school context · web viewsun peaks elementary school school learning plan 2017-2022 updated...

Sun Peaks Elementary SchoolSchool Learning Plan

2017-2022Updated October 3, 2019

4040 Sundance DriveSun Peaks BC

V0E 1Z1c/o 7020 Old Hwy 5 Kamloops, BC V2H 0B7

Tel: (250) 578-7227Fax: (250) 377-2223

School Goals for 2017-2022: Students will develop and improve foundational skills; specifically, in numeracy and

literacy. With these skills we will promote inquiry and critical thinking to solve problems in real life situations.

Students will be engaged, active learners who are self-aware, caring, respectful, and decision makers.

Table of ContentsSchool Context...............................................................................................................................1

Learning Partner Engagement Process..........................................................................................1

Goal 1: Foundational Skills with a focus on numeracy and literacy...............................................3

Related District Strategic Plan Goal............................................................................................3

Related Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement Goals...................................................................3

Our Theory of Action for 2018-19..............................................................................................3

Professional Learning................................................................................................................. 3

Literacy Resources......................................................................................................................4

Numeracy Resources..................................................................................................................4

Integration in classes..................................................................................................................5

Literacy................................................................................................................................................5

Numeracy............................................................................................................................................5

Response to learners not meeting desired outcomes................................................................5

Successes and Challenges moving forward................................................................................6

Theory of Action for 2019-2020.................................................................................................7

Goal 2: Social Emotional Development..........................................................................................8

Related District Strategic Plan Goal............................................................................................8

Related Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement Goals...................................................................8

Theory of Action.........................................................................................................................8

Strategies and Initiatives............................................................................................................8

Successes and Challenges moving forward................................................................................9

Theory of Action.......................................................................................................................10

Appendix 1: FSA DATA: Reading..................................................................................................11

Appendix 2: NFRA DATA.............................................................................................................. 12

Appendix 3: FSA DATA: Numeracy...............................................................................................15

Appendix 4: DNA DATA................................................................................................................17

Appendix 5: OurSCHOOL REPORT................................................................................................27

Appendix 6: PBIS MATRIX............................................................................................................34

Appendix 7: STUDENTS AND EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES.....................................................35

Appendix 8: 2019-2020 Professional Learning Opportunities for Staff.......................................36

School ContextSun Peaks Elementary is a growing school servicing the municipality of Sun Peaks. Many students from the nearby rural communities of Whitecroft and Heffley Lake also attend the school; although they are not in the official catchment area.

Sun Peaks Elementary had an enrollment of 103 students in 2018-19 and is predicting an enrollment of 105 students for September, 2019. We have four classrooms, including an over-capacity primary classroom, which necessitates having two full-time teachers team teaching in it. We have a part-time Learning Assistance Resource Teacher, a teaching Principal and two CEA’s. This is the second year that Sun Peaks has had a principal based at the school. Our school has 6% identified special needs students and 11% self-identified aboriginal students.

The school prides itself on the volunteerism demonstrated by the parents and the community. We have volunteers for one to one reading, lunchtime supervision, ski supervision, classroom support, and sports teams, as well as a very active PAC dedicated to supporting the school. In the last two years Sun Peaks Elementary has taken a more active role in many district events including cross-country running, volleyball, flag football, track and field, Young Authors, Young Artists, and Battle of the Books. Being a rural school, these activities help connect Sun Peaks Elementary to the larger school district.

This is the first year that Sun Peaks Elementary has had an on-site LART. This has allowed us to increase our level “B” testing, which in turn has allowed more students to receive a psycho-educational assessment which has led to more of our students being properly supported through inclusive education plans. Our school also utilizes the support of district resources including: inclusion support teacher, school and family consultant, speech and language pathologist, school psychologist, district literacy support team, and district coordinators for all areas. These district resources have actively supported our school in meeting our students’ learning needs.

Learning Partner Engagement ProcessHere is a timeline of our progress through the plan:

Spring 2017 Parent Survey on student attributes

May 2017 School Plan presented to Trustees and EOC

Oct-Dec 2017 Staff creation of “Attributes of a Learner” during staff meeting

December 2017 Staff Input to support Social Responsibility Goal:

o development of a PBIS Matrix

January 2018 PAC review of PBIS to support Social Responsibility Goal

Learning Partner Engagement Process (cont.) February 2018 Student input on PBIS Matrix

March-May 2018 Implementation of PBIS at the school level

March-April 2018 PBIS review at staff meetings

May 2018 School Plan presented to Trustees and EOC

September 2018 Whole School Professional Development on Learning Sprints;

