A university campus may not be where you expect to find elementary students on a Saturday morning.
But for a group of students from Assumption School, it has become a place to learn, ask questions, build confidence and perhaps begin imagining what their own future could look like.
Assumption students are taking part in the Ottawa launch of School of the Greats, an extracurricular mentoring program that pairs elementary students with university student mentors for academic support, hands-on science activities and opportunities to learn and grow.
The Ottawa Catholic School Board is partnering with the University of Ottawa and Foundation W. to bring the program to students in our community. The launch marks the first expansion of the School of the Greats model into an English-language education system.
For our students, it means something even simpler: another opportunity to discover what they can do.
Opening a New Door to Learning
On Saturday mornings, participating Assumption students travel to the University of Ottawa, where transportation and breakfast are provided, and the program is offered to families at no cost.
Once there, students learn alongside volunteer university mentors, receiving academic support and participating in hands-on science enrichment activities designed to build skills, confidence and curiosity.
There is something meaningful about giving elementary students the opportunity to learn on a university campus.
A place that may once have seemed far away suddenly becomes somewhere they know. They have walked through its doors. They have learned there. They have met people who study there.
And perhaps, little by little, they begin to see themselves there too.
Growing Through Relationships
At the heart of the School of the Greats is a simple idea: young people thrive when they have meaningful relationships, encouragement and opportunities to grow.
University student mentors work alongside Assumption students, helping with learning, encouraging them through challenges and celebrating their progress.
Those relationships are an important part of the program’s approach. The School of the Greats model identifies caring relationships, positive expectations, problem-solving, autonomy and student engagement as factors that can help strengthen academic resilience.
The result is what the program describes as a double impact. Younger students build skills, confidence, resilience and greater awareness of postsecondary education, while university mentors develop leadership, community engagement and their own sense of purpose.
It is learning built through relationships, with both students and mentors having something to give and something to gain.
Nourishing a New Beginning
This year’s OCSB Spiritual Theme invites us to Nourish New Beginnings.
Sometimes a new beginning is easy to recognize. Other times, it starts quietly.
It can begin with a student trying something for the first time. A mentor offering encouragement. A question is being asked. A difficult problem is finally making sense. Or a young person walking onto a university campus and beginning to imagine themselves there one day.
For Assumption students, these Saturday mornings create space for those moments.
They also reflect something we believe deeply at the OCSB: education is about helping students recognize their gifts, build confidence in who they are and know that they are surrounded by people who want to see them flourish.
The School of the Greats shares that emphasis on opportunity and educational success. Its mission is centred on creating greater access to educational success through the resources, expertise and engagement of the education community.
A Partnership Rooted in Possibility
The School of the Greats began in Quebec in 2015 as L’École des Grands and has since supported more than 5,000 elementary and postsecondary participants in Quebec and Ontario.
Its arrival in Ottawa’s English-language education system represents another chapter in that story.
For the OCSB, partnerships like this are valuable because they extend the community surrounding our students.
Our educators know that student success does not happen in isolation. Families, schools, community organizations and postsecondary partners all have opportunities to open doors, build relationships and help young people discover where their gifts might lead.
And right now, our Assumption students do not need to know exactly where those doors will take them.
They simply need the opportunity to walk through them.
As we Nourish New Beginnings across the OCSB this year, we celebrate this one and all the confidence, curiosity, relationships and possibilities that may grow from it.
