Personal Awareness & Responsibility – Well-being

Our school staff are increasingly concerned about the negative external influences social media and the internet have on our students that lead to behavior concerns at school. Trends that come from websites like You Tube, Tik Tok, and online games are being copied and propagated by students who often do not fully understand the social impact of the words, names, or phrases they are using and that what they are doing or saying may be in conflict with our District values.

Our BC Core Competency of Personal Awareness and Responsibility addresses the need for developing well-being in our students:

"Students who are personally aware and responsible recognize the factors that affect their holistic wellness and take increasing responsibility for caring for themselves. They keep themselves healthy and stay active, manage stress, and express a sense of personal well-being. They make choices that contribute to their safety in their communities, including their online communities and use of social media. They recognize their personal responsibility for their happiness and have strategies that help them find peace in challenging situations."

A focus for our staff this coming year will be to stay abreast of negative external trends that may affect our students and help them become more media literate in recognizing when they are being misled by “influencers” outside of the school or family setting. By having regular and open conversations during classroom discussions, sharing assemblies about trends we see develop, and involving families to have these discussions, we hope to develop a culture where our school community is better equipped to combat negative behavior before it becomes pervasive among our students.

Communication - English Language Arts

Improving the reading abilities in our students will make them more successful in other aspects of their learning and personal lives. One of the Big Ideas of the elementary English Language Arts Curriculum states:

"Exploring stories and other texts helps us understand ourselves and make connections to others and the world."

This past year we decided to complete a school-wide Reading Assessment using the easyCBM Leveled Assessment tool. This was highly successful in helping us identify the students not reading at grade level and who required some intensive reading instruction intervention from our Resource Teachers. We saw a significant improvement in the majority of students who received this support.

Our goal for the 2024-2025 school year will be to build upon this program, assess our students early in the year, and provide those who need it with reading intervention.