Goldstone Park »

Goldstone Park is a new school located in the Sullivan Heights area of Surrey. Our new school is a welcome addition to the community, providing some relief for the enrollment pressures in nearby schools. Goldstone Park Elementary School began operation in September 2013, moving into our beautiful new building on February 3, 2014. The Goldstone Park catchment is a combination of established homes, new single-family homes combined with multifamily dwellings. The school opened with an enrollment of 300 students and has now increased to 610 (June 2017). Our school is expected to have steady growth for several years. The Goldstone Park community is very active in the school, interested in their children’s education, and supportive of school initiatives.

Creating a positive school culture is the key component of opening a new school. Since the school opened, the staff, students, and parents have been working together to build a positive, connected and engaged school environment where everyone feels a sense of belonging. We believe this is the foundation upon which impactful learning takes place. Key elements of a positive, engaged, connected school culture are:

• positive interpersonal relationships
• student engagement and connectedness
• staff connectedness, collaboration, professional learning
• events/structures, celebrations, traditions
• a foundation of social and emotional learning
• a safe and caring environment
• parent and family connectedness
• student success through meeting diverse learning needs

Another important component of the foundation of school culture is determining shared values and ensuring all actions align with those values. At Goldstone Park we value…

COMMUNITY – belonging – helping others – family – friendship – happiness – humour – peace

We care about and contribute to the well-being of our community. We strive to make Goldstone Park a happy, peaceful place where all our students, staff, and families belong.

LEADERSHIP – integrity – authenticity – honesty – responsibility – loyalty – accountability

We have the courage to do the right thing. We are honest. We are accountable for our actions. We treat others the way we would like to be treated. We are all responsible for all our students.

TEAMWORK – collaboration – involvement – positive relationships and communication – respect

We support each other. We trust each other. We respect each other. We value everyone’s ideas and we enjoy working together for the benefit of all. We communicate our ideas in a positive, respectful way.

LEARNING – creativity – growth – excellence – knowledge – personal development – success

We try our best. We are committed to continuous improvement; we recognize all experiences as important learning opportunities. We are innovative and we welcome new ideas and creative thinking.

Power Play Young Entrepreneur Fair. Intermediate classes designed, created, produced, marketed and sold their products. A portion of their profits was donated to a Non-Government Organization of their choosing.

Why Social and Emotional Learning at Goldstone Park?

• A new school needs to build a positive school culture and a sense of belonging for all of our students.
• A new school needs to establish clear expectations for positive behavior.
• With many new students each year there is a need to build connections, a sense of belonging and engagement and a positive culture
• Effective schools develop school–wide, consistent approaches around SEL that involve all stakeholders.

What is Social Emotional Learning and Why is it Important?

Social Emotional Learning is one of the Surrey Schools Learning by Design Priority Practices. https://surreylearningbydesign.ca/principles/social-and-emotional-learning/

Social Emotional Learning has a large body of research that supports its importance as a foundational component of successful schools. CASEL (Collaborative for Academic and Social Emotional Learning) is the leading organization promoting SEL practices. 

http://www.casel.org

The core competencies along with literacy and numeracy foundations and essential content and concepts are at the centre of the redesigned BC curriculum. Core competencies are sets of intellectual, personal, and social and emotional proficiencies that all students need to develop in order to engage in deep learning and lifelong learning. Linking closely to our work in SEL is the Personal and Social Core Competency. https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies    This is the set of abilities that relate to students’ identity in the world, both as individuals and as members of their community and society. Personal and social competency encompasses the abilities students need to thrive as individuals, to understand and care about themselves and others, and to find and achieve their purposes in the world.

Specifically linked to our work in SEL is Personal Awareness and Responsibility.

http://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies/personal-awarenss-responsibility

http://surreylearningbydesign.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PersonalAwarenessResponsibilityCompetencyProfiles.pdf  

 http://surreyslearningbydesign.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/SocialResponsibilityCompetencyProfiles.pdf

This includes the skills, strategies, and dispositions that help students to stay healthy and active, set goals, monitor progress, regulate emotions, respect their own rights and the rights of others, manage stress, and persevere in difficult situations. Students who demonstrate personal awareness and responsibility demonstrate self-respect and express a sense of personal well-being.

Also linked to SEL is the area of Social Responsibility.  https:curriculum.gov.bc.ca /competencies/social-responsibility  Social Responsibility involves the ability and disposition to consider the interdependence of people with each other and the natural environment; to 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.

