Bridgeview Elementary
OUR CONTEXT
Please check out this video, introducing you to our school:
As a staff (and community) we are committed to providing our students with not only a first-class education but also with a place where they feel safe and connected. We want to provide them with opportunities that they may not otherwise be able to access—such as sports, field trips, swimming lessons, camp, after-school activities, etc.
Because of the nature of our school, we do more than attend to the curricular needs of our students. Ways that we do that include:
●Breakfast and lunch programs
●A weekend food program (food bags or gift cards go home on Thursdays)
●A clothing “closet” where families can grab some second-hand clothes if needed
●Buying families basic necessities if required (like underwear, medicine, etc)
●Helping families get to important meetings or appointments (like the dentist or a counselling session)
●Driving students to and from school if needed
We have the support of many generous sponsors that help our students experience many extra enriching activities such as:
- sponsoring field trips to the Surrey Children's Festival, the beach, the pumpkin patch and more.
- providing the whole school with a "breakfast with Santa" and gifts to go home with
- experiences with professional athletes such as CEBL players
- access to nature through gardening and forest experiences
OUR LEARNERS
Our learners are at the heart of our work around reading at Bridgeview Elementary. As a staff, we inspire our students to read everyday. We encourage students to find books that are interesting and on topic areas that they care about. When students are reading in the classroom they are given opportunities to connect with each other and the world around them. We also need to make sure that we attend to the needs of ALL of our learners-- from the ones that find reading "easy" to the ones that find reading challenging.
OUR FOCUS
Over the past four years, along with Social Emotional Learning, we have been focusing on Reading both in our classrooms and school wide. This year we made Reading an “official” goal and had a Reading focus steering committee
This year we have:
- Done a school-wide reading assessment.
- Had classroom book clubs
- Had two sets of staff involved in the “Responding to Readers” initiative.
- Continued with school-wide Words Their Way practice
- Direct teaching of non-fiction reading strategies
- Levelled reading bins in all classrooms.
- EPIC books
- SPARK Reading (hundreds of books available)
- Bought decodable texts for our at-risk readers and those learning to read.
- Improving reading stamina
- One-on-one reading with at-risk readers
- School wide reading activities such as flashlight reading, family reading etc (trying to make reading fun)
- Noon Hour Supervisor reading with small groups every day.
- Home Reading Programs in most primary classrooms
- Guided reading/ literacy centers in most classrooms
- PM Benchmark assessment available for all classroom teachers
In the past we have provided staff with many opportunities for professional development around how students learn to read and how to support their development.
- Lunch and Learn series (8 sessions) on how students learn to read
- Staff book study on Reading Above the Fray, as well as Shifting the Balance
- Working with LST team to “tweak” their practice to best fit with what we know about learners
OUR NEXT STEPS
We have spent the last four years focused on developing our students’ Reading Skills. We know that it has made a difference.
Our most recent data shows that our students are reading well.
87% of our students are reading grade-level texts (with comprehension) at an instructional level and above. 13% of our students are reading below grade-level.
This compares with the BC statistic of ~25% of students reading below grade-level. This indicates that our reading focus is making a difference for our school.
We will continue to focus on targeting our struggling readers; however, with this information in mind, staff have discussion moving towards a writing goal. Data indicates that we have several students that are reading at grade-level but not spelling or writing at grade-level and we are curious about that gap. What is the gap? What is causing it? How can we address it?
Surrey Schools
Formed in 1906, the Surrey School District currently has the largest student enrolment in British Columbia and is one of the few growing districts in the province. It is governed by a publicly elected board of seven trustees.
The district serves the cities of Surrey and White Rock and the rural area of Barnston Island.
