BX Elementary School
‘Blazing Trails since 1962’
2015/2016
BX Elementary School Growth Plan
School Mission Statement:
Our mission is to foster cooperation, achievement, respect and responsibility, and
enthusiasm in a safe environment.
School Profile:
BX Elementary was named after the Barnard Express the first transportation
company in British Columbia in the 1800’s. The area was the exchange point for the
stagecoach horses. We are considered a semi-rural K-7 school with 414 students.
Presently 14 of our students are Aboriginal, supported by a 0.4 Aboriginal Support
Worker. There are 16 divisions, which include 2 full-time Kindergarten classes. It
is a large elementary school for the Vernon School District.
School Programming:
BX is very proud of the rich Music Program, which provides the majority of prep
time for our teachers. We have a school choir that often leaves the school to
perform at different functions. The school also holds a major school performance
such as the Christmas concert.
Our Student Resource Support Room is run by 2.1 Student Resource Support
Teachers, 1 District Counselor, 1 Speech & Language Pathologist and 5 EAs, 1
North Okanagan Youth and Family Service Support Worker.
We have 6 carts of Laptops for classroom use, with additional class and Learning
Center computers for students who need additional support. Our computer lab is
accessible for our classes, especially in portables.
Each classroom is equipped with a teacher laptop, a ceiling mounted digital
projector and a smart board. Teachers also use a document camera to aid the
visual learners.
BX Elementary School
‘Blazing Trails since 1962’
We use ‘Teacher Connect’ and ‘Parent Connect’ and most parent communication is
done electronically and through synervoice messages.
Community volunteers and outside agencies coordinate the One to One Reading
Program, Partners As Literacy Supporters (PALS), Ready Set Learn and Grade 1
‘Come Read and Count With Me’ Program. Parents have good attendance at these
functions.
Unique to BX:
We have 8 multiple teacher classrooms. We have many split classrooms for a
number of reasons like: variety of placements to balance classes for
behavior/academic/social, have room for new students, collaboration of grade
group teachers. We had 7 new teachers join our staff. Teachers need some
additional time to learn the culture and routines of BX School. The principal and
vice principal are both new to their role at BX this year. Five classrooms are in
portables, one is a self-contained portable for our Kindergarten class. The
portables present a challenge for students moving in and out of the building during
the cold and wet seasons.
2015/2016 School Goals:
BX School Staff has a strong commitment to continuous improvement. Engrained in
our School culture are regular meetings to collaborate and discuss teacher
practice and strategies for student engagement. We meet once a month during
assembly time and another day per month after school as a team. We have a
Primary and an Intermediate Team following this model. The Tuesday after school
meeting is interest based and encourages staff from primary and intermediate to
collaborate on topics of interest to the group. Currently we have groups examining;
early oral language strategies, technology, math centers.
After determining what information and data is needed to examine an area of
focus we get it collected (sometimes we already have it and other times we need to
go and get the evidence). The Team will look at the evidence and discuss what
strategies are needed to improve student learning. We sometimes need to acquire
BX Elementary School
‘Blazing Trails since 1962’
skills or other learning to move forward. After a time of working and discussing
the way learning has been going, we take a look at the evidence to determine what
amount of impact we are making. These discussions provide the learning pieces for
school improvement.
Primary Goals for 2015-2016
Literacy:
To develop our primary student’s abilities to expand their oral expression.
Numeracy:
To continue to focus on differentiating instruction with an emphasis on skip
counting (in various multiples, starting at any number) and place value.
K-1’s will focus on trusting the count and one to one correspondence.
Development of Primary Goal Area
Our Primary team has learned that our students are not all coming to school with
rich broad vocabulary. We have noticed recently that we need to go back further
in the stages of language development and teach more basic concepts and practice
some basics we never had to before. This discovery came through consultation with
our Speech and Language Pathologist about the needs of our struggling students.
Our team also discovered that these strategies are beneficial to all students as it
follows language development progressively rather than just beginning by teaching
letters and sounds.
We also are using the phonological assessment to guide our teaching and ensure
students are successful and progressing.
BX Elementary School
‘Blazing Trails since 1962’
Intermediate Goals for 2015-2016
When tackling academic tasks students will be able to move from a fixed mind set
to a growth mind set.
