Columbia Elementary School 1437 Allison St. Penticton BC V2A 3X5 Principal: Jan Ramsay Vice Principal: Kent Percevault SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN (2014‐15) “All human beings are born with unique gifts. The healthy functioning of our community depends on its capacity to develop each gift.” ~Peter Senge Columbia Elementary School Context Columbia Elementary is the neighborhood school of a well‐established but diverse residential area. Columbia’s community includes approximately 250 students from Kindergarten through grade 5, over 25 staff members, and broadens to embrace our students’ families and neighbours. At Columbia Elementary, we have an experienced, skilled staff that works together to create an environment that enables students to become engaged and motivated lifelong learners. We take pride in our efforts to meet students’ individual needs by providing diversified learning experiences and activities. We believe that a caring, nurturing, and safe environment is essential to student success. Students are encouraged to set goals that reflect all areas of their learning, including academics, fine arts, athletics, and social responsibility. Extra‐curricular activities are an integral part of school life, providing opportunities for the staff and school community to facilitate a variety of activities. Leadership, choir, soccer, basketball, tennis, after‐school gym club, skipping, lunchtime intramurals, drama, friendship club, and chess are just some of the examples of expanded learning for students outside of the classroom. We believe that by having Columbia’s learning community work together to create an environment that is rich with opportunities, support, and engagement; all participants can reach their full potential. Page 2
INQUIRY QUESTION: For the past two years, we have focused on the following: By implementing specific school‐wide strategies that focus on student self‐regulation and social‐
emotional learning, what effect will this have on our most vulnerable students? *This year, after re‐examining our school’s strengths and needs, we have expanded our query to include the following: If we broaden our scope of school‐wide activities to include more multi‐age and multi‐generational opportunities, what difference(s) will we observe with regards to student well‐being and our school community? RATIONALE: Throughout the past several years, Columbia staff has expressed concern over the large number of students who were minimally meeting standards in academic areas, and specifically in reading and writing. What also became apparent is that many of these same students also suffered from low self‐
esteem, behavioral issues, and in some cases, lack of motivation and high absenteeism. Although intervention was provided at different times, student gains that were made were not usually maintained. Students were able to take steps forward in their learning when receiving significant support, but when this was removed, many of the gains were lost. Columbia Staff began informally exploring shifts in teaching practices by looking more closely at formative assessment as a way for our students to take ownership of their learning. Last year, our concern regarding the growing number of students who demonstrated lack of self‐
regulation, low self‐esteem, and challenging behavioral issues was such that it led us to look at this group specifically. We delved more deeply into implementation of strategies that we hoped would have a significant impact on this group specifically, as well as contributing to a safe, caring environment for all students. Our primary focus for the past two years has been on student self‐regulation and social‐
emotional learning. Through professional development and individual inquiry, staff also identified the importance of belonging and community within our school as a way of helping all our students become more empathic, confident and engaged learners. This year, we began exploring and delving deeper into the development of a stronger, engaged school community. ACTION PLAN THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR QUESTIONS: By implementing specific school‐wide strategies which focus on student social‐emotional learning, what effect will this have on our most vulnerable students? School District No. 67 (Okanagan-Skaha)
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Through our inquiry question which evolved from our study and application of assessment for learning strategies (2008‐12), many of our staff became involved in the implementation of strategies and the teaching of skills to help our students become more regulated, focused and involved in their learning. Our shift in focus from AFL to a more in‐depth inquiry into social‐emotional learning stemmed from the staff’s common belief that students’ learning can only occur when they are feeling safe, calm, and self‐
regulated. The majority of our staff was involved in either 'Through a Different Lens' or 'Changing Results for Young Readers' inquiry groups ( 9/12 classroom teachers), so we have spent considerable time sharing and learning with each other. In 2013, at our October school improvement day, we all agreed that we needed to move in a more specific direction based on our observations and work with students. Specifically, we were increasingly concerned about the level of dis‐engagement, and dysregulation we were observing from many of our students. We began with identifying our most vulnerable students, looking for commonality, and addressing it. When we examined this group, we found that of the 42 students identified by teachers and CEA’s, 39 were male. A majority of these boys were heavily involved in 'gaming' online. After brainstorming for ways to address this, we felt that it was a problem that began at home, and one that we needed to address with parents. We held our first 'family night' in November, focusing on family games (cards), sharing a meal together, and a brief presentation regarding the effects of gaming and 'screen time' on young minds. The reaction from families was extremely positive, and we were encouraged to discover that the event was attended by over half the students that were included on our 'vulnerable' list. We were encouraged from the response of parents, enthusiastically to continue focusing on social‐
