Action Plan for Learning
School Name:
Pinetree Secondary School
School Goal: Social Emotional Learning
School Year: 2014-2015
Goals / Inquiry
Student learning
1) To focus on ‘Safe and Caring Schools’ by implementing the Red Cross “Beyond
the Hurt” program, which works to build ‘empathy and respect’ in students.
Trained students become facilitators and provide education to their peers and
younger students in the community by giving them the skills needed to take a
stand against bullying. Two counsellors guide and support the students. This is
the second year of the program. As a result, all grade 9 and 10 students, close to
half the school has now been through the program.
2) Literacy – To support the above, Grade 9 students were given a reading
assessment on cyberbullying at the beginning of February. This was part of a more
extensive APL/HCE (Health and Career Education) 9 initiative, which involved a
reading assessment in the fall, and other literacy initiatives involving the teacherlibrarian and classroom teachers.
Rationale
1-3 reasons for choosing
goal
1) Our rationale for using the Beyond the Hurt program by Red Cross was to see if
students could partner with staff to deliberately foster a safe and caring
community at Pinetree. Beyond the Hurt “engages student leaders in facilitating
workshops and modelling positive and respectful relationships to elementary and
high school students.” The Red Cross believes that “these youth leaders have a
credibility that adults do not and are in a unique position to influence their
younger counterparts and peers. “
Essentially, we wanted to examine if the program would have a positive impact on
students’ sense of safety and belonging in the school. At the heart of it was the
following:
Research tells us that when students feel safe and connected to their school,
academic achievement improves. Caring, socially responsible communities support
and increase student success. “Students who feel ‘safe, valued, confident and
challenged’ have higher attendance, more school attachment and engagement
and better behavior”. - Black, 2006
2) We have been developing a long-term school-wide approach using the Red
Cross bullying prevention model to provide our students with the tools needed to
“take a stand against bullying before it starts.” Two counsellors and a cohort of
grade 10-12 students received training from the Red Cross in 2013, and they
Page 1 of 6
implemented the program with the grade nine students at that time.
In the spring of 2014, twenty-one students underwent the Red Cross training to
work with our current grade 9 students, and the grade 4/5 students in one of our
feeder elementary schools, Hampton Park Elementary. The student facilitators
were selected on the basis of being positive role models who have strong
communication skills and are passionate about wanting to make a difference in
their school and community.
This year, we decided to formalize the program so in addition to the fairly
extensive training by the Red Cross, we met with the students on Mondays after
school during the year for continued training, in-service, lesson preparation, and
practice. Students also attended workshops led by district personnel on two
occasions. This year the program ran as an IDS (Independent Directed Studies)
class for students.
References and sources to
support actions




Canadian Red Cross Bullying and Prevention Programs:
http://www.redcross.ca/what-we-do/violence,-bullying-and-abuseprevention/educators/bullying-and-harassment-prevention/bullying-andharassment-prevention-programs
Ruler Method (Miriam Miller)- http://ei.yale.edu/person/miriam-miller/
Mind UP Hawn Foundation -http://thehawnfoundation.org/mindup/
Safe and Caring Schools Frameworkhttp://www.sd43.bc.ca/Programs/SocialResponsibilty/Pages/default.aspx
Backup Documentation
MDI.pdf
Planned Actions
Continuing practices
working well (1-3)
 What will we do
differently? (1-3)
 How will we provide for
staff development and
collaboration?
 How will we involve
parents?
 How will we involve
students?
 How will we monitor
progress and adjust
actions?
Mood_Meter_2.pdf
Marna Macmillan
Workshop Student Work.jpg
Continuing Practices working well:
1) Our student facilitators presented to all grade 9 students in three sessions
through PE classes. The first session was in December 2014 on ‘Safe and Caring
Schools’; the second session was in February 2015 on ‘Bullying Prevention and
Education;’ and the third session was in May 2015 on ‘Resources and How to
Help.’ Student response has been positive. Some sample responses include:
 “The workshop caused me to think more about bullying” [Prevention]
 “The workshop brought awareness to the issue” [Prevention]
 “The workshop activities got you to connect and think more in depth
about different aspects of bullying” [Reflection]
 “ The workshops were very detailed and taught students a lot”
[Evaluation]
2) In addition to the Red Cross training, our facilitators received in-service on
talking circles as a facilitation tool and creating safe spaces from Marna
MacMillan, SD #43 Safe Schools Focus K – 12 Coordinator. Miriam Miller, a UBC
researcher working with the Social and Emotional Learning Framework introduced
Emotional Literacy and The Ruler Method. In a later presentation, Tamara Banks,
Page 2 of 6
Principal of Hampton Park Elementary, followed up with an additional workshop
on The Ruler Method and its benefits in creating more resilient, self-regulated and
self-reflective learners.
