L.A. Matheson »

L.A. Matheson Secondary is located at 9484 – 122 Street in Surrey, British Columbia. We are a school of approximately 1100 students and over 100 staff.  We are an excellent school that has many academic, athletic, cultural and service oriented activities available for our students. Our students primarily come to us from our K – 7 catchment  schools of Senator Reid Elementary, Cedar Hills Elementary, Prince Charles Elementary, Kennedy Trail Elementary, Royal Heights Elementary and Kirkbride Elementary.

Our Mission Statement:

L.A. Matheson provides a safe, cooperative, and supportive environment that promotes social, intellectual and creative growth for students. Our aim is to create an environment that fosters healthy, productive and responsible citizens for our global community.

Our Beliefs and Values:

• Students develop responsibility for their actions and decisions as these relate to their own academic and social development.
• In order for a positive learning environment for students to exist, a positive environment must also exist for the staff members.
• Positive self-esteem enhances students’ learning and cooperation.
• All students have inherent abilities that can be developed and expressed.
• The ability to critically assess needs and plan through goal setting are necessary features of citizenship and lifelong learning.

What we know about our learners:

At L.A. Matheson we care about all of our students and value the communities from which they come.  We take pride in our work and always strive to improve on how we deliver education.  Below is a list of bullets that describe how we have come to know our learners and their families.  We know as educators, that in order to improve our practices, we must be forthright with our data and honest in how we interpret and post our beliefs. The first step to improving our practice is to honestly identify what we know about our learners and our community. At L.A. Matheson:

• Our learners are a diverse multicultural group of students who represent over 30 different countries.
• Over 50% of our students speak a language other than English at home.
• Our students have plenty of school pride and work hard to be successful.
• We have some students who have have gaps in their learning because of their varied experiences and having moved around many times and attended many different schools.
• We have identified that our learners tend to have a gender disparity where our girls at times do better than our boys in some aspects of their education.
• Some of of our families find it challenging to be involved with our school, communicate with our teachers and struggle with knowing how to support their child’s school work at home.
• Some of our students have disclosed that they find it difficult to connect with their teachers.
• We have some students who have faced such adversity in their lives that they now find it challenging to achieve high standards and at times become overwhelmed.
• We have an identified small cohort of students who have chronic attendance issues and struggle to find engagement in their learning.
• The majority of our students attend school regularly and are fully engaged in their learning.

In regards to what we know about our learners, the evidence we used to support each statement comes from these sources:

Our learners are a diverse multicultural grouping of students who represent over 30 different countries

• Student cultural and demographic background data

Over 50% of our students speak a language other than English at home.

• Student demographic data

Our students have plenty of school pride and work hard to be successful.

• Teacher & student interview matrix data
• Number of students volunteering and participating in school activities

We have some students who have have gaps in their learning because of their varied experiences and having moved around many times and attended many different schools.

• Academic marks analysis
• LAM support services data
• Student attendance data
• Family migration patterns in and out of schools
• Grade 8 – 12 school completion data

We have identified that our learners tend to have a gender disparity where our girls, at times, do better than our boys in some aspects of their education.

• Marks analysis by gender and grade
• Participation in clubs, athletics and programs by gender
• Gender disparity data in student leadership and volunteer roles

Some of of our families find it challenging to be involved with our school, communicate with our teachers and struggle with knowing how to support their child’s school work at home.

• Parent attendance at monthly PAC meetings
• Parent attendance at Parent – Teacher interviews
• Grade 7 & 8 parent night participation numbers
• Teacher interview matrix data
• Use of our school website
• Overall use of our school app
• Current economic reality of having both parents working
• Our LAM grade 8 parent involvement program numbers

Some of our students have disclosed that they find it difficult to connect with their teachers.

• Student interview matrix data
• Teacher interview matrix data
• LAM Support Services data
• Counsellors qualitative data

We have identified a small cohort of students who have chronic attendance issues and struggle to find engagement in their learning. 

• Student attendance data
• Teacher interview matrix data

The focuses that emerged as questions to pursue are around improving assessment strategies, instilling more authentic aboriginal content, developing an ethic of care to enhance student resiliency and connections and working to help teachers successfully implement the new curriculum.

Assessment Strategies

• How will the implementation of having common school wide assessment strategies in the form of conferences and self-assessment affect our students’ learning, in terms of growth, engagement and understanding?

Aboriginal Content

• How do we ensure that we are successfully and authentically incorporating Aboriginal content and ways of knowing (following the FPPL) so that it is both strengths based and culturally responsive for all learners?

Student Resiliency and Connections

• How can we improve on the ethic of care we apply as teachers, parents and a community so that our students have more resiliency in overcoming barriers to their learning and social development?

New Curriculum

• How will departments and teachers collaborate to develop a plan of support to successfully implement the new curriculum and how it changes over time for our students?

Our LAM teachers have identified that they need more time and opportunities to learn:

• More about the Core and Curricular Competencies.
• How to more effectively use social media and technology in the learning and assessment process.
• How we can better implement Social Emotional Learning  into our teaching and classrooms.
• How to use digital portfolios using FreshGrade & the MyEd Locker Room.
• How to interface with and use the Parent and Student portals in MyEd.
• How to effectively use GradeBook.
• New and inovative teaching strategies and assessment practices.
• And collaborate on the development and sharing of resources.

Our plan at L.A. Matheson is to continue to Build Community, Enhance Capacity and Bridge Connectivity.

Building Community  

• We will work to answer purposely designed authentic questions of inquiry developed from each school department.
• We will work to increase our parent involvement with PAC and continue to seek better ways to communicate with our students’ parents and guardians to develop ways to increase their involvement in their child’s learning process.

Enhancing Capacity

• We will work to develop a “Unified Process of Support” for our support services that encompasses referrals, early identification, at-risk support and attendance concerns.
• We will work to meet the changing curriculum innovation and assessment practices.
• We will utilize the student and parent portal to effectively communicate student learning and help promote more authentic assessments.
• We will foster and support a “Teacher Learning Partners” initiative.

Bridging Connectivity

• We will work to develop an inventory of strategies that address student resiliency in order to help our students overcome obstacles and barriers to their success.
• We will work to authentically incorporate aboriginal context into classrooms and school culture.
• We will work to improve how we recognize and celebrate student successes.
• We will work to improve our delivery of social emotional learning to our junior grades.

PDF Download: Supporting Student Success at LAM