Davis Bay

ElementarySchool Growth Plan 2011-2012

Setting Directions

For Davis Bay to continue to flourish as a small community

school using an innovative Science based themed approach to attract new families and students to our

school

Goal No. 1

To renew and thrive as a small community school by taking advantage of the talents of our staff and our unique

situation that finds us (a) the only K-5 school in the district and (b) surrounded

by diverse natural environments that provide rich opportunities for learning.

Setting DirectionsGoal No. 1 (cont)

Objective

To enhance the viability and sustainability of the Davis Bay Elementary by developing and publicizing

its unique and treasured aspects.

(We see Davis Bay as being very “sustainable” by delivering academic programs by utilizing our

natural surroundings, i.e. ocean in the front, forest and creek behind the school.)

After the district reorganization in the 2009/10 school year, the school is in the process of reinventing itself and must respond to meet the needs of our new K-5 school. We have begun to address these factors in the current school year and fully recognize the strong foundation

that presently exists.

Rationale

Rationale Continued…

Davis Bay Elementary offers a cohesive and connective family oriented culture that supports

the development of children.

It’s organization allows for flexible groupings that allow us to better respond to the individual needs

of our students, multi-age classrooms that support continuous learning, and a school size that allows for considerable whole school focus and activity.

Key Points

• Many academic subjects will be organized around the theme of "Connecting With Our

Environment". We will begin to explore thematically organized curriculum in the

areas of student writing, science, and social responsibility.

• To articulate and address the factors that make small K-5 schools highly successful.

This foundation is based on…

• Davis Bay is advantaged by parental and community engagement.

• Discussions amongst staff and parents have revealed a strong commitment to developing a thematic curricular

organization centred around its rich, natural setting.

• Educational research is clear about the advantages of small school and we believe that the K-5 organization can be of

great benefit.

Data

• The presence of an articulated and shared vision for our school.

• Student, staff and parent surveys aimed at assessing satisfaction and level of support

of, and engagement in, the process of school renewal.

Make a stronger “Reading – Writing” connection

ObjectiveTo increase literacy through enhanced encoding and decoding skills and to understand that one has a direct bearing and strong coupling with the other. To develop in our students intrinsic

motivation, self-directedness, and a passion for reading and writing. We will begin by focusing

on making our goals their goals so that students see the benefits of a strong reading-writing

connection.

Goal # 2

RationaleLiteracy is one of the central mandates of school

•Study of the reading-writing connection has made staff aware that by building this connection,

students' overall literacy is positively impacted in terms of student motivation and naturally

following, their achievement.

•Our K-5 school organization will facilitate student learning in this area as we are more flexible in our groupings and our multi-age

classrooms support continuous progress. This goal links with our first goal (science-based

thematic curriculum).

Data

• An all school anthology of our writing, connected to our reading or other pre-writing experiences

• School-wide 'writes' to monitor improvement

• B.C. Ministry of Education published Performance Based Standards for reading and writing

StrategiesGoal #1

• David Barnum, our resident Science specialist from the “Spider” program, has agreed to offer his expertise in

assisting teachers to accomplish our stated goal.

•Parents could assist us in our outdoor oriented curriculum.

• I would also explore the possibility of doing a whole-school Sea-to-Sky Outdoor School experience that uses their expertise in supporting students to develop strong

connections to their natural environment.

Goal # 2

Strategies

Continue to develop our reading-writing program with the help and expertise of people such as Carole Stickley and use science-based learning experiences

to build the reading-writing connection.

Students' learning experiences in natural settings will be the springboard for their writing. They will have opportunity to write in both fiction and non-fiction

and to review and reflect on their products.

Structures

• School focused Professional Development will support staff dialogue and enable us to

utilize key resource people related to various science and writing themes.

• Continue with whole school trips to surrounding sites i.e., Iris Griffith, Camp Byng as well as Vancouver destinations, i.e., Planetarium,

Aquarium

Coherence/Alignment

• The strong science theme approach enjoys the commitment of staff and

stated support from resident scientist, David Barnum.

• The reading-writing connection aligns with both the science-based thematic

approach and with the District’s goal of a strong literacy program.

Dialogue

& Communication

•There has been general support and excitement about new directions and possibilities as evidenced by staff and the PAC.

•There have also been a number of formal and informal discussions that fully support these initiatives.

•Downsizing is a reality for Davis Bay and those challenges will be met with optimism and commitment for

sustainability.

• Professional Development Days have engendered enthusiasm and commitment.

Parent Involvement

We encourage and value parental participation on field trips and PAC meetings, in classrooms

and informal gatherings around the school.

We know that if parents are active and enthusiastic partners, student achievement is enhanced and as the word spreads, this could potentially attract new families to our school

community.

Leadership

As a small school with a deeply committed staff and parent body, this kind of leadership naturally occurs. This quality of the school must be

recognized and fostered. As well, we must be vigilant at being inclusive and ensure that all voices are valued and heard and all ideas

considered; no one is left feeling marginalized.

It is the belief of the current school leadership that when parents, staff, and students are being heard and their input acted upon as

appropriate to the goals of the school, satisfaction and school development and, most importantly, enhanced student learning will

be inevitable results.

Achieving Results Results will be monitored both

informally – i.e., enthusiasm and

attitude toward the subject areas

by our students, and formally –

report card marks, FSA results

and Performance Based

Standards

Parental input will also be used

to help assess the success of

each goal. Open dialogue

between administration, parents

and staff is critical to gauge this

type of informal assessment