emotional learning and self‐regulation, in order to increase student academic learning. Our journey and progress with regards to this so far includes: Staff Professional Development and School Improvement: 2012‐13: o Our staff's professional development focused on restorative practices, and we began to develop a common language when dealing with behaviors in the class and on the playground, which focuses on needs, self‐control, and 'fixing' a problem that one has created. o Our intermediate teaching team continued their participation in ‘Through a Different Lens’, and shared with the rest of the staff how impactful the changing of their teaching practice has been to student learning. Through a Different Lens focused on inquiry and based on the premise that students learn in different ways, and learning outcomes need to be more open‐ended and synergized. These teachers and their students delved into project‐based learning as a means to demonstrate knowledge gained. 2013‐14: o Key elements of the Difference Lens philosophy continue to be built upon, although the team is now smaller. According to one of the leaders in this inquiry, “… we have learned that building opportunities that allow student choice, frequent physical movement, demonstrating learning in ways that allow students to use personal strengths beyond traditional written type assessments, and of course having fun together all help our students experience more success.” School District No. 67 (Okanagan-Skaha)
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A primary team of teachers were a part of the pilot project ‘Changing Results for Young Readers’ project through the Ministry of Education. In 2012‐13, three classroom teachers and our learning support teacher participated in the project, and were so enthusiastic and excited about their own learning as well as students’ learning that they were able to continue their participation into the next year. Our classroom teachers worked in partnership with the learning support teacher to increase reading results through a focus on social emotional learning. This began as these two classes participating in the ‘MindUP’ program, and expanded through the enthusiasm of those practicing and teaching mindful behavior. Currently, nine staff members have been trained in this approach, and use practices from this program on a daily basis; as well, strategies such as mindful breathing have been used within school‐wide settings. o
An in‐service session was held for all staff on ‘expected and unexpected behaviors’, and discussed common language to be used throughout the school regarding this, using the educational resources from ‘Social Thinking’ curriculum. o
Our involvement in the Healthy School Network continues, and has grown as we connect the importance of physical health to one’s mental health. Last year, we worked in partnership with our district helping teacher, Jenny Mitchell, who was instrumental in organizing a student health council that met once a week, and an after‐school gym club for those students who might be challenged or anxious about physical activity. We have continued this after school club this year, after hearing from staff and observing firsthand the benefits of such a group. o
In the spring of 2015, we received a grant through HSN and were able to hold yoga sessions for our students in order to learn and practice mindfulness and self‐regulating techniques including breathing and body awareness. The plan was then to have classroom teachers extend this practice into their classrooms and specifically incorporating yoga into students’ DPA. o
In November, the majority of staff participated in a ‘Play is the Way’ workshop, in which games become the focus for teaching and modeling expected behavior. Eight staff members have now taken this training, and are applying the philosophy and explicit strategies to their practices. o
Our ‘Connecting with Kids’ Project: In the past three years, members of the staff have identified those students who they were most worried about, and explained to the rest of the staff their concerns. Staff members were then asked to ‘attach’ themselves to those students discussed whom they felt a connection with, or with whom they would work to build one. We were focusing on the idea that if each of these students felt that there were two or three adults within the school who truly cared about them; this might begin to turn their behavior around. Last year, we identified 40 students (21 from last year’s list, nine new to our school, 10 newly ‘identified’ by teachers.) In the late Fall of 2014, staff identified 57 vulnerable students: (11 from last year’s list, 10 new to our school, and 36 were newly identified (previously students at Columbia who were not identified last year as vulnerable). This high number of newly identified students concerned us, and although we were able to identify underlying reasons why some students had moved into this ‘track of vulnerability’ (significant changes at home, support systems lacking in their family, etc.), we decided to look beyond what we were presently doing at school, and explore new ways of reaching and supporting these children. As in the past, each identified student has at least one significant other adult attached to him/her this year (and in most cases, two adults) and we will continue to keep close eyes on these students, and see if our School District No. 67 (Okanagan-Skaha)
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new directions help to develop resiliency, confidence, self‐acceptance, and lessen anxiousness amongst our students. 2014‐15, specifically: In this school year, our district facilitated the journey for each school to look ‘Beyond Inclusion’. A core team from our school participated in various sessions that began by focusing on the strengths within our school, and also identified the needs. Our group brought their ideas back to the staff, and thus began the larger conversation. Our strengths ranged from, ‘experienced staff, respectful of each other, always willing to look at new ideas’ to ‘diverse demographic’, to ‘great facility with lots of space’. Our needs were more specific: ‘more reading time with ‘just‐right text’, to ‘opportunities for students to get to know each other at different grade levels’ to ‘sharing more between classrooms’ to ‘need to provide greater support for our challenging (behavior) students’. We then moved on to what we could try in order to work to change our needs to strengths. With our original main query focusing on student social and emotional learning, we decided to further the question: If we broaden our scope of school‐wide activities to include more multi‐age and multi‐generational opportunities, what difference(s) will we observe with regards to student well‐being and our school community? Our initial step of implementation was based on the following question developed during the district sessions: By providing specific ‘school buddy time’, partnering students of different ages and engaging them in a variety of activities, what