Valley Elementary

School

Annual Report 2014-2015

School and Community Context

Valley Elementary was first established in 1861. The one room school house was enlarged in 1881 and

remodeled in 1935. The present building was constructed in 1950, with additional classrooms and a gymnasium

being added in 1988. The latest renovations took place in 2010 to further improve the school layout and to

increase safety and efficiency. The school is host to a community of families from Valley and the surrounding

area who are highly involved with school programs and activities. Both the School Advisory Council and Valley

Home and School Association play an active and vital role in helping meet the needs of students.

Valley Elementary is a school of approximately 220 students with classes ranging from grade primary to grade

four. Children are educated in a student centered, positive and consistent environment, allowing them to work

to their potential. At Valley Elementary, we take pride in providing teaching methods that are innovative and

meaningful with a high focus on the individual needs of our students. Valley has ten classrooms, Resource

Support, Literacy Mentor, and Early Literacy Support. We work closely and collaboratively with a shared school

psychologist, speech pathologist, and autism specialist. We also offer a Music and Physical Education program to

students.

SCHOOL ADVISORY GROUP

The School Advisory Council is composed of three parent representatives, three staff representatives (two

teachers, one support staff), two community representatives and the principal. Our council met six times

during the school year with one special meeting in September to provide parents/guardians an opportunity to

voice their opinions as an allergen policy was developed for the school. Early in the 2014/15 school year

development of an allergen policy was a priority. In mid-October two bus routes were altered due to one bus

being filled beyond capacity. SAC heard concerns from parents who felt the Chignecto-Central Regional School

Board bus policy should be revisited in order to allow students to go to their caregivers by bus afterschool. Our

CCRSB representative, Keith MacKenzie attended a SAC meeting and he agreed to present our data and

concerns to Operations.

SAFE AND ORDERLY ENVIRONMENT

At Valley Elementary students are accounted for each morning with attendance. After attendance is taken, a safe-arrival calendar identifies absent students and is sent to the office. Our administrative assistant calls to check with parents about absent students who are unexcused. This ensures that every child is accounted for at the beginning of each day. All exterior doors are locked during the day with the exception of the front door. The front door is visible to the administrative assistant. If no one is available in the office, the front door is locked and visitors are asked to call the school to gain entry. Visitors to the school must report to the office and sign in. Students are well supervised during the day. At morning arrival specialist teachers and administration are positioned to supervise key areas such as the walkway and bus loop, the front entrance upstairs, the entrance by the gym and the stairs leading to the middle of the downstairs hall. Our students are closely supervised by three teachers and several EAs during the morning recess. At lunch, students are

supervised by paid employees. On rainy days, students still participate in physical activity during recess

times. Students walk through the halls to music played over the speakers for part of their recess.

Dismissal is carried out in stages with bus students departing first. Daycare pick up is next and lastly students

walking or being picked up. Teachers are assigned a specific place to monitor or group of students to

supervise. After school walkers are escorted by teachers out to the side door and wait for parents to pick up

their children. If students are not picked up in a timely fashion, they are escorted to the office and the

administrative assistant calls home to notify parents.

Last year, a crisis management team developed action plans to utilize in case of emergency situations. A

phone tree was also created to provide staff with a means of communicating important information. Key

contacts beyond school staff were identified and communicated to staff.

Valley runs on half hour scheduling of specialty classes (physical education and music). This makes for

smooth transitions throughout the day. Schedules are altered several times during the year to

accommodate specialized supports for students such as Early Literacy Support, Intensive Math Support,

and Grade 4 Literacy Support.

Classroom teachers use their own methods of classroom management and organization. Some teachers

use reward tickets (gotchas) for draws. Some teachers use the red, yellow, green light behavior chart to

track student behavior and other teachers use clothespin charts to track student behaviors'. Two teachers

have visited the model restorative justice classroom and are beginning to introduce restorative practices in

their classrooms. All classrooms run efficiently and effectively with classroom climate and culture in mind.

During the 2015/16 year movement toward a common behavior management program will be

implemented.

