WEYBURN - School administrators had the opportunity to showcase student academic achievement during a Holy Family Student Outcome Data Results presentation at their monthly Board meeting on Oct. 12.
“As everyone is aware, last year was still a year of disrupted learning for education across the globe. School environments were uncertain and rules around pandemic living were constantly changing. So it is my pleasure to share some celebrations on the excellent learning that happened in Holy Family,” said Terry Jordens, Superintendent of Student Services and Assessment.
Holy Family’s yearly strategic plan is aligned with the Provincial Education Interim Plan (PEPIT) priorities. Level one includes provincial priorities, level two is division goals and level three is school-improvement plans. Academic Achievement is highlighted annually during the October Board meeting.
Diversity in the school division
“It is important to understand the diversity context in Holy Family. We are all diverse human beings and our student population is always changing. Holy Family is an inclusive school division and therefore all students who are able to be assessed are assessed and their results are shown in the data,” noted Jordens. “All students can learn, it’s important to their success that we track their growth and academics, so we can program properly and provide intervention where needed.”
Last year, the Holy Family school population included 146 Language Learners, speaking 27 different first languages (other than English). One of the successes celebrated during the Board meeting is that 71 of those students tested off the English language scale. “It is not that we lost students in this area, it is that their English Language skills developed far enough that they are no longer considered Language Learners anymore,” explained Jordens.
Truth and Reconciliation
Diversity work in the school divisions also includes work in reconciliation. Amber Hilstrom, principal of Sacred Heart/Sacré Coeur School, Estevan presented information on Truth and Reconciliation events held at their school in the past year.“ Last year, with the support of the school division, we received a $1,000 grant for reconciliation events at the school,” explained Hilstrom. A committee was created and hosted a day of reconciliation at Sacred Heart, which featured Indigenous dancers who held a drumming event for the students. Sacred Heart also hosted a performance by the Hip Hop Hoop dancers and observed school-wide activities during Orange Shirt Day.
“Central office has led some reconciliation work as well, including the continued relationship with our Traditional Knowledge Keeper,” added Jordens. The Holy Family admin team took in a reconciliation retreat in May of this year.
School readiness
Kindergarten teachers assessed 121 students, using a Ministry-mandated assessment to determine the readiness skills of gross motor and fine motor, language and communication, cognitive, social skills and approaches to learning and awareness of self and environment.
“We hit 80 per cent with our Kindergarten students on target for school readiness. We had a 27 per cent growth from fall to the exit of these Kindergarten students at the end of the school year,” said Jordens. “This is the most growth that we have seen in eight years of collecting this data.”
It was noted that last year Kindergarten students entered the school with the lowest level of readiness, when compared to the last eight years. Jordens contributed that to the effects of the pandemic on families, with restrictions to attending pre-school and playschools due to COVID-19 mandates at the time. The province ranked at 82 per cent for school readiness, as of June of 2022. The target is to reach 90 per cent.
Learning Response: Reading
All eligible Grade 1 to 5 students in Holy Family were assessed on a reading benchmark three times in the last year. The target for reading is that 80 per cent are at grade level, in June 2022 Holy Family hit 74 per cent. “A celebration was that we doubled the students reading at grade level from fall to the end of the school year,” noted Jordens. “Both our fall and final benchmarks were also higher than they were a year prior. We are seeing a growth trend in reading rates. Two of the grade levels were above the 80 per cent target, which were our Grade 4s and Grade 5s.” Jordens also noted that the reading data includes all students in the school division who can be assessed. The Grade 1 and 3 readers in particular increased from last year, with the Grade 3 readers increasing by 10 per cent and rating above the provincial level.
Ryan Jutras, principal at St. Mary’s School, Estevan, shared some reading success at their school with Board members. “Some of the things we did to address reading, with the understanding that we would have students who were a little behind, is that we looked at the development of emergent reading groups in Kindergarten and Pre-Kindergarten. We also pushed Learning Facilitator into those classrooms, knowing that there were some specific targets that we wanted to reach.”
Additional supports were also used, including a 50 per cent reading coach with larger groups. St. Mary’s School Community Council also supported the “One Book, One School” program at the school, which was very successful for the students and the families in the community.
