Bridgeview »

We used a SurveyMonkey to initiate the conversation and collection of data.  Most questions are based on the Competencies as outlined by the Ministry of Education’s  Curriculum. Bridgeview is a small school, but feedback was provided by 18 STA and CUPE staff respondents so input was extensive.  This is what we learned:

Question 1: What do we know about our learners?  Please check 3 of the following statements; those that you consider to be most true.
Answered: 18 Skipped: 0

RESPONSES. Listed in descending order from most to least commonly selected:

Too many of our students face challenges at home that negatively affect their learning abilities at school.  94.44%  (17/18)

Our students understand and effectively engage in the use of digital media.  44.44%  (8/18)

Our students contribute positively to one’s family, community, society, and the environment; to resolve problems peacefully; to empathize with others and appreciate their perspectives; and to create and maintain healthy relationships
38.89% 7

Our learners display strong abilities to impart and exchange information, experiences and ideas.  27.78%  (5/18)

Our students actively and intentionally explore the world around them.  27.78%  (5/18)

Our students take subject-specific concepts and content and transform them into a new understanding.  22.22%  (4/18)

Our students have an awareness, understanding, and appreciation of all the facets that contribute to a healthy sense of oneself.  11.11%  (2/18)

Our Learners are highly self aware and are able to accurately self assess.
5.56%  (1/18)

A vast majority of our students have a support system at home that positively affects the learning abilities of students at our school.  0.00%  (0/18)

Our students display strong habits of mind, and display metacognitive awareness.
0.00%  (0/18)

Q2: What do we know about our learners? Please check 3 of the following statements; those that you consider to be least true.
Answered: 18 Skipped: 0

RESPONSES

Too many of our students face challenges at home that negatively affect their learning abilities at school
16.67% 3
–
The vast majority of our students have a support system at home that positively affects the learning abilities of students at our school
61.11% 11
–
Our Learners are highly self aware and are able to accurately self assess
38.89% 7
–
Our learners display strong abilities to impart and exchange information, experiences and ideas
5.56% 1
–
Our students actively and intentionally explore the world around them
22.22% 4
–
Our students understand and effectively engage in the use of digital media
16.67% 3
–
Our students take subject-specific concepts and content and transform them into a new understanding
11.11% 2
–
Our students display strong habits of mind, and display metacognitive awareness
55.56% 10
–
Our students have an awareness, understanding, and appreciation of all the facets that contribute to a healthy sense of oneself
38.89% 7
–
Our students contribute positively to one’s family, community, society, and the environment; to resolve problems peacefully; to empathize with others and appreciate their perspectives; and to create and maintain healthy relationships
16.67% 3
Total Respondents: 18
Comments(0)

As part of the same SurveyMonkey, staff were asked to provide evidence. Most of what was shared is anecdotal, but there is both qualitative and quantitative evidence to support what we know about our learners.

Here is the evidence that was shared through the SurveyMonkey:

By reflecting on the large portion of the students that I have had to intervene during rising conflict and the observation of whether students are able to learn from that intervention.
5/9/2017 4:27 PM

 
Reflection questions, student self assessments
4/26/2017 10:42 PM

 
The answer for first question is. Not enough time from parent spending time  with kids in a positive quality way. More attention and loving words will not be a waist of time but very, very gold…worth it. Answer for the second question. Kids do not resolve problems peacefully. This is because they are not getting enough attention from their parents, caretakers, etc. The key to have responsible and responsive students in a positive and appropriate manner lays as much in School but should be as much, even more, at lovely home.
4/26/2017 6:03 PM 

Personal observation from my own classroom and around the school has led me to the above answers. Students want to learn, and be engaged at school. Students also want to contribute to our school community and the community outside of our school. Unfortunately, often students do not have a support system at home, or are overcoming large barriers in order to attempt to be successful while at school.
4/26/2017 11:16 AM 

From the limited time that I get to see of the students families, I have observed that many of them do not have a strong support at home. They also have a very small circle of people who they interact with outside of school as many of them do not get to participate in extra curricular activities for various reasons. This makes their ability to connect with the world and make connections to their learning outside of their small community very difficult.
4/26/2017 10:38 AM 

Many have to overcome difficult home situations – eager and excited about new things/ideas/concepts presented in the classroom and carry the ideas home and return with extensions that they share with the class – to become self-aware takes time, practice and modelling and lots of students and their parents are facing day to day struggles that leave little time for self-reflection
4/25/2017 9:15 PM 

