Sunnyside Elementary 25-26
OUR CONTEXT
Sunnyside Elementary serves a vibrant community of 700 students in South Surrey, where the natural beauty of the North Shore mountains and the Pacific Ocean frames our daily learning environment.
Our student population is richly diverse, with many students learning English as an additional language, others supported through special needs or diverse abilities designations, and a small number of Indigenous students. Across our school, 26 different languages are spoken, reflecting the cultural richness and global perspectives that our students and families bring to our community.
We are proud to foster an inclusive environment where every learner feels seen, valued, and supported. Our staff is deeply committed to research-based instructional practices that support high levels of learning for all students. We work collaboratively to ensure that instruction is responsive, engaging, and grounded in evidence-informed approaches.
Our SHINE model, fostering students who are Safe, Happy, Inclusive, Nurturing, and Empathetic, guides both our school culture and our daily interactions. Through SHINE, students are supported in developing a strong sense of responsibility and alignment with both school and district codes of conduct. We believe in nurturing not only academic success but also social and emotional growth. Our supportive and engaged parent community plays a key role in strengthening our school, contributing to a positive and connected learning environment for all.
OUR LEARNERS
Our learners are engaged in a wide range of experiences across the school, with a strong and shared foundation in literacy that connects learning across all grades.
Our students are enthusiastic about sports and eagerly take on any challenge, whether it’s soccer, curling, badminton, or simply being active at recess. They thrive on movement and value the strong sense of belonging that comes from being part of a team and a connected school community. Beyond athletics, many of our students are passionate performers who express themselves as actors, dancers, and singers. They also enjoy opportunities to create, build, and invent, bringing imagination and curiosity into their learning.
Our students are equally engaged in literacy. They look forward to their lessons in the library learning commons, where our librarians bring stories to life and introduce literature from a variety of cultures, fostering both curiosity and a genuine joy of reading. Students who work with our Learner Support team are engaged, motivated, and excited about their growth. We have an active buddy reading program when older students mentor younger students and share their love of reading. Several classes invite families in to read first thing in the morning. Above all, our students value connection and community, finding joy in learning alongside their peers, families, and the broader school community.
In our primary program, teachers share a common, research-based approach to early literacy, delivering instruction in a consistent and aligned way across classrooms. This collective commitment ensures that students experience clear, structured, and responsive teaching as they build foundational skills.
OUR FOCUS
Our previous school focus centered on social-emotional learning as the foundation for a strong, connected community. We worked intentionally to create an environment where students felt safe to take risks, build confidence, and develop resilience and determination. Through this work, we established common language, consistent expectations, and a shared commitment to supporting the whole child. This foundation has been essential in fostering a sense of belonging and trust, allowing both students and staff to engage more deeply in learning. As a result, our classrooms have become spaces where students are more willing to persevere, collaborate, and challenge themselves.
Building on this strong foundation, our current focus has shifted toward strengthening early literacy through a cohesive and collaborative approach. We are working to ensure consistency between classroom teachers and our learner support team, particularly in how we support our most vulnerable students. Our staff is implementing research-based literacy practices, including an evidence-based phonics approach that provides explicit and systematic instruction in reading and spelling in the primary grades.
Grounded in the science of reading, this hands-on, multi-sensory instruction supports students in developing essential foundational skills. The use of consistent, predictable routines across classrooms has strengthened instructional alignment and supports approaches such as platooning across grade levels. By focusing on effective reading research and the explicit, systematic development of word-reading skills, we are seeing meaningful progress. Ongoing assessment data shows significant gains in students’ phonemic awareness, decoding abilities, and oral reading fluency, reflecting the positive impact of this focused and aligned instructional strategy.
OUR NEXT STEPS
As we look ahead to next year, our focus will be on deepening and sustaining the strong instructional practices we have established in early literacy.
Our Focus
We aim to extend our literacy focus beyond the primary grades, ensuring continuity, coherence, and alignment as student progress through the school. Opportunities to further integrate oral language development and vocabulary instruction particularly in support of English Language Learners will be explored. This spring we will engage in a school-wide write that will also provide valuable assessment data for our school team. Ultimately, our goal is to strengthen a cohesive, school‑wide approach to literacy that supports all learners in becoming confident, capable readers.
“The stories of our lives are not our own. They belong to each other.” ~ Richard Wagamese
This understanding reflects the concept where learning, growth, and well‑being are nurtured through strong relationships, shared responsibility, and community support. This work represents a meaningful and natural progression from our previous focus on social‑emotional learning to an expanded emphasis on literacy development, demonstrating a cohesive and intentional approach to supporting the whole child. As this work concludes, the story of our school continues; rooted in learning, strengthened by literacy, and shaped by the lessons yet to come.
Through flexible grouping and targeted instruction, students are increasingly learning at their instructional level, allowing for more precise support and challenge. This consistent, goal-oriented approach is contributing to steady improvement, with both classroom teachers and our Learner Support team noting encouraging gains in student confidence, skill development, and overall literacy achievement.
A 10.2% increase in average DIBELS composite scores by the middle of the year reflects substantial progress in students’ reading development and overall literacy growth. This level of improvement provides strong evidence that the consistent implementation of the research‑based reading program and aligned instructional practices is effective in promoting student achievement.
The line graph illustrates a clear upward trend in DIBELS composite reading scores from the beginning to the middle of the year. Average scores increased from 73.1% to 83.3%, reflecting meaningful growth in overall reading proficiency across the cohort. Our end of the year data will be collected in June 2026.
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.