Implementation of One to One Reading

October 2018 DEWRS assessment

Guided Reading training for primary teachers

November 2018 Coaching conversations with teachers

December 2018 Mind Up and UDL training

January 2019 Literacy support teacher mentorship

Review of DEWRS Assessment

February 2019 Review of UDL with whole staff

March 2019 Review of FSA results with staff and PAC

April 2019 Lead teachers attend math workshop on CGI

Exploring Numeracy: Liberating Structures Routine “TRIZ”: What

makes a bad math lesson

May 2019 Presentation of SLP to PAC and staff

Presentations of Learning

Meet with PAC to discuss number talks and Cognitive Guided

Instruction

Whole school professional development on Cognitive Guided

Instruction and Number Talks

Goal 1: Foundational Skills with a focus on numeracy and literacyStudents will develop and improve foundational skills; specifically, in numeracy and literacy. With these skills we will promote inquiry and critical thinking to solve problems in real life situations.

Related District Strategic Plan Goal Ensure every student acquires strong foundational skills and core competencies Connect students to their passions and interests Foster an inclusive, adaptable and accountable district culture Honour the First People’s Principles of learning and Aboriginal worldview and

perspectives Strengthen partnerships to enrich the way we lead, learn, and work

Related Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement Goals Goal #1: Improve primary achievement results in Grade K-3 Reading, Writing and Math Goal #2: Improve Intermediate Foundation Skills in Grades 4-7 Reading, Writing, and

Math

Our Theory of Action for 2018-19If we…

promote and participate in professional learning for our teachers in specific and targeted literacy strategies

provide a structure and resources for teachers to design challenging tasks and reflect upon their impact

then we will see….

Our educators

using these strategies more frequently in their lessons, and creating tasks that appropriately challenge our students

Our students

demonstrating increased proficiency in literacy AND in numeracy as demonstrated on the PRA, FSA, DNA, and NFRA

Professional LearningThis year, in order to key in on our Theory of Action we focused most of our professional learning on literacy and numeracy. Our greatest emphasis at the beginning of the year was literacy, and as the year moved along we focused more in on our numeracy goal.

Throughout the year, we supported what we learned during our professional development days with time during our staff meeting.

Professional Learning (cont.) Learning Sprints: Reflecting on our practice Guided Reading Training:

o New teachers to our school were trained in guided reading, its effectiveness and how to structure it for success using the RTI model of intervention

Coaching conversations with teachers:o How can I support them; what can we do together to improve their practice

Literacy Support Teachers:o Literature Circleso Guided Readingo Creating and Writing

Adrienne Gear: Reading Power Numeracy Coordinator

o Recommended resources; provided overviewso Cognitive Guided Instruction Supporto Number Talks

Literacy Workshop:o Sparking Comprehension and Fueling Writingo Aboriginal Storytellingo Guided Reading

UDL Training Math Workshop: Katie McCormack Lead teacher support for Math Instruction

Literacy ResourcesThis year, we focused our resource acquisition on supporting our primary readers. Our goal was to have adequate texts available to support a strong guided reading program at a variety of levels. In order to do this, we purchased:

The black and white books for the Level Literacy Intervention Kit: Blue Series of books. WIAT kit: for supporting our struggling students Adrianne Gear Anchor Texts Aboriginal Core Competencies

Numeracy Resources Rekenrek Numeracy support tool Personal whiteboards Non-permanent vertical surfaces Various manipulatives and charts

Numeracy Resources (cont.)The professional learning was followed up with discussions at our staff meetings as to how it is being implemented in our classes; and the resources were also shared at our staff meetings and discussed how they could be implemented in the teacher’s classes.

Integration in classesTaking what was learned through workshops this year, as well as previous learning, the staff implemented a variety of strategies to support the learning of our students. This included:

LiteracyThis year we continued to focus on what has been successful for our learners. This involved training the new teachers at our school on these strategies and working to support them on the implementation of them.

Daily Five framework RTI model of intervention “Reading Power” strategies Literature Circles Units to activate thinking and writing (ex. “Loose Parts” unit) Daily guided reading First People’s Principles of Learning: posted Aboriginal Core Competencies Small group work with LART and CEA’s

NumeracyThis year we saw a general move away from worksheets as teachers focused more on the following strategies:

Cognitive Guided Instruction Number Talks Individual whiteboard work Group problem solving

Response to learners not meeting desired outcomesMeeting the needs of all learners at our school is core to our beliefs. Therefore, it was important that we supported the students that were struggling to meet desired outcomes. In order to do this, the following process was followed:

1. Parents were made aware of difficulties that the students were experiencing from the classroom teacher. This was done through informal meetings, phone calls. and sit down meetings with the parents

2. Teacher would meet with the LART informally to discuss concernsa. LART would provide suggestions and support for the student, which would then

be implemented by the classroom teacher3. An internal School Based Team Meeting (SBTM) with the LART, Principal, teacher and

parent would take place to more formally discuss concerns, strategies and next stepsResponse to learners not meeting desired outcomes (cont.)