Provincial Assessments

Reading

Writing 3 Reading Writing Ideas

Writing

Organization

Writing

Language Use

Writing

Conventions

Year 2012 2013 2014 2012 2013 2014 2012 2013 2014 2012 2013 2014 2012 2013 2014

Met expectations in %

82 76 84 94 91 84 82 89 67 88 87 72 76 78 70

Mathematics

Year 2012 EEMLA 2013 Math 4 2014Math 4

Met Expectations

in % 92 91 83

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT -HIGHLIGHTS OF YEAR

Some of the activities that Valley students participated in were Stand Up Speak Out, Meet the Teacher,

Terry Fox Run, Monthly Assembl ies, Fire Safety Awareness, Halloween Dance, -Remembrance Day Service,

Heritage and Science Fair, Gardening Club, a dominos presentation, Christmas Tea, Fall Fiesta, Holiday

Concert, Dance Festival, Volunteer Assembly, Grade 3 Swim to Survive, Gr.4 Safety Fair,

Track and Field, Cross-stitch Club, Yearbook and afterschool activities led by the music and physical

education teachers.

Students participated in many multi-cultural activities, including the local Powwow, a presentation with local

Mi’Kmaq artist Leonard Paul and a Goat Works presentation.

Special Theme days offer students an opportunity to dress up and make a donation to a selected charity.

The Charities selected reflect the interests and concerns of the student population. Our school

participated in the Terry Fox Walk and the Farm Credit Drive Against Hunger.

PROFESS IONAL DEVELOPMENT

Teachers attended a variety of conferences such as NSTALL,PETA, ATEC, TAPE. There are two teachers

working toward their Master's Degrees. One teacher completed the Masters in Physical Education degree

at Saint Francis Xavier University. The principal completed the Instructional Leadership

Diploma with NSELC. There were many staff members who participated in professional learning

opportunities provided by the board and the province throughout the school year and the summer. The

staff at Valley Elementary continually works together within Professional Learning Community teams and

groups on Power Teacher, Gradebook, Tienet and new curriculum.

The best professional development is ongoing, experiential, collaborative, and connected to and derived

from working with students and understanding their culture.

Additional School Supports

The Valley Elementary Home & School Association provides many enriched opportunities for our students each

school year. These include the purchase of playground equipment, classroom library books, school library

books, activities for indoor recess, music equipment, physical education equipment, classroom supplies, class

trips, and more. The Home & School organize a Fall Fiesta, Halloween Dance, and Christmas Tea & Craft Fair.

Fire Prevention Week activities are led by the Valley Kemptown Fire Department.

Valley Elementary also has a relationship with Big Brothers, Big Sisters offering in-school mentoring.

RCMP Liaison, Lori Morash assists with safety drills, attends assemblies and the Remembrance Day Service.

The Municipality of Colchester holds two weeks of summer camps at Valley Elementary. A local soccer

organization uses the field during the summer months.

Our school library is completely staffed by volunteers from the school community.

Teacher Surveys

Continuous School Improvement Goal:

By the end of the 2015/16 school year, an increase of 5% more students will indicate on a survey that

teachers provide them with descriptive feedback.

Strategies and Actions:

* Revisited goal with new and returning staff members.

*Read and discussed Making Classroom Assessment Work by Anne Davies, Ph.D

*Watch videos (What Constitutes Effective Feedback) by the Ontario DOE segments 1,2 and 5

*Practiced in our classrooms (see actions below)

* Watched videos on You Tube

How to Give Feedback the Right Way (Birdhouse) Developing

Inquiring Minds (Moon Journal)

Quantitative Data:

2012 Beginning Progressing Succeeding

Provide regular and specific feedback to students to support

further learning. 0% 77% 23%

Provide students with assessment criteria before they begin

work on a task. 0% 54% 46%

Provide opportunities for students to redo their work,

incorporating feedback. 0% 38% 62%

Communicate outcomes to students prior to instruction and

assessment. 0% 64% 36%

Use exemplars to identify quality work in relation to rubric. 9% 82% 9%

Co-construct rubric indicators to clarify expectations.

36% 64% 0%

Results:

More teachers are succeeding in providing regular and specific feedback to students to support further

learning. In 2012 no teachers reported they were beginning however, in 2015 17% indicated they were

beginning to provide regular and specific feedback.

100% of our staff are progressing or succeeding at providing students with assessment criteria before they

begin work on a task.

100% of our staff are progressing or succeeding at providing opportunities for students to redo their work,

incorporating feedback.

100% of our staff are progressing or succeeding at communicating outcomes to students prior to

instruction and assessment.

A decrease of 2% of teachers are progressing or succeeding at using exemplars to identify quality work in

relation to rubrics.

