As we reflect upon the 2021/22 school year, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all stakeholders involved in Foothills Academy Society’s community. Each and every stakeholder plays an important role in the operation of Foothills Academy, resulting in positive, life changing outcomes for so many children, youth, young adults and families living with Learning Disabilities. Whether it be staff, volunteers, contractors, donors, parents, government, and of course our students; thank you all for your involvement and for the impact you make on the lives of so many.
You are all helping us to continue doing what we do so well:
Foothills Academy Society has been in operation for over forty years, and remains at the forefront of delivering effective programs that positively impact individuals with Learning Disabilities. As one of the leaders in the field of Learning Disabilities, we can not rest on our laurels, and it is important for us to continue growing and evolving our best practices, to ensure that all of our students, families, and clients, are receiving the best possible services that we can deliver.
The board of governors plays an integral role in this process. We are delighted to move forwards under the leadership of Mr Simon Williams and Dr Karen MacMillan, our Executive Co-Directors, who continue to push the standards of excellence throughout the Society, in order to provide outstanding services for those involved with Foothills Academy. As a governance board, we maintain oversight of the Society, and we are excited to be initiating a strategic planning process this current year. Our planning will involve evaluating much of what we currently do well, and this report will be an integral document for part of that process. It will help us to imagine what further opportunities abound at Foothills Academy, to support more individuals and their families who are living with Learning Disabilities.
“Find Understanding, Build Confidence and Maximize Potential”.
This is truly an exciting time to be involved with Foothills Academy Society, and it is my privilege, as Board Chair, to be a part of this truly outstanding organization; the success of which would not be possible without all of you; our stakeholders.
The Annual Education Results Report for Foothills Academy for the 2021/22 school year was prepared under the direction of the Board in accordance with its responsibilities under the Private Schools Regulation and the Education Grants Regulation. The Board is committed to using the results in this report, to the best of its abilities, to improve outcomes for students and to ensure that all students in the school authority can acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to be successful and contributing members of society.
This Annual Education Results Report for 2021/22 was approved by the Board on November 24th, 2022
Thank you,
We will be recognized for our expertise in working with individuals identified as having Learning Disabilities locally, provincially, nationally and internationally Striving to enhance the lives of individuals with Learning Disabilities, by Finding Understanding, Building Confidence and Maximizing Potential.
The mission of Foothills Academy is to facilitate learning in persons, primarily youth and children, identified as having a Learning Disability by providing quality educational programs and a supportive environment for families and staff. We also recognize that we are partners within a universal system of research, public education, in-service and advocacy through our Community Services.
We know that all children with Learning Disabilities have great potential, and Foothills Academy seeks first to Find Understanding, Build Competence and then Maximize Potential.
All individuals have relative strengths, and although these are not a result of any disability, they are an important focus for success in school; supported by the development of growth mindsets and evidence-based strategies and programs We are aware that all of our students can become very successful and contributing members of society, as they are expected to transition into post-secondary education or into meaningful sectors of the workplace, as guided by their interests and strengths.
As a Designated Special Education Private School, it is important that Foothills Academy’s school program is accessible to all students who are eligible for the program. As such, we have a substantial bursary to support families in need, which requires great commitment from stakeholders of Foothills Academy in order to make this bursary sustainable.
Foothill Service working provincially, nationally and internationally. We believe that students with Learning Disabilities who require our programs and need our attention should not be denied access due to financial capabilities. Therefore we maintain our commitment to fundraise for the bursary program so that students struggling with Learning Disabilities are never turned away due to financial need, whenever possible.
The School Program is a full-time program for students with Learning Disabilities from grades 3 to 12 following the Alberta Education Curriculum. The staff to student ratio is typically 1:6 with a teacher and educational assistant. With just less than 300 students, we focus on a wide range of strategies to help students find individual success; ensuring that students reach their full potential. The aim for our students is to go on to successful post-secondary education or meaningful sectors of the workforce. We build on students’ strengths to enable them to become the great individuals whom they are all capable of being.
The mandate of Estelle Siebens Community Services is to assist children, youth, and adults who are experiencing difficulties in their school, work, and/or home environments as a result of Learning Disabilities and/or ADHD, and related social/emotional challenges. We offer assistance to these individuals as well as parents and relevant professionals through the provision of psychoeducational assessments; recreational and psychosocial programming for children and adolescents; counselling services; community education; professional development workshops; and intensive remediation instruction for reading and writing.