difference(s) will we see in our school community? As well, this year our school focus has been around supporting the families of two of our students who are battling cancer. This has led to many fundraisers for the families, a visit from Rick Hansen (because of our involvement in his ‘Difference Makers’ program) and many opportunities for our students to demonstrate caring and commitment to others through their own endeavours. By the end of the school year, we had raised over $9,000. In addition to our annual run‐a‐thon, students were holding lemonade stands on the weekends, asking that their birthday gifts be donations rather than presents, and other selfless acts of compassion. The connection that was felt throughout the school was heart‐lifting. Perhaps this can be best portrayed in the following story: On the last day of school, our Kindergarten student with cancer came to visit her classmates. A boy in grade 5 who has been facing his own challenges, went up to her and asked her if she was ‘little Miss Myla’. When she shyly replied, “yes,” he then told her that she was the bravest person he had met, and he asked if he could shake her hand. School District No. 67 (Okanagan-Skaha)
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STRUCTURES AND STRATEGIES: For all students and our most vulnerable learners. o
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We began by partnering our students with the following in mind: younger/older, of similar academic ability, and/or emotional challenges (i.e., anxious student with another anxious student). Once paired, we then ‘assigned’ partners to a leader (classroom teacher, learning support teacher, administrator, special education teacher, one‐to‐one reader, parent etc.) We ensured that our identified vulnerable students were placed under the leadership of the staff member who was his/her connecting adult. We then introduced the idea of ‘roadrunner reading buddies’ at our assembly in April. A video taken of two buddies (one student in grade 5, one in grade 2) demonstrated how to refer to the reading strategies that are used throughout the school in all classes. o
For our first ‘school buddy time’, older students were coached with ‘good buddy’ tips, and when the partners first met, they did a ‘get‐to‐know‐you’ activity that included creating a secret handshake or greeting. * We began our school buddy times (scheduled for two times a week for two months) in April; at our June staff meeting we evaluated what we felt went well and what we would like to change. The general consensus was positive, and the following observations were noted: ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐
The majority of students who were noted as demonstrating challenging behavior presented very few unexpected behaviors, and in general, worked productively and effectively with their school buddy. Students were observed meeting each other in the hallways or on the playground, giving their ‘secret signal’ (a handshake or greeting) with their buddies. All classes reported that they would like to continue and have more opportunities to work with their buddies. Teachers who were not in favor of the project were now in support of the initiative continuing. For the Fall, our goal is to implement ‘school buddies’ school wide, and focus on: reading, writing, math stations, and (most significant to most) the practice of social skills. We will begin in September, weaving this into our school theme of ‘Healthy Living’, and involve school buddies in playground activities (having certain recess/lunch breaks) designated as ‘roadrunner buddy time’. School District No. 67 (Okanagan-Skaha)
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With regards to our broadening scope of school‐wide activities to involve multi‐generational opportunities, our staff will also be implementing:  Strong Families Project: this pilot project will involve inviting families to participate in an eight week program, which will include meeting from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm once a week. Families will have the opportunity to learn from each other and school staff, engages in educational play with their child(ren), eat a meal together, and play games as a family. Eight staff members will be involved in this initiative, and it will begin in October. As well, the following multi‐generational activities will continue:  One‐to‐one reading with community volunteers  Breakfast club with seniors  Knitting and crafts, chess clubs taught by community volunteers  ‘Roots of Empathy’ program to continue in Kindergarten classes  After‐school gym club run by community volunteers From the onset of our inquiries, Columbia learning partners recognized the need to identify and initiate interventions that focus on our vulnerable students. Based on previous assessments and data gathered, we are continuing to track the following: o Writing – use of student friendly performance standards in both primary and intermediate classes to encourage student self‐assessment and goal‐setting; editing and proof‐reading by older ‘buddies’ with younger students. o Reading – small group/1:1 instruction and reading practice targeted at those students minimally meeting/not meeting expectations based on Benchmark results from November; focus on teaching strategies used by good readers; reading 'mentors'‐ struggling older readers working with primary readers, sharing the language of ‘strong readers’; common time for reading groups over a grade level (May 2014 grade 1, Feb‐March 2015 grade 2 (four reading groups run by teachers, principal, and learning support teacher). This practice has been successful in the past, and we will continue this with learning support teaching time in 2015‐16. o Social Responsibility – 2011‐15 Restorative practices learned during the summer Pro‐D are being practiced by administrators and teachers on a daily basis. 5 C's recognition (consideration, common sense, cooperation, courtesy and commitment to learning) at assemblies ‐ staff and grade 5 students acting out 'unmindful/mindful – expected/unexpected behaviour on video, shown to students; students receive individual 'awards' for demonstrating a 'C'. 2012‐15 ‐ MindUP activities taught in most (9 out of 11) classes; Virtues Program taught within the grade 5 classrooms, shared with student body in morning announcements, Random Acts of Kindness pilot project taking place in both grade 4/5 classes in 2014‐15 school year. School District No. 67 (Okanagan-Skaha)
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2015‐16 plans: 
Zones of Regulation will be introduced in classes by school counsellor, shared with staff at school implementation day in September 2015. 
