June Already?

It has been a fantastic year at David Cameron, albeit a busy one.  We are well on our way towards our new entity as a blended school, having spent the last nine months working together.  This of course leads us into the final month of the school year and as always June is chock full of activities (see our calendar page for exact dates and details).  

Here are a few hi-lites:  District Track and Field meets coming up this week, followed by Bike Roadeo, Parent/Staff Appreciation luncheon, Talent Show, Beach Day, Grade Six Farewell, and our Year-End Assembly.  These of course are only the school events, each class has a number of field trips and/or special events planned to mark the year-end as well.

Each of these events creates another opportunity to build our school culture and connect with the broader school community.  Between the school and our PAC, we have managed to host many wonderful things during this year.  Which brings me to the Fun Fair held this past Friday.  What an amazing thing to see so many David Cameron families turn out for a beautiful, sunlit evening.  The parent organizers behind this event were amazing and pulled off a fantastic event, thanks so much to them and to everyone who pitched in (make sure to come to our Parent/Staff Appreciation Luncheon or at least stop by for a coffee and a muffin before school on June 12th.).  It is this kind of community spirit and connection that makes this school such a great place for everyone.

Let The Planning Begin!

At this time of year we are in the midst of all of the excitement that year-end brings, but more importantly, we are already planning for the next school year.  Our School Planning Council (SPC) has been engaging in conversations about areas that, we as a school, might focus on as a goal.  

School Planning Councils were initiated several years ago as a means of ensuring meaningful consultation with parents in relation to the actions of the school.  Since then, Planning Councils have been a cause for concern from the BCTF, resulting in teachers withdrawing from the conversations.  This obviously complicates the process which is mandated through Ministerial Order and School District Policy.

The David Cameron SPC continues to work in the best interest of students and the school as a whole as it considers information from a variety of sources including Satisfaction Surveys, FSA, and personal judgments regarding areas for potential focus.  Setting and working towards goals is an important part of the continued growth of our school.  We are excited about what the next school year will bring us and the opportunities we have to improve the achievement results of our students.

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.