Pacific Heights Elementary
OUR CONTEXT
Pacific Heights has made the first principle of the First People's Principles of Learning the articulation of who we are as a school. It reads:
Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors.
Well Being of Self
Learning at Pacific Heights supports the well-being of self in three ways. First of all, we have been teaching our students self awareness by helping them to recognize and articulate their emotions to themselves and to others. . Secondly, we have been teaching the skills of mindfulness through regular mindfulness moments. Thirdly, we have been trying to model good self care as a staff by sharing with students the ways that we try to take care of ourselves.
Well Being of Others
Learning at Pacific Heights supports the well-being of others in the following ways. We have been teaching our students social awareness by having them apply the language of self awareness to their relationships with others as in our Code of Conduct, where we focus on understanding the impact of their actions on others. We have also focussed on the impact of past actions on others through events like Orange Shirt Day. Learning at Pacific Heights supports the well-being of others by learning thoughtful and helpful ways that we can help others. We do this through embedding these ideas in the curriculum and through events like the Walk For Water and our annual Food Drive.
Well Being of the Land
Learning at Pacific Heights supports the well-being of the land both through curricular connections and through events. Our teachers teach the impact our actions on the land and ways that we can better care for it in both the science and social studies curriculum. We also have a student group called The Environmental Club (TEC) that promotes better care of the land within our school and the community through events like Surrey's Party for the Planet.
OUR LEARNERS
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process that supports adults, youth, and children in developing skills that are necessary for school, work, and life. This includes self-awareness, social awareness , and responsible decision-making
Our learners can use mindfulness to support the wellbeing of self by identifying, articulating, and using their emotions to make sense of their experiences.
Students practice mindfulness using a variety of techniques: visualization, mindful listening, deep breathing, body scans, noise isolation, and daily gratitude. Students in this class take time each day for an emotional check-in so that they, their classmates and their teacher are aware of their emotional state.
Our learners can explore issues with curiosity, humility, openness and an appreciation for the value of others' experiences and perspectives.
Students are encouraged to engage with the opportunity offered by public school to explore the unique diversity of a public school. Our students are encouraged to see that everyone matters and each person has something to offer that will enrich the lives of those who understand this.
Our learners can experience and interpret the local environment and identify some of the social, ethical, and environmental implications of the findings from their own and others’ investigations.
Students at Pacific Heights spend time outside learning about our environment. Our proximity to the Country Woods trail network means that many of our classes spend time weekly in the forest observing the changes of the seasons and learning about how our decisions affect our environment. For Earth Day, classes focussed on ways that we can impact our environment in order to better protect it. Pictured here are students in ADST creating games out of recycled materials and students creating model shelters in the forest as a part of the Social Studies curriculum.
OUR FOCUS
This year our educators focussed on integrating our new mission statement more deliberately and clearly connecting it to all elements of the curriculum. In particular, we focused the caring for the well-being of self component of the Physical/Health and Social and Emotional Learning competencies. The specific learning outcome from the Ministry of Education curriculum that we focussed on was:
- Students can describe and assess strategies for promoting mental well-being, for self and others.
Below are examples of our students' classroom experiences as they relate to describing and assessing well-being.
Students in one of our grade 4 classes spent two weeks at the beginning of the year learning about their emotions and how to understand them better. They wrote lists of ways that they could calm themselves when they felt that they were in the red zone. They wrote letters to their "worry beasts" identifying what made them appear and what they planned to do to control them. They also learned to have a growth mindset and kept a journal tracking their progress to having a growth mindset.
OUR NEXT STEPS
Our learners have made progress describing and assessing strategies for promoting mental well-being, for self and others in particular by identifying, articulating and managing their emotions. They have learned the importance of having a growth mindset to growing in this area. Through journal reflections in English Language Arts like the one below, they were able to assess their own progress in this area.
Also, our primary teachers have noticed over the course of the time we have focussed on learning about our emotions, students are much more articulate about their emotions in class meetings and in conflicts with other students. One of our primary teachers commented
"I have noticed that since we have begun intentionally teaching SEL and integrating it into instruction and classroom meetings that students start my class with the ability to verbalize their feelings. Our meetings are able to use the language of SEL and move on from basic conversations about concerns to more sophisticated and deeper conversations about classroom issues."
Moving Forward
Intentionally teaching self-care through the lens of social-emotional learning has helped our students be far more articulate about their emotions and we have noticed that they are more able to regulate themselves as a result. Interactions with students and between students about their experiences have been noticeably more productive. Teachers have noticed that it is important to continue to revisit and reinforce these skills. As a result, we will focus on well-being of self element of our mission statement by:
- build upon the vocabulary of emotional self-awareness and practices by using common language and protocols across grades in discussions, interactions, and meetings.
- build further coherence by using common language and protocols in interactions with support staff and the community.
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.
