Carson Graham Secondary

The Planning Stage

The Carson Graham community is continually working to refine our specific goals and our action plan. The School Planning Committee is made up of representatives from our teaching staff, support staff, parents, students and administration. Although we do come together at specific meetings focused on this topic, school planning at Carson is a continual process that involves ongoing conversations that occur in numerous contexts and with a wide variety of stakeholders. We welcome the opportunity to have all members of the Carson community involved in the creation of our school goals and will continue to monitor and modify them based on the attainment of our initiatives and the dynamic needs of our students.

This year, our overarching themes are Collaboration, Community and Connections. Quite simply, our main goal is to increase the engagement in these three areas for all students, staff and parents at Carson. Specifically, we want to:

• Increase our sense of belonging by strengthening the culture of diversity, equity and inclusion.
• Increase the engagement of students by focusing on innovative instructional practices and by maintaining an inclusive and welcoming environment.

These themes tie in with the North Vancouver School District’s strategic goals (Student-Centred Education, Innovative Instruction, Welcoming & Inclusive Culture, Mental Health & Well-Being, Truth Healing & Reconciliation and Environmental Stewardship).

Our themes also relate to the First Peoples Principles of Learning:

• Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors.
• Learning is holistic, reflexive, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place).
• Learning involves generational roles and responsibilities.

How Will We Implement This?

Increase our sense of belonging by strengthening the culture of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Through universal, targeted and intensive activities, we will encourage all members of our school community to examine systems and structures through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Increase the engagement of students by focusing on innovative instructional practices and by maintaining an inclusive and welcoming environment.

We will encourage all staff to teach to all students.

Staff, parents and students will work together to create a sense of belonging. Staff will be encouraged to make explicit connections to this plan both in and out of the classroom. Opportunities to grow in this area will be a reoccurring theme during staff meeting, collaboration time and professional development. 

The PAC will use a ‘sense of belonging’ as a recurring theme in their work.

Student clubs and initiatives will also keep this theme as the backbone of their actions.

A sudden move to remote learning last spring made us recognize more than ever the need for creating authentic opportunities for student engagement. Staff, students and families will work together this year to build connections and create a sense of belonging.

Engagement

This year, we have chosen to focus on Engagement as an overall theme for the year. As a result, staff, students and the community as a whole are using this goal as the underlying connection for activities this year.

As a means of deepening Carson engagement, we will continue to participate in the process of reconciliation by Indigenizing our school and strengthening our relationship with the Squamish, Tseil-Waututh and other First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples in our community. Carson Graham Secondary will continue to provide an engaged environment for all learners by focusing on Modernizing the Curriculum, complex learners, Aboriginal Education, Social Emotional Learning, and Career Development.

Staff

We have identified student connectedness and engagement as an area of focus and are working towards this goal. This came about as a result of staff observations and discussions, along with McCreary Survey results. Staff will investigate student capacity through the lens of Trauma-Informed Practice and explore varied instructional practices to increase student engagement and connectivity.

Staff will continue to focus on indigenizing the curriculum and embedding the First Peoples’ Principles of Learning.

Additionally, staff will prioritize not only on student engagement for this school year, but also their own. Both in 2017 and again in 2019, employees across the North Vancouver School District completed an Employee Engagement Survey. During both survey administrations, over eighty per cent of employees took part, resulting in a rich data set from which to draw information. Flex Surveys, an external survey company, analyzed the data and shared the results back with all the partner groups (including CUPE, NVTA and NoVA) as well as at an individual school level.

Students

This year, students will continue to have an increased role in the School Planning process. They will be given the opportunity to build on the success of last year’s Town Hall meetings. Here, students will continue to share thoughts and feedback on all things Carson, thereby creating a space where all learners are engaged. Increased participation is school clubs and student-sponsored events will be valued.

Additionally, students will continue to have increased opportunities to participate and engage in their own learning. As part of the Appraoches to Learning self-assessment process, students are learning to identify and assess their strengths and areas of growth, set goals, regularly assess their progress in relation to their goals and establish a plan to reach their goals.

The Community

Opportunities for community partnerships are welcomed at Carson Graham. We appreciate the expertise and guidance that exists outside of the typical school setting. This year, the PAC will be presenting a series of parent presentations that will support parents with the engagement of their own children. These will include Vancouver Coastal Health representatives and Screenagers: The Next Chapter. Additionally, the Carson FOS will sponsor a prentation called Parenting in a Digital World. Invitations for community stakeholders to collaborate with Carson will be increased. Parents, the PAC and the community as a whole will play a larger role in school engagement and School Planning.

School Directions

Last year’s school planning process gave all staff a voice. The community collaborated to create directions to guide our planning and growth. In 2017-2018, the focus of our school planning was to build upon, deepen, and refine the previous plan. 

This year, we used the directions that came from the original school plan narrative to provide a framework from which to build. As a school, we used the MYP Self-Study, the Engagement Survey, and department goals to provide clarity and actionable direction from which to move forward.   

In 2017-2018, we underwent an MYP Self- Study where staff collaborated to develop specific action plans to improve teaching and learning in our IB Middle Years Programme.  This year-long process allowed staff to reflect and refine curriculum, assessment, instruction, and collaboration.

Each department collaborated to develop a specific learning goal and targets that align with our original 5 directions. We designed our learning goals to be specific, measureable, and attainable.