3) Literacy – Like last year, in February 2015 our grade 9 students completed a
HCE 9 reading assessment after watching the Green Thumb Theatre Presentation
on cyberbullying called “TAGGED.” Once again, students took the reading
assessment seriously and wrote thoughtful responses to “Think Before You Share,”
and how to prevent and deal with cyberbullying.
3) We have recruited 19 new students to be trained for the upcoming school year
who will replace graduating students and who will join the 9 returning facilitators.
Training took place on May 28/29, 2015. The passion and motivation amongst this
new group is powerful, and we are excited about the year ahead.
Staff Development and Collaboration:
1) On the November school-based Pro-d day, we presented to our staff the basics
around Social Emotional Learning based on the findings of Miriam Miller and Kim
Schonert-Reichl, (http://sel.ecps.educ.ubc.ca/dr-kimberly-schonert-reichl/) .
Our student facilitators were also in attendance, and led the staff members
through two of their Red Cross activities.
2) Teachers were asked to nominate students who they considered strong,
positive communicators and leaders in the school.
How Will We Involve Parents?
The parents/guardians of the twenty-one student facilitators signed consent forms
so they are aware of this initiative.
In addition, the teacher responsible for the Literacy component of the APL met
with the parents on the School Planning Committee on April 13, 2015 and
presented both initiatives.
Monitoring Progress and Adjusting Actions/ How Will We Involve Students:
To monitor progress towards the end of last year, we surveyed 236/260 grade 9’s
on the series of workshops provided by our student facilitators, and their feelings
about the SEL in our school environment in 2013-2014.
This year 256/337 grade 9’s also completed the same survey this year. Results
indicate that a large majority of students feel connected to others at school,
including friends and teachers and feel safe while at school.
There was a significant positive increase of students feeling safe in the hallways
(6% increase). Also, when asked “Is there any area in the school where you do not
feel safe?” there was a significant decrease in the number of students responding
Page 3 of 6
yes (6% decrease). From this we can assume that the Red Cross Beyond the Hurt
program is having a positive impact in making Pinetree Secondary School a safe
and caring school environment.
Backup Documentation
Red Cross Survey
Comparison Year 12.xlsx
Documentation of learning
Key evidence of change
 How did your actions
make a difference?
 Choose 1-3 pieces of
evidence to demonstrate
the impact your actions
have had on student
learning to meet your
goal.
 Documentation could
include video, survey
results, performance
standard data, anecdotal
evidence, work samples,
etc.
As the school year has progressed we have noticed an increased understanding of
SEL in our school.
Current students in grade 9 and 10 now have a common language to discuss what
bullying really is, the types bullying, the causes of bullying behaviors and how to
intervene in bullying situations. As a result these students have a complete
bullying prevention strategy in our school community.
Our school pro-d goals for next year are beginning to include the need for staff to
have a better understanding of SEL. This need comes directly from the desire of
the staff to have more in-service on this topic.
Backup Documentation
Literacy assessment Word Cloud - Goals
responses.pdf
moving forward in 2015-2016.docx
Reflection Highlights
 Where are we now?
 What are some patterns
emerging?
 What surprised you?
 What conclusions /
inferences might you
draw?
 How does this inform
potential next steps?
Our surveys at the conclusion of year one indicated that most students were feeling safe
and connected in the building. There were geographical areas in the school where this
was not always the case. However, after year two of the program, that number has
decreased.
We believe a more comprehensive staff and student survey about safe school will help to
focus our work and target specific areas of need.
Potential next steps include asking Miriam Miller to help create a “Safe Schools” survey
for students and staff similar to the survey currently used in middle schools but created
for secondary school students. We would like to pilot the survey here at Pinetree. Miriam
would present/unpack the findings with staff, and we believe this would help to identify
areas where we need to focus our work on safe and caring schools.
We look forward to going through this process with Miriam Miller. Our administration
has already contacted Marna MacMillan to help facilitate this process.
Additionally, Dr. Kim Schonert-Reichl will be speaking to our staff next year on the subject
Page 4 of 6
of social and emotional learning. Her presentation will provide needed background and a
common vocabulary for staff on social and emotional learning.
We would also like to include facilitations at our one of our feeder middle schools. Not
only would we provide our middle school students with a consistent message regarding
bullying prevention, we would also build a stronger connection for incoming students.
Backup Documentation
Survey
responses.pdf
Literacy Data
Attach the following :
 Classroom Assessment
 School Assessment
 FSA results
APL LIteracy Goal
2014-2015.docx
Page 5 of 6
Signatures
School Name: Pinetree Secondary
School Goal: Social Emotional Learning
School Year: 20142015
Submitted by School Planning Council:
Title
Name
Principal
Parent
Parent
Parent
Recommended by Assistant Superintendent:
Assistant Superintendent
Board and Superintendent Approval:
Board Chair
Judy Shirra
Superintendent
Patricia Gartland
Print this page, have it signed by
School Planning Council, scan it and
attach it here
Signatures.pdf
Page 6 of 6
Signature