School Learning Plan - Spring Creek Community School

Theory of Action 

If we expose students to real world problems through inquiry and/or real-world projects then students will develop collaborative skills by respecting and sharing diverse perspectives, being empathetic listeners, and solving problems in a peaceful way. 

We believe that by designing real-world project-based units and lessons that foster teamwork, interdependence, and social, emotional, and intercultural skills, students will be exposed to range of contexts that will enhance both their academic and social/emotional growth. More specifically, learning can be deepened and made more meaningful when it occurs in student teams, as collaboration skills have the potential to open new pathways to learning. It is our goal that collaboration will positively influence numeracy, literacy and mental health, areas of concern as identified by our data dashboard. 

As Spring Creek Community School exists on the traditional shared territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and Líl̓wat nations, it is imperative we incorporate these Nations’ understandings and way of being related to collaboration as strategies to achieve our goals. We will use the Líl̓wat learning principle of Celhcelh (that states each person being responsible for their own and others learning, always seeking learning opportunities) and the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh key value of Chenchénstway (meaning to uphold one another and support one another, and all parties have equal power and bring equal value) as lenses through which we can create a culture of collaboration. 

Process for Determining Area of Student Learning of Most Concern 

Data continues to be the driver for identifying areas of concern at SCCS. Data from the 2020-21 school year indicated our students in grades 4 – 7 felt their ability in numeracy is low. We have seen marginal increases in ability feelings around numeracy data from 2021-22. Additionally, taking ownership of their learning and personalizing their learning were also areas of concern; however, we fully understand that the foundations of literacy and numeracy start in early primary, and are critical in ensuring our youngest learners do not contribute to the same results when they contribute to the data in their intermediate years. This information continues to provide the rationale for the creation of this School Learning Plan (SLP). 

With regards to data and continuity from the 2021-22 SLP to the 2022-23 SLP at SCCS, there have been changes from the survey providers in terms of the disaggregated raw data provided. Because of this, the data sets from last year to this year do not necessarily align for the Student Learning Survey and the FSA. While the data is still valid, the presentation of the data has been altered in this year’s SLP. 

Specific Groups of Students of Most Concern 

Our data does not indicate any specific concerns regarding any specific demographic of students. The data analyzed suggests a need to focus on our intermediate students at the school; however, we know the importance of early intervention with our primary students and our strategies will continue to scaffold to include our primary learners as well. 

We do see some concerning data surrounding our grade 4 students and relative drops in literacy and numeracy achievement. There is also a slight concern over the male students and their writing results on the FSA assessment for grade 7 students, as they consistently perform lower than the female students. 

Certainly, the feelings of progression in literacy and numeracy for our grade 4 and 7 students is concerning. Couple this with the indication that there exist low expectations and low value of school results, there is concern of waning engagement and motivation for students in general. 

Desired Knowledge and Skills for Students and Staff 

Students: 

• Students will continue to use Spring Creek’s common set of values - Clear values that are consistent through every grade/year; 
• Students will be able to personalize their learning and identify what they need as a learner to succeed; 
• Student will be able to communicate strengths, stretches and perceptions to their peers; and, 
• Students will have the ability to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways. 

Staff: 

• Staff will develop competencies through our Professional Learning Plan which will focus on MAP, Daily 5, and Numeracy instruction, decolonizing our practice; 
• Staff will create opportunities to embed our district and school values in their classrooms; 
• Staff will collaboratively build inquiry projects that will allow students to collaborate and share understanding as learners; 
• Staff will continue to design learning that is meaningful and accessible for all students; 

• Staff will collaboratively design strategies and specific interventions to support literacy and numeracy needs; and, 
• Staff will incorporate the 4 Blankets, Lil’wat Principles of Learning and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh value of Chenchénstway in inquiry projects. 

Strategies and Structures 

At Spring Creek Community School, we employ strategies in alignment with School District 48’s Pathways to Learning. We are also on a journey to embrace the Lil’wat Principles of Learning and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh value of Chenchénstway in our instruction and way of being to enable students to personalize their learning and the learning of others. We hope to continue to support student mental health and well-being and academics through our culture of student care, engagement, acceptance, and inclusion at Spring Creek through our 4 Be’s of Spring Creek and our bear paws of positive recognition. 

Spring Creek Strategies: 

• Positive Behaviour Intervention Strategy, using the 4 Be’s (Engaged, Inclusive, Safe, Caring) to identify and reward our students exuding SCCS values; 
• Student collaboration through inquiry and project-based learning; 
• Staff Professional Learning with Carole Fullerton, Mathology, MAP, Monique Grey-Smith Modules, Janice Novakowski, Gail Boushey; 
• Sharing authentic, real-world units at staff meetings; 
• Morning Circle check-in embedded in our daily schedule for all classes; 
• 4 blankets of resiliency K to 7; 
• Restorative Practice and teaching growth mindset (Zones of Regulation, Mind Up); 
• Early intervention in the primary grades for those vulnerable students; and, 
• Community Partnerships: WCSS, WAGS, AWARE Whistler, Sport for Life, Women’s Centre 

Response to Intervention (RTI) 

Our RTI starts with our strength-based classroom composition meetings at the end of each school year looking forward to the next. We build purposeful, pro social balanced classes. At the beginning of a new school year, we then conduct our classroom mapping. In this process, we look to identify those vulnerable students and allocate our learning support resources accordingly: 

• ILT; 
• ELL; 
• Tier 1 interventions via Collaborative Support Teacher; 
• Learning Services, Counselling; and, 
• IST. 

As the school year progresses, we use our School Based Team (SBT) as an avenue for staff to bring struggling students to have a wraparound approach to intervention. Our second classroom mapping meetings occur after winter break where we relook at students, needs in the classroom, and redistribute resources based on changes. 

Assessment Evidence 

We will continue to collect the evidence from surveys and compare results to our baseline year (2021 data). We will also continue to collect evidence via the ELP and, the soon to be implemented Carole Fullerton derived Numeracy assessment. Triangulating data from student self-reflection, FSA, the Student Learning Survey, and the new Numeracy Assessment will likely provide evidence about the effectiveness of our strategies. We will continue to compare results to our established baseline of student ability with collaborating through our student self-assessment (SD48 has established a student rubric based on a collaboration rubric by McEachen & Quinn (2019)). We will then be able to follow cohort data through the school years to add another data set to help determine the level of success of our SLP. This self-assessment will be focused on the intermediate level to coincide with our other data sets. 

Teachers currently have reading assessments, EDI, ELP, MDI, reporting data and student self-assessments and reflections to inform their instruction. Add to this the Numeracy assessment, and teachers should be armed with enough data to help guide their instructional practice to positively impact student learning and instill confidence in our learners.