Also in 2017-2018, under the leadership of a school committee, we used data generated from the District Engagement Survey to develop two specific goals connected to feedback and recognition.

5 Directions  (School Goals)
Our five directions from 2016-2017 that guide our planning and growth process moving forward:

To strengthen our capacity as educators and further deepen our understanding of curriculum, instruction and assessment.
To continue to broaden our knowledge of concept based teaching and learning.
To increase our reflectiveness.
To continue to participate in the process of reconciliation by Indigenizing our school and strengthening our relationship with the Squamish, other First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples in our community.
To strengthen the connections between us and our curricular areas for the benefit of our learners.

MYP Self-Study (Action Plan)
In 2017-2018, we underwent an MYP Self- Study where staff collaborated to develop specific action plan items to deepen our understanding of IB Philosophy and improve our leadership, structure, curriculum, teaching, learning and assessment.  This year-long process allowed staff to reflect, refine and adjust our MYP implementation.

Although we developed many different specific action items from our Self-Study in each of the four standards, we have highlighted two themes from each standard:

Standard A :Philosophy

attend and present at the IB Conference of the Americas to make connections with other IB World Schools
increase promotion of responsible action by our students within and beyond the school community

Standard B; Organization

continue to optimize our collaborative and staff meeting times to increase the ability for teachers to work together on our goals and directions
increase our language acquisition course offerings annually

Standard C: Curriculum

C1: Collaborative planning

continue to work towards teaching to diversity with respect to planning, instruction and assessment
build cross-curricular and interdisciplinary understanding of teaching and learning experiences

C2: Written curriculum

provide time for students and staff to reflect and respond
clarify the knowledge concepts skills and attitudes to be developed school wide

C3: Teaching and learning

increase student engagement in reflecting on how, what and why they are learning in order to support them to become agents who are actively responsible for their own learning
continue to increase our knowledge, application and delivery to support student diversity

C4: Assessment

standardize our understanding and application of criteria
increase and authenticate student self-assessment to build greater ownership over their own learning

Department Goals

Each department collaborated to develop specific learning goals and targets that align with our 5 directions. These learning goals are designed to be specific, measureable, and attainable.

Arts:

Focus on sharing learning and celebrating the arts. Make arts more visible within the school. Collaborate to support interdisciplinary work within the arts.

Design:

Place greater emphasis on the design cycle. Place greater emphasis on how students evaluate their own process (and product). Develop greater self-evaluative process. Make this common amongst design teachers.

Individuals and Societies (Social Studies):

Improve students’ ability to conduct an investigation as per the research process.

Language Acquisition:

Come together regularly and work to better understand the three different facets of the language acquisition department (French, Spanish & Squamish). Collaborate and share to understand each other’s perspectives, methodologies and world views. Grow a database of strategies and reflections to enhance student learning and link it to Managebac in the assessment section. Revisit the strategies as a department on a monthly basis.

Language and Literature:

Define grade specific literacy skills within Language and Literature classes by using pre-established criterion to ensure consistent learning experiences among classes and grades.

Math:

Standardize assessment across the MYP years to achieve a more consistent system of assigning levels.

Physical and Health Education:

Improve the reflection process in order to increase student ownership and understanding by having students reflect in writing on the “Fit and Smart Principles” at the end of each term. This will encourage them to asses and take greater ownership over their personal fitness, the fit smart principles, and their effort and attitudes towards PHE. Take formal time to discuss student reflections- what went well, what was tricky and what could we do differently.

Science:

Develop thinking skills through lab work and inquiry. Critical Thinking: Numeracy – focus on highlighting the math in science and developing numeracy skills; Critical Thinking: Labs – focus on scaffolding of graphing skills; Creative Thinking: Imagination and creativity related to design labs
Engagement Survey

After receiving the District Engagement Survey results in the fall of 2017, we established an Engagement Survey Committee that included Teachers, CUPE and Administration. The purpose of this committee was to lead a school wide data guided inquiry to establish two school goals to increase staff engagement. The committee led a number of staff meeting exercises that included: revealing the data to staff, working with staff to assess how the data aligned with our internal beliefs, collating three themes for celebration and three opportunities for growth, and collected staff feedback and actionable suggestions for each goal.

As a committee, we established two teacher chairs to lead and implement a plan focusing on feedback and recognition. As a school, we are very proud of the work that is being done in these areas.

To increase our internal staff recognition and work-related value at Carson Graham School 

To increase the quality and specificity of the feedback we receive with respect to our overall job performance.

Moving Forward

Moving forward, we will use the Five Directions, MYP Self-Study, Department Learning Goals, and the Engagement Survey to shape our practice and direction. This planning process has provided us with a clear road map and actionable goals from which to enhance our students’ experiences.

School Directions

The original 2016-2017 school planning process gave all staff a voice. The community collaborated to create 5 directions to guide our planning and growth:

1. To strengthen our capacity as educators and further deepen our understanding of curriculum, instruction and assessment.
2. To continue to broaden our knowledge of concept based teaching and learning.
3. To increase our reflectiveness.
4. To continue to participate in the process of reconciliation by Indigenizing our school and strengthening our relationship with the Squamish, other First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples in our community.
5. To strengthen the connections between us and our curricular areas for the benefit of our learners.