Part 1: Analysis of Context
1. What do we know about our learners?
In May of 2016, our staff at that time came together with the new principal, who would be joining the White Rock Learning Centre in September 2016. We spent the day getting to know a little bit about each other. The focus of the day, however, was working toward an understanding of who our students are; their strengths, their challenges and the potential opportunities awaiting them. We also explored our current teaching practices; strengths, challenges and opportunities awaiting us. The results of this day are outlined below:
STRENGTHS of our students: Honest, genuine, view staff as allies, respectful, through adversity have learned empathy, spiritual growth, creativity, individuality, fun, academic, socially aware of etiquette, strong employability skills, involved parents, open, cooperative, polite, ambitious, friendly, sense of family, student teacher ratio, resilience, creative, want to be good, students talented – artists, musicians, willing to try new things.
CHALLENGES our students face: Key support staff keep moving, anxiety/depression/mental health, unhealthy coping strategies, some involved in criminal activities, personal life dysfunction, socio-economic inequalities, difficulty in making social/life choices regarding peers and mentors, transit; disconnected from other areas, geographical difficulties have implications on peer groups and career opportunities, feeling entitled, resistant to opportunities, apathy, mental health, attendance, lack of progress, accountability, addiction, self-harm, connection – belonging, independence,
OPPORTUNITIES for our students: Creativity, opportunity to express themselves through art, music, culinary, writing, film-making, animation. Individualized or small group curriculum delivery. Caring supportive staff Mindfulness, Yo BRO Yo GIRL, consistent policies and messages, boundaries – food, phones, movement, schedule. Project based learning, career exploration, field learning, chunking, career/trades, flexibility, group projects, hands on learning experiences, model behaviour, community service, generosity, give of themselves, healthy relationships, re-conceptualizing curriculum, passion projects, inquiry projects, expert projects, share the learning, personalize the learning.
Students – Strengths Challenges Opportunities – May 30, 2016
We also collected our thoughts and ideas about our teaching practices:
Practices & Approaches – teaching practice brainstorm May 30 2016
2. What evidence supports what we know about our learners?
At the end of September 2016, we were able to revisit our work from May. The following question, guided our reflection about our learners:
How do we know what we know? What evidence supports what we know about our learners?
Focus & question results – Sept 26
During our January 2017 staff meeting we had an opportunity to “check in” and reflect on the question we had landed on in September:
What can staff and students do to get students into the building to create our school community?
This question speaks to the school community we are trying to build. During our “check in”, staff reflected on the things they felt were working in terms of getting students in the building…
- Communication with the YCW
- Texting and technology
- Phone calls – “Badgering phone calls do work”
- Structure at the centre is different/positive culture helps
- Kids who want to be here feel comfortable, and there are interesting types of students who want to be here!
- Engaging opportunities, like “Urban Safari”
An interesting idea and concept: “Everything I Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten” This is how centres should feel and be for all kids….
Part 2: Focus and Planning
3. What focus emerges as a question to pursue?
What can staff and students do to get students into the building to create our school community?
- Where does the learning fit in?
As staff and students have settled into some new routines, have gotten to know each other a little better and continue to work toward building a community of care, the opportunities for learning are expanding, and student engagement in their own learning is building. As a staff, we have been focusing on our work which we identified a year ago. And through this work, we believe we are not only creating a positive school community but we are also focusing on the learning.
Focus & question results – Sept 26
4. What professional learning do we need?
We need to:
- Explore the new curriculum and ways to effectively implement it within the centre
- Analyse both quantitative and qualitative data
- Reach out to district staff to support us
September 26, 2016 NID September 25, 2017
- Become more familiar with the Framework for Decreasing Chronic Absenteeism, the Guided Inquiry Design Framework, the First Peoples Principles of Learning, and the Model of Leadership & Service from Transforming Discipline
What do our adventures and experiments look like? August 29, 2017
Looking ahead:
- District Helping Teacher Scott Smith is actively engaged in helping us develop our Community Cohort
- Our teaching staff is attending the Alternate Education Conference on February 23, 2018
- Looking ahead to our Non-Instructional Day in September 2018, we are hoping to have Kevin Honeywell, Gordon Powell and Lyn Daniels join the Learning Centre staffs.
Video is up at: https://vimeo.com/253230940 Sparking Today’s Learners
5. What is our plan?
What focus emerges as a question to pursue?
- What are some questions you have related to this focus?
