Seven Oaks opening new Met school this fall

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This article was published 14/07/2021 (1549 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Seven Oaks School Division is opening its third Met school this fall in Winnipeg’s Exchange District.

The Met Centre for Arts and Technology (321 McDermot Ave.) will open as a satellite campus of West Kildonan Collegiate, starting with two Grade 9 and one Grade 10 classes in the 2021-2022 school year. The eventual capacity will be 150 students.

Met schools are based on the Big Picture Learning model. Approximately 15 students are placed in a classroom called an advisory, which is led by an educator called an advisor. The students stay with the same advisor through to their final year.

What makes Met schools unique is their focus on project-based learning three days a week and internships with businesses and organizations the other two days.

“We want to increase students’ ability to dive deep into questions that they have about themselves and the world, and to engage them in experiences that push them, and opportunities for them to demonstrate their learning and to take action in the community,” principal Will Burton told The Times.

“Our location downtown offers an incredible opportunity to increase the amount of experiential learning that we do because, quite frankly, it means we don’t have to get on a bus, we can walk (to) many places.”

Not only will the school’s location in Winnipeg’s downtown hub benefit students, it will create opportunities for the surrounding community, as well, Burton said.

“A vision we have long-term for the space is that it (has) multiple uses. So we may have mentors or community organizations that spend time in our space, working out of our space, in exchange for doing some work with youth; we may be able to offer it as a space for local organizations to run events.

“The big vision for the school is to have the lights on 18 hours a day and to see it not just as a school, but a space of learning and community, where folks can gather and in the efforts to essentially work towards building a more robust, democratic society.”

Reconciliation and climate change will form the school’s foundation, he explained.

“Considering our location — so close to The Forks — reconciliation is going to be a key pillar in how we move about that space and the conversations that we have. And just philosophically, myself and the faculty have a deep commitment to climate change education, as well.”

Burton taught in the Winnipeg School Division until joining the Maples Met School as an advisor for its inaugural year in 2016. In January 2021, he became the vice-principal at A.E. Wright School for the remainder of the school year, before being tapped to head the Met Centre for Arts and Technology.

The division’s first Met school, Seven Oaks Met School, opened out of Collège Garden City Collegiate in September 2009.