May 2017 Page 1

Sir John Thompson School Plan

for Continuous Growth

2017-2020

Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on Earth but yours.

(St. Teresa of Avila)

May 2017 Page 2

Sir John Thompson School Plan for Continuous Growth 2017-2020

School Mission: To instill students with the spirit of Christ, to excel in their studies and the

pursuit of knowledge while renewing the Catholic Church and its mission in today’s world

School Vision: Sir John Thompson Catholic School community collaboratively embraces

innovative learning opportunities for successful life-long learning.

School Charism: We persevere in faith while serving others as Sir John Thompson did.

School Context:

Sir John Thompson School’s catchment is primarily a working class, middle income area. The

population increased this year by approximately 24 students to 378 students. There are 27 staff

(16 teachers, two Support Staff, four Educational Assistants, two custodians and one Family

School Liaison Worker, one Family School Liaison Coordinator, one psychologist and one STAY

member).

The school has one district focus program, Pre-Advanced Program.

The student population has representative groups found in most ECSD schools. FNMI and ELL

(mostly Filipino) students comprise 2% and 16% of the total population.

The school’s results on Provincial Achievement Tests are consistently better than the province

and are comparable to the District, often exceeding the District average.

In addition to an excellent academic reputation, the school offers a wide range of

complementary courses and extra-curricular activities.

The school has a rich history of social justice and charitable endeavors, most notably the Sign of

Hope Kids’ Care Challenge. SJT has the longest tradition of support of any ECSD school. The

School also supports its parish initiatives and local community.

In 2016 -2017, Sir John Thompson School partnered with St. Edmund Parish to offer a

“Sacramental Catch-up” program for students missing First Reconciliation, First Eucharist and

Confirmation. It was very well received by the school’s parents and continues in 2017-2018.

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Review of Previous Year’s Goals 2016-2017:

Goal Achieved/continue modify

Evidence/data used

Goal #1: Through the development and implementation of an age appropriate Sacramental Preparation program, students will have the opportunity to take preparatory classes at Sir John Thompson School to receive the Sacraments of Reconciliation, First Eucharist and Confirmation. Objective: During each trimester during iLearn (Flex) students will be offered the opportunity to do a Sacramental Preparation program; First semester: Reconciliation; Second semester: First Eucharist; Third semester: Confirmation

Achieved

“Sacramental Catch-up” program as it became to be known had 11 students celebrate the Sacraments of Reconciliation and First Eucharist; 46 students celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Goal #2 – Provide students with the necessary skills and knowledge for them to be healthy, active citizen today and in the future Objective: Provide students with the opportunity to have sessions in Health and iLearn that address mental health

Ongoing All actions were carried out as specified. Mental health continues to be a priority. However, it is difficult to gauge success as the year progresses as mental health is often unpredictable. The number of mental health issues the student support team faced continued to increase throughout the year. This goal is ongoing and will be addressed in 2017-2018.

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Goal #3 School-wide: Read Write Chrome Implementation Teachers will provide common learning support across curriculum areas allowing both academically strong students and struggling by using “Read Write Chrome” to embed accommodations and adaptations more consistently and provide tools to increase student success.

Achieved All actions were carried throughout the year. Staff were inserviced on Read, Write, Chrome. The LC and Tech Coach instructed ELL and students needing the assistive technology. Portions of each of the staff PD days were devoted to this goal.

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Data Analysis:

Areas to celebrate

Accountability Pillar All measures were “Very High” or “Excellent” except for Student Learning Achievement which was “Maintained.”

District Satisfaction Survey

Sir John Thompson School scored higher in all “school related” categories for both the Student and Parent Surveys. Student Survey:

• “Student discipline is handled fairly” SJT: 90.2% vs District: 80.2%

• “I am given the opportunity to communicate my learning through a variety of media” SJT: 92.8% vs District: 84.4%

• “Access to computer technology at school.” SJT: 96.2% vs District: 88.1%

• “My religion classes make the Catholic faith meaningful to me.” SJT: 94.5% vs District: 86.8%

• “I have opportunities to express my opinions about school issues.” SJT: 82.2% vs District: 75.0%

Parent Survey:

• “Opportunity to access information about resource allocations.” SJT: 100% vs District: 93.5%

• “I am satisfied with the way student discipline is handled in my child’s school.” SJT: 100.0% vs District 93.6%

• “Opportunity to access information about decision-making process.” SJT 100% vs District 93.7%

• “My input is considered and valued by my child’s school.” SJT: 100% vs District: 94,4%

• My child’s school helps my child learn to the best of his/her ability.” SJT: 100% vs District: 94.7%

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Regression Analysis In the matrix comparing PAT results vs student CCAT scores Sir John Thompson An (=) is within the anticipated achievement range; a (+) exceeds the anticipated achievement range.