Our focus:
Cohorts?
Gym/PE/Art/Leadership
Well-being of students – physical, emotional and academic
Our questions:
- What has a successful cohort looked like?
- What are the foundations of a successful cohort?
Our focus:
Attendance / Curriculum delivery
Our questions:
- How can we increase attendance?
- Through engaging curriculum that’s more personalized?
- Through activities supportive of health?
Our focus:
Connections – friendships, units, cohort, contentment, social
Outcomes – better attendance, better progress, happier, foster commitment, make school a priority
Our questions:
- How can students begin to engage with each other within the centre?
Our focus:
It flows T – S (teacher to student). We are really good at this connection.
Our questions:
- How to get S – Student? (student to student) How do we build student to student connections?
Our focus:
This engagement in curriculum and community
Our questions:
- How to make students hungry and thirsty for learning? (Attraction not promotion)
September-26-2016 School Plan Focus & question results – Sept 26
Part 3: Reflect, Adjust, Celebrate
6. How will we know our plan is making a difference? (evidence / success criteria)
Our WORK:
- What has a successful cohort looked like?
- What are the foundations of a successful cohort?
In February of 2017, we launched our first cohort at White Rock. The statistical results of this cohort were fantastic – 90% attendance, 99% completion. But the unmeasured results were even better!
The Active Citizenship Cohort
One semester…one block…four weeks of work experience…two courses
The Active Citizenship Cohort will provide students with the opportunity to actively participate in their school and community while completing English Language Arts 11 or 12 and Work Experience in one semester. Students will work in a cohort environment for one block over the course of a semester. The cohort will also take part in four separate work experience opportunities (as a group). The English Language Arts component of the co-op will focus on identity. Students will be encouraged to develop a better sense of self and then consider how they can use their talents and traits to affect positive personal and societal change. The work experience component will have the students participating in community based activities including, volunteering at the Surrey Food Bank and at A Roche Environmental Stewardship.
Service learning… team building… social and emotional growth…
Community Update March 3, 2017 Community Update March 31, 2017
In the spring of 2017 we launched another cohort – Robotics 12. We are currently running our second Robotics cohort which will wrap up just before spring break 2018. The new curriculum encourages project based learning, applied skills and design technology, and core competencies. The Robotics cohort incorporates all of these elements and more. Community Update April 7, 2017 Community Update Dec 8, 2017
In January 2018 we launched our second cohort – Foods and Nutrition 12. So far so good. The goal has been to create choice cohorts where students get an opportunity to engage in hands on, shared learning experiences. In March 2018 we are launching
In March 2018, we are launching another cohort. The Community Cohort. This program will focus on service learning, team building and social and emotional growth. Students will have the opportunity to participate in hands on, shared learning experiences and work closely with community organizations including the City of Surrey and The Bike Zone.
September 2018 – May 2019 – Throughout this school year we have layered a number of cohorts into our programs. These cohorts include:
FOOD
ART FOUNDATIONS (x 2)
PHILOSOPHY (x 2)
ROBOTICS
COMMUNITY
ACTIVE LIVING – GIRLS PE
Community Update April 5, 2019 Community Update April 26, 2019 Community Update Sept 21, 2018 Community Update Oct 12, 2018
These cohorts aim to address all of our questions:
- What has a successful cohort looked like? What are the foundations of a successful cohort?
- How can we increase attendance? Through engaging curriculum that’s more personalized? Through activities supportive of health?
- How can students begin to engage with each other within the centre?
- How to get S – Student? (student to student) How do we build student to student connections?
- How to make students hungry and thirsty for learning? (Attraction not promotion)
Not only are we implementing new learning experiences for students with the centre, but we are also addressing our questions through our daily work with students within our classrooms.
- How can we increase attendance?
This is an ongoing challenge. The Learning Centre, by design, cares for students who have been chronic non-attenders and often disengaged learners. This is our work as an alternate school. What can we do to engage those who are disengaged?
Through engaging curriculum that’s more personalized?
A snapshot from Nov 2016… This week I had the privilege to participate in a student
portfolio presentation and assessment. One of our students, Ajax, demonstrated his interdisciplinary learning by presenting his project on The Sengoku Period: Toward Unification. This project reflected learning in history, english language, arts and culture. What a fabulous experience! Thank you to Tom and Ajax for inviting me.
Community Update April 7, 2017 Community Update May 5, 2017 
- Through activities supportive of health?