4. If necessary, the LART would complete a Level B WIAT assessment with the studenta. Parents, teacher and support team would meet to discuss strategies that arose

from the assessment5. External School Based Team Meetings were held monthly with our district support team

(School and Family Consultant, Inclusive Education Teacher, Speech and Language Pathologist, and School Psychologist) to provide further strategies and support for our struggling students

6. If necessary, our school psychologist would complete a psycho-educational assessment to provide further insight into the needs of the student and how they could be supported

Successes and Challenges moving forwardWe have continued to see success in meeting our goal this year.

Our FSA results in reading demonstrate that 92% of our grade 4 students are on track or extending; this compares to 76% at the district level and 55% at the provincial level. Our Grade 7 students are seeing similar success as 83% of the students who completed the assessment were on track or extending. This compares to 74% at the district level and 56% at the provincial level (Appendix 1). This success is supported by our NFRA data, which has 84% of students at least demonstrating a “Developing” understanding of the concepts presented at grade 4; 92% at grade 5 and 100% at both the grade 6 and 7 level (Appendix 2). As a result, although literacy will continue to be important to us, we will focus more of our learning on numeracy and math, and continue to implement the strategies that are working for our students.

Our aboriginal students are continuing to show success in our school. On the district numeracy assessment our aboriginal students in grades 4, 5 and 6 did better overall then our non-aboriginal students (Appendix 4 ). Although our total sample size was low (4 students) This was also true on our FSA results. Half of the aboriginal students (2 of 4) were extending in their thinking for writing and all students were meeting in both writing and numeracy. One student is working at an emerging level for reading, while the other three are either on track or extending. We will continue to monitor the growth of our aboriginal students to ensure they are continuing to make gains in their learning.

In math and numeracy although we continue to see growth in our students and success with our FSA; the results from our District Numeracy assessment suggest that we need to continue to make this a focus as we move forward with our plan. On the FSA this year 83% of grade 4 students were on track or extending and 83% of grade 7 students who wrote the assessment were also on track or extending. This compares to 66% and 63% respectively at the district level (Appendix 3). Although these results are promising, they do not necessarily correlate with our results from the District Numeracy Assessment. At the grade 4 and 6 level 42% and 36% of our students respectively were still at the emerging level of understanding (Appendix 4). This

Successes and Challenges moving forward (cont.)

suggests to us, that there is still work to do in the area of problem solving and developing our student’s numeracy skills. This will be our key focus in the coming year. Please see Appendix 8 for a monthly list of expected Professional Learning

Theory of Action for 2019-2020Based on what we have done and learned this year, our theory of action for the 2019-2020 year is the following.

If we…

promote and participate in professional learning for our teachers in specific and targeted numeracy strategies, and the design of challenging and relevant lessons and units for their learners

provide a structure and resources for teachers to reflect upon their impact


Our educators:

using these strategies more frequently in their lessons, and creating tasks that are more relevant and engaging for our students

Our students:

demonstrating increased proficiency in literacy AND in numeracy as demonstrated on the PRA, FSA, DNA, and NFRA

Reporting a higher degree of relevance in their learning as reported in DEWRS

Goal 2: Social Emotional DevelopmentWe want our students at Sun Peaks Elementary to be engaged, active learners who are self-aware, and caring, respectful decision makers. Students, families and community members strive to work together to support the healthy development of all students.

Related District Strategic Plan Goal Honour the First People’s principles of learning, and Aboriginal worldview and

perspectives Foster an inclusive, adaptable, and accountable district culture Strengthen partnerships to enrich the way we lead, learn, and work

Related Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement Goals Goal #4: Maintain student attendance at a minimum of 90%

Theory of ActionIf we…

Consistently review positive behaviour systems Provide training in Mind Up Provide opportunities to work in multi-age settings and in team situations Explicitly teach expected behaviours


Our students

displaying expected behaviours in all areas of the school setting, demonstrated through lower office referrals

taking part in extra-curricular activities feeling safe at school and having a positive sense of belonging as indicated by the

DEWRS survey

Strategies and InitiativesAs a staff we have worked hard to create a welcoming and caring school. Our goal has been to have students feel included and part of a larger community of learners. We have implemented several initiatives to increase the student’s sense of investment in their school and learning. These initiatives have been ongoing and school-wide. We have also provided individual and class support as necessary.

