Katzie »

Katzie Elementary School is a relatively new school, presently completing its fourth year of operation and the third full year in its permanent home.  Our current student population is 810 students and 97 staff members with anticipated growth of approximately 100 students per year for the next 2 years. Katzie is part of a rapidly growing community comprised  primarily of young families.  The distribution of students is significantly weighted towards the Primary level with approximately 70% of the Divisions enrolling Kindergarten to Grade 3. In terms of teaching and support personnel, there is a very experienced staff with a smaller number of newer teachers, mostly in term positions. The teaching staff is highly collaborative and the opportunity for shared  work is significant due to the number of classes at each grade level (i.e. 6 kindergarten classes). There is a large special education, child care worker, and ABASW staff that works alongside the teaching staff and are full participants in all aspects of school life. There are numerous  programs, teams and clubs available for students to participate in outside of class time and these extracurricular initiatives are all sponsored by our teachers and support staff. The students that we teach come from a variety of socioeconomic  backgrounds. Many of our families are young. There is a very supportive parent group, led by an active PAC executive that is supported by a large number of volunteers.  

The sheer size and continued growth of Katzie presents many opportunities and challenges.  At over 800 students, staff consistently stated in a staff survey that the size of our school presented many of our daily challenges.  The various social interactions and occasional conflicts that occur throughout classrooms, in hallways and on the playground are in part due to our size, complexity and high number of primary-aged students. The staff is very aware that all students in the school would benefit from increased targeted support in the area of Social and Emotional Learning. The unique context of a large cohort of Early Primary students and the comparatively small number of Upper Intermediate students leads to a need for more enhanced role modelling.  Staff have determined that self-regulation, personal resiliency and problem solving skills for students are key areas of focus for Katzie. Many of our students are working on developing their problem solving and self regulation skills.  This understanding is made evident through regular observations of student interactions by staff, students and parents.  Teachers and support staff spend a great deal of time teaching social and emotional learning.  In the 2016/17 school year, staff met to discuss their observations and overwhelmingly decided that a focus on social and emotional learning should be the main focus for Katzie.  In addition, staff have agreed that a consistent focus on honouring Aboriginal perspectives and culture will benefit all students while aligning with the newly redesigned BC curriculum.  

How can we improve overall student success by providing focused attention and support in the areas of social and emotional learning?  How do we help students to understand the importance of positive self-regulation and good social and emotional skills?  How do we work as a school and connect with parents and the community in order to promote and sustain this growth in our students?

Katzie students raise money for Cops for Cancer.

The staff believes that presenting consistent resources and strategies that spiral through the grades would assist in providing students with the tools that they need to recognize and engage in better self-regulation and socially acceptable behaviour. This would, in turn, result in a renewed focus on academic success, and will benefit all students.

As a fairly new school, this is Katzie’s second year of this school goal and staff has spent significant time investigating and working with a rich range of resources. These include Second Step, Zones of Regulation, WITS, Mind Up, Classroom Community and various teacher developed strategies and resources.

Health Hustle at Katzie!

The staff has been involved in engaging and educating the community in developing a common message that will be key to the long term success of this goal.  Our summer 2016 pro-d event was led by former SEL (social-emotional learning) teacher, Rebecca Chaytor, and focused on implementing self-regulation strategies in the classroom and school.  In addition, our May 2017 pro-d will include an Aboriginal cultural presentation from our district cultural facilitators and we are currently exploring the idea of holding a full pro-d day at Katzie First Nation in the 2017/18 school year.

Katzie staff has formed a very large committee of 25 teachers that focuses on developing our school’s social and emotional goal in a tangible way.  In order to allow for everyone’s voices to be heard and honoured, the SEL committee divided into 4 sub-committee groups:

1. Data (establishing baseline SEL data and subsequent methods to measure success)
2. School-Home Communication and Connection (common language between school and home)
3. Classroom SEL Activities and Resources
4. School-Wide Events (with monthly SEL focuses)

In addition, in February 2017, staff met to develop a school-wide behaviour matrix for student behaviour and presented the matrix to students in a fun ‘Family Feud’ theme at our February assembly.

Three other ‘inquiry groups’ continue to provide meaningful work that enhances the overall quality of Katize. These interest-specific inquiry groups are: Numeracy Inquiry Group, Technology Integration Committee and Digital CSL Inquiry Group.

Katzie Elementary School deeply values its close partnership with Katzie First Nation and has partnered with the Katzie First Nation community on a number of occasions.

Katzie Elementary and Katzie First Nations celebrate the unveiling of our welcome posts.

Most recently, in June 2016, Katzie Elementary hosted the Katzie First Nation community for the unveiling ceremony of our welcome posts and community feast.  In addition, Katzie First Nations Chief and Council have joined our school’s September school start-up assembly, Orange Shirt Day and Remembrance Day assembly.  We have invited members of the Katzie First Nation Chief and Council to join us for our Aboriginal Week Celebration at the end of May.  Our staff continues to look for ways to authentically integrate and honour Aboriginal culture and perspectives into our school’s everyday life.