Delta School District

It was Wednesday morning, September 1st. Over two hundred new Grade 8 students, the future Grad Class of 2015, were milling outside the gym doors of South Delta  Secondary School, waiting to experience what the greatly anticipated Grade 8 Welcoming Assembly would hold. This inaugural assembly was organized and led by the school’s new Link Crew Leadership students, a group of forty-five Grade 11 and 12 students whose goal for the year will be to assist, encourage and mentor the new grade 8s as they move through their first year of high school. 

“Grade 8 can be a very stressful time for new students to the school,” says Principal Mme Gaudreault, “because they don’t know what to do or how the school works. So, the purpose of this new orientation activity is to help our new students transition to high school life and meet current South Delta students who can show them the ropes.”

The Grade 11 and 12 students who chose Link Crew Leadership as one of their course choices last February are students who want to help make the new students’ first year of high school a great experience. Also, by assisting their new schoolmates, they seek to enrich their own school experience, learn about their own strengths as leaders, and hone many of their current leadership skills. They understand and accept that their responsibilities will extend beyond initial orientation and have lots of plans to support the new grade 8s.

Nick Bridle, one of the Grade 12 Link Crew leaders, said “High school offers so many opportunities from sports to theatre to all kinds of clubs. We want the Grade 8s to go for it from the beginning so that they have a great school experience.  School is about learning, but not just course work- which is really important- but also about how to work together with people, how to deal with conflict when it arises, and how to create opportunities for yourself and others in a positive way.”

Within the groups, Link Leaders introduced themselves to the new students, recounted their own experiences as new students, gave advice on how to adjust to high school life, and showed them around the building.

Another Link Crew leader, Nicole Parton, offered this observation: “During the welcoming day, we broke into small groups of 11-12 grade 8s per Link Leader. During our summer training days, we learned how to lead some special activities with our small group, activities that would help them adjust to and deal with the challenges they might face throughout their high school lives. I also wanted my group to know that if they need to talk to someone about whatever, I’ll be there for them and I’m hoping for some of them to become good friends with us, trusting us to be there for them.”

Inspiration for the Link Crew program comes from the Boomerang Project, a US-based company whose goal is to provide training to schools that aim to make the transition between elementary and high school less stressful and more enjoyable. Link Crew programs in the United States have been around for the last seventeen years but South Delta Secondary is the first high school in Delta to implement the Link program. SDSS teacher, Ms. Tonia Knight, experienced the power of the Link Crew program as a student in the Kelowna school system and can speak to the sense of empowerment she gained as a student from her Link Leaders and then again as a Link Crew leader herself. She is bringing all her experience and energy to the successful launch of this course at SDSS. 

Our new Grade 8s, Link Crew leaders, and the whole student body are in for an eventful year. With the newly elected Student Council, the vast array of school clubs, sports teams, music and theatre events there will be many opportunities for the whole student body and teachers to rally round common humanitarian, environmental and social events. 

SDSS has a tradition of students working together and achieving great accomplishments; Link Crew Leadership is a new addition to the school community, helping to create even stronger ‘links’ as students helping students succeed.