School Growth Plan

Hatzic Elementary School Mission Public School District (#75)

School Growth Plan 2013- 2014 Table of Contents

School and Community Context...... 3 Unique Features Community Partnerships/Initiatives Parent Involvement

School Goals Overview...... 4

Goal 1 Numeracy: To improve the knowledge, skills and attitudes in numeracy ...... 5 Objectives Rationale Data Sources Evidence of Change Targets Comment/Summary of Progress Action Plan

Goal 2 Literacy: To improve the knowledge, skills and attitudes in literacy ...... 9 Objectives Rationale Data Sources Evidence of Change Targets Comment/Summary of Progress Action Plan

Goal 3 Healthy Lifestyle: To improve the knowledge, skills and attitudes in choosing a healthy lifestyle...... 15 Objectives Rationale Data Sources Evidence of Change Targets Comment/Summary of Progress Action Plan

Signature Page...... 18

2 School and Community Context

Unique Features: Hatzic opened in 1911 as a two-room school and has since undergone several expansions. The population is presently 320 full-time students. We are one of the oldest schools in Mission and therefore, steeped in history and tradition. Many of the parents at our school proudly proclaim that just as their children and their parents, they too attended Hatzic Elementary. The area known as Hatzic is distinct from the greater community of Mission and as one of the few public buildings in the area Hatzic Elementary is seen by some as the centre of the community.

Hatzic Elementary is known for its fine arts, technology, service, athletics and environmental programs. Student-led assemblies are a community event where audiences are treated to class presentations on a variety of themes. Respect, Responsibility, Safety and Effort are key ideas that are embedded in our school culture.

Hatzic Elementary hosts a wide variety of learning opportunities. Students are taught to be independent learners, critical thinkers and trustworthy individuals. It is recognized that each individual is unique and requires a program of study tailored to his or her learning style. Older students embrace the notion of student leadership, Me-to-We Club, Peer Counselling and School Service and are seen taking on a variety of roles throughout the school. All students belong to one of three house teams (Lynx, Eagles, Orcas) in the school. This is one more way that students gain a sense of belonging and pride. School spirit days are frequent as we see students and staff take ownership in building a positive school climate.

Community Partnerships/Initiatives: We connect with a number of community partnerships to benefit our students. Some programs are offered every other year. These include:

Mad Science Aboriginal Cultural Fair Family Games Nights Roots of Empathy Field Trips throughout the Little Readers Babysitting Program community Rotary Club – Four Way Test Rick Hansen Awards Ready, Set, Learn Terry Fox Run Books for Bedtime DARE 60 minute Kid’s Club Challenge Food Drives Jump Rope for Heart Mathematic Competitions Me-to-We Reading Link Challenge Heart and Stroke Chess Club Parent Involvement: We believe that parents play an integral part in the education of their children. We welcome and embrace the support from families. Indeed, Hatzic Elementary parents have demonstrated a strong commitment to supporting our school goals. Parents generously support our technology, peer counseling, athletics and fine arts programs. A parent-led concession offers students healthy choices to supplement their lunches. Parents lead our home reading programs as well as helping with such activities as sports, classroom support and teacher-generated home learning activities. Each September we traditionally have over 400 people attend our welcome back bbq. Both our Winter and Spring Concerts are terrifically well attended in our afternoon and evening performances. 3

Process of Collaboration to Create the School Growth Plan document: Input was solicited from the staff the SPC and PAC to draft this document. Ideas were implemented into the plan by the principal and shared with the community. Minimal changes were made to this document this year.

