Farewell to our grade sixes

I always approach this time of year with mixed feelings.  On one hand I am excited to see our grade six students taking the next step in their academic careers, with the possibility of their futures open to them.  On the other hand, I can't help but feel a bit selfish and wish that they would stay around for awhile longer.  It seems that we are just getting to the point where their contributions to our school are mature, community-based, and supportive of a great environment, and then they leave.

This year, our grade sixes have taken on incredible leadership roles and have set a standard for years to come.  They have taken on the responsibility of our morning announcements for the first time, they continue to act as our student announcers for assemblies, and they have created many opportunities for student involvement in things like floor and road hockey tournaments, to name a few things.

Beyond the contributions that they make to school in tangible ways, their influence within the school is positive and calming (most of the time ;)).  They demonstrate the ability to contribute to our school environment (who can ignore the guitar playing on the school grounds), solve problems in peaceful ways (too many times this year, problems have already been resolved prior to any adult intervention).  They also have a great sense of the impact of their contributions and they thrive on this as a part of who they are.

We are fortunate to have such a great group of students as our leaders and role models.  Their positive influence can only help to continue the tradition of excellence at David Cameron that our new grade six students will aspire to.  While I am sad to see them go, I can't wait to hear the stories of their successes in years to come.  Best of luck to all of them in the future.

Leadership and Belonging

We were fortunate recently to have Chris Kelly, retired superintendent of Vancouver School District, visit our school for a day.  The purpose of Chris' visit was to help guide us in our continued work on school culture.  Chris' insights and thoughts have been helpful in guiding our directions for next year.

Two key ideas have emerged in relation to our on-going efforts for developing our school culture.  One is the notion of belonging.  This is the act of ensuring that students (and other members of our school community) are genuinely and caringly included in our school, and those who promote this should be recognized for their contributions.  The work we have been doing over the past few years has focused on the centrality of the learner and ensuring a sense of belonging really allows us to fine tune this.  Secondly, Chris has given us a new insight into the notion of leadership that moves away from formal or defined leadership.  He defines leadership as "the act of taking personal responsibility for the quality of others' experience". These intentional acts to foster belonging and care for others are foundational to the kind of culture we continue to strive for in our school.

With these ideas in mind it becomes an exciting prospect to move forward into the next school year with some lofty ideals to work towards.  We have always supported the notion of internal control and decision making for our students.  If we can now get them to think about the relationship of their actions on another individual as well as the broader community we will have achieved something amazing.

Stay tuned as we further develop our thinking on these ideas.

Is it really June?

The weather notwithstanding, it is hard to believe that June has descended upon us already.  It seems that we were just welcoming new families to our school and introducing our staff, and yet, with the hurry that is the school year, we find ourselves getting set to end another year.  June is a busy time and does not seem to "wind down", instead it seems to hurry up and then just end.

Along with our commitment to academic work for our students and wrapping up the instructional/ assessment part of our year we have a number of other activities that press our time.  These include, year-end field trips, our school fun day, Grade Six Farewell, and our year-end assembly (to mention only a few).  For some it appears that June is a "write-off" for academic work and that the majority of time is spent on fun activities.  While it is true that June sees its fair share of field trips and special events it is also a critical time do year-end assessments, complete instruction in units, and ensure our students are ready for their transition to the next grade.  In the midst of all of this our teachers are actively gathering evidence of student learning in order to provide parents with the final report card of the year.  This final report is not only an indication of the students' learning in the third term but also overall for the school year.

So, June is here and with it the hustle and bustle of completing the year.  The final push for our students to complete their work and to have a little fun with their classmates prior to the transition to the next phase of their education.

Creating Opportunities to Participate

This past Friday was a great day for student participation at David Cameron.  After weeks of working with students in PE classes and in groups during academic time, we held our Intermediate Track Meet.  Students had been practicing and learning about running events, as well as field events and were excited to try them out in some friendly competition.  In year's past our Intermediate Track Meet was held at the beginning of May, from which, our Track Team was selected.  Students did not have the opportunity to learn and practice the events before the competition.  Our staff spent lots of time trying to teach the students how to do the events as well as trying to give everyone a turn during the track meet.  It meant that for some students, it was their first and last time trying the event.  Our new plan, gave everyone many chances to practice and try out the events.