Numeracy Goal:
Focus on recall of basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts
Social responsibility goal 2015-2016 – whole school
Be a respectful member of BX School: Be respectful to self, others and the
environment, be kind, and be awesome!
Evidence: Measures to Gauge Improvement
Literacy:
Primary: We identified the goals using data from student performance.
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PM Benchmarks – ongoing with a fall starting time (we are looking for ongoing
growth and success)
Phonological District Assessment – began in the fall term with ongoing
monitor
School-wide write – end of first term and final term
Platooning - very successful for differentiation;
FSiM - data from June 2015; skip counting/patterns/place values
Kits work well; sequential system
District spread sheet will be used this year instead of FSiM.
Fixed Mind Set to a Growth Mind Set:
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Pick three kids to focus on moving from fixed mind set to growth mind set
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Surveys, Self-assessments, interviews, videos, questionnaire
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Improvement in WCRA results, Social Responsibility marks on report cards
(N S G)
BX Elementary School
‘Blazing Trails since 1962’
Numeracy:
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FSIM/District Numeracy Screener – Fall assessment (all K - Gr. 3) – year
end (build data base to move forward)
Improved accuracy with recall of basic facts
Social Responsibility
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Reduction of office referrals
Reduction of reflection forms completed
Anecdotal evidence of the virtue of KINDNESS being taught and practiced
each day
The school community spends time each September revisiting the BX CARES Belief
System Matrix. At the office level we use a progressive discipline process when
dealing with behavior that needs correcting. We use the ‘Because BX Cares
Reflection Form’ as part of the process. Teaching staff use the reflection form at
the classroom level as well. There are a number of systems in place to recognize
students doing the right thing or being good students. We have a student of the
week and BX Badges to recognize students for good behavior.
Strategies and Ways to Support Social Responsibility
 Reference a handbook insert for student agendas to help inform
Parent/Caregivers about school beliefs and expectations
 Grade Six/Sevens Peer Program (outside at recess and lunch)Peer mediators
to assist using positive behaviors on the school grounds
 BX Badge Student Recognition Incentive Program (focusing in on virtues with
our CARES acronym)
 Weekly lessons on our Belief System (tip of the Day)
 Kindness messages provided outside each day to the school community as
they enter the school
 Use Best Practices by being proactive using positive reinforcement (for 1
negative, need 7 positives)
 Celebrate Power Talk (Talk, Walk and Squawk)
 Implement school wide Restitution Reflection Forms (focus on learning from
mistakes rather than right vs. wrong)
 Recognize positive student behaviours through ‘Student of the Week’ during
assemblies as well as “Principal’s Tea”
BX Elementary School
‘Blazing Trails since 1962’
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Buddy system – for fun activities – reading – learning sounds/letters – being
connected to others throughout the school across all grades
Education Improvement Funds (Support)
Our school has identified a number of students who have benefitted from
additional intensive teaching and small group work. We have seen great
gains/growth on their PM benchmark assessment, FSIM assessments and oral
language assessments. The successful strategies we used to support specific
students are shared with classroom teachers and are being implemented into
regular classroom routines. We use the evidence and data to determine where to
allocate the resources used in our school to the greatest needs areas. Our teaching
staff is seeing measured success from this intensive support.
Our intervention team design is made up of a 0.6 teacher working together with a
Learning Support Teacher, principal/vice principal/librarian. They divide up the
students to get small intensive groups for reading blitzes 4 days a week. The 0.6
numeracy/literacy teacher also works with small groups (primary and intermediate)
in mathematics and oral language activities. She also provides some support to
students in the classrooms for numeracy.
Communications:
We have discussions in a number of different venues about what we are focusing
on and how we are experiencing success at BX. The School community is informed
about the School Goals and Success in the following ways:
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Staff Meetings
Curriculum Meetings
PAC Meetings
School and Classroom Newsletters
Classroom Parent Meetings
Student Agendas
PAC Bulletin Board
School Web Site
Email
Synervoice
BX Elementary School
‘Blazing Trails since 1962’
Conclusion:
This document is meant to be informative and changing as we work to improve
student success and celebrate growth throughout the school year. There will need
to be continual sharing about our school goals. We will compile evidence and data to
support our decision making of goal choice and resource allocation.