- School Context:
Pinewood is a school in North Delta that currently enrolls 335 K-7 students in the regular program. At Pinewood, we have a diverse student population, a rich multicultural fabric of families in our community. Our students bring a diversity of learning needs to our school community; our student population includes students with autism, learning disabilities, hearing loss, and medical or behavioural challenges as well as students with anxiety and complex social-emotional needs. We have a wide range of family circumstances, from families who are brand new to Canada, to many families who are long-time local residents. Approximately 15% of our students are English Language Learners who receive support at school from our Learning Support Teacher, while many more speak another language in addition to English at home. We currently have 12 students with Indigenous ancestry. As well, we are hosting many international students.School Goal 1 – SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING
- Last spring, we noticed a need to teach and emphasize building positive connections between students. By connecting back to our Strive posters, we taught students expectations for behaviour in all areas of the school. We also taught them the 3 tenets of being part of the Pinewood school community – Be Kind, Be Safe and Be Fair
- This year, to continue to support the building of positive connections, we introduced the WITS program across the school from Kindergarten to Grade 7
- We have emphasized the use of Panther Paws to recognize positive behaviour in all of our students. Students receive a small prize when their name is randomly called out for their positive behaviour.
- We also introduced the Panther Pals program to have intermediate students engage with younger students and model appropriate behaviour when playing with other friends.
School Goal 2 – LITERACY
- The initial scan of our reading data shows some learning gaps for our early primary students.
- Many of our staff meetings and professional development days have been focused on how to use effective literacy practices in the classroom for all learners while targeting the students who are not yet proficient.
- We are using in-school time to collaborate with grade group and Learning Support teachers to strategize and implement effective literacy practices.
- We continue to gather reading data three times a year and to share any changes in the data
- Our Professional Day in January will focus on Reading Strategies to support all learners
- The Learning Services team is introducing literacy tools for teachers to use for targeted instruction in the classroom