2013-2014 Goals Overview

Goal 1 Numeracy To improve the knowledge, skills and attitudes for all students K-6 in Numeracy

Goal 2 Literacy To improve the knowledge, skills and attitudes for all students K-6 in Literacy

Goal 3 Healthy Lifestyles To improve the knowledge, skills and attitudes for all students K-6 to live a healthy lifestyle

4 5 Goal 1 Numeracy Improve the knowledge, skills and attitudes for all students K-6 in Numeracy

Objectives: 1. To increase the number of students fully meeting or exceeding expectations in numeracy

2. To improve students’ understanding of mathematical problem solving

Rationale: Our data shows that while 71% of our students are fully meeting expectations, only 6% of students are exceeding expectations on our grade 4 FSA data. We know that for continued improvement it is imperative to have more students fully meeting or exceeding as they advance to the next grade level. We believe that meeting at a minimal level is not sufficient to ensure success in future years or to build self-confidence in our students’ mathematical abilities. FSA results show that last year the mathematical understanding of Hatzic students dropped slightly. Interestingly students report that they are getting better at math, (from 61% to 82%) but not improving in reading (from 87% to 78%). Interestingly, teachers report that students are often able to solve mathematical problems once they decipher the written portion of the question. We believe that improving student’s understanding of written problems will increase their success in math. We believe that is vital for our grade 6 students to transition to middle school with the ability to understand and then successfully solve mathematical problems.

Data Sources

Provincial Assessment: FSA Grade 4 Numeracy February 2009 Hatzic Elementary Not Yet Meeting Meeting or Exceeding All Students 32% 61% Male 21% 79% Female 43% 43% Total Participation :28

6 Provincial Assessment: FSA Grade 4 Numeracy February 2011 Hatzic Elementary Not Yet Meeting Meeting or Exceeding All Students 10% 79% Male 14% 78% Female 5% 80% Total Participation :37

Provincial Assessment: Satisfaction Survey “Are you getting better at math?” 2009 Hatzic Elementary All of the Time or Many Times Grade 4 students 65%

Evidence of Change:

7 The grade 4 FSA scores for 2011 and 2012 show that the percentage of students has who are Not Yet Meeting Expectations dropped significantly (from approximately 30% in 2009 and 2010 to approximately 11% in 2011 and 2012). While we are happy with this trend and we will continue with strategies used to support students feeling confident and capable in mathematics further work is required in order to have more students Meeting and/or Exceeding Expectations.

Target: 2015-16: o 85% of all students fully meeting or exceeding expectations in numeracy in the grade 4 FSA assessments o 90% of all students reporting they are getting better at math

Comment / Summary of Progress: We will encourage students to find multiple strategies to problem solve and self and peer assess using the performance standards for numeracy. We will balance the need to learn basic facts with the necessity of building math vocabulary while exploring ways to differentiate instruction so that all students are able to participate in a meaningful way, thus building skills, proficiency and confidence together. We believe that our concurrent goal of improving reading comprehension will increase student’s ability to problem-solve. Due to the small number of Aboriginal students participating at each grade level it may be necessary to develop a meaningful system to monitor our achievement for our Aboriginal learners.

Action Plan: These are the actions we believe will accomplish our objectives…

 Continuing Practices that are working well in our school: 1. Use of a variety of resources in the classroom to ensure a balance of problem solving, basic skills and vocabulary as well as using self and peer assessment through performance standards, numeracy tutors and peer buddies. 2. Use of technology to create interactive and student led learning opportunities. We use smart boards, document cameras, and netbooks in order to both motivate and individuate teaching and learning.

 What will we do differently? 1. Collaborate to build resources, reflect on practice, align curriculum and implement strategies for improving math instruction. 2. Explore strategies of differentiated instruction to ensure the needs of students who are not yet meeting expectations as well as those students meeting at a minimal level are being met, while still providing the enrichment and choice required to inspire ALL learners.

8  How will we provide for staff development and collaboration? The staff members at Hatzic Elementary discuss teaching strategies at staff meetings and during collaborative learning team meetings. Our staff members receive monthly staff collaboration time for learning teams and we are currently sharing our work on a monthly basis at staff meetings.

 How will we involve parents? At our monthly PAC meetings there is a Principal’s report that always includes a update and information on school initiatives and how parents may support learning at home. The school Newsletter, which is also posted on our website, often informs parents of mathematical strategies used in school and those that may be used at home. Both our Little Readers and our Books for Bedtime events contain numeracy components for parents and children.

