/ School Name: Parkland Elementary
School Goal: Social Emotional Learning
School Year: 2015-2016
Goal / Inquiry
Student learning / If we implement a school-wide structure for conducting both classroom community and school-wide community circles based on the tenets of restorative practices, will our students and our community report higher levels of belonging and connectedness within our school community?
Rationale
1-3 reasons for choosing goal / Data supporting the need for this Goal/Inquiry:
The results of the MDI conducted with all of our Grade 4 students in 2011 indicated:
- Connectedness to Adults at School: 36% of our Grade 4 students indicated that statements such as “There is an adult who really cares about me” or “There is an adult who believes I will be a success” were “a little true”(29%) or “not true at all” (7%) (The district average is 26% in that category)
- School Climate: 30% of our Grade 4 students indicated that they “don’t agree or disagree” (21%), “disagree a little” or “disagree a lot” (9%) to statements such as “Teachers and Students treat each other with respect in this school” or “People care about each other in this school.” (The district average is 25% in that category)
- School Belonging: 28% of our Grade 4 students indicated that they “don’t agree or disagree” (12%), “disagree a little” or “disagree a lot” (16%) to statements such as “I feel like I am important to this school” and “I feel like I belong in this school.” (The district average is 24% in that category)
Currently we have identified a group of 66 of our current students (25% of our school population) who we believe are “Social and Emotional outliers”. This percentage is similar to the percentages identified by the MDI above. This group includes many of our students with diagnosed special needs (Category G, Category C, Category E, Category D, Category R, Category H, Category Q, Category P) and a group of our EAL students.
Theoretical Rationale for this Goal/Inquiry
We know that creating school connectedness and community is the base for the Restorative Practices pyramid and we expect that by creating intentional structures for supporting this we will have an impact on our community. Currently we use reactive restorative structures (using restorative questions in both formal and informal ways) to react to conflict incidents and ‘maintain relationships’ between students. We hope to reduce the number and frequency of these conversations by strengthening our pro-active structures designed to ‘make and develop relationships’.
References and sources to support actions /
- International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP) Website: www.iirp.edu
- Restorative Practices in Schools: Research Reveals Power of Restorative Approach
Backup Documentation /
- Defining Restorative (by Ted Wachtel, IIRP President and Founder of IIRP)
- Teaching Restorative Practices with Classroom Circles (IIRP)
- Circle Forward: Building A Restorative School Community (by Carolyn Boyes-Watson and Kay Pranis)
- Restorative Circles in Schools: Building Community and Enhancing Learning (by Bob Costello, Joshua Wachtel & Ted Wachtel)
Planned Actions
Continuing practices working well (1-3)
- What will we do differently? (1-3)
- How will we provide for staff development and collaboration?
- How will we involve parents?
- How will we involve students?
- How will we monitor progress and adjust actions?
- Implement classroom community circles in each classroom
- Implement a school-community circle involving 2 students from each class (different students each time), PAC representation, two teachers (different teachers will come each time), the principal, and CUPE staff representation.
- Each class will set a class charter which will be amalgamated to create a school charter.
- Staff will attend PD sessions with Jillian Lewis to learn about Restitution to support the types of conversations we would be having during our community circles
- Part of our Student Services teachers' roles is to collaborate with classroom teachers in implementing the classroom community circles (all of them have IIRP training)
- Classes will be provided with release time for teachers to be involved in small group restorative problem-solving circles when difficulties arise
- We will dedicate time each month at our staff meeting to reflect on our progress with our inquiry project
Backup Documentation /
- Consultation with various schools who have worked with Jillian Lewis indicated that she helped them shift from a punitive framework to a restorative framework in dealing with their students.
Documentation of learning
Key evidence of change
- How did your actions make a difference?
- Choose 1-3 pieces of evidence to demonstrate the impact your actions have had on student learning to meet your goal.
- Documentation could include video, survey results, performance standard data, anecdotal evidence, work samples, etc.
- We have designed a survey for our school community (students and parents) which will be used in June of 2015 and again in June of 2016 to see if our intervention has been successful
- We will compare the 2011 MDI data with the data collected from the upcoming MDI in Coquitlam.
- We will document anecdotal evidence of success or challenges as we shift to a restorative framework in our community.
Backup Documentation / Our Survey results for June 2015 will be posted here when they become available
Reflection Highlights
- Where are we now?
- What are some patterns emerging?
- What surprised you?
- What conclusions / inferences might you draw?
- How does this inform potential next steps?
- During the 2014/2015 school year we were investigating various Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) frameworks. In May of 2015 we came to a staff consensus that moving forward with Restorative Practices with a specific focus on classroom circles was the best next-step for us as a staff.
- During the 2014/2015 school year we sent one of our Student Services Teachers for IIRP training. In prior years our other Student Services Teacher, our School Councellor and our Principal also took the training.
- Office referrals are dealt with using restorative conferences and other more informal restorative conversations. We are concerned, however, that this structure without consistent school-wide proactive structures (such as classroom community circles) is unsustainable due to the overwhelming need for these conversations that we are unable to meet. This confirmed the need for school-wide proactive restorative practices such as classroom circles.
- Some of our classroom teachers have been using community circles and other classroom meetings in their classroom with encouraging results and some exciting highlights:
- In one of our classrooms their classroom circle structure led to a variety of conversations around social needs. This culminated in a student-organized lemonade stand to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society. Their learning impacted students across our school community.
- Students from various classrooms; raised money for clean water, shoes and food in Africa by recycling juice boxes; created cooperative games to play with their classmates; and collected donations for an animal shelter.
Backup Documentation
Literacy Data
Attach the following :
- Classroom Assessment
- School Assessment
- FSA results
This link documents our March 2015 report card data in academic areas as it compares to the expected needs of a community based on the Response to Intervention (RTI) Framework. This provides evidence that our students fall within the expected range for academic achievement according to report card data.
Parkland Classroom Assessment 2015
This document contains assessment information based on teacher judgement for a variety of areas including literacy areas. According to this information our students.
FSA Results
As of June 2015 the results posted on this website reflect the 2014 FSA results for our school. Please check back to see the 2015 results as they become available
Signatures
School Name: Parkland Elementary / School Goal: Social Emotional Learning / School Year: 2015-16Submitted by School Planning Council:
Title / Name / Signature
Principal / Anita Strang
Parent / Naomi Andrusiw
Parent / Darlene Hunter
Parent / Tara Parkinson
Recommended by Assistant Superintendent:
Assistant Superintendent / Gerald Shong
Board and Superintendent Approval:
Board Chair / Judy Shirra
Superintendent / Patricia Gartland
Print this page, have it signed by School Planning Council, scan it and attach it here /
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