Pacific Heights Elementary 22-23

OUR CONTEXT

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.

Wellbeing 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.

Wellbeing 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.

 

Wellbeing 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

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

Language and story can be a source of creativity and joy.   Ministry of Education Language Arts Big Idea

Language shapes how we see the world-and ourselves. We have a choice in the words we use to describe ourselves, others, and the world around us. The words we choose and the meanings we attach to them influence our decisions, beliefs, and wellbeing. 

Studies have shown that phonemic awareness is a foundational skill, essential for learning to read. As students learn to identify sounds through oral and auditory activities, they become phonemically aware. Engaging in phonemic awareness instruction develops students’ understanding of sounds, and that knowledge directly impacts their spelling and writing.

Conversations with LST lead to inquiry into what K is doing to strengthen language acquisition.  Strength based.

In order to strengthen our students phonemic awareness, our Kindergarten classes are using a new Language Arts program called Heggerty.  We followed the following process in order to determine its effectiveness:

  1. Assess level of student phonemic awareness by summarizing results from Early Learning Phonemic Awareness Tool Survey (ELPATS) and anecdotal information from teachers.
  2. Kindergarten teachers administer the Early Learning Phonemic Awareness Tool Survey (ELPATS)  in January/February to assess students' initial level of phonemic awareness.
  3. Compare ELPATS results at the end of the year to determine growth over the year.
  4. Compare ELPATS results from years prior to implementation of Heggerty.


OUR NEXT STEPS

The Heggerty program has improved students' phonemic awareness.  As result our next steps are as follows:

  1. Introduce the use of Heggerty at grades 1,2 and 3 for use particularly with students who are struggling with phonemic awareness.
  2. Use the ELPATS in grades 1-3 as diagnostic tool to determine students' areas of weakeness.

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.

Surrey Schools
14033 - 92 Avenue Surrey,
British Columbia V3V 0B7
604-596-7733