Strong Families project implemented. 
‘Healthy Living’ theme to kick off school year in September. This will include a ‘stations’ afternoon the first week of school. Current and Continuing Staff Professional Development: o Provide monthly opportunities in staff meetings for staff to share ideas and experiences related to social‐emotional learning, feedback and or/ideas for our school buddy project o Support staff attending workshops which focus on social emotional learning (MindUP, Play is the Way, Incredible, Inflexible You, Neuroplasticity, community‐building) o Provide support and release time for staff to collaborate and analyze the impact of strategies being taught o Provide release time for teachers to meet with students on an individual basis to provide narrative data with regards to our school buddy project o Encourage staff to team teach in order to openly share strategies and struggles ASSESSMENT PROCESS & TOOLS: For each query, the students’ own assessment will be used as evidence, as well as narrative assessment from teachers and staff members. Because we are looking more globally at the effect of teaching strategies that build social and emotional learning, and the effect school buddy time has on academic achievement and social responsibility, we will also be examining data from: Performance Standards in reading, writing, and social responsibility (snapshots provided by classroom teachers in the late Fall, and again in early June) as well as:  Writing: School‐wide Write Assessment (growth from Fall to Spring)  Reading: a. Primary – Benchmarks, Performance Standards b. Intermediate – Whole Class Reading Assessment (this year reporting using Performance Standards)  Social Responsibility – Performance Standards in student‐friendly language, as well as: o School‐based team notes regarding specific children identified as vulnerable ‐ progress noted o Administration’s tracking of vulnerable student list from year to year School District No. 67 (Okanagan-Skaha)
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PROFESSIONAL LEARNING: Providing collaborative learning and planning time is crucial to our inquiries. Although initially we re‐
structured staff meetings to begin each session with staff development, focused on our school question, this had limited success. By including it with the regular business of a staff meeting, we were often challenged by time and the multitude of topics to be covered. This year, we were not able to utilize our school improvement day, but rather spent the bulk of time at a Fall staff meeting on identifying our most vulnerable students, looking for commonality, and addressing the needs. We continue to address these specific student needs as a whole, and have provided opportunities for sharing out of information from those who have participated in professional development based on our inquiry. We look forward to using our school improvement day in the upcoming Fall to plan and implement our school buddy project to encompass the entire year. RESOURCES: Currently, the following resources have been used and continue to be used: o
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Catching Readers Before They Fall (Johnson & Keier) Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning (Jan Chappuis) Grand Conversations, Thoughtful Responses (Brownlie) Student‐Involved Classroom Assessment (Stiggins) Start Where They Are (Hume) Learning in Safe Schools (Brownlie & King) The Compassionate Classroom (Hart and Hodson) The MindUP Curriculum: Brain‐Focused Strategies for Learning and Living You are a Social Detective (Madrigal and Winner) Superflex… A Superhero Social thinking Curriculum (Madrigal and Winner) Virtues Program (Kavelin Popov) Achieving Excellence in Writing: Empowering Students (S. Augustyn) Writing Powers – (Adrienne Gear) PARENT INVOLVEMENT: 
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Annual student‐led conference in April Presentations at PAC meetings regarding the MindUP program, Through a Different Lens project, Play is the Way and school buddy project Open reading time for all students and their families twice a year, and weekly in some primary classes Introductory ‘Strong Families’ project beginning this Fall School District No. 67 (Okanagan-Skaha)
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EVIDENCE KEY FINDINGS: Our findings are based on narrative evidence: sharing of information from staff members who have tried new ideas and strategies in collaborative groups or individually (action research projects), and the observations of classroom teachers with regards to the impact of the strategies addressing social/emotional learning being implemented in the classroom. We also have looked at our school ‐