 How will we monitor and adjust our actions? Ensure we use feedback from provincial assessments in a timely and effective manner. We also want to include more opportunities for staff to observe one another teaching. We always use collaboration meetings and staff meetings for discussion and reflection of our progress. This year we are having one classroom reduce the amount of time using math textbooks and increase the time using Smart Board numeracy resources. We will assess the efficacy of this imitative, using classroom student data. Next year we will use a school-wide program of linking our school spirit and manners draws to predicting, graphing and statistics as a way of making math “real” and “meaningful”.

9 Goal 2 Literacy Improve the knowledge, skills and attitudes for all students K-6 in Literacy

Objectives: 1. To improve the writing skills for all students to fully meeting or exceeding expectations.

2. To improve the reading skills for all students to fully meeting or exceeding expectations

Rationale: Our data shows that while many of our students are meeting expectations for both reading and writing, more students could still improve in order to fully meet or exceed expectations. Students report that they feel they are improving in their reading more so than their writing. In some cases our data indicate that boys are not performing as well as girls. Further investigation is required to address this situation. Our results are comparable to the district averages for all students. When disaggregating the data for our Aboriginal students we see the results being similar to our general student body results for reading comprehension, but with more Aboriginal students minimally meeting for reading and writing. It is important for all of our students to be fully literate so that they are able to transition competently through their schooling at Hatzic Elementary as well as their transition to middle school, secondary school and as life-long learners.

Writing

Provincial Assessment: FSA Writing Grade 4 February 2009

Hatzic Not Yet Meeting or Elementary Meeting Exceeding All Students 21% 75% Male 36% 64% Female 7% 85% Total Participation: 28

Hatzic Not Yet Meeting or

10 Elementary Meeting Exceeding All Students 6% 95% Male 6% 94% Female 5% 95% Total Participation: 36

Hatzic Not Yet Meeting or Elementary Meeting Exceeding All Students 10 % 78 % Male 9 % 82 % Female 10 % 75 % Total Participation: 37

Hatzic Not Yet Meeting or Elementary Meeting Exceeding All Students 6 % 86 % Male 12 % 84 % Female 0 88 % Total Participation: 45

Comment: An increase in the percentage of students meeting expectations in writing for grade 4 is noted. The absence of females Not Yet Meeting is celebrated.

School / District Based Assessment: DART (District Assessment of Writing) Grade 3-7 Fall 2012

Not Yet Meeting Minimally Fully Meeting Exceeding Meeting All Aborigi All Aborigi All Aborigi All Aborigi Studen nal Studen nal Stude nal Studen nal ts ts nts ts

11 Female 8% 20% 37% 45% 46% 30% 8% 5% Male 9% 33% 67% 40% 24% 27% 0% 0% Total Participation:229 Aboriginal: 35

Comment: This represents new base-line data. The percentage of Aboriginal Students Not Yet Meeting is a concern.

Reading

Provincial Assessment: FSA Reading Comprehension Grade 4 February 2009

Hatzic Not Yet Meeting or Elementary Meeting Exceeding All Students 24% 64% Male 27% 64% Female 20% 65% Total Participation:37

12 Provincial Assessment: FSA Reading Comprehension Grade 4 February 2012

Hatzic Not Yet Meeting or Elementary Meeting Exceeding All Students 12% 79% Male 12% 80% Female 13% 79% Total Participation:45 Comment: An increase in the percentage of students meeting expectations in reading for grade 4 is noted.

School / District Based Assessment: DART (District Assessment of Reading) Grade 3-7 Fall 2012

Not Yet Meeting Minimally Fully Meeting Exceeding Meeting All Aborigi All Aborigi All Aborigi All Aborigi Studen nal Studen nal Stude nal Studen nal ts ts nts ts

Female 7% 33% 54% 50% 38% 17% 1% 0% Male 9% 8% 67% 75% 24% 17% 0% 0% Total Participation:193 Aboriginal: 24

Comment: This represents new base-line data. The percentage of Aboriginal Students Not Yet Meeting is a concern.