All teachers are either progressing or succeeding at co-constructing rubric indicators to clarify

expectations.

Conclusions: Despite changes in teaching staff and teachers returning from leaves, we have continued to

show significant progress toward the meeting of our Feedback Goal.

2015 Beginning Progressing Succeeding

Provide regular and specific feedback to students to support further

learning.

17% 50% 33%

Provide students with assessment criteria before they begin work on a 0% 75% 25%

task.

Provide opportunities for students to redo their work, incorporating 0% 67% 33%

feedback.

Communicate outcomes to students prior to instruction and 0% 67% 33%

assessment.

Use exemplars to identify quality work in relation to rubric. 7% 64% 29%

Co-construct rubric indicators to clarify expectations. 0% 79% 21%

Student Survey Results 2012

Questions from the Provincial Survey involving

Descriptive Feed back

Strongly

Agree

Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly

Disagree

My teachers show me what I can do well. 46.2% 3S.5% 12.3% 3.l % 0%

My teachers tell me what they expect from me. 47.1% 32.4% 14.7% 4.4 % 1.5 %

My teachers give me helpful comments about my work.

47.1% 23.5% 26.5% 0% 2.9 %

My teachers use ma ny e x amples when explaining things. 50.7% 43.3% 6.0% 0% 0 %

My teachers tell me what I need to do better.

40.9%

42.4%

15..2%

0%

1.5%

Student Survey Results 2015

Questions from the Provincial Survey

involving Descriptive Feedback

Strongly

Agree

Agree Not Sure Disagree Strongly

Disagree

My teachers show me what I can do well. 28% 48% 17% 6% 1%

My teachers tell me what they expect

from me.

50%

30% 16% 3% 1%

My teachers give me helpful comments

about my work.

42%

39%

15%

2%

2%

My teachers use many examples when

explaining things.

52%

31%

14%

1%

2%

My teachers tell me what I need to do

better.

42%

42%

9%

5%

2%

Results: There has been a small overall improvement.

• 9% fewer students report that their teachers show them what they can do well. The % of students not sure about this

has risen by 5%. • The percentage of students who report that teachers tell them what they expect remains virtually unchanged with an

increase of 0.6%

• There was a significant increase in the % (11.6) of students who indicated that teachers give them helpful comments about their work.

• 11% fewer students indicated that their teachers use many examples when explaining things.

• 0.7% more students reported that their teachers told them what they need to do better.

Discussion: • Teachers wondered if the students really understand the questions. • Ma be some students felt that they could control their "fate" /influence the results • Were the students having a bad day...getting back at the teachers? • Were we going too fast for the LO kids and they couldn't follow the survey. Did they have enough processing time? • Should we re- survey in 2015-2016 using a common admin/ facilitator?

Actions:

• Use the language in the survey over the next year to help the children understand what the survey is asking.

• Have a common facilitator administer the next survey to all Grade 3 & 4 students.

Qualitative Data

Teachers: Practicing and modeling Descriptive Feedback with the students.

Being very explicit with both oral and written feedback with our students.

Students: Older students are giving descr iptive to other student's writing on Moodle.

Younger students are giving Descriptive Feedback to their peers, orally and on

video. School w ide use of the "Two Hearts and a Wish" model when giving

feedback.

Primary: Groves/Dodsworth -

Regular use of Two Hearts and a Wish Model

Productive feedback for the students

Allow opportunities for the children to practice with a peer Use of

Learning Targets

Expectations are clearly laid out

Grade 1: Ferguson/ McCarthy -

Learning Targets are clearly stated.

The language being used when explaining an activity is clear and concise so that the children have a clear

understanding of what need to be done. They also have a good understand ing of what needs to be done in order

to be successful.

During reading conferences, I discuss the areas students are doing really well at and an area that they can work

on.

Will begin using receipt books to provide feedback on students writing and using center time in math to assess

and discuss progress.

Grade 2: Thiesen/ Church Classroom Actions:

2 hearts and a wish

One-on-one conferencing

Give writing exemplars and give "descriptive feedback"

Discuss expectations for student work

Frequently using the term "descriptive feedback"

Grade 3: Doreshenko/ Sutherland Classroom Actions:

• Practicing feedback with the students. Students are practicing feedback with each other

• Learning Targets

• Writing exemplars given and descriptive feedback given

• Model feedback in Guided Reading lessons • Written feedback and suggestions given during Writing Workshop

•

Grade Four: Macleod/ Faulkner In writing, we meet with them and tell them what they did well and what they should work on next. On a

quiz or worksheet, I make notes to them to explain what they did wrong

On oral presentations, I give them a comment on what they did well and what they could work on During

guided reading, students are provided with feedback about what they did well on and an area to work on.

