École Martha Currie
OUR CONTEXT
Thank you for viewing the École Martha Currie Elementary Student Learning Plan.
Please click here to learn more about our school.
OUR LEARNERS
Social emotional learning (SEL) anchors all learning. It is the process by which all of us acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. (Casel 2022). Through fostering trusting and collaborative relationships, we can create learning environments and experiences that allow for meaningful academic growth and development. When students have supportive relationships and opportunities to develop and practice social, emotional, and cognitive skills across many different contexts, academic learning accelerates.
Within a safe and connected community, we can enable the students and adults of Martha Currie to reach their full potential by providing tools and mindful strategies to help identify and self-regulate big feelings and emotions.
As a dual track school, one of the key learning outcomes for all of our students is learning that: Observing codes of politeness, knowing how to listen, and letting others speak are practices that facilitate communication and promote respect.
We celebrate our learners' successes and strengths in the area of Français langue seconde - immersion and English Language Arts:
We can interact with others while being respectful.
Our students continuously work on the personal and social skills necessary for learning across all subject areas. Development of these skills takes patience and time. They learn how to express their feelings in socially acceptable ways and show respect and a positive, caring attitude toward others. They take turns in activities and discussions, and contribute to partner and group activities by working co-operatively, giving and receiving help, and joining in small and large group games and activities.
After reading the book, "The Color Monster," by Anna Llenas, which associates different emotions with a colour, students discussed the different emotions and colours. They worked together in small groups to colour one monster in its corresponding colour.
We can be active listeners.
Learning how to be a good communicator involves more than just speaking and sharing ideas.
The story, "Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen," by Howard Binkow, teaches us the importance of being a good listener. In this activity, students listened carefully to directions and followed along. Students brainstormed all the ways we can show good listening.
Students at Martha Currie learn how to be a "whole body" listener.
OUR FOCUS
SEL is a school-wide focus for all of our Martha Currie learners, the evidence below focuses on a cohort of our early learners.
Below are examples of our students' classroom experience as they relate to Self-Awareness and Responsible Decision-Making.
We know that connection, relationships, and a supportive school climate are essential to student academic success. In order to foster these, along with growth mindsets, social emotional learning (SEL) practises are explicitly taught and are integrated within daily academic instruction. In addition, SEL practises are imbedded in our day to day routines for all students and staff at Martha Currie.
Every day, our students are presented with opportunities to practice and demonstrate their Social and Emotional learning skills and competencies. Our team at Martha Currie has worked collaboratively with students to identify strengths and stretches in the area of social emotional learning. Common language has been drafted by our SEL committee and work has begun to look at expected and unexpected behaviour in our classrooms and other areas of the school. In order to better understand our students' strengths and stretches (areas for growth), we have tracked their Personal Awareness and Responsibility and discussed as a staff some of the observable growth we have seen over the course of the school year.
We can use language to identify, create, and share ideas, feelings, and goals.
Students set goals, monitor progress, and understand their emotions, and use that understanding to regulate actions and reactions. Students set personal goals throughout the school year and identify a step or strategy they could use to reach their goal, as well as someone who could help them to achieve it. They are aware that learning involves patience and time. They can persevere in difficult situations, and understand how their actions affect themselves and others. Learning the power of "yet," has been a way to develop a growth mindset and to teach our students to recognize that learning is a journey and that mistakes and stretches are opportunities for improvement.
We can develop positive relationships with our peers.
Students frequently discuss, brainstorm, and practise ways to build positive relationships with their peers. Through various classroom activities such as centers, group and collaborative projects, structured lessons, and the use of programs such as Second Step, Martha Currie students have consistent and frequent opportunities to learn and practise these skills.
OUR NEXT STEPS
By increasing our students' personal awareness and sense of responsibility, Martha Currie students are growing in their confidence in various situations, and are beginning to take ownership of their actions and choices.
Martha Currie students are developing perseverance and are beginning to understand their emotions. They are using this understanding to regulate their actions and reactions. Our students have also begun to express their needs and are seeking help, when needed.
Students have self-reflected and responded to surveys about personal and social awareness. In addition, educators at Martha Currie have reflected upon what they have seen in the development of these skills in their classrooms. This data reinforces what we observe in our students.
"My group has resiliency and demonstrates effort. Even when it’s hard, they keep trying."
"My students are comfortable sharing their problems and feelings with me."
The MDI (Middle Years Development Instrument) data from 2021, above, shows that while our students see their ability to self-regulate (long term) is above the school district average (indicated by the black line), there is still considerable room for growth. Educators at Martha Currie see the need to have an even greater number of students reflecting a high degree of self-regulation. The same is true for self-regulation (short-term) and perseverance.
We can use language to identify, create, and share ideas, feelings, and goals.
At year end, students self reflected upon a number of core competency areas. In the areas of personal awareness and responsibility, students are making progress in demonstrating these skills.
We can develop positive relationships with our peers.
Initial data shows that students at Martha Currie were below the District average in terms of their sense of belonging and connection to others. This will continue to be a focus for next year as we want all of our Martha Currie students to feel a sense of belonging and connection, as well as have a number of positive healthy relationships at school. Students completed a year end survey where they responded to the same initial questions. While this year end data is still pending, teachers observed considerable growth in their students within these domains.
"I’m proud to see the students learning to treat each other respectfully regardless of whether they like each other or not."
The students have each other’s backs and are supportive of their classmates.
I am proud of the connection of the students with myself and each other.
Moving Forward
As we continue this important work, we will build on our students personal awareness and responsibility in the Fall in the following areas:
We can exchange ideas and perspectives to build shared understanding.
We can identify the need for others who can support our learning and personal growth.
Our focus will also include the development of school-wide norms and common lessons for conduct in common areas and our school grounds. We will continue to build on common language through the use of programs such as Second Step, WITS, Zones of Regulation, and Mind Up.
We will continue the practise of school-wide mindful breathing to start and ground our day, as well as expand the access to self-regulation tools in classrooms. All staff will continue to engage in self regulation practises for themselves, as well as reflect upon their work with their students and provide feedback, in the form of monthly discussion at staff meetings, as to what SEL strategies are working and what we still need to improve upon.
Our Social Emotional Learning Committee will resume this Fall. This will provide an opportunity for the whole Martha Currie staff to revisit the three year outline, that was crafted by the committee, and will make recommendations and adjustments based on our year end data, as well as the identified needs of our student population in September.
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.