Additionally, local measures are reported to provide a societal context and give a fulsome insight into Foothills Academy’s growth and evolution. The report acts to provide further assurance to stakeholders about the ongoing successful work which Foothills Academy carries out to support individuals with Learning Disabilities.
The assurance domains fit into Foothills Academy’s Self-Determination philosophy of Find Understanding, Build Confidence, Maximize Potential and also into the added element of this year’s agency-wide theme relating to self-determination “Embracing Our Potential”. As such, the report separates Alberta Education's assurance domains into the corresponding elements of Foothills Academy’s philosophy.
The 2 COVID after C educa social with t restric Academy staff were able to create a safe and positive learning environment for our students which offered as much flexibility and support for student growth and achievement as possible.
Foothills
Additionally, as we continued to plan for further development of our programs, we revisited the leadership structure of the school administration to meet the needs of all of our students. While this development was not in direct response to COVID, it's benefits were substantial during the course of the pandemic. The stresses and strains generated by the virus through out society were well evident, yet the impact was most significant in those struggling with other challenges such as Learning Disabilities and associated disorders. The resulting development within the structure of school administration was the implementation of two Vice Principal positions to support the Principal in their day to day operation of the school, which proudly support students, teachers and families.
Additio of Liter individu require position suppor role als data measures, so as to confidently monitor the growth and development of all of our students.
We continued to expand the physical make-up of the school program too, capitalizing on the footprint of our location. Based on current research we planned and built two outdoor classrooms, for year-round use for all grades and subjects. We recognize the value of outdoor learning for all students, and especially for students with Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The opportunities for creative, engaging and motivating learning are endless in our outdoor classroom spaces; and there is significant additional value for student learning and development of environmental literacy. When students may not always feel completely engaged or comfortable in a classroom environment, it is fortunate that we are also able to provide additional learning spaces and opportunities, to help students maximize their potential.
Within the school program, we aimed to reintroduce as many available electives, options, clubs and teams as we possibly could. Considering the restrictions which remained in place over the 2021-22 school year, we were able to provide as normal a school year as we could, as safely as possible. The results in this report show that Foothills Academy continues to provide outstanding supports to children, youth and their families who are living and learning with Learning Disabilities and associated disorders.
The collabo Services m by side wit highly train Tier 3 stude Additionall staff, and o department, makes the support to our school staff and students unique and highly impactful.
Some of this is reflected in the results of the report, as access to additional support and services is consistently a positive trend in our results. We continue to provide a safe and caring environment for our students, whilst managing to hold high standards for academics and character & citizenship. This is a result of the hard work and dedication of our staff, the meaningful advocacy and support of our parents and families, and the investment and commitment of our incredible students, who we all know can excel in their lives. None of our success would be possible without the ongoing support of our generous donors, volunteers, supporters, and other stakeholders such as Alberta Education; all of whom we would like to thank most dearly.
The AERR and Education Plan are available on our website: www.foothillsacademy.org/aboutfoothills/reports/
For more information, visit our website, call 403 270 9400, or email info@foothillsacademy.org
FoothillsAcademyhasdevelopedaclearandeffectiveWhistleblowerpolicyand proceduredocument,whichisinaccordancewithAlbertaEducation’s requirements.TherearenoWhistleblowerdisclosurestoreportatthistime.
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Preliminary review and analysis of AERR results with school administration and leadership
Share AERR results with parents at September General Meeting, teaching teams for feedback and the Board at Sept 29 Board Meeting
Review results for further feedback with all teaching teams and classroom staff. Share with Parents Association for parent feedback at FAPA meeting October 12
School administration and leadership review all stakeholder input and finalize draft report Report presented for final approval at Nov 24 Board Meeting
The high quality of education provided at Foothills Academy Society continues through 2021/2022. Responses from parents, students and teachers in grades 3-9 has remained steady, and in some individual instances increased.
Our local goal measure was for all stakeholders to report over 90% satisfaction with the education quality. Whilst this was true in the parent population, the results from students and teachers are understandable in context of theCOVID-19pandemic.
Theperceptionthateducationqualityhasdeclinedappearstobepredominantlythe perspectiveofstudents,parentsandteachersinhigh-school.Thebreakdownofthedata showsthathigh-schoolstudentsdidnotfeelengagedinsomesubjects,andthatthey felttheclasseswerenotentirelyrelevanttotheirfuture.
100% graduation and high-school completion rate
Fromconversationswithclassroomstaff,itisapparentthatmanyhigh-schoolstudents couldhavefeltlessengagedwithschoolwhentheywerelearningfromhome,assome accommodationsandsupportsweremorechallengingtoprovideduringat-home learning,andmentalhealthstrugglesbecamemoreprevalent.
