Hazelgrove Elementary 25-26
OUR CONTEXT
Hazelgrove is a welcoming and inclusive school where we support students’ academic, social, emotional, and behavioural growth. Our classrooms are places where students are at the centre of their learning, and where their growth is nurtured through engaging, meaningful opportunities. We believe student success is shaped by a wide range of experiences and skills—from creative and critical thinking, to communicating effectively, to building personal and cultural identity, and understanding their role in the world around them.
Our youngest learners grow and thrive through play. Play is a powerful way for children to explore, solve problems, interact with others, and connect what they know with new learning. Through play, children make sense of their world and build foundational skills that support lifelong learning.
At Hazelgrove, we value a safe and caring environment, restorative practices, and the diverse strengths of all our students. We build strong connections with one another and with our wider community. We also recognize and celebrate the important role families play in supporting student learning and creating a school where every child can flourish.
We are proud to learn, work, and play on the unceded, shared, traditional territories of the Katzie, Semiahmoo, Kwantlen, and other Coast Salish peoples. We honour the First Peoples' Principles of Learning by weaving them throughout our teaching and school life.
Learning happens both inside and outside the classroom. Our students take part in hands-on, place-based learning that deepens their understanding of the local environment and encourages stewardship. We actively care for our school grounds and community by reducing litter and learning about the impact of plastics.
Our older students learn through play too! They participate in school sports like cross country, track and field, volleyball, basketball, badminton, and ultimate. We also offer a variety of clubs, including Makers Club, Board Games Club, Coding Club, and the Diversity Club. And of course, Sports Day is a school-wide favourite!
Hazelgrove is a vibrant, caring community where students, staff, and families work together to make our school a wonderful place to learn, grow, and play.
OUR LEARNERS
At Hazelgrove, we recognize and celebrate the diversity of our learners. We are committed to creating an inclusive and equitable learning environment where every student feels they belong and has the opportunity to actively engage in meaningful learning experiences. We believe learning is most powerful when it is collaborative, when students, teachers, and families work together to support each child’s growth.
From the early years, our students begin to explore the connection between reading, writing, and oral language. The ability to read and understand written language unlocks new ideas, supports creativity, and fosters personal growth. At Hazelgrove, students engage in daily literacy experiences that help them build confidence as readers and develop a love of language and storytelling.
Our learners come to understand that language and text can inspire creativity and joy. They also learn that reading is connected to memory, history, and story. Through regular exposure to a wide variety of texts, our students learn that reading takes time and practice. They begin to understand that we read for many reasons, whether it’s for enjoyment, to gain new knowledge, or to deepen our understanding of the world around us.
OUR FOCUS
Literacy Focus: Building Strong Readers Through Responsive Instruction
At Hazelgrove, we believe that every student deserves the opportunity to become a confident, capable reader. This year, our literacy work focused on creating the conditions that help all students develop the skills, knowledge, and strategies they need to be successful readers. Through evidence-informed instructional practices, professional learning, and collaborative inquiry, we worked toward ensuring students experience increasingly consistent, responsive literacy instruction across classrooms.
Our literacy goals are centered on helping students grow as readers in ways that are developmentally appropriate. In Grades K-3, the focus is on building strong foundational reading skills so that students can read grade-level texts with accuracy, fluency, and expression. Students are learning to use a variety of sources of information and comprehension strategies before, during, and after reading to construct meaning and deepen understanding. In Grades 4-7, students are strengthening their vocabulary, comprehension, and ability to synthesize ideas from multiple sources, helping them engage with increasingly complex texts and learn across subject areas.
To support these goals, students participated in consistent literacy experiences throughout the year. Primary students engaged in daily phonemic awareness and phonics instruction designed to strengthen their understanding of how sounds and letters work together. Intermediate students increasingly explored word meaning through morphology, helping them unlock the meaning of unfamiliar words and build vocabulary. Across the school, students engaged in vocabulary development, fluency practice, and comprehension instruction that supported both their reading growth and their ability to think critically about text.
This year also marked an important step in our use of reading assessment information school-wide to better understand student learning across all grade levels. Through universal screening, all of our teacher began collecting more consistent information about students' reading development. This helped us identify strengths, recognize areas where students may need additional support, and begin planning instruction that is more closely aligned to student needs.
OUR NEXT STEPS
As our understanding of student reading data has grown, we have begun shifting toward increasingly responsive instruction. This means using evidence of student learning to guide teaching decisions, providing targeted support when needed, and ensuring instruction is matched to the skills students are ready to develop next. Staff are beginning to use assessment information to support flexible grouping, targeted instruction, and intervention that responds to student needs rather than relying solely on grade-level expectations.
Evidence of Growth
These classroom examples illustrate the growth students made throughout the year as readers and thinkers. From building foundational decoding and fluency skills in the primary grades to making meaningful text connections and applying morphological knowledge to understand unfamiliar words, students demonstrated increasing confidence and independence. These samples reflect how responsive instruction and ongoing assessment support students in becoming skilled, thoughtful readers.
The 2025/2026 FSA Reading and Literacy results provide encouraging evidence of student growth and reflect the positive impact of our continued focus on literacy instruction. In Grade 4, fewer students were identified in the Emerging category, while more students demonstrated reading skills at the On Track and Extending levels. This suggests that an increasing number of students are developing the foundational skills, fluency, and comprehension needed to engage successfully with grade-level texts.
Grade 7 students demonstrated particularly strong growth, with a significant increase in the number of students achieving at the On Track level and a substantial decrease in the number requiring additional support. These results indicate that more students are leaving Hazelgrove with the literacy skills needed to access learning across subject areas and engage thoughtfully with increasingly complex texts.
While we celebrate these positive trends, we recognize that every student's reading journey is unique. Our continued focus will be on ensuring students who require additional support receive timely, targeted instruction while also providing opportunities for students who are ready for greater challenge to deepen and extend their literacy skills. Together, these results affirm that our ongoing commitment to responsive, evidence-informed literacy instruction is helping more students experience success and confidence as readers.
Next Steps
Building on the foundations established this year, we will continue to strengthen our use of assessment to inform teaching and learning. Our focus will remain on using evidence to make timely instructional decisions that support every learner and ensure instruction is responsive to student needs.
Our literacy cohort, consisting of fifteen classroom divisions and our Learning Support Teacher, will engage in ongoing collaborative inquiry throughout the school year. Together, teachers will review and interpret reading assessment information alongside classroom evidence to identify student strengths, determine instructional priorities, and design responsive plans of action that meet the needs of their learners.
Through regular collaborative data meetings, teachers will continue to deepen their understanding of evidence-based literacy practices by exploring effective classroom routines, sharing instructional strategies, and reflecting on how data-informed decision making influences student learning. This collaborative approach will strengthen consistency across classrooms while honouring the unique strengths and needs of each group of learners.
As a staff, we remain committed to fostering a culture of continuous learning where assessment is used not simply to measure achievement, but to guide instruction, celebrate growth, and ensure every student receives the support and challenge they need to become a confident, capable reader.
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.
