School Story Focus 2023/24

As we created opportunities to build back our community, we received feedback from students, staff and parents that our actions were making a difference. Our school community was feeling much more connected, and had many more opportunities to be together as a whole. We celebrate this success and our plans are to continue and to build on the ways that we are intentionally creating ways for our school community to come together and to feel connected.

That said, as we continually scanned the words and actions of our learners, we noticed that we were dealing with a high number of physical altercations at the office, and more often than not, this was accompanied by inappropriate language from our students. Our teachers and support staff shared that a growing concern was that our students did not have the strategies and tools to be patient, kind, and understanding with each other, which was the cause of the physical conflicts and poor language.

Our Focus Question for 2023-2024…

If we develop and implement a school-wide support plan focusing on kindness, will that improve student empathy, respect, attitude and gratitude?

Actions:

In order to work towards building a community of kindness, we will implement the following actions:

• develop clear positive social emotional behavioural expectations for ALL areas of the school and share this with students, staff and parents
• develop and use common school-wide language that can be used by all in our school community
• train all staff in using school wide language in their role (e.g. resource teachers, EAs, noon-hour supervisors, TTOCs, etc.)
• explicitly teach lessons based on kindness to self/others/place in our classrooms and provide opportunities for our students to practice these skills
• organize and plan specific school-wide activities that will reinforce our kindness lessons (e.g. buddy activities, family team activities, assemblies, etc.)
• include specific examples of how to show kindness to self/others/place in our morning announcements
• share examples of school activities highlighting kind actions and words in newsletters or on social media
• encourage families to use Wave of Kindness language at home

Evidence:

The evidence we will use to determine if our actions are making a difference include:

• scan/interview students/staff to see if our actions have contributed to showing more kindness, empathy, compassion in words and behaviour of students
• have students reflect on how they have shown kindness to self/others/place and the skills and strategies they are learning to manage through times of conflict
• keep track to see whether the incidents that are referred to the office decrease with our school-wide focus on kindness
• interview parents to see if they are aware of our school-wide focus on kindness and if their children are able to share what they are learning about kindness to self/others/place at home

School Story Focus - 2022/23

In our scan in the fall, we realized that our learners and school families were not accustomed to being together as a whole school community. Due to the pandemic, many school-wide activities and events were put on hold or organized in a way that did not necessarily bring the entire school together. We noticed that our school community - students, staff and parents - needed opportunities to feel connected so that we can all work together towards the same goals.

Our Focus Question for 2022-2023…

How can we build back our community, so we are thriving like we once were, pre-pandemic?

Actions:

In order to work towards our focus and help build back our community, we will implement the following actions:

• Organize opportunities for school-wide gatherings and activities, including assemblies, school-wide runs, multi-age team activities and school-wide events such as Sports Day and a Winter Concert to build a sense of joy in being together as a community and as a whole school
• Encourage classes to organize larger group lessons and activities such as buddy activities, multi-class field trips (e.g. Outdoor Education) and multi-class performances for assemblies/concerts to provide opportunities for students to become more familiar with other students in the school and to bring classes together to work collaboratively on projects/presentations
• Organize student leadership opportunities for our intermediate students, such as morning announcers, lunch monitors, playground helpers, assembly emcees, assembly set-up/clean-up crew, in order to have students understand the benefits of contributing positively to our school community
• Use an additive approach by embracing and learning about a variety of celebrations, languages, the concepts of equity, diversity and inclusion through direct teaching, school-wide activities, morning announcements, and student leadership activities
• Re-introduce extra-curricular activities (e.g. cross-country running, volleyball team, basketball team) so that students have opportunities to practice working together as a team, being kind, using appropriate language and being good role models
• Invite parents and families to participate in class and/or school-wide events and activities, such as buddy reading, field trips, assemblies, Sports Day and music/band concerts

Evidence:

The evidence we will use to determine if our actions are making a difference include:

• Scanning/Interviewing students/staff to see if our actions have contributed to building a positive school community
• Asking for feedback from parents and families to ask whether they feel informed and welcome to participate in school-wide activities and events
• Reviewing the results of our Student Learning Survey

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School Story Focus - 2021/22 (Archived)

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As a staff we collectively scanned our learners.  We wondered:

• What is going on for our learners? 
• How do we know?
• Why does it matter?  

After our scan we met as a staff on numerous occasions to determine a focus for "Our Story" as a collective inquiry.

We asked the following questions as we analyzed the evidence (evidence from Scan: “four key questions” and  “Wellness” questions):

• What caught our attention during the scanning phase? 
• What’s missing? What other evidence do we need? 
• What are some strengths that our learners show in this area? 
• How could we build on these strengths? 
• What can we most effectively tackle over the next few months? years?
• What will have the biggest impact?
• Where will we concentrate our energies in order to make a big and lasting difference for our learners? 

In Summary

We noticed that our learners on whole feel safe and supported with adults in our school that believe in them.  As learners, they could identify an emergent understanding of the big ideas of what they were learning and were working towards naming their next steps.   

We noticed that our learners seem to find it difficult to articulate what they need to thrive as learners both academically and social emotionally.  In response to the past 18 months of COVID and the dynamics of solving social issues peacefully we see a need to focus on developing Social and Emotional skills and competencies for our learners.  For many, stress is tied deeply into how they are doing in their learning, their relationships, and how they do (success) in school.  Stressors were named by our learners that included their “success” as a learner, worries about COVID and their health, and their overall “happiness” in life. Happiness was significantly tied to “friendships”.    

If we think about SEL as not just a limited set of skills (ie. breathing/self talk, etc.) but rather as a complex set of competencies including academic engagement (success as our learners call it), self-efficacy, perseverance, and self-management (regulation) then all the pieces of what we notice start to fall into place.  We noticed that learners brought up all these areas when they spoke of what they needed to thrive at school.   While learning the skills are vital – it is just the tip of the SEL iceberg!  To “thrive” in development means “…to grow or develop well or vigorously” and to “flourish”.

Alongside, we also wonder if allowing space for connection & interaction among adults where our staff can connect, heal, and build our capacity to support students in the area of SEL would be important?   If we are reflecting on own social and emotional wellness, then in turn, might that model and support its importance to our learners? 

Main Questions to be our focus…

How might we build our learners’ social, emotional, and personal competencies to help them learn, work and thrive together at school and in life?

Sub-questions to guide us…

• What foundations do we need to build?
• How often do our learners use strategies to learn more effectively? 
• How well do our learners manage their emotions, thoughts, and behaviours in different situations?
• How strong are our learner’s relationship skills?
• How well do our learners regulate their emotions?
• How well do our learners control their emotions when they need to? 
• What do our learners need to know to exercise responsible decision making?
• How much do our learners believe they can learn and thrive at school and in life?
• What do our learners need to feel safe in order to explore SEL?