École Henry Bose »

École Henry Bose Elementary School is known for its very kind and caring students. New students immediately feel welcomed at their new school as they are greeted with warmth and treated with respect. Similarly, new staff members enjoy the many acts of kindness that occur so frequently at our school, the high level of respect shown by all as well as how inclusive students are with one another. Our student population of about 360 Kindergarten to Grade 7 students prides itself of being multi-cultural. The many languages spoken in our school community’s homes make our school a very rich learning environment for our students and staff members. A high percentage of our students speak another language at home. Several of our staff members also speak more than one language.

Henry Bose offers two distinct learning programs: a neighbourhood program where the language of instruction is English for our Kindergarten to Grade 7 students and a District program of late French Immersion for some of our Grade 6 and 7 students. Regardless of which program students are enrolled in, students have a common sense of belonging to one school and are seen playing and learning together.

At our school, students always want to help others with their many positive skills and outlooks. Among others, students …

• love to help newcomers who might be challenged with learning a second language,
• initiate fundraising activities for non-profit organizations,
• show excellent sportsmanship when competing in sports with other schools (Our school has been awarded the sportsmanship award at the District Track Meet two years in a row.), and
• readily apologize for their mistakes without being prompted to do so.

Many on-call staff members dispatched to Henry Bose for a single day wish they could have a permanent position at our school as they feel welcomed and appreciated by our students. They also report being treated with kindness and care by all.

Despite the many qualities exhibited by our students, our staff members recognize that many of our students have challenges with reading comprehension: a very important skill central to one’s academic, intellectual and social development. Our school goal is to foster a love of reading and develop stronger comprehension skills through exposing our students to a variety of experiences and a plethora of reading materials.

Our teachers notice that many of our younger students take a longer time to develop sound decoding skills in their pursuit of becoming independent readers. Similarly, many of our older students find reading materials they encounter at school and in their community challenging to understand as they further develop their literacy skills.

All our students truly enjoyed having stories read to them by their teachers. Teachers report that students often request that their teachers read another picture book or chapter to them. They love going to our school library to select books of their choices. Once back in their respective classrooms, students will ask to read with another student, taking turns, sharing their understanding of the story, laughing at the funny pictures.

Teachers also report that many of their students’ understanding of the passages read to them or by themselves remain relatively basic and literal.

In their professional discussions, teachers are also reporting that many students do not choose to read at home in their free time.

As a staff, we are in the process of getting a clearer picture of …

• who our students are as readers,
• what kind of reading our students engage themselves in on their own time,
• what kind of books our students prefer to read: fiction or non-fiction,
•  what decoding and reading comprehension strategies are being used by our students
• what areas of reading require further attention on the part of our teachers as we develop our students’ reading skills: decoding, reading comprehension.

As we gather further information about our learners, we will develop an inquiry question that will narrow the focus based on the reading needs of our students. From there, we will develop a plan that will see our students …

• further develop their reading skills,
• expand their interest in reading on their own at home,
• foster a genuine love of reading on their own and with others,
• become life-long learners through their continued reading.

We know that by engaging our students to further develop their reading skills, we enable them to become independent learners. To that end, we, as teachers, will be taking the necessary steps to identify …

•  our students’ reading needs by taking stock of their current reading levels,
•  best practices in our teaching / developing reading skills,
•  books and stories of high interest that have a greater appeal to children,
•  provisions of independent reading opportunities for our students. 

As we move forward with the plan, we will monitor our students’ progress and love of reading.