Dogwood Elementary 24-25
OUR CONTEXT
Dogwood is located on the unceded and shared traditional territory of the Katzie, Kwantlen, Semihamoo, and other Coast Salish Peoples, who have been custodians of this land from time immemorial. Specifically, we are closely connected to the Katzie People-- across the river and close to Barnston Island.
Dogwood is a large, diverse elementary school in the Fraser Heights area of the Guildford community in Surrey, BC. Our school is committed to supporting families and providing opportunities for students to help them develop social emotional and academic skills to reach their full potential. Our students have a variety of opportunities at our school, including many extra-curricular activities to explore their individual passions and interests. We feel passionate about taking care of our students and their families and knowing the stories of our learners, as well as their strengths and challenges, so we can support them, encourage them to grow and be their best selves. From the First Peoples Principles of Learning we acknowledge that learning involves patience and time and requires the exploration of one's identity.
Celebrations are a big part of the yearly calendar at Dogwood. Throughout the year we prepare for different events and learning opportunities that reflect and honour the culture and diversity of our community.
We are taking important steps at Dogwood on our journey towards Truth and Reconciliation, and we continue to work towards the goal of decolonizing learning.
OUR LEARNERS
During the fall of 2024, the staff developed a vision statement:
At Dogwood we are developing an inclusive and diverse community. We value a positive learning environment that nurtures respect, connections, and a sense of belonging to give each student the opportunity to grow.
Our learners are at the heart of our work around writing at Dogwood Elementary. As a staff, we inspire our students to write everyday. We encourage students to explore topic areas that they care about. When students are writing 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 writing "easy" to the ones that find writing challenging.
OUR FOCUS
With a new administrative team at the helm, staff have engaged in deep and meaningful discussions over the year to align ourselves with the current needs of our students. We have settled on our new learning focus of writing for the foreseeable future. With this focus, staff are in the process of creating a plan on how to move forward with best practice and a keen view of what’s best for our Dogwood students.
We suspected that writing would be a beneficial focus, consequently we did a school wide write in February to get an initial read on student ability. Teachers assessed this writing in grade groups, discussing teacher expectations using grade appropriate rubrics. At that time teachers discussed some of the commonalities they saw in writing samples and what specific items that could be highlighted in our 2025-2026 academic year. This is what we saw (using the BC Performance Standards):
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As we began the 2025/26 school year, we will again collect more baseline data demonstrating where the students are at for September and how they progress throughout the year. This data will be included in the 2026 Student Learning Plan.
OUR NEXT STEPS
Where are we now?
We are at the very beginning of our journey. All staff have agreed on Writing as a focus. We have ordered resources. Teachers’ summer professional development will be focussed on discussing most current practise trends, developing common grade group strategies and preparing assessments for September so we can create a baseline for data. We are looking forward to being able to report student progress to the Dogwood community next June.
When planning for writing we are committed to embedding First People’s Principles of Learning as well as other culturally diverse experiences that represent our Dogwood community.
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.
