Italian Principal Anna Origgi praised the collaborative nature of Ontario’s school system during a visit last week to South Branch Elementary School in Kemptville.
The principal from Limbiate, Italy visited Kemptville last week on a professional exchange run in partnership with the Ontario Principals’ Council. Anna was the guest of South Branch Principal Jill Pensa, who recently visited Origgi’s school in Italy.
Anna praised the schools’ collaborative nature in the Upper Canada District School Board, where teachers and students work together to increase engagement and enhance learning. In Italy, a more traditional relationship exists between student and teacher.
“In Italy, the teacher talks and the students listen,” she explained as her daughter translated. “Most of the time the students are silent and listening. Here the teachers work together (to enhance learning) and most of the time they talk to and collaborate with the students.”
She also praised the Board for its designation of the principal as the instructional leader in a school. Anna will take what she has learned back to her area and share it with teachers and other principals to see how some of Ontario’s practices can be incorporated within her school system.