In the fall of 2017, we will be undertaking the MDI (Middle Years Development Instrument) with all our Grade 4 and 7 students.  http://earlylearning.ubc.ca/mdi/ The MDI is a self-report questionnaire that asks children how they think and feel about their experiences both inside and outside of school. It includes questions related to the five areas of development that are strongly linked to well-being, health and academic achievement:

• Physical Health & Well-Being
• Connectedness
• Social and Emotional Development
• School Experiences
• Use of After-School Time

Once completed, the MDI will help identify and further plan for school-wide and targeted support for SEL.

During the 2015-16 school year, we gathered evidence from our students on the following questions:

During the 2016-17 school year, our student evidence addresses the following questions:

We use our evidence to determine the impact of our school-wide supports on the overall Social and Emotional competence of our students and help us celebrate and adjust our plans as needed.

Since our opening in 2013, our staff has worked to develop school-wide universal supports for Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). Our specific inquiry questions help focus our work as follows:

• Will the explicit teaching of Social and Emotional Learning through the ‘Second Step’ and ‘MindUp’ programs improve our students social and emotional learning skills?
• Will the use of the ‘Universal Design for Learning’ model help to improve our targeted (tier 2) students’ social emotional competence?

Guiding Principles of our work:

• based on positive, proactive approaches
• utilizes the Universal Design for Learning framework (3 tiers) requires
• requires school-wide ownership, shared responsibility, consistent approaches
• requires direct, explicit, consistent instruction and reinforcement to all students restorative vs.
• restorative vs. punitive based on current research and recommended programs/resources

Strategies/Resources/Structures at Goldstone Park include:

• Universal Design move for Supporting Social and Emotional Learning (3 tiers)
• school-wide, classroom, and intensive SEL supports for students‘Second Step’- School-wide training and implementation-Kindergarten to Grade 7
• ‘MindUP’ – School-wide training and implementation- Kindergarten to Grade 7
• Zones of Regulation- focussed as targeted support (Tier 2- Childcare Worker, LST, counselor, etc)
• Grade group collaboration

Our current leadership work is to inspire professional engagement by nurturing teacher leadership at the school level. In partnership with the District’s Teacher Leadership Series, we are scaffolding the learning of this group of teachers with collaborative inquiry. Leadership development requires a desire to be a better leader, an openness to reflect on one’s own approach to leadership, and willingness to grow and adjust. Leadership requires us to be thoughtful and intentional about the work we do. We are currently formulating a strategic plan to work with all our stakeholder groups in revisiting our core values in our growing community.

 Established clear Code of Conduct as per District Policy

“Galaxy of Respect” school –wide grid of expectations in all areas of school

“Leading the Learning” grade group collaboration teams work on implementing school-wide plans, addressing inquiry questions

Student Leadership Team (assemblies, managers, monitors, charity, special events)

All Grade 6/7 students are responsible for being on one of our teams: We Team, Fit Kids Leaders, AAA Team, Peer Tutors, Athletics, Technology

Grade 5 students are responsible for Peer Mediation and Recycling.

Grade 7 students attend an outdoor education camp each year at Camp Elphinstone.

Team Time – Kindergarten to grade 7 teams meet several times per year

Buddy Classes

School/Community events (clubs, sports teams, parent volunteers, assemblies, concerts, field studies, Halloween Dance, student performances, etc.)

Tier 2 Targeted Supports

Students with identified areas of need receive Social and Emotional support, in addition to the regular classroom program. These students are identified through classroom teacher and district staff observations, parent requests, and educational reports. Our School-Based Team supports these students in a variety of ways including:

• collaborating with classroom teachers and around strategies for positive behaviour supports
• working with parents to share information and strategies, accessing additional supports
• working with teachers and parents to create positive behaviour support plans

Our Child and Youth Care Worker supports a variety of students in the following ways:

• recess and lunch social skills groups
• strategies for students to use the “Zones of Regulation”, “Fun Friends”, and “Second Step” programs

http://zonesofregulation.com

• in-class support with self-regulation, skills for learning, emotion management
• leads intramural games at lunch (floor hockey, gaga ball, indoor soccer)
• daily check-in with students to increase chances of a successful day
• visits students in their classes and provide individual students with encouragement and support
• monitor student attendance
• offer council in anger management, problem-solving, life skills and conflict resolution
• discuss and coordinate behaviour management techniques
• act as an advocate and liaise with students, school, and community
• support classroom teachers with positive behaviour strategies
• parent connection