Implementation of PBIS at the schoolo Development of a PBIS matrix focusing on re-defining a “SKI” culture:

Safe, Kind, Invested within the school and communityo Creating and teaching lessons related to “SKI”

Strategies and Initiatives (cont.)o Development of a praise tracker to target positive behaviourso Development and implementation of behaviour slips to monitor problematic

behaviours and teaching opportunitieso Monthly Challenges related to different aspects of “SKI”o Daily announcements related to “SKI”o Monthly Recognition Assemblies

Multi-grade opportunities to interact and learn from one another Inclusion into a variety of district extra-curricular activities:

o Volleyball, cross-country running, track and field, flag football, Young Authors, Young Artists, Battle of the Books

Implementation of the Mind Up Program in each classroom Development of community connections

Successes and Challenges moving forwardAs a school we feel that we have worked hard to create a positive learning atmosphere where students feel connected to the school. We have a relatively low number of office referrals and a high number of students taking part in extra-curricular events (Appendix 7). Our students are committed to their learning and feel that school is important (Appendix 6).

In the DEWRS survey several anecdotal comments were made which support this:

“My school is a safe place with amazing teachers and I sometimes feel happy…”

“Absolutely love my school, mostly the physical education program...”

“when I come to school i feel safe and welcome, i feel as if i can make friends and learn with the growing i have done! if i had to rate this school it would be a good rate, this school has helped me learn a ton and i love it here”(sic)

“I like the teachers because they are nice, kind and helpful.”

Despite these successes, the results from our DEWRS survey suggests that not all students are feeling connected to the school. Only 50% of the students say that they feel safe attending the school as opposed the Canadian norm of 64% (Appendix 6). In addition, positive teacher-student relations were rated at 7.4 out of 10 as opposed to 8.3 out of 10 for the Canadian norm. Which means that not all students feel that the teachers are responsive their needs nor encourage independence. This is echoed by comments made in the DEWRS survey such as:

“Some kids need to be more including (sic) and friendly”

“aside from skiing i like nothing about this school. being able to ride park, better teachers, better students, better equipment, and more eating time would all make the school better”(sic)

Successes and Challenges moving forward (cont.) “i feel that i get no say in anything that happens in school or in my life im compeletly controlled by my parents and teachers, person reading this please do something i dont want fake controll like others have tryed to give me”(sic)

This data tells us that we still have work to do in our Social-Emotional Goals. Although many of our students love the school and feel connected to their friends and teachers, we must continue to focus on this in the coming year. As such, our Theory of Action for the coming year is as follows:

Theory of ActionIf we…

Begin the year by teaching expected behaviours Take part in larger community projects Consistently review positive behaviour systems Review Mind Up during staff meetings Provide opportunities to work in multi-age settings and in team situations


Our students

displaying expected behaviours in all areas of the school setting, demonstrated through lower office referrals

taking part in extra-curricular activities feeling safe at school and having a positive sense of belonging as indicated by the

DEWRS survey

Appendix 1: FSA DATA: Reading

Appendix 2: NFRA DATA

Appendix 3: FSA DATA: Numeracy

Appendix 4: DNA DATA

Appendix 5: OurSCHOOL REPORT

Appendix 6: PBIS MATRIX

Appendix 7: STUDENTS AND EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIESNumber of students participating in extra-curricular events:

Volleyball: 17Cross-country running: 12Flag Football 23Track and Field 34Young Artists 2Young Authors 11Battle of the Books 9

Total 108 students

Appendix 8: 2019-2020 Professional Learning Opportunities for Staff

Month Learning Opportunity Related to Numeracy Goal

Learning Opportunity related to Social Responsibility

September 2019 Math Pro-D at Henry Grube

Katie McCormack to Present to staff

Katie McCormack to present to parent

Review PBIS data during Staff Meeting; create plan for following month

October 2019 Math Lead Teachers at learning day for Elementary School Numeracy Project (Session 1 and 2); Number Sense

Lead teachers to present to staff at Staff Meeting

Staff members to attend BC AMT Conference


Lead teachers at “Kids in the Know” training sessions

Lead teachers to present learning during staff meeting

November 2019 Lead teachers to present to staff at Staff Meeting

Katie McCormack to present computational strategies to parents at Parent Night #2




December 2019 Math Lead Teachers at learning day for Elementary School Numeracy Project (Session 3); Problem Solving

Pro-D Day: Teachers to work with staff at Rayleigh and Bert Edwards (Tentative)



January 2020 Math Lead Teachers at learning day for Elementary School Numeracy Project (Session 4); Problem Solving



February 2020 ½ Pro-D Day: Teachers to work with staff at Rayleigh and Bert Edwards (Tentative)


½ Day Pro-D on review of Mind up regarding SEL (Tentative)



March 2020 Math Lead Teachers at learning day for Elementary School Numeracy Project (Session 5); AssessmentLead teachers to present to staff at Staff Meeting


April 2020 Math Lead Teachers at learning day for Elementary School Numeracy Project (Session 6); Numeracy


May 2020 Lead teachers to present to staff at Staff Meeting


Pro-D on Social Emotional Learning (TBD)

June 2020

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