. By the end, it was dark and snowing – making the harsh reality of the story and physical environment they had to live in, more real. Our evening was rounded off with a cup of tea, oatcakes and the chance to speak to other visitors, many of whom were local to the area and some were even teachers!
Celtic Music Interpretive Center October 16, 2009
Posted by gedes in : Day 4 - Wednesday 14th October 2009 , add a commentWednesday 13th October 2009
A fiddle and piano player played traditional music native to Cape Breton whilst we had lunch. We then had the opportunity to go to an exhibit about the cultural heritage of Cape Breton – learning about traditional music, musicians as well as step dancing and the relationships they have to Scotland. Some of us even had a go at Step Dancing and playing the fiddle!
SAERC October 16, 2009
Posted by gedes in : Day 4 - Wednesday 14th October 2009 , add a commentWednesday 14th October
Alan MacDonald, an area Administrator welcomed to the Strait Area and Education Center which has a school role of approximately 450 pupils. This was a community school and is the only one in the province in which the general public are allowed into during the school day to access the amenities. We were struck as we entered by the sense of pride the pupils and staff had as they stood still whilst they national anthem was played – something which have found out happens on a daily basis. Furthermore, at the entrance of the school, there were flags flying to represent every nationality present within the school population.
We were given a tour of the school and talked to various teachers including Evelyn Campbell who teaches English. She explained that that many of their pupils have learnt about their culture and identity through their family and story telling at home. The school hosts every Friday lunchtime which are well attended.
On our tour we also learnt about the French immersion programme due to the Arcadian link within the province. We viewed a Technological Department (where they do a unit on ethnic metals), Art room, Music room and saw the gym space.
After this, Alan took us to see the school TV station and radio station which is funded by a school bingo (lottery) which is broadcast and manned by pupils every Tuesday. The pupils had a real sense of pride in this facility. Donalda and Ann were invited to be on the school TV station and responded in Gaelic to the questions the presenters asked.