1. Negative challenges at home are huge. We have everything from physical, emotional and substance abuse to cultural, language and educational gaps. For many of our students, they are dealing with a combination of these issues. 2. The environment (location) of the community of Bridgeview is extremely isolated. This creates a very insular and almost naive view of what is occurring outside of the BV community. In many schools, if one child bit another the police would be called and lawyers would be involved. We have taught our students how to make amends, how to take ownership for their mistakes, and how to protect each other. They take care of what they have because we have it ingrained that things are not to be taken for granted. That respect is earned, honesty is vital, and that our school values are life values. 3, It is my opinion that there is a much larger percentage ratio of children in our school than most who are living under some sort of traumatic situation…poverty, abuse, substance use in the home, unstable parent situation, etc. This has to impact the way these children function in everything they do. Lack of food, lack of sleep, lack of nurturing, safety, a bed, clean clothes etc is unthinkable to the status quo …. for BV students its the way it is, and we don’t even know,

Part 2 1. There is a small group of students in each class who outshine the others. They are the ones who are able to impart and exchange information, the rest, in all honesty answer what they are given, in a sentence if they must, and without ever thinking beyond the question. I’ve noticed, upon observation, that students are rarely given the opportunity to sit in small guided groups to discuss ideas. For example, in working with the grade 6 socials group, we have broken off many times from the “text”, because I see an opportunity for them to think about what we are learning in the lesson and make a connection to something they can actually relate to. Just reading a text book and answering work sheets is not how our students get engaged. I digress. Just the torture we go through getting students to write speeches for speech fest should be answer enough. 2. I cannot think of any students in BV, aside from Pyall two years ago, who have actively gone and investigated, researched or studied up on any subject that was not related to a school assignment. The question “why is the sky blue?” isn’t important to our students. I would love to go into the Grade 1 and 2 classes and ask them if they’ve ever wondered why the sky was blue and not red? 3. I don’t think our students understand how they learn, and what works best for them. Our class has just learnt this year about extraverts and introverts, and how they fit into those categories. If they are an expressive learner, tactile, visual etc. However, I think if our students were given more choices from an earlier age (not just in DIV 1), then the awareness would come. Today I saw a student in math participate for the very first time, and thats because we were using manipulatives. He needs to learn in a different way than through a text book and looking at the screen. Some of our Spec Ed students are prime examples of students who should be aware of what they need to do to learn more effectively, but are sadly, examples of learned helplessness.
4/25/2017 7:45 PM

Through observation of interactions with parents and caregivers. They use the skills available to them to be heard even if that means raising their voices. They have strong survival skills. They are curious and explore their world through play.
4/25/2017 2:58 PM

High absenteeism/tardiness, parental follow through, low turnout for parent/teacher meetings.
4/25/2017 2:52 PM 

Parents attendance at school initiatives that are meant to support parents and their children
4/25/2017 2:49 PM 

From observations and talking to them
4/12/2017 5:39 PM 

Listening to the students.
4/11/2017 9:49 AM

The children’s environment as well as the location of the school “community”
4/10/2017 5:42 PM

The number of students referred to MCFD Self assessment/reflection during reporting periods Asking students about what they did on weekends
4/5/2017 10:51 AM

We have focused our attention in three areas as a result of understanding the needs of our students. These areas are also the principal’s areas of focus with regard to moral stewardship.

1.     Student Discipline: Bridgeview has adopted the concept of Restitution as a means of managing student behaviour. The end goal of this program is to instill self-discipline in students. Students are not punished, but rather they “make things right,” and take ownership of their behaviours. Students, parents, and teachers are all learning about this approach and it has been shared as part of our students’ games club, at the parent dinner series and at teacher Pro-D. The program has complete buy-in at the staff level.

2.     Parenting and Parent Engagement Program: There has been a concerted effort made by the principal and all staff to reach out to parents through multiple methods in an effort to improve parent engagement and involvement. Some of the ways have included face-to-face and one-on-one interactions at drop off and pick up, as well as a number of home visits, by having the principal participating in all of the early year activities that include parents such as Welcome to K, PALS, Ready, Set Learn, etc. so that new parents receive the schools’ message, through e-mail, school website and twitter feed, through parent appreciation tea, and our parent dinner series which promotes healthy parenting strategies for our parent group.

3.     Aboriginal Connection: We have taken at least 8 steps in support of Aboriginal Enhancement in the past 2 years at Bridgeview including 2 sessions on Aboriginal Pro-D (Curriculum inclusion during the Summer and then again at in-school pro-d), O Canada being sung every Monday morning, along with an announcement to Acknowledge and Thank the Coast Salish people for sharing their land, including a Daily Warm-Up in all divisions… a sort of a Warming up of the Drum, Collaboration Time dedicated to integrating Aboriginal enhancement across all curricular areas, a Weekly Check-in with the Aboriginal Enhancement worker and the principal, a Cultural Dance program that began with Powwow dances which are beautiful expressions of Indigenous spirituality, history and culture , changing of the school’s Nickname, Logo, Mascot to an indigenous animal so that we are now the Bridgeview Bears.

We need, and have begun, professional development to support our three focus areas.

An update on our progress will be coming soon.

We have a plan and have taken significant action toward this plan to support our three focus areas.

An update on our progress will be coming soon.