IGOT It Books are done on a regular basis. These are sent home to show parents an area their child is strong in

or could use more support in.

Physical Education: Tracy MacKay

Students are given verbal feedback immediately when they are performing skills explaining explicitly

what they are doing well as well as what they can improve upon.

Students are given the opportunity to give descriptive feedback to their peers so they have a good understanding of how feedback is both given and received.

Music: Michelle Thibeau I used exemplars to address descriptive feedback in the classroom. I also used technology/apps. I practice

being explicit about what my expectations are. I give students feedback about what they can do to achieve

their task.

2015/16

Strategies & Actions:

*Begin using Descr iptive Feedback with the new Primary Classes and any new students.

*Revisit the goal and update new and returning staf f members (2014-2015)

*Read new resource(s) (TBA) by June 2016

*Watch additional videos (how to and instruction in action)

*Invite other staf f members to v ideo tape and share "Feedback in Act ion".

*Continue practice in our classrooms

*Follow up sharing sessions

*Re Survey Gr. 3-4 students in May 2015 (Quest ions below)

*Survey teachers March 2015 (Questions below)

Provincial Survey Questions (Grade 3& 4 students): My

teachers show me what I do well.

My teachers tell me what they expect from me.

My teachers give me helpful comments about my work. My

teachers use many examp les when explaining things. My

teachers tell me what I need to do better.

Goal:

By the end of 2014\15 school year, 75% of the students will agree that Valley Elementary

addresses matters related to racial equity and cultural proficiency as measured in the Student

Survey.

Actions:

-Survey was re-administered in Nov.2014 and June 2015.

-Staff decided to extend deadline for our goal to the end of 2016 school year.

- Teachers documented current classroom activities.

-Guest speakers and presentations for students (Leonard Paul, First Nations artist), Goatworks, African

drumming and individual classroom speakers from a variety of cultures.)

-School wide classroom activities to celebrate Mi'kmaq Heritage Month.

-Classes visited the "Powwow" at the NSCC.

-Purchased Kente cloth for the students for African Heritage Month.

-Valley Elementary events reflected a variety of cultures (Holiday concert, Dance Festival)

-Recognized the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. (March21)

-Home and School supported the purchase of multicultural and social equity guided reading books, classroom

read alouds, biographies, multicultural name sticks and multicultural craft paper.

-School purchased multicultural resources such as DVD Four Feet Up and library books.

-Currently planning an inviting multicultural welcome in the school's front entrance, murals representing

various cultures with the school.

-Discussed posting multicultural signage on the washroom doors.

-Janice Sutherland and Bronwyn Dodsworth attended the Social Justice Facilitators Module.

-Staff participated in the Social Justice Modules on "Class" and "Gender".

Qualitative Data: Teachers: Teachers have participated in a variety of professional development activities that has supported

them in their planning for and teaching in a more culturally proficient environment.

Students: The students have had the opportunity to learn about their culture and a variety of other cultures

through school and classroom activities. They have been exposed to various cultures through classroom

and school discussions, stories, artwork, presenters and celebrations

Reflections:

This year staff and students worked towards developing a deeper understanding of what it means for our

school community to be proficient in racial and cultural matters. Our school community has discussed and

experienced a variety of learning opportunities regarding cultures with in our community and around the

world. These opportunities have helped us to increase our understanding of diversity. As a result, we are

realizing that being culturally proficient should be an ongoing goal and we should always be reflecting and

inclusive of all cultures and beliefs. This year the staff has agreed to extend the timeline for completing this

goal until the end of the 2016 school year. Our hope is with having more opportunities to increase our

understanding and to continue to acquire more multicultural resources to support our daily learning we are

thus, embedding more cultural perspectives into our daily school life. Results of our spring student survey

show that 75% or more strongly agreed or agreed to all the questions related to matters of racial equity

and cultural proficiency. These results are a positive sign that our school community is developing a deeper

understanding on these concepts. However, with yearly changes to staff and students continuing to focus

on this goal and the action plan for next year will help ensure that our school community continues to

become more aware of racial and cultural matters.