Kwantlen Park Secondary 24-25
OUR CONTEXT
OUR CONTEXT
Kwantlen Park Secondary is a vibrant learning community located in Surrey, BC. First opened in 2005, Kwantlen Park Secondary is known for its service focused student body who also excel in academics, athletics, applied skills and performing arts.
Kwantlen Park Secondary maintains a varied program of rigorous academic, fine and performing arts, technology education, student support programs, athletic and French Immersion programs. Kwantlen Park has an active Careers department that provides opportunity for students to participate in work experience, district trades/technical programs or our Science Co-op.
Kwantlen Park Secondary has Surrey School Districts largest indigenous student population. As urban indigenous students and families, they have connections with nations across Canada which brings rich cultural opportunities to Kwantlen Park. Students at Kwantlen Park participate in Pow Wows, Aboriginal Community celebrations and Indigenous Grad Blanketing ceremonies. Kwantlen Park has three Aboriginal Child & Youth Care workers as well as strong connections to cultural facilitators.
Kwantlen Park is one of four French immersion high schools in Surrey and offers academic courses in both French and English. About 20 per cent of students in the school are working towards completion of a full bilingual dogwood diploma.
Kwantlen Park students come from a wide variety of backgrounds and schooling experiences. 80% of families speak at least one other language than English at home representing 80 different languages in our school community. 25% of Kwantlen Park students are given services as English Language Learners (ELL). 14% are diverse learners designated with social/emotional, physical/health and/or learning needs
Kwantlen Park’s skilled and committed staff have been working together to meet the learning needs of all students. Through an inquiry focus, staff are focused on literacy, well-being and transitions for our students.
OUR LEARNERS
Connecting and engaging with others
Our learners engage in informal and structured conversations in which they listen, contribute, develop understanding and relationships, and learn to consider diverse perspectives.
Across all grades, Kwantlen Park students learn alongside and directly with other students collaborating to develop deeper meaning and understanding.
Focusing on intent and purpose
Our learners communicate with intention and purpose. They understand that communication can influence, entertain, teach, inspire, and help us make sense of the world and our experiences.
In Kwantlen Park’s English Language Arts courses, student demonstrate skills in understanding texts differently depending on their worldviews and perspectives. They access texts that are socially, culturally, geographically and historically constructed.
Working collectively
Our learners combine their efforts with those of others to effectively accomplish learning and tasks. As members of a group, they appreciate interdependence and cooperation, commit to needed roles and responsibilities, and are conscientious about contributing.
Kwantlen Park students report many opportunities throughout their courses where they work in small groups to investigate and demonstrate their learning. They report teachers explicitly teaching and assessing these core competencies across the subjects and grades.
Supporting group interactions
Our learners engage with others in ways that build and sustain trusting relationships and contribute to collective approaches. They value diverse perspectives and integrate the ideas of others with their own to tackle tasks, issues, and problems.
Kwantlen Park’s many extra-curricular clubs, teams, and performers demonstrate the skills necessary to be a part of the whole. Whether it is athletic teams, dance teams, theatre casts, music ensembles, or service clubs, Kwantlen Park students come together to make amazing things happen in our school and in our community.
Creating and innovating
Our learners get creative ideas that are novel and have value. An idea may be new to the student or their peers, and it may be novel for their age group or the larger community. It may be new to a particular context or absolutely new.
Students demonstrate skills creative thinking and expression as well as creative problem solving across many subject areas. They share examples of writing poetry in English Language Arts, original art pieces in Visual Art, and building ruth goldberg machines in Physics.
Questioning and investigating
Our learners engage in inquiry when they identify and investigate questions, challenges, key issues, or problematic situations in their studies, lives, and communities and in the media. They develop and refine questions; create and carry out plans; gather, interpret, and synthesize information and evidence; and reflect to draw reasoned conclusions.
Most often in Social Studies and Science classes, Kwantlen Park students use the inquiry process to dig deeply into complex issues or questions. Students in Social Justice inquired into the common factors that may have led to genocides across history in hopes of creating a list of conditions that society should be on the lookout for.
Self-advocating
Our learners are personally aware and responsible have a sense of self-worth and a growing confidence in a variety of situations. They value themselves, their ideas, and their accomplishments.
At Kwantlen Park the staff are utilizing the core competencies to support student growth in the area of independence. Students are demonstrating that inside the classroom they are able to evaluate where they are in their learning and plan next steps. Outside the classroom students are able to examine their social needs while building healthy friendships that feed their self-worth.
Understanding relationships and cultural contexts
Our learners understand that their relationships and cultural contexts help to shape who they are. This includes culture in its broadest sense, including how one identifies in terms of ethnicity, nationality, language(s), abilities, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, geographic region, and religious or spiritual beliefs.
Kwantlen Park Secondary has a very large and highly functioning GSA club that is embedded in our school community to create a safe and welcoming community for all. The student population is also able to build off of the cultural strengths that come from having a community of learners who have come from around the world. The community celebrates each other together at many holidays and festivals while learning about each other’s culture and history.
Valuing diversity
Our learners value diversity, defend human rights, advocate for issues, and interact ethically with others. They are inclusive in their language and behaviour and recognize that everyone has something to contribute. Their approach to inclusive relationships exemplifies commitment to developing positive communities.
In classrooms across Kwantlen Park, students exemplify their commitment to taking care of others both in their curricular learning as well as their efforts to improve our community and life for others around the world. Through our First Peoples English 10-12, BC First Peoples 12, and Social Justice 12 as well as a commitment to teaching/learning using First Peoples Principles of Learning, our learners are exposed to curriculum that has provided opportunities to develop these skills.
OUR FOCUS
Literacy, critical thinking and indigenous student transitions are three interconnected areas for focus, action and impact with our learners as we move forward in our Student Learning Plan.
“We have retained a vision of what is possible when we build classrooms and schools and systems around students’ brilliance, cultural wealth, and intellectual potential rather than have us “fixing” and “filling” academic gaps.” – Shane Safir
Our learners’ goals include:
- Students will engage in diverse ELA and EFP learning experiences that promote metacognitive strategies through explicit instruction which enable them to reflectively contribute to society in a rapidly changing world.
- Students will apply and explore language skills in diverse contexts through a joyful, interactive and critical lens.
- Students will identify, extract, organize, and apply key information from non-fiction sources
- Students will demonstrate the ability to gather varied information to create a critically acquired opinion while acknowledging the value of opposing perspectives.
- Indigenous students will identify two adults at school who believe in them and hold them to high expectations
The work of improving our learners’ literacy, critical thinking skills and indigenous student transitions is the work of all teachers and support staff at Kwantlen Park. Our initial tracking and evaluation follows two cohorts of learners.
OUR NEXT STEPS
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.
