Sullivan Heights Secondary 24-25
OUR CONTEXT
Sullivan Heights Secondary School is a large and diverse secondary school located in the heart of Surrey. The school has experienced significant growth over the past years, with a student population over 2000 students for the 2024-2025 school year and over 2100 students projected for the 2025-2026 school year. The school population is diverse, including more than 67% of students for whom English is not the primary language spoken at home. Many of the newly registered students at Sullivan Heights are also new to Canada. The students and their families bring this rich diversity to the school.
Sullivan Heights provides learning experiences for a wide variety of curricular and extracurricular interests ranging from academics disciplines, to extensive opportunities in Performing Arts such as dance, theatre, and music, to opportunities for student athletes to shine. In 2024 , Sullivan Heights was awarded the BC School Sports Most Inspirational School award for the school’s commitment to positive school culture through athletics. Students have opportunities to extend their learning in a number of unique ways, such as through the English Department’s Rebel Poets initiatives, various Mathematics contests, trade skills-related courses, and many additional opportunities.
Over 40 official school clubs and interest groups provide supported ways for students to express and explore their interests and passions outside of class experiences. Some of these groups, including Changemakers, GSA, the Black Student Union, Muslim Student Association , and Global Issues Club actively work to ensure that students with a variety of self-identifies have opportunities to congregate, support one another, and bring diverse views and excellence to the school. Sullivan Heights' Student Council and Leadership programs are very active in the school supporting a wide variety of special events, from school dances to spirit weeks.
OUR LEARNERS
At Sullivan Heights, we recognize that literacy is a foundation upon which all learning is built. While traditionally associated with English Language Arts, literacy skills—such as reading comprehension, critical thinking, and effective writing—are essential across every discipline. Whether students are interpreting scientific data, analyzing historical documents, or solving complex math problems, their ability to understand, process, and communicate information profoundly impacts their success. By focusing on literacy as a school-wide goal, we aim to empower our learners with the skills necessary to engage deeply with content, think critically, and express their understanding clearly in all subject areas.
We understand that literacy is not a skill confined to one classroom; it is a vital competency that supports lifelong learning and achievement. This is why our Student Learning Plan emphasizes integrating literacy instruction across the curriculum. In Science classes, students might learn how to decode technical vocabulary and construct evidence-based explanations. In Social Studies, they practice analyzing primary sources and crafting persuasive arguments. Mathematics instruction incorporates reading and understanding word problems carefully and writing clear, logical solutions. By embedding literacy in diverse contexts, we help students transfer and apply these skills broadly, enhancing their overall academic performance and confidence.
To achieve this, our approach includes collaborative planning among teachers to identify discipline-specific literacy demands and develop targeted strategies. These might include explicit teaching of vocabulary, modeling how to read complex texts, using graphic organizers to structure writing, and providing frequent opportunities for students to write and discuss content-related ideas. Through this comprehensive, school-wide commitment to literacy, we prepare our learners not only to succeed in school but also to thrive as critical thinkers and effective communicators in their future endeavours.
OUR FOCUS
To ensure our commitment to literacy translates into meaningful outcomes for our students, we have established clear, measurable targets for our literacy goals. First, we will focus on improving students’ sense of literacy strength across all disciplines. Through regular student self-assessments and surveys, teachers will track growth in students’ confidence and skills in reading, writing, and communicating ideas in subjects beyond English Language Arts. By prioritizing students’ self-perception, we acknowledge that a strong sense of literacy ability is closely linked to motivation, engagement, and willingness to tackle challenging material.
Secondly, we will measure improvement in overall academic achievement in classes that integrate literacy-focused instruction. Teachers in subjects such as Science, Social Studies, and Mathematics will implement targeted literacy strategies and monitor student progress through common assessments and classroom-based evidence. Our goal is to see an increase in the number of students meeting or exceeding proficiency standards in these courses by year’s end as compared to before literacy-specific interventions in these classes. By setting these targets, we hope to evaluate the effectiveness of our literacy initiatives and ensure that our efforts are leading to tangible gains in both student confidence and academic performance.
OUR NEXT STEPS
Reviewing this year’s data, we see encouraging signs that our school-wide focus on literacy is having a positive impact on students’ confidence and achievement, though there remain areas for growth. Student and teacher feedback from self-assessments and classroom surveys indicate that most students felt their literacy skills improved, with many reporting an increased ability to read, write, and communicate ideas across disciplines. This aligns with our goal of fostering a stronger sense of literacy strength, which is foundational for academic success and lifelong learning. At a school-wide level, Provincial Graduation Literacy 10 and 12 Assessment results showed fewer students at both the Emerging and Extending proficiency levels, making it difficult to draw clear conclusions about the direct impact of our interventions for students in this year’s cohort as compared to other Sullivan Heights students.
When examining academic achievement in classes that emphasized literacy, the data reveals that 34% of students showed improvement in curricular competency proficiency from the beginning to the end of the course, compared to 19% in classes without a literacy focus. This suggests that targeted literacy strategies in non-English disciplines can support student growth. However, it is important to note that a significant portion of students (54%) showed no-to-low improvement, and 12% demonstrated a decrease in proficiency. By comparison, classes not participating in the literacy cohort had a slightly lower rate of decline (6%) but a higher rate of stagnation (75%). These results highlight both the potential and the challenges of cross-curricular literacy initiatives.
Based on this year’s findings, our next steps should include a deeper analysis of which specific literacy interventions were most effective and for which groups of students. We may benefit from refining our instructional strategies, providing additional professional development for teachers, and increasing opportunities for students to practice and apply literacy skills in authentic, discipline-specific contexts. It will also be important to explore why some students did not experience growth and to develop targeted supports for these learners, such as small-group instruction, peer mentoring, or differentiated assignments.
For future goals, we recommend setting more granular targets that address both the breadth and depth of literacy integration. This could include piloting new cross-curricular projects, increasing the use of formative assessment to monitor progress, and establishing a system for sharing best practices among staff. Additionally, we should consider incorporating student voice more explicitly in the planning process, ensuring that our literacy initiatives remain responsive to their needs and experiences. By building on our successes and addressing identified gaps, we can continue to strengthen literacy as a fundamental component of learning and achievement for all students.
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.
