Education Plan & Community Engagement

This year I have been working on engaging with members of the school community to build a shared understanding of the school’s educational priorities. This has been an ongoing process through this school year with multiple strategies being implemented as to interact with the largest and most diverse group possible.

As I prepared for this work, I developed the following strategies to accomplish the overall goal:

• Have school community members complete an online survey (called Touchpoint on Student Learning) with a target response rate of 50% of possible responders
• Engage with the school community as to maintain attendance at the parent council meetings of at least 10 people (excluding myself and the trustee)
• Host monthly ‘celebration’ assemblies for students and school community members with at least 40 school community members in attendance.

In order to obtain the best possible results, I knew I required substance to what I was offering to school community members. For the survey, I worked with the chair of my Parent Council to develop the questions. This provided a well-rounded perspective to the questions. The survey was open for approximately a month and we received 71 responses! I was very pleased with this result. My next step is to break down the survey results and determine what aspects of it I need to act on as well as what results are relevant for our parent council. This will help guide my work for the remainder of the school year and into future years.

To support the work done with my parent council and community members, I am intending to share with them a presentation I gave to the Board of Trustees about the school’s Education Plan. I want to ensure that the school community is very aware of our successes, our growth areas, and our path for moving forward. This will also be shared, and discussed, with my staff and used to guide our work for the rest of the year. You can see the presentation below.

One of my goals this year has been a challenge to tackle is the continued work surrounding parental involvement within the school. As it has for everyone, COVID-19 has had a serious impact on the running of my school – specifically, the ability to have parents and other family members into the school. We have attempted to get creative and some of the classes have done a variety of things, such as Google Meets with family members, or recorded videos that can be sent home. As well, we made sure to have a Christmas Concert this year, but via YouTube. This was a huge success and we are already planning other virtual events to have families feel ‘attached’ to the school.

We are only half way through the school year, but I am looking forward to the work that I will be able to continue to accomplish with the entire school community. The survey results will provide some wonderful insight into the thoughts and feelings from the community and I’m sure it will lead to further conversations with multiple people. As well, I am excited for some of the conversations that I will be able to have with those who attend parent council and who reach out and speak with me about the path forward for the school.