• In 2016-17 Language Arts received (+) improving from (=) the previous year.

• In 2016 -2017 Math received (+) maintaining (+) from the previous year.

• In 2016-17 Science received (=) maintaining (=) from the previous year.

• In 2016-17 Social Studies received (+) improving from (=) the previous year.

PAT/Diploma analysis Sir John Thompson School has consistently scores above the provincial average in the “Acceptable” standard according to the five-year data.

• All subjects were above the provincial average in the “Acceptable Standard.” Math and Social Studies exceeded the provincial average in the “Excellence Standard.”

Our School Survey The results that surpassed the District average with the highest difference:

• “Students that value school outcomes” SJT: 86% vs District 77%

• “Students that are regularly truant” SJT 4% vs District 17%

• “Students who are interested and motivated in their learning” SJT 52% vs District 47%

5 Marks of Catholic School Identity Assessment

Standard Two: An excellent Catholic school has a visible and tangible Catholic vision evident in its physical space, liturgical celebrations, and prayer life. Benchmarks pertinent to Sir John Thompson:

• The school’s Catholic worldview is evident in the art and architecture of the school’s exterior and signage as well as in hallways, classrooms, offices, library, gymnasium.

• Students have opportunities to pray every day in school, and

at numerous times during the day such as: ▪ To begin the school day in the morning ▪ A prayer to begin afternoon classes

• Every classroom has a prayer center with the following

standard items: ▪ Cross or Crucifix ▪ Candle ▪ Bible ▪ Cloth with the appropriate liturgical colour

• The school community gathers for liturgical celebrations including celebrations of the Eucharist.

• Whenever possible, Eucharist is celebrated in the local parish.

• The school works with the local parish to support the immediate preparation for the sacraments of Eucharist, Reconciliation, and Confirmation.

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• The school and the local parish collaborate in preparing children who have not received the sacraments of Initiation, including Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation, and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

• Service projects reflect and articulate Catholic teaching on social justice and charity.

Areas to target for growth Data Source Measures Goals in response to data

Accountability Pillar

None of the measures declined or dropped. The PAT results remain consistently good.

• Excellence Standard for all subjects will be above the provincial average.

District Satisfaction Survey

All scores are above the District average

Regression Analysis

• All the subject results were (+) or (=); none declined.

• Specific subject goals are addressed in a school goal. PAT/Diploma

analysis • The only two PAT results slightly below

the province were the Excellence Standard for Language Arts (-0.9% below) and Science (-2.0%) below.

Our School Survey

Students with moderate or high levels of Anxiety- School 29% vs District 27%

Reduce the level of student anxiety to the District’s level or below.

5 Marks of Catholic School Identity Assessment

Standard Three: An excellent Catholic school has an academic curriculum that integrates a vision of faith within the learner outcomes and teaching strategies.

• Staff will examine the identity of the Church as it pertains to the Catholic school.

Staff will examine the five dimensions of the Catholic Church to ensure our Catholic School is reflective of these dimensions.

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Goals for 2017-2018:

Goal #1: Enhance the Catholicity of Sir John Thompson School

District Correlation: Edmonton Catholic School District Goal: Live and enhance the distinctiveness of Catholic education This goal is central to our mission and fundamental to our being. 1.1 Demonstrate the distinctiveness and advantages of Catholic education.

a) Cultivate and support a Catholic ethos/environment within each site. b) Demonstrate a way of life rooted in the Catholic Christian call to discipleship and service

Sub Goal a) Evaluate the prevalence of the five dimensions of the Catholic Church in the context of our Catholic School.

Strategy Staff review the meaning of each the five dimensions of the Catholic Church (Institution, Sacrament, Body of Christ, Servant Prophet) in October.

Actions Staff will do process work to determine the school’s strengthens in regards to the five dimensions and select a dimension as an area of growth.

Measures/ Evidence of effectiveness Through consensus the staff will determine the dimension that will become our focus for the year. Once chosen, the dimension will be developed into an action plan between December and January.

Strategy Students will review the five dimensions in homeroom or religion class and focus on the selected dimension in January.

Actions Students with their teachers will develop an action plan that highlights the dimension.

Measures/evidence of effectiveness Students will be able to articulate what the selected dimension is and will be able to explain how the planned activity is supportive of this dimension.

