Our Focus

Since developing our H.A.W.K.S. vision to connect the students, staff, and parents to our school community through a core and common set of values beginning in the 2019/2020 year, our school, and our world, have gone through a challenging period of time. The global pandemic came with changes and protocols which, in many ways, prevented us from our normal work of developing a sense of community. This included times when our students needed to work remotely, health & safety measures that created restrictive cohorts and movement is school, and the suspension of things like buddy classes and in-person assemblies, made it difficult to carry on with a cohesive school community plan. The focus during these many months was to maintain the learning of our students and the health & safety of all our community members.

With the recent lifting of restrictions this spring, we have seen a revitalization in the school. With less emphasis on Covid restrictions and protocols, our staff now have the extra time to scan how our students are doing with their learning, their needs, and their social/emotional well-being. How successful have we been instilling our H.A.W.K.S. values in our students? How are they feeling about themselves, their learning, and their connection to our community as we emerge from this unprecedented time in history?

We feel as a staff we have addressed many of the concerns in the post-pandemic era. Over the past year we have re-instituted many of the regular events our school community engaged in pre-pandemic including whole school assemblies, Family Teams activities, interschool volleyball and basketball, the annual Zone Track meet to name a few. Undertaking a collective scan of our students, we can observe that, by and large, they are well-adjusted and happy at school. However, this year’s Student learning Survey (as shown in our July evidence post) indicates we still have further to go in connecting our students to adults in the building other than the teachers who work with them directly.

Next year’s focus will be on creating better connections between students and all staff members and compare that to what we see on next year’s results of the Student Learning Survey. We hope to see more students indicating that they feel connected and cared about by multiple adults in the school. We plan to achieve this by increasing the frequency of whole school activities where students can connect to staff other than their classroom teacher. Regularly scheduled School Sharing assemblies, Family Teams activities and whole school events like our Walk-a-Thon this spring which are great opportunities for students to connect with a variety of staff and develop positive role model relationships.

Research has proven that the more positive role models students have in their school years, the more success they can achieve. Parents, teachers, and other adults in the lives of students, are often the first and most important role models and play a crucial role in shaping the educational experience of students. They provide positive examples and inspire young people to strive for their goals. By emulating the behavior and habits of role models, students can develop a strong work ethic, attain more confidence, and achieve greater academic success.