Also,higherlevelsofanxietyforsomehigh-schoolstudents,mayhavebeentheresultof havingtoearncreditsandsitDiplomas,astheywerewithoutthesolidfoundationof typicalhigh-schoollearningfromtheprevioustwoyearsofthepandemic.High-school teachersalsoreportedadeclineineducationquality,notasaresultofthequalityoftheir teachingbuttheyreportedasenseofpushingstudentstoohardemotionallythrough regularhighschoolassessments,aftersuchtryingtimesduringthepandemic.
60% of students voluntarily attended a supplemental online learning week.
Studentswantedtoconnect,andstaffprovidedgreatflexibilityandcreativitytomake thishappen.Ouractualqualityofeducation,consideringCovid,wasverygood.
Itisimportantforustoensurethatallparents,studentsandteachers,ineverygrade,are connected,engaged,andexperiencethehighqualityoftheschoolprogram;
Wearedelightedtohaveasenseof returningto"normal",asourschoolclubs,teams andextra-curricularactivitiesareonceagainanimportantpartofourschoolcalendar andculture.Additionally,wehavetwonewoutdoorclassrooms,toexpandandenrich thelearningexperiencesofstudentsinallgradesandsubjects.Wehavealsoidentifieda needformoreparentlearning,andsohaveenhancedourparentnightfor‘transitionto high-school’.Inadditiontothis,wehavebeenfortunatetoaddanextrastaffmemberto thePEteam,tosupportmorestudentsintheirhealthandwellness.
Theexpectationsandstandardsforprofessionallearning,conductandgrowthremain veryhigh,sothatwecontinuetosupportallstafftoprovidethemosteffectivelearning experiencesforallstudents.Theteachergrowth,supervisionandevaluationpolicy ensuresteachersaresupportedascontinuouslearners,andmaintainhighlevelsof professionalism;tomaximizetheacademic,socialandemotionaloutcomesforall students.The2022-25EducationPlanpresentsarangeofgoalsandmeasuresforour continuedgrowthanddevelopment.
Wecontinuetoprovidecurrent,evidencebasedsupportsforteaching,learningand social&emotionalneeds,withtheBestPracticesCommitteebringingtogetherarange ofprofessionalstoguidethedirection.Inadditiontothis,ourfull-timeSkillsSpecialist continuestorefineourLiteracyandNumeracystrategies,andprovidesongoingsupport, analysisandinterventionwhereneeded.
AsstatedintheEducationPlan,wedeliveredtwooutdoorclassrooms,whichallstaff havereceivedprofessionaldevelopmentandtrainingfor.Wehavealsoseenthe expansionoftheartprogramandthedramaproduction.Inconjunctionwiththis programexpansion,thereareongoingdiscussionstoplanformorehands-on programmingsuchasproducingmorefiberartsandrobotics.
Therewillbemoreopportunitiesforrelevantoff-sitetrainingforstaffaswemoveintoa post-COVIDera.Thiswillincludestafftrainingoff-siteatprofessionaldevelopment eventsfor“LearningandtheBrain”,andthroughassociationssuchastheLearning DisabilitiesAssociationofCanada,andtheLearningDisabilitiesAssociationofAmerica. Theselearningopportunitiesforstaffwillprovideevengreaterstrengthtoourexpert practitioners,andwillsupportthedevelopmentofaLearningStrategistwithan emphasisonliteracyandexecutivefunction.
Percentage of teachers, parents and students who agree that students have access to the appropriate supports and services at school
90.4%
93.3%
85%
97%
Foothills Academy continues to provide a welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environment for all students, parents, staff and stakeholders, as well as ensuring students are supported by the appropriate services for their social and emotionalneeds.
The wrap-around services provided by the counselling and assessment teams in Community Services give the school students and staff outstanding support to ensure that all students can maximize their potential, relative to their own needs and circumstances. This entails an Assessment Psychology team to support teachers thoroughly understand student's psycho-educational assessments and consult where necessary, as well as a Counselling Psychology team who see approximately 25% of the school students on an ongoing basis, as well as providing crisis support as needed
Further support and services are provided by Read/Write instructors who provide Tier 3 literacy interventions for students most at risk, as well as OT and SLP having clearly defined roles in the day to day operations of the school
The new Vice Principal structure allows more students, staff and parents to be directly in contact and communication with administration, which makes for more timely, collaborative and tailored support when necessary
Additionally, we have a full complement of services through Community Services, available to school students and families, as well as to the larger LD/ADHD community This includes our Amicus programs which provide young people with summer camps and year-round recreation programs to support the development of social skills, peer connection and of course fun!