Students will participate in the activity to create meaningful connections

Students will more fully understand and participate in the mission of the Church.

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between the dimension and school culture

Sub Goal b) Further permeate the Catholic faith in the daily life of the school

Strategy Promote the prayer life in the school.

Action The entire school will pray a prayer of Thanksgiving after lunch time before afternoon classes. Sports teams will pray together prior to playing games.

Measures/evidence of effectiveness Students will be further immersed in the faith life of the school through their participation in prayer.

Strategy “An excellent Catholic school has a visible and tangible Catholic vision evident in its physical space” (from “The 5 Marks of Catholic School Identity Assessment” – Standard #2)

Actions Install a large cross in the gymnasium as a central focus of our faith during in-school celebrations and events.

Measures/evidence of effectiveness Students will be further immersed in the faith life of the school’s physical appearance.

Strategy Promote the concept of social justice through financial support

Actions The Student Leaderhsip Team will tithe a portion of what it raises to support school charities.

Measures/evidence of effectiveness A portion of raised funds will be donated to charities supported by the school such as the Sign of Hope

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Goal #2: Promote Literacy at Sir John Thompson School

District Correlation:

ECSD Goal One: ECSD students are successful

Edmonton Catholic School District Key Strategies:

1.1 Identify and implement best practices that align with excellent early learning pedagogy and learning environments to realize transformed education as described in the May 6, 2013, Ministerial Order on Student Learning. An excellent start to learning necessitates a focus upon developing competencies and, in particular, the foundational competencies of literacy and numeracy, content and procedural knowledge.

Sub Goal a) Increase the amount of targeted reading students do on a weekly basis. Research indicates that time spent reading correlates positively with students’ performance on standardized tests. (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998) Strategy Increase student reading time given in class, to increase literacy and appreciation for reading.

Actions Language Arts The Language Arts department will dedicate 15 minutes at the start of every class to independent reading. (75-90 minutes per week, supervised in class)

• Students will track their reading by tallying it as well as logging books with basic summaries.

• Students will reflect regularly on reading choices as well as each term on improvements seen in Reading Comprehension assessments.

Social Studies Students will increase their disciplinary literacy through increased awareness and understanding of Social Studies specific vocabulary through reading for 10

Measures/ Evidence of effectiveness Students reading abilities will improve as measured by the reading portion of the Language Arts PAT exam in June 2018.

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minutes at the beginning of each class.

● Teachers will provide subject specific reading at least 2 times per week.

● Reading will not be assessed; it’s goal will be the familiarity and acquisition of subject specific terminology.

● Students’ increased mastery of content will help ensure that they are better able to demonstrate and transfer their knowledge to different scenarios/situations and deeper level question styles (skills and processing).

Science Science Department will devote 20 minutes each week to enhance the literacy skills of our students by giving them the opportunity to focus on reading science subject material. Literacy Awareness - Students will have a choice of reading a topic of interest within the science subject area for ten minutes at the beginning of class twice a week. Each science class will have reading resources for students to choose.

Literacy Knowledge and Understanding - Students will spend the first ten minutes of each science class reading science vocabulary to enhance their

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understanding in science terminology and etymology. Focusing on this foundation in science will increase literacy across the entire subject area.

Sub Goal b) Increase students’ literacy and numeracy skills in Math.

Strategy

Build logic and problem-solving skills in math.

Promote basic math skills (literacy)

Actions Students in grade 9 will complete a daily problem of the day for grade 9 staring October 2017. Its correction will be done as a group to review reading strategies and problem-solving procedures. Daily problems of the day for grades 7 and 8 will begin after Minute Math booklets (building basic numeracy) are complete.

Measures/evidence of effectiveness Students’ reading and problem-solving abilities will remain excellent (based on PAT 2017). Results from the Math PAT Part A to be introduced in June 2018 will be comparable to the excellent results in the Math PAT 2017 results.

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Goal #3: Promote and support mental health

District Correlation:

ECSD Goal Three: ECSD is an inclusive school district

Key Strategies:

3.1 Implement strategies to ensure that schools focus on the creation of inclusive, safe, healthy and caring environments for all students and staff

Sub Goal a) Support those students who are struggling with mental health issues.

Strategy Increase the FTE (full-time equivalent) of student support personnel

Actions Increase the FTE of the Family School Liaison Worker (FSLW) from 0.2 to 0.4 FTE. This will increase the time from one day to two days per week. Hire a psychologist at 0.2 FTE (one day per week). This will be a new position.