Learning Response: Writing and Math
Data collection for writing and math is done with a provincial rubric that was created by Saskatchewan teachers, with guidance from the provincial leadership team. Last year, school data was collected in June at the division level. The target was that 80 per cent were at grade level, and in June 2022 Holy Family hit 77 per cent in writing and 89 per cent in math. “A celebration for writing was that this was the fourth year in a row that we were able to use the provincial rubric to help us align with the Saskatchewan curriculum,” said Jordens. Grade 8 and Grade 9 students in Holy Family were above the 80 per cent target in writing.
“A celebration for math is that overall Holy Family was above the target, with eight of the nine grades above the 80 per cent and four of the grade levels above 90 per cent,” added Jordens. Data collection for both writing and math included all students in the school division who can be assessed.
Dean Loberg, principal of St. Michael School, Weyburn shared some writing and math successes at their school with Board members.
“It was a time of getting back to normal, normal for us for several years was focusing on deeper learning, which includes hands-on, high engagement, problem solving and inquiry based instruction,” said Loberg. He added that since COVID-19 restrictions were based on forward-facing instruction, there were limitations on how much deeper learning programs could be completed.
One of the projects completed was a Grade 7 energy project, completed with a Saskatchewan Environment group to calculate how much energy is used in the school by just having the lights on. This helped engage the students in both math and writing by completing their research and introducing a light-saving program at the school in each classroom. “The Grade 7 students could tell me how many light bulbs were in the building, how much money facilities was spending on lighting the building and gave us ideas on saving money for energy costs,” said Loberg. “It was a great project, and one of those inquiry-based, fully-engaged projects that allowed the students to deeply understand and learn their curriculum.
Student and Staff Mental Health
The goal for Holy Family was to apply their Mental Health and Well-Being Plan template at the division and school levels, and provide evidence of the work completed. They implemented the Signs of Suicide (SOS) program with Grade 8 and Grade 9 students, to work with students in a meaningful way to address signs of depression and suicide.
Another program was the full implementation of the ‘Not Myself Today’, which was made available to every staff member in Holy Family school division last year. “This program focused on the five core learning modules, which engaged all our employees and provided practical literacy on how they can support their colleagues who may be experiencing mental health challenges and have a heightened self awareness of their own mental health,” said Jordens.
Grade 4 to 9 students in Holy Family participated in an anonymous student survey in November 2021, to indicate their engagement levels and get feedback about mental health supports in the school division. According to a Google survey conducted with students in May 2022, 92 per cent felt that they had someone they could trust within their school and 77 per cent felt safe at school.
Another indicator of success was graduation rates. The three-year grad rate for former Holy Family students showed that 92 per cent graduated on time, and the five-year grad rate is 96 per cent.
Alison Jackson, principal St. Augustine, Wilcox and Darrell Perras, principal St. Olivier, Radville both presented on mental health and well-being programs at their respective schools.
“We knew coming out from the pandemic that the mental health and well-being of our staff and students should be at the forefront of everything we did,” said Jackson. “We really encouraged our students and our staff to take mental health breaks, by introducing charging stations around the school.”
To help support diversity and inclusion at the school, a monthly ARC (Acceptance, Respecting, Celebrating) celebration was held at St. Augustine school. All the students in the school received a white T-shirt provided by the School Community Council, and there was a massive tie-dying event held and then during the year those students could wear their shirts during the monthly ARC days.
St. Augustine School also received a well-being grant, they built a hammock space at the school, which includes 30 hammocks where students could use as a safe place to recharge their mental health. Their reading buddies program often uses this space.
The mental health program at St. Oliver was broken into smaller pieces. “At the start of the school year, all of our classrooms developed their own well-being goal for the year, which varied from classroom to classroom,” said Perras. One of the goals created focused around positive self-talk, which is now used for the entire school. “We also focused on positive messaging within the school and outside on our marquee at the building,” added Perras. A return to School Spirit Days, Faith Days and other mental health programs across the school really helped students reconnect with each other.
“As a staff, it was important to stay connected in the staff room, sharing our struggles, and our celebrations. It helped us all get through the last few years,” added Perras. “It makes it a lot easier to meet the needs of the students, when the needs of the staff are being met by the school division and our senior leadership team.”
In close of the data results presentations, Jordens noted that there was a lot to celebrate for the Holy Family school division. The theme for last year was “Celebrating the Extraordinary in the Ordinary”, which provided the opportunity to celebrate the many little things across the school division impacting positive student outcome that make a big difference for our staff and students.
