Looking Forward by Looking Back

What an incredible year we have had so far!  We are so fortunate to live where we do and to have the things we do.  This certainly applies to our school as well.  We have come a long way this year, as we are well on our journey towards the "new" David Cameron.  This year, we have been able to successfully blend staffs, students, and PACs to create a school that all can be proud of.  Over the course of the year we have continued to work on the writing skills of our students as well as their physical health and understanding of nutrition.  These have been important areas for us to focus on as a school.  In support of these goals we have had two "Family Grouping Days", with a third scheduled for May, each focusing on these key areas.  We have instituted a School-Wide Write that was done in the Fall with the follow-up assessment to come in May., and we have created our Home Reading Program and Marathon recognition as well.

As we reflect on our successes (and our failures) we begin to look forward to the next school year and where we as a school community should be putting our resources (human and monetary).  It is important to have a few areas that are our focus so that we can ensure a streamlined process and attainable objectives.  Too many goals become frustrating and overwhelming for people.  At this point, we are just beginning to engage in conversations about where we want to put our efforts next year.  As always, we are interested in the perspective of our school community, so if you have areas that you think need to be worked on don't hesitate to contact me at school.

Satisfaction Surveys

My apologies for not being consistent with my blog posts over the last while.  Thanks to those of you that check in to read what I have written.

This month marks the start of our planning toward completing a new school plan.  We have sent home our individual FSA results to families, with the next key data gathering piece being the Ministry Satisfaction Surveys.  

Satisfaction Surveys allow us to gauge the perception that parents, students, and staff have of various facets of our school.  Perceptions can be a tricky thing as we try to discern if it is a true issue with a particular program or simply how we communicate the information to families.  As a result, we often have to spend time looking at the "stories behind the data" in order to make an accurate judgement of where to put our efforts.  While these surveys pose an issue for our teaching staffs from a political perspective they still offer value to the school for parent and student feedback.  This year, we have added a few school specific questions to get a clearer picture for our planning purposes.  The results of the survey will be shared with our staff and School Planning Council to determine what areas emerge as possible areas for development in the next school year.  Information regarding the Satisfaction Surveys has been sent to parents of students in grade 4 specifically, however, any parent may complete the survey, all you need to do is contact the school for a logon number and you are set to complete the survey on-line.

The information that we gain from this and other data sources provide us with a good starting point to investigate and discuss certain issues in greater detail.

The Pause That Refreshes!

A good friend of mine once said that "it doesn't seem to matter when Spring Break is, it comes at just the right time".  That was certainly true this year.  Prior to the break, our staff had been putting in many extra hours meeting with parents and preparing report cards.  Spring Break is also an important transition point in our school year, it signifies the start of the final term of the year and all of the excitement that brings for year-end activities and grade six transition to middle school.  Hopefully the weather will start to cooperate with us and make it feel a little more like spring, but in the interim staff have already begun working hard with students to complete this school year and prepare for the next.  At David Cameron, we are excited about the many great opportunities both fun and academic that are coming up over the next few months.  We look forward to working with parents and students to make this a great ending to a great year.

Report Cards

Our second term report card will be coming home on Thursday, March 12.  By then, our teaching staff will have been in contact with most families to discuss student progress over this term, through parent-teacher interviews.  As always at this time I like to remind families that report cards represent only a snapshot of student performance.  Each report card "is a picture" of how students have done to this point in the school year (strengths, areas for development, and ways to support their learning).  Letter grades for intermediate students are a symbolic representation of the work students have done in relation to the criteria and prescribed learning outcomes for the term.  Letter grades do not include student behaviour or attitude/effort as a component of the mark.  These areas are reported separately by the teacher.  Primary students are generally given a statement of achievement in relation to the expectations for a child at this point in the year (eg fully meeting expectations).

Please make sure to discuss your child's report card with them so that they are able to see what they are doing well and what they could work on.  Our students are the ones that need to be able to use this information in order to improve on their work.  More focus should be placed on the descriptive information than on the letter grades as you talk with your child(ren).

Professional Development Days

Professional Development days are such an important part of the education profession.  On Friday, many of our staff were engaged in a session on Restitution.  They spent the day examining ways for students to take responsibility for their mistakes and figure out ways to fix them.  At the same time, Dale, myself, and other principals/vice-principals from Sooke were exploring the question "What Matters?" with Chris Kelly, Superintendent of Schools for Vancouver School District.   In this session we were able to take some time to reflect on leadership and learning and what really matters as we work in support of student learning.  Chris spoke of the need for students (and others we work with) to be "genuinely regarded" and to have a sense of hope in order for learning to occur.  As a result, we need to  ensure that strong relationships (respectful and engaged) within our school communities are encouraged and fostered.  

Opportunities to take a pause from our busy day to day work to reflect on what really matters are only possible because of these professional days.  I look forward to the opportunity to discuss with our staff and school community the many learnings and thoughts acquired on our most recent Professional Development Day.

Building Community

As our school year has evolved, I have been giving a lot of thought to the kind of school community that we are collectively building for our children.  We are at the point where staff, students, and parents consider David Cameron Elementary to be there home, but we still have a long way to go to make it the best we can.  Community is about everyone working together to create a great environment to work and learn in.  So far, we have used activities like "Buddy Classes", "Family Grouping Days", "The Virtues Project", and many others to create opportunities for students to feel part of their community.

Where do we go from here?  Have we done enough?  Michael Fullen has said that "Good is the enemy of great", and so we must push on.  Our next areas of focus must be in support of a school tone that allows us to slow down and work/learn in greater detail; with more depth.  We must improve upon the ways in which we support all learners from those with difficulty to those with outstanding capabilities.  We must work on our disciplinary practices so that they have at their core, strengthening the student and allowing them to learn from their mistakes.   These are ambitious undertakings but are critical to students feeling successful and motivated to try and risk and learn.  Together we can, with the help of all, create an incredible place for all to be.  I look forward to our continued work together in support of our children.

A Busy Start to February!

This week is shaping up to be a very busy week at David Cameron.  Of course we are all excited about our two evening concerts with Paul Hann.  It is amazing to see how many details need to be attended to in order to offer something so worthwhile to our students.  From the initial proposal to the final details of performance night, many people have pitched in and made sure that everything has gotten done.  A huge thank-you to the David Cameron staff who have worked hard to get the students ready. 

We will also be conducting a review of our lunch-time changes in order to get feedback from staff, students, and parents.  Look for a short questionnaire to come home on Thursday. I will also be visiting all of the classes to talk with students to hear their opinions.

Monday is our regular School Read Assembly with a focus on our virtue of the month, Respect.  At this time we also get to recognize our students for their efforts in our home reading program and our marathon run.  Both of these recognitions support our school efforts towards our goals of Active Living and Active Learning.  Parents can also expect to see "Crunch and Go" cards coming home with their students.  These cards allow students to track the amount of physical activity and servings of fruits and veggies they are getting over the course of the month.

All of this in addition to our regular weekly routines,  which include boys and girls basketball, field trips, and of course our main focus on student academics.