Measures/ Evidence of effectiveness Students with mental health issues will have increased support and professionals to assist them in coping with their issues.

Sub Goal b) Promote a healthy and caring environment in the school.

Strategy Provide opportunities for students to practice mindfulness in response to emotionally difficult circumstances

Actions Offer sessions such as the Ignatian Examen and yoga through iLearn (flex) for students to practice mindfulness. Specifically, in Art class: 1. The art consultant can come in and run Art iLearn sessions on mindfulness and mental health/positive thinking 2. The possibility of having an Art therapist offer an iLearn

Measures/evidence of effectiveness The percentage of students with Moderate or High Levels of Anxiety will decrease below the District average.

May 2017 Page 14

session for students who may be interested. 3. The Art teacher has offered to have some meditative drawing sessions for iLearn to help students relax and unwind, especially during preparations for exams.

Goal #4: Maintain Sir John Thompson’s PAT Acceptable Standard results and surpass the province in all subject areas in the Excellence Standard category.

District Correlation:

ECSD Goal One: ECSD students are successful

Edmonton Catholic School District Key Strategies: 3.1 Identify and implement best practices that align with excellent early learning pedagogy

and learning environments to realize transformed education as described in the May 6, 2013, Ministerial Order on Student Learning. An excellent start to learning necessitates a focus upon developing competencies and, in particular, the foundational competencies of literacy and numeracy, content and procedural knowledge.

Sub Goal a) Each subject area will focus upon areas of growth based on the results of the June 2017 exams. Strategy LA Department Goal 2017/18 Increase student ability to synthesize* ideas from both fiction and non-fiction texts and support their ideas with text based evidence. * Synthesize - Thinking Beyond the Text; adjust present understandings to accommodate new knowledge

Actions

• One class in every seven classes

will be set aside for students to

respond to the self-selected

text they are currently reading

or one they have recently

finished.

• In this response students will be

challenged to synthesize the

information from their text and

their own experiences and

respond in paragraph form

using the SEE structure. (State

your idea. Provide an example

from the text. Explain how the

example supports the

statement.) The SEE structure

Measures/ Evidence of effectiveness Maintain the excellent result on the Acceptable Standard and the written portion of the exam. The students’ results on the reading portion of the PAT 2018 exam will increase The Excellence Standard for Language Arts will equal or exceed the provincial average on the June 2018 exam.

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Math Goal for 2017-2018

Extra review of exponent laws and scale concepts

Science Goal for 2017-2018

Goal #1 – PAT Practice Questions Using released PAT questions as a source of formative and summative assessments to assist grade nines in preparation for their final examinations in grade 9 and in the future. Goal #2 – Analyzing Data Incorporating more graphs

will enable the students to

practice using textual evidence

to support their ideas.

• Students will also be challenged

to respond in the same way to

common class texts (short

stories, poem, non-fiction texts,

films, etc.)

• SEE will be modelled by the

teacher and practiced

throughout instruction.

• Make a point of reviewing key 7 and 8 concepts with grade 9

• Use Pat questions at level with grades 7 and 8

Guiding students to breaking down the questions, answers, and identifying the outcome/topic covered. Focus on how to read various graphs, legends, and then form a conclusion based on the set of data.

Maintain the excellent results (Acceptable and Excellence) from 2017 on the 2018 Exam. Maintain the excellent result from the on the Acceptable Standard on the June 2017 exam on the 2018 exam. The Excellence Standard for Science will equal or exceed the provincial average on the June 2018 exam.

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and different visual representations of data for us to analyze to support a greater proficiency in skills. Goal #3 – “Space” Focus Devoting more time on teaching the “Space” unit focusing on the key principles, terms and foundations to Space Exploration outcomes.

Social Studies Goals for 2017-2018

Improve our students’

ability to move beyond

knowledge and

understanding and to more

effectively represent their

knowledge in skills and

processing style questions.

Unit projects and timelines will be adjusted to ensure there is adequate time for this goal to be executed. Through increased focus on source based exams

• Understanding symbolic meaning of prevalent items

• Comparing and contrasting multiple sources

• Synthesizing ideas to

determine

validity/relevance of

certain

• Better utilizing former PAT

questions within our

department chapter exams

and/or in class daily.

Increase student exposure to multiple styles of sources

• Increased use of primary sources where possible in class

• Increased use of sources on exams

• Political cartoon analysis within current events

Students’ results will improve on this section from the PAT 2017 to PAT 2018 results. Maintain the excellent results (Acceptable and Excellence) from 2017 on the 2018 Exam.

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Review Date 1: Review Date 2: