2014-15 Community Report for Colonel John Stuart
Elementary School
The above table of percentages represents how well Colonel John Stuart students in grades 3, 4 and 6 performed on the Nova Scotia
Provincial Assessments administered in September and how well all students across the board performed on the same assessments at
the same grade levels.
This year was year 2 for Colonel John Stuart’s Continuous School Improvement Plan (CSI). We have two goals for our 5 year plan,
one goal for Literacy and one goal for Mathematics. In Literacy, we are working towards improvement in students’ writing in the areas
of Ideas, Organization, Language Use and Conventions. Teachers worked together in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and
attended Professional Development focused on Writer’s Workshop, assessment to inform teaching, and incorporating culturally
responsive teaching practices in writing. In the Fall/Winter, our school assessment data and NS Provincial Assessment data showed us
that our students do best with Ideas when writing. Language Use and Conventions were identified as areas of the greatest challenge.
Along with their classroom assessment, teachers focused on areas of need for their students. After our Spring data collection we saw
an overall increase in most areas, but notably in Language Use and Conventions. As we move into year 3 of our CSI plan, we will
continue to develop Writer’s Workshop with a focus on mini-lessons to address students’ needs, teachers will work in PLCs to examine
assessments and plan for learning, and we will further develop culturally responsive teaching practices.
In Mathematics, we have a focus on improving students’ ability to problem solve and clearly communicate their understanding in
number sense. Teachers used a three part lesson model to allow students to explore problems more independently and share their
thinking/learning with others. Our Fall/Winter school data showed that our students have more difficulty with communicating their
learning, although there was also a need to work on problem solving. With 63% of our Grade 4 students and 69% of Grade 6 students
meeting expectations on the NS Provincial Assessment, we were able to confirm the need to work on these areas of number sense. By
Spring, all grades showed improvement in the percentage of students meeting expectations in communication and problem solving.
Our data collection now allows us to track student progress over several grades. As we continue to work on our problem solving and
communication goal, we will be able to monitor the progress of those students who are meeting expectations as well as those who are
approaching expectations.
This year we were able to host a Math Night to allow families to experience some of the ways our students are problem solving at
each grade level. We look forward to inviting families back to our school next year to share more of our students’ learning.