Ecole Frost Road 25-26

Each and every day, among the variety of learning experiences presented to our primary learners and English Language Learners, our team of educators focuses on thinking, reading, writing, and communicating across all curricular areas. Our aim is to build strong literacy foundations that are fundamental for students’ participation in today’s world.

Our students’ learning goal is to write fluently at grade level, using developmentally appropriate strategies to express ideas clearly, organize thoughts effectively, and communicate with purpose and voice. Through explicit instruction, modeling, and opportunities for authentic writing, students learn to craft sentences and paragraphs that reflect their understanding, creativity, and individuality.

We emphasize writing as a process: planning, drafting, revising, and editing so students develop resilience and confidence as writers. By integrating Social-Emotional Learning and the First Peoples Principles of Learning, we encourage writing that is holistic, reflective, and relational. Students explore personal narratives, respond to texts, and engage in collaborative writing experiences that connect them to their peers, their community, and the world around them. Our ultimate goal is to empower students to see writing not only as an academic skill but as a lifelong tool for thinking, self-expression, and making their voices heard.

This year, our school-wide write provided meaningful opportunities for teachers to collaboratively analyze student writing across grade groups. Teachers examined trends, identified common strengths and areas of challenge, and engaged in discussion about assessment practices to support equitable and consistent understandings of proficiency. Staff also participated in professional development opportunities to explore a range of writing resources and to share instructional successes with colleagues. Through this shared inquiry and collaboration, teachers reflected on their writing instruction and identified next steps to strengthen planning, scaffolding, and targeted support for learners.

Building Positive Attitudes Toward Writing

Developing positive attitudes toward writing is a key factor in improving student achievement and engagement. When students see themselves as capable writers and feel motivated to express their ideas, they are more willing to take risks, persist through challenges, and refine their skills over time. As part of this learning plan, we have identified our current Grade 5 students as a focus cohort. This group provides a meaningful reference point within the intermediate years, as writing demands deepen in both complexity and independence.

We have collected initial data on these students, including their self-perceptions as writers, levels of engagement during writing tasks, and overall attitudes toward writing. This data, shared below, will serve as a starting point for measuring growth. Over the next two years, we will continue to monitor both their progress in writing skills and changes in their attitudes toward writing. By tracking this cohort longitudinally, we aim to monitor how our school-wide focus on improving writing supports growth in student confidence, engagement, and performance, and to use this information to guide ongoing instructional decisions.

2025/2026 - Grade 5 Cohort Data

Most students demonstrate neutral to positive attitudes toward writing, with a smaller group indicating low engagement. This highlights an opportunity to build confidence and increase engagement through choice and structured support.

Survey data indicates that while most Grade 5 students have a generally positive attitude toward writing, many report only moderate confidence in their abilities. The most significant challenge identified is generating ideas and getting started, with students frequently expressing difficulty knowing what to write. Additional challenges include spelling, organization, and expanding their writing. Students identified that they are most supported by teacher modelling, examples, feedback, and opportunities to work collaboratively. Many students also indicated that having choice in writing topics and more time to develop their ideas would increase engagement. These results suggest a need to focus on explicit instruction in idea generation, scaffolding through modelling, and providing opportunities for student choice and collaboration.

Our 2025 Foundational Skills Assessment (FSA) results provided valuable insights into students’ literacy development, helping us better understand current levels of proficiency.

These FSA Literacy (writers‑only) results show most students are on track in both Grade 4 and Grade 7, with a higher Emerging proportion and fewer Extending in Grade 7. This points to the importance of targeted literacy support and opportunities to demonstrate advanced proficiency in the intermediate grades.

Based on the collaborative work completed this year, our school will continue to strengthen writing instruction through several key actions. We are working toward implementing new writing programs and increasing the instructional focus on writing across all grade levels. As part of this work, we will continue to monitor our identified Grade 5 cohort, using their baseline data on writing skills and attitudes to track growth over time and better understand the impact of our school-wide efforts. We will continue to participate in school‑wide writes to gather meaningful data that informs our progress and guides instructional decisions, including tracking changes within this cohort over the next two years. In addition, we will provide ongoing professional development opportunities for teachers to deepen their understanding of effective writing practices and to share successful strategies. Lastly, we will implement school‑wide writing initiatives and activities designed to build consistency, support student engagement, and celebrate growth in writing across the school.