- How can students begin to engage with each other within the centre?
- How to get S – Student? (student to student)
We are making a concentrated effort to bring small groups of students together, pair students in their learning experiences and come together as a larger group when the opporunity is right. The nature of our instructional practice has been to have students working independently. Things are shifting…..
- How to make students hungry and thirsty for learning? (Attraction not promotion)
Is this not the question educators constantly strive to answer? The shift in BC’s curriculum is aimed at addressing this question. As we move to more personalized, inquiry driven, project based learning that is focused on skills not content, the hope is that students will not only engage in their own learning but be able to reflect on and assess their growth as a learner. As we look for ways to build our school community and enhance our teaching and learning practices, we hope that our students will be motivated to move their education forward in the direction of their preferred future.
Some of our students have been working on inquiry projects and exploring core competencies. These are elements of the new BC curriculum. This curriculum has been implemented in grades K-9 throughout the province, and this year, we are working to implement the new curriculum for our Grade 10’s and 11’s.
Community Update Sept 29, 2017 Community Update Oct 6, 2017
The core competencies include:
- Communication
- Thinking (Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking)
- Personal & Social (Positive Personal & Cultural Identity, Personal Awareness & Responsibility, Social Responsibility)
Core competencies are sets of intellectual, personal, social and emotional proficiencies that all students need to develop in order to engage in deep and life-long learning. Throughout the school year, we will be exploring and reflecting on these competencies with students.
For more information visit the Ministry of Education website at: https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies
7. Based on the evidence, does our inquiry require adjustment?
What can staff and students do to get students into the building to create our school community?
April 2019
Where does the learning fit in?
As staff and students have settled into some new routines, have gotten to know each other a little better and continue to work toward building a community of care, the opportunities for learning have expanded, and student engagement in their own learning is evident. As a staff, we have been focusing on work we identified almost three years ago. And through this work, we believe we have not only created a positive school community but we have also focused on the learning.
These are the questions we have been addressing:
- What has a successful cohort looked like?
- What are the foundations of a successful cohort?
- How can we increase attendance?
- Through engaging curriculum that’s more personalized?
- Through activities supportive of health?
- How can students begin to engage with each other within the centre?
- How to get S – Student? (student to student)
- How to make students hungry and thirsty for learning? (Attraction not promotion)
Our Cohorts are working to address all of our questions above.
Student Learning
Cohorts – we have been layering a cohort model into our current LC practice. Cohorts are (approximately) 10 week courses that students make application to, and commit to attending. The teacher and students work together to move through the course in a more teacher directed way. Noted is an increase in student attendance, a positive shift toward shared learning experiences, integration of PBL, inquiry, First People’s Principles and engaging, hands on learning experiences for students. Students are choosing these cohorts as alternate ways to learn. It is vital that we offer alternate approaches to learning as our students stay with us often for two or three years. Most students who come to our school, graduate from here. And because of this, they deserve to have a variety of learning experiences throughout their time here.
- Attendance increases significantly in the cohort model (80% vs 60%)
- The cohorts are founded on the “new’ curriculum. Student choice, Project based learning, Active “hands on” experiences, Skill development and assessment – Core Competencies
- The cohorts have groups of students learning together through a shared experience. The students get to know one another, work together and learn together and have fun together.
- The cohorts are POPULAR.
- Teachers are engaged is the art of teaching! All teachers have initiated, developed and ran a cohort this school year (2018 – 2019).
Where to from here?
Next school year, we will be piloting a structural change – A Scheduled Intake Model. The goal is for this model to have a significant positive impact on teaching and learning and on how students transition into our school.
Rationale
The South Surrey White Rock Learning Centre will be piloting a Scheduled Intake Model. This model will:
- provide opportunity for more engaging instruction such as small group or whole group instruction and project based learning with a focus on skill development/curricular competencies
- allow teachers to move through curriculum with a set group of students
- allow teachers to plan learning activities, day to day knowing where students are at, and not having to start over again for a new student
- it would enable the group of students to build better social connections within the set group and/or partner work, critical to the development of personal and social core competencies
- provide an opportunity for smoother and more successful transitions from one setting to the next
As we move toward this pilot, we will be revisiting our School Plan. Over the next several months we need to identify the BROAD LEARNING OUTCOME we want to improve and then work toward a targeted approach to further help our students. We want our school to be a place where students feel safe, are loved, learn, grow and transition to a life they can envision.
RESILIENCE & HOPE