Highlights from Catholic school board’s student census

GUELPH – Students in kindergarten through Grade 12 at the Wellington Catholic District School Board participated in a census in April.

According to a report prepared by executive superintendent Brian Capovilla, 63 per cent of the board’s 1,568 high school students and 27% of the 6,252 elementary students completed the census.

The board also conducted a student census in 2022, which saw significantly less participation.

Program coordinator Jeff Warner presented highlights of the census during a board meeting on Jan. 14.

Food security

About half of the students surveyed reported using community food resources, with almost 20% using them most days or every day.

More than 3% of students surveyed said there is rarely or never enough food at home.

Languages

About 40% of students reported learning a first language other than English at home, with the most common being Tigrinya, Filipino and Spanish.

“When 40% of your student body is multilingual learners, that has massive implications,” Warner said.

Backgrounds

More than 20% of students said they were born outside of Canada, and more than half of those said they’ve been in Canada for less than five years.

Comparatively, 92% of the board’s staff were born in Canada, Warner noted, and of the staff born elsewhere, 60% have been in Canada for more than 30 years.

Less than 20% of students listed Canadian as their ethnic/cultural origin.

More than 100 different origins were reported and Italian, Irish, English, Filipino and Scottish had the highest representation after Canadian.

Of the elementary students, 58% identified their racial background as white, 13% as east/southeast Asian, 12% as Black and 6% as Latino. For high school students the figures were 59, 13, 13 and 5% respectively.

Almost 3% self identified as First Nations, Métis or Inuit, though Warner notes this is likely under-reported.

Comparatively, 93% of staff identify as white, and 4% identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of colour, according to a 2021 workforce census.

Gender, sexuality

Of the elementary students, about 49% identified as female, 47% as male, and 3% as another gender. Of the high school students, about 42% identified as female, 50% as male, and 7% as another gender.

Of the Grade 7 and 8 students, 83% identified as heterosexual and 12% identified as 2SLGBTQIA+. Students in kindergarten through Grade 6 were not asked this question.

Of the high school students, 76% identified as heterosexual and 19% identified as 2SLGBTQIA+.

Religion

About 70% of the board’s elementary students identify as Catholic, while 15% identify as “other Christian” and 3% report having no religion or spiritual affiliation. Of the secondary students, 53% identify as Catholic, 14% as other Christian, and 6% as atheist.

Board officials say the “growing number of non-Catholic students ... is an opportunity for outreach and invites a shift towards a more evangelical approach to our faith.”