Vision to Goal Setting
What is our Vision for Learning?
Our Vision
The education journeys of the students who attend Mountainside are rarely linear and many students who arrive at Mountainside are already struggling with a history of disengagement with the traditional model of the school system. We see one of our primary roles here at the school to be reigniting and reengaging students on their educational and life journeys.
Our Goals
Through consultation with students, parents, and our Mountainside Directions Committee we have decided on the following key focus areas of student and community engagement that will form our goals for the coming year at Mountainside.
1.Maintain the culture of Mountainside (including opportunities for community meals, innovative programming, strong staff/student relationships and welcoming space for students, families and community partners) during the disruptive seismic renovation process
2. Increase engagement of students and key stakeholders
Planning & Implementation
What is our Action Plan?
Our Planning Team
School planning is not a singular meeting at Mountainside but continual process that involves ongoing dialogs that takes place in numerous contexts with a wide variety of school stakeholders.
Since 2014 all Mountainside staff have been invited to participate in the development of school directions and goals through a committee that is now known as Mountainside Directions. This collaborative group is composed of CUPE, NVTA, and school administration staff and participation is optional with meetings taking place after school on Mondays. Mountainside Directions aims to reflect and review current interventions and programs, seeks new opportunities for growth, and develops/implements/evaluates goals and change processes.
Mountainside also has an active Parent Advisory Council that creates a space where parents can offer feedback about the goals, student needs, and the functioning of our school programs.
This year we have also worked with students and school district partners to gather input and allow time and space for their thoughts, concerns and passions to shape the goals that we are working towards. These groups have taken the lead in creating our school goals and will continue to monitor and adjust them based on the success of our initiatives and the changing needs of our students.
Implementation
Ensuring that our actions align with our goals and values is a continual focus at Mountainside. Implementation of our goals has required continual dialog and collaborative discussion and problem solving. Staff, students, and community members have worked together to unpack our goals in an effort to identify sequential steps and achievable short term objectives that we can continue to work towards.
The journey towards implementation of our goal of Maintaining the culture of Mountainside during the disruptive seismic renovation process involves ongoing communication with our school district partners and the construction crew who are responsible for the physical aspect of the seismic project. Their important work then needs to be considered through a human lens that accounts for the impact the project will have on students, staff and our Mountainside culture and values. Ongoing communication continues to take place with students, staff and community partners to identify where and how we need to adapt and where the plans for the project may need to adapt in order to protect the climate of our school.
The goal of increasing the engagement of students and key stakeholders has been something that Mountainside staff have been working towards since the school’s creation. Staff at the school recognize that the educational journeys of the students who attend Mountainside are rarely linear and many students who arrive at Mountainside are already struggling with a history of disengagement with the traditional model of the school system. We see one of our primary roles here at the school to be reigniting and reengaging students on their educational and life journeys.
Through consultation and collaboration with students, parents, and staff we decided to try to focus on the following objectives to increase the engagement of students and key stakeholders:
- Develop learning opportunities that spark passion, create a sense of accomplishment and build feeling of pride and self-esteem in students
- Support students to find ways to contribute and make positive changes to their community
Monitor Evaluate & Adapt
What are our Indicators of Progress?
It is important for any plan to be able to demonstrate if the things you hoped would work, are working. As such, we have designed numerous tools to use as baseline and progress indicators of our goals.
For the goal of Maintain the culture of Mountainside during the disruptive seismic renovation process, we plan to measure progress using the following tools:
- Calculating and comparing the number of opportunities for community meals including regular breakfasts and lunches as well as special event dinners and celebrations
- Calculating and comparing the number of electives and courses offered
- Anecdotal evidence from staff, students, and community partners on the strength of staff/student relationships
- Survey of new students after arrival on welcoming space for new students
- Formal Survey to Self-Efficacy classes on the impacts of the seismic renovation process
- Calculating and comparing the following data:
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- Number of non-attending students successfully transitioned back into attending regular classes at Mountainside
- Number of value added programs being offered every week
- Number of community partners on site every day of week
- General attendance data
- Student attendance in valued added programs
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- Anecdotal evidence from teachers and students about student and stakeholder engagement
- Anecdotal evidence from students, PAC and community partners about student and stakeholder engagement
- Number of students successfully completing Work Experience courses during each year
Communicating Progress
How do we Communicate our Progress?
Throughout the process of developing, implementation, monitoring and evaluating goals we plan to communicate progress in the following ways:
- Ongoing agenda items at staff and PAC meetings
- Sharing at assemblies and in Self Efficacy classes
- Updating the school plan website