Saint Georges boasts some of the most prestigious and high quality programs in modern Canadian education. Connect 10 makes its debut with the 2015-16 school year, as a new curricular experience available to tenth grade students. Connect 10 offers an acute learning environment based on leadership and big picture ideas. Leading the pack with the new school initiative is social studies teacher Ms. Coates and head of grade ten Dr. Webster. Connect 10 coexists with the well-established Discovery 10 program.

Due to the program being new, many students have been left wondering what the core emphasis of Connect is. When asked about Connect, Ms. Coates described that students can expect to find “Projects like building a greenhouse from the ground up. Working with thinkers, designers and change makers at the Academy of Tomorrow. Lots of reflective thinking, use of thinking routines and other processes to make our hidden thinking, values, and goals visible.”

Ms. Coates goes further, explaining students receive “learning that breaks up typical ‘subjects’ into interdisciplinary themes.”

Connect 10 emerged as an idea back in March, and has already made enormous strides in the short time period. Jaden Bains, a Connect 10 standout, particularly values “the element of independent thinking” and expands on how such independence “allows people to express their creativity in a way that progresses ideas towards 21st-century solutions.”

Clearly Connect is an unforgettable and worthwhile experience. No upcoming tenth grade student should dismiss Connect, as the new curriculum continually grows in content and richness. Big things are coming for Connect 10 and best of luck to those involved.

“My hope is that students who are part of Connect 10 become change makers at St George’s- both subtly in terms of the culture, and dramatically in terms of initiatives, events, projects and goals.” – Ms. Coates