School / District Based Assessment: K-2 Reading Comparison – Students At Risk Spring 2011

Kindergarten Grade 1 Grade 2 All Students All Students All Students

Female 0% 15% 31% Male 0% 24% 27% Total Participation: 86

13 School / District Based Assessment: K-2 Reading Comparison – Students At Risk Fall 2012

Kindergarten Grade 1 Grade 2 All Students All Students All Students

Female 13% 31% 36% Male 9% 33% 30% Total Participation: 113

Comment: the Fall 2012 information represents new base-line data. It is interesting to see the jump of “students at risk” and it is interesting to consider that it may represent the degree of development and learning that occurs in children at this developmental stage of life.

Evidence of Change: Our reading and writing results for the grade 4 FSA shows that students continue to improve. However, looking closely at the data we see that only 2% of students exceeded expectations in writing and 12% exceeded expectations in reading. Additionally the percentage of students who continue to not yet meet expectations in both reading and writing is unacceptable. We are striving to see a shift in the percentage of students fully meeting or exceeding expectation for reading comprehension and writing.

Targets: 2015-2016: o 90% of students fully meeting/exceeding expectations on the Writing assessments o 90% of students fully meeting/exceeding expectations on the reading assessments o 100% of grade 2 students transitioning to grade 3 reading and writing at grade level

Comment / Summary of Progress: We are pleased to have improved our student writing scores and have confidence in continuing this trend. The school-wide ‘Book Talks’ and ‘Author’s Circles’ are designed to get students excited about reading and sharing and are continuing to be successful. We also notice through classroom observation that writing to learn in math and science is a useful tool for improving subject specific literacy. Motivating students to read and write for pleasure and information from a variety of sources in a variety of ways continues to be a steadfast strategy to engage our learners.

Action Plan: These are the actions we believe will accomplish our objectives…

14  Continuing Practices that are working well in our school: 1. School-wide reading and writing initiatives such as our February Reading Initiative and Read-a-thon, School-wide Book Talks and School-wide Author’s Circles, and Shared/Independent daily reading (parent/student, teacher/student, peer-buddies). 2. Teacher Librarian using Adrienne Gear’s Reading Power strategies in ALL classes.

 What things will we do differently? 1. Use of Itinerant teacher release time to support vulnerable learners. 2. Use buddy time directly to support our objectives as well as to target support for the groups that are identified as not performing as well as their peers. For example, having teachers use this time to work with vulnerable students. 3. Focusing on guided reading and reading recovery strategies in the primary grades. 4. Increasing the time provided to students to read in school and encouragement to read at home.

 How will we provide for staff development and collaboration?

1. As previously discussed in our numeracy goal, Primary/Intermediate teacher collaborative time for sharing ideas and resources as well as release time for observing and peer coaching will be necessary to encourage reflection and improvement in our practice. In addition to release time, sharing at staff meetings and release time for staff collaborative action research initiatives will also be provided.

 How will we involve parents? 1. We will continue to invite parents for daily shared reading, as well as continue with Books for Breakfast, Ready/Set/Learn and Little Readers Program. We will continue to encourage parents to attend our Reading Events including Book Talks and Author’s Circles. Our newsletter will include information to share our progress and we will continue to have parent leadership in our home Reading Program.

2. We will host a Baby Welcoming Celebration in September where we will encourage preschool literacy both in the school and in the community

 How will we monitor and adjust our actions? As previously mentioned in the numeracy goal, staff discussion and sharing within team collaboration meetings, and staff meetings. Our staff development allocation is focused primarily on providing opportunities for teachers to extend their knowledge of literacy and then time for them to work together. They are expected to set goals and make explicit action plans that are reported out on regularly to the Principal, and the information then shared in newsletters, to the PAC and at staff meetings.

15 Goal 3 Healthy Lifestyles Improve the knowledge, skills and attitudes for all students K-6 to live a healthy lifestyle Objectives: 1. To increase student awareness in making environmentally conscientious decisions in consideration of local and global communities

2. To increase know-how for students learning how to practice life-long healthy and environmentally conscientious habits

16 Rationale: Research has shown that regular fitness, a balanced diet, and a positive self image have a direct impact on student learning. We want our students to be confident, proud independent thinkers, independent life-long learners, socially and emotionally healthy, connected to others in our community and the world, prepared to take on life’s challenges, conscientious about the impact our choices have on our general health and the earth. We want our students to make a difference and lead by example.