based team referrals and have been tracking these students to ensure that appropriate interventions are in place. We began by examining our list of vulnerable students from 2013‐14 and comparing this to our list from this year. As mentioned, staff identified 57 vulnerable students: 11 from last year’s list, 10 new to our school and 36 were newly identified (previously students at Columbia who were not identified last year as vulnerable). This was truly concerning, as it brought to light the fact that although our efforts may have had an effect on last year’s students identified (28 students from K‐4, and less than half still considered at‐risk) we had a much larger number newly identified. However, when tracked these students, using referrals to the office and to SBT as a beginning point, of the 36 names, we felt that 15 had made significant progress in their social/emotional growth (based on self‐reporting, referrals) and 21 were still struggling. Of the 10 new to the school, four had similar progress. This narrative evidence led us to look for other ways to engage and empower students, and create community that will support and lift them up ‐ and thus, our new query. Our next step: In June we examined our school's year‐end data for writing and reading, and compared this to last year's. In reading, we found that collectively, our statistics hadn’t changed significantly, but when we looked at individual results we saw significant movement and growth (i.e., from NYM to ‘approaching’, from ‘fully meeting’ to ‘exceeding’. The growth indicated was positive. As a staff, we felt our writing results were not as positive, as very little individual movement seemed to occur, and the growth wasn’t as evident. We will be looking at the Writing Power program (Adrienne Gear) to build on the Reading Power strategies that most teachers are already using in their classes. The school‐based team also reviewed our list of vulnerable students, and checked to see if we were providing appropriate intervention in order to support these students, and ensured that a SBT referral had been made. Our class configurations will be made up with this important information in mind, and hopefully we will be able to provide additional/mentoring support for those that are not designated but still need more individual and small group support in order to experience success and growth. School District No. 67 (Okanagan-Skaha)
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REFLECTION AND FUTURE PLANNING o
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We will continue to focus on social and emotional learning through healthy living. This will be our first month’s school‐wide theme, and we will have all students involved in active play outside (introducing games through a stations afternoon), extending the practice of yoga and mindful breathing with everyone, and greater opportunities to work with school partners of different ages on healthy practices. Our ‘strong families’ project’ will also focus on healthy living. Those teachers who have been involved in 'Through a Different Lens" have found clear evidence of improved learning in units where they do the most TADL type of learning. The success is not just for our at‐risk students but for all of our students. Teachers in this project have the opportunity to collaboratively plan creative, innovative lessons for our students which is leading to better learning for our students. One of the best things…it is more fun for all who are involved, not just the students. Early primary teachers feel the greatest impact on reading (especially when moving students from ‘approaching’ to fully meeting) comes when parents are supporting the reading program. Currently individual classroom teachers have held sessions for parents in which reading strategies are modeled. We will continue to expand on this model. We feel the implementation of peer mentors/readers coaching younger students in reading strategies will have positive results, as well as the expanded exposure to just‐right text. The work through 'Changing Results for Young Readers' has had a strong impact on teaching practice. o
We were pleased to see that some of the students we were worried about now seemed to be doing much better. However, we also added many students' names to our list of vulnerable students. By identifying them by name staff is committing to work together to help these students move forward in a positive way. Our focus on social and emotional learning has helped staff to feel we are now using the same language and teaching students how to express themselves with regards to their behavior, taking responsibility, and steps they can take to resolve situations. o
Education at home regarding social and emotional learning and self‐regulation continues to be an area that staff feels needs to be addressed. We have been looking for ways to reach more parents regarding the importance of the teaching and affirming of ‘big ideas’ we encourage at school: respect for each other, for ourselves and for the earth. We are excited about the staff interest in the idea of a family program beginning at Columbia, based loosely on previous 'FAST' (families and schools together) or ‘SAFE’ (Schools and Families Engaged) programs held in our district. This takes strong commitment from staff and families, but we have witnessed the impact when the community comes together and are cohesive in their practice (and support) of our 5 C’s and beyond ‐ commitment to learning and caring for each other. School District No. 67 (Okanagan-Skaha)