The energy and enthusiasm on Friday was fabulous, with lots of excitement from our students.  At one point, we had two high jumpers still competing in the grade six boys group, when a grade one and a grade two class showed up to the gym to begin their PE.  "No problem", said the teachers, the kids would love to watch.  What an incredible environment with the ones, twos, and grade six boys cheering every jump.  The two boys were buoyed on by the enthusiasm and rhythmic clapping.

We are now ready to head to the District Field Events Meet on June 2 and the Track Meet on June 4 with a great group of student athletes whom we know will represent our school well.

Our On-Going Commitment to School Culture

Over the past two years our school community has been working hard to build a new school culture.  We have seen many successes in this regard, but we still have a ways to go.  Our continued growth has to take into account the needs of our students, parents, and staff.   As well, we must come to an understanding of what it means to be a "big school".  With a student enrollment around 340 students it becomes more difficult to have the intimate connection that a small school allows.  It becomes harder to know all of the students and their families and for students to know all of our staff.  These are things that we need to continue to work on.  How do we make a large school seem small?  What processes and procedures do we have in place to recognize student success and to make it a place where people feel welcomed and engaged?

These are some of the challenges that we continue to face as we work together on behalf of our students.  As we look forward to next year, there continues to be a commitment to the culture of our school.  Celebrating student success, encouraging a sense of exploration and engaged learning, as well as clearly understood expectations for behaviour are some areas that will allow us to continue our growth together.

We have come a long way as a school and have made several positive strides forward in our quest for student success.  A continued focus on developing culture will allow us to fine tune our work and address some new areas that relate to how we want to be seen by our community.  Things are great at David Cameron and we want to continue that trend.  The only way to do that is to continue to pay attention to the things we want to "grow" and get more of.  Our Planning Council, PAC, staff, and students all strive for the best that we can be.

Planning for Next Year

Sorry I missed last weeks blog, there were just too many exciting things going on during the weekend.  Happy Mother's Day to all of our David Cameron Parents.  I hope you had an enjoyable day and that your children treated you well.

This time of year keeps us busy with a number of things on the go at the school, key among them is the planning process for next year.  The District is finalizing its 2010-2011 budget and trying to deal with a million and a half projected deficit.  This will have impacts in many aspects of our school and across the District.  The Board has made a commitment to protect positions close to the classroom and to try to keep as many resources in front of children as possible.  As this process unfolds, the District is also trying to deal with future spaces for students as Sooke is one of only a few Districts province-wide with a growing population.  In particular, the District continues to pursue plans to replace Belmont Secondary with two new schools (one at Royal Bay and one at the former Glen Lake site).  There will be a public consultation meeting on this at John Stubbs School on May 18 at 7:00pm.

At David Cameron we are now in a position to begin thinking about our class configuration for next year and how we will staff for that.  This is always a difficult time for staff as the possibility of lay-offs loom.  We are hopeful that as student numbers solidify and positions become available, most people will find positions for next year.  Our school is projected to be down slightly in numbers for next year going from our current head count of around 340 to 320.  This will likely mean the reduction of one division for next year, although, the last two years have seen us add divisions in September.

Regardless of all of these difficult decisions we will always look at what is best for students and how we can use the resources available to support them the best way possible.  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me at the school.

Anything Worth Doing, Is Worth Doing Well

Today was the TC10K race, with over 13 000 runners.  It is a run that I love to do every year, and somewhere in the middle of doing it, I wonder why I like it.  Today, I felt good until the 5K mark, but kept going, at the 8K mark I started to think how I had ruined a great morning, but I persevered and reached my goal.  On Friday night, we had our PAC sponsored Fun Fair.  When the skies opened and the rain fell, it would have been easy to say "call it off", but our PAC persevered, by adjusting their plans and staging a hugely successful "indoor" Fun Fair.  This quality is one that we want to instill in all of our students.

It seems that giving in when things get tough is too easy a choice these days.  At school, we work to help our students understand the message that if it is worth doing, it is worth putting our best effort forward and working until we complete it.  The staff at David Cameron School continually push our students towards their best work and to ensure they finish what they start.  Persevering under difficult circumstances is a great life skill and one that will help our students in their future careers.  We as adults need to be great role models for this, and we are.