Provincial Assessment: Satisfaction Survey 2009 “Are you learning about healthy food and exercise?” Hatzic Elementary All of the Time or Many Times Grade 4 students 59%

Provincial Assessment: Satisfaction Survey 2009 “Are you learning how to do things to care for the environment?” Hatzic Elementary All of the Time or Many Times 17 Grade 4 students 62%

Provincial Assessment: Satisfaction Survey 2010 “Are you learning how to do things to care for the environment?” Hatzic Elementary All of the Time or Many Times Grade 4 students 44%

Comment: 2011 data showed a significant increase in positive responses to both environmental and healthy food and exercise questions. This could be attributed to joining the 4-bin waste reduction program, joining communities in bloom and winning the 60 minute kids club challenge which focussed on 60 minutes of daily exercise as well as healthy eating.

Evidence of Change: A significant percentage of students (30-50%) over the past two years report that they are not learning about healthy food and exercise. In addition (30-60%) of students over the past two years report that they are not learning how to do things to care for the environment.

Targets: 2015-2016: o 85% of students reporting that they are learning about healthy food and exercise o 85% of students reporting that they are learning how to do things to care for the environment

Comment / Summary of Progress: As we continue to offer healthy food choices in our concession, hot lunch programs and the healthy fruit and vegetable program we notice that children are embracing the new choices with little hesitation. Our commitment to DPA ensures our students are learning different ways to be active and exercise. We have joined the 4-Bin Reduce, Reuse and Recycle initiative which has our students participating in making environmentally conscientious 18 choices for our waste disposal which has significantly reduced our garbage output. By focussing on our virtue of the month we continue to have a platform for discussions in regards to healthy living, including respecting one another, as well as learning, and the environment. Action Plan: These are the actions we believe will accomplish our objectives…

 Continuing Practices that are working well in our school: 1. Continue with the 4-Bin Reduce, Recycle and Reuse program. 2. Continue to offer healthy food choices and a wide variety of exercise options such as DPA, extra- curricular activities, such as team sports, bike and running club as well as our school based track and field afternoon and hosting the Harvest Jaunt. 3. Continue with virtue of the Month, star of the week, weekly manners draw, Assembly presentations, Student Leadership & Peer Counsellors, Aboriginal Student Council, and Me-to-We Club which promotes community service activities.

 What things will we do differently? 1. Collaborate to find new and exciting ways to keep learning about healthy lifestyles current, relevant and fun. 2. Have more explicit teaching in healthy lifestyles, the environment and socially responsible behavior

3. Continue to find new ways to reduce our carbon footprint at our school, such as waste free lunch day and turning out the lights

 How will we provide for staff development and collaboration? We currently have a collaborative team working together with an action research project to investigate ways to meet this school goal. Release time is given through our staff development plan as well as collaboration time is provided to the team for further discussion and reflection. Staff meeting time is devoted to organizing events and sharing best practices. Staff model healthy habits for our school.

 How will we involve parents? Parents are invited to join in DPA with their children as well as help with coaching and clubs. We want to build a culture of fitness by encouraging parent participation in staff/student volleyball & basketball games, bike club and running club.

 How will we monitor and adjust our actions? Staff discussion and sharing at collaboration meetings and staff meetings will provide the venue for reflecting on our progress with this goal. Our staff development allocation is focused primarily on providing release time for teachers to work together setting goals and making explicit action plans that are then reported out on regularly to the Principal, to the PAC, in newsletters and at staff meetings.

Submitted by: School Planning Council

This school growth plan has been written, reviewed and supported by:

Mrs. Lang, parent Date

Mrs. Hennig, parent Date

Mrs. Vadnais, parent Date

Ms. Dempster, Principal Date

Superintendent Board Chair Date