Old Yale Road Elementary 25-26
OUR CONTEXT
Old Yale Road Elementary continues to serve a diverse, multilingual, and dynamic community, with a high proportion of students who are acquiring English as an additional language and who bring rich cultural and linguistic assets to the school.
School-based literacy data indicates:
- A wide range of reading levels across all grades, from pre-reading/phonics stages to students reading beyond grade level
- A significant number of students requiring targeted literacy support, particularly in early literacy and comprehension
- Ongoing student mobility and absences, impacting continuity of learning
- Students with varied designations (ELL, IEPs, Indigenous learners), requiring differentiated and inclusive practices
Primary data highlights:
- In primary grades, many students are still developing foundational phonological awareness and decoding skills (e.g., incomplete sound knowledge, emerging early reading behaviours)
- In intermediate grades, students show stronger decoding, but comprehension, fluency, and language proficiency remain key areas of growth
FSA literacy trends show:
- Grade 4: Increase in “Emerging” learners (32) compared to “On Track” (25), indicating a growing need for targeted intervention
- Grade 7: Improvement in overall “On Track” learners (44), though a persistent group remains “Emerging” (28)
These patterns reinforce the need for consistent, school-wide literacy practices focused on both foundational skills and deeper comprehension.
OUR LEARNERS
Our learners demonstrate:
- Strengths in decoding and accuracy, especially in intermediate grades
- Increasing independence in reading for many students at or above grade level
- Strong engagement with oral language and collaborative learning
Areas of need include:
- Early literacy development (phonemic awareness, letter-sound knowledge) in primary grades
- Reading comprehension across all grades, particularly inference, retelling, and making meaning
- Vocabulary development and language proficiency, especially for English Language Learners
- Fluency and stamina in reading longer or more complex texts
School data shows:
- Many students reading at instructional levels below grade placement, especially in Grades 3–5
- Ongoing need for small group instruction, targeted intervention, and monitoring
- Students receiving literacy support services (LST, ELL, resource) across multiple grades
Additionally:
- Some students demonstrate interrupted learning due to absences or late entry
- A number of learners require continued monitoring and reassessment
Overall, our learners benefit from:
- Structured literacy approaches
- Scaffolded comprehension strategies
- Opportunities for oral language, discussion, and inquiry-based learning
OUR FOCUS
Based on our evidence, our school-wide focus remains literacy, with an emphasis on:
1. Strengthening Early Literacy Foundations
- Phonemic awareness, phonics, and decoding
- Systematic and explicit instruction (e.g., UFLI, structured literacy approaches)
2. Improving Reading Comprehension for All Learners
- Explicit teaching of comprehension strategies (retelling, inference, questioning)
- Supporting students in making meaning from increasingly complex texts
3. Supporting Language Development
- Vocabulary building and oral language development
- Integrating language supports across all subject areas
- Use of visuals, modeling, and structured talk opportunities
4. Targeted Intervention and Responsive Instruction
- Small group instruction based on assessment data
- Ongoing progress monitoring
- Collaboration between classroom teachers, ELL staff, and support teachers
FSA and school-based data confirm:
- The need to reduce the number of “Emerging” learners in Grade 4
- Continued focus to move Grade 7 learners from “Emerging” to “On Track”
“One of our goals is to reduce the number of students in the Emerging category and increase the number of students meeting expectations in literacy, with a particular focus on Grades 4 and 7.”
OUR NEXT STEPS
To support our focus, we will:
- Focus on instructional practices by continuing to implement structured literacy approaches in primary grades, expanding explicit comprehension instruction across all grades, and using common language and strategies school-wide.
- Assessment and data will strengthen use of formative and ongoing assessments (running records, F&P, classroom assessments, will be reviewed regularly to group students and adjust instruction, and will be used to track progress of students receiving intervention.
- Increase opportunities will be provided for collaborative planning, to share effective literacy practices, and to aid in cross-grade articulation.
- Targeted supports will provide tiered interventions for students below grade level and will be used to continue support for ELL learners (language + literacy integration) as well as students with IEPs and diverse learning needs.
- Student engagement will be focused on by increasing opportunities for choice in reading, inquiry-based learning, and real-world connections to literacy.
School-Wide Measurable Literacy Goals
By June 2027 at Old Yale Road, we will:
- Increase the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations in literacy by 10% across Grades 1–7, as measured by school-based assessments (running records, F&P, classroom measures).
- Reduce the number of students working below grade-level expectations by 10%, with a particular focus on students receiving literacy support.
- Demonstrate growth in oral language and vocabulary for all ELL students as measured by teacher observation and classroom assessment.
- Demonstrate improved performance in comprehension strategies for 75% of our students (retelling, inference, questioning) based on common school-wide rubrics.
- 100% of classrooms will implement consistent, evidence-based literacy practices, including explicit phonics instruction for primary students and explicit comprehension instruction for all grades.
- All students below grade level will receive targeted small group instruction at least 3 times per week.
- School teams will review literacy data at least 2 times per year to adjust instruction.
For specific Primary Literacy Goals at Old Yale Road:
- 90% of Grade 1 students will demonstrate mastery of letter-sound correspondence (26/26 sounds)
- 85% of Grade 2 students will be reading at or near grade level (F&P/JJ benchmarks)
- All Grade 3 students will demonstrate growth of at least one reading level band over the year
For specific Intermediate Literacy goals at Old Yale Road:
- 80% of students in Grades 4–7 will meet grade-level expectations in reading comprehension, as measured by running records and teacher-created comprehension assessments.
- All students receiving literacy intervention will demonstrate measurable growth (minimum one level increase or equivalent progress in comprehension scores).
- Students scoring emerging will be reduced from 32 to 22, on track will increase from 25 to 33 students, and extending will increase from 3 to 5 students for our Grade 4 FSA Literacy writers ensuring that at least 60% of our Grade 4 students are “On Track” or “Extending”.
- Students scoring emerging will be reduced from 28 to 20 students and on track will increase from 44 to 50 students for our Grade 7 FSA Literacy writers ensuring that at least 70% of Grade 7 students “On Track” or higher.
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.