Members of our teaching and support staff have formed an Indigenous Resources working group this past academic year. Staff participants of the group span across all grades and core subjects. The group aims to build and maintain a resource hub for staff to build their capacity in learning about FNMI perspectives, the social and political history and a stronger awareness of the legacy of residential schools. The group also aims ensure that FNMI success and understanding is in mind when decisions made around programming that will supplement and complement important dates of recognition. While we have made significant progress in this area, thereisstillworktodowhichwillbemindfully takenon.
Over the last year staff met periodically to concentrate their efforts on a physical and digital collection of resources for staff and students. Content was carefully curated to include current print material for students included in our library as well as a lesson resourcecollectionforstaffthroughadigitalplatform.Membersoftheworkinggroup were consulted on school projects such as the construction of our Outdoor Classrooms as well as events planning across grade levels. This has resulted in a more deliberate inclusion of FNMI perspectives and event planning. We have also formed a Diversity Committee that participates alongside the planning of events to ensure that considerations are made to promote inclusivity and allow multiple perspectives to be heard.
During the past spring, school administrators met for guidance on a best practices approach in anticipation of future collaborative work with members of our local IndigenouscommunityinthenextphaseofourOutdoorClassroomdevelopment.
The Education Plan proposed a designated position for an additional Educational Assistant to work specifically with identified groups of students to enhance the support they are being provided with. This position was for the 2022-23 school year, and has been implemented so that specific students will receive further support for their academics and executive functioning, to help everyone maximize their potential while atFoothillsAcademy.
A target of 80% attendance was set for families to attend transition nights for grades 7, 10 and post-secondary. Although this number was not quite reached, an average of around 65% of relevant families attended the corresponding evening information sessions. Engaging parents in these aspects of teaching and leading is important, as we areallinvestedintheoveralllearninganddevelopmentofourstudents.
Percentage of teachers, parents and students who agree that their learning environments are welcoming, caring, respectful and safe with the overall quality of basic education
91.2%
95.3%
81.1%
97%
We are pleased with the progress shown by our students in the school program; academically, socially and emotionally. Our program is set up so that every child maximizes their relative potential. The developmental trajectory for each child is different when it comes to the level and timeliness of them maximizing their potential, and we know that our students come to us with Learning Disabilities, and some lag in an area, or areas, of academic success. For some students in grade 6 who are new to the program, the Provincial Achievement Tests remain challenging. It is not unexpected therefore, for our PAT results to be lower than the provincial average for the younger grades. This could also have been impacted by the inconsistencies of in-person instruction over the previous two years. However, our grade 9 PATs are all onpar,orsignificantlyabovetheprovincialaverages;atestamenttotheimpactofour school program. If we also take into account the impact of COVID, it shows a significant and positive impact made by students in our school program by the time theygettograde9.
Although it is understandable that the impact of our school program cannot be immediate, we respond to the results in a variety of ways. Namely, the ongoing development of our Skills Program provides intervention and support to students’ areas of need. We will continue to focus heavily upon literacy interventions with our students, but we are also prioritizing the development of numeracy and math interventions for our Skills Program too. The focus upon math also directly involves curriculum too, as all math teachers up to grade 8 are trained in Jump Math, to help setastrongfoundationinnumeracythroughJuniorHigh.
Additionally, our Diploma results remain consistent with provincial averages at levels of acceptable achievement, and our ongoing 100% high-school completion rate is a furthertestamenttohowourstudentsdoMaximizePotential intheschoolprogram.
Graduation rate (100%)
Diploma Acceptable (757%)
Diploma Excellence (4.1%)
Provincial Average Acceptable Standard (752%)
OverallStatus
Wecontinuetoshowgreat consistencywithourveryhigh successfulhighschoolcompletion rate.Statisticssuggeststhatinthe greaterpopulationupto40%of studentswithLearningDisabilities donotgraduatehighschool.
Our program focuses upon the needs of each individual student, and initially works to support each student’s particular area of need, whilst building upon their strengths, developing their confidence, deepening their self-understanding, and strengthening their self-efficacy. This ultimately fosters more intrinsic motivation and belief in each student that they are able to achieve a level of success that we know they are capable of. They are in the program to maximize their potential. The program is driven by current, evidence-based practices in the classroom and for interventions, as well as being supported by the critical wrap-around services that make all the difference to those students who are in need.
We are proud of the success of our program and the work conducted by all of our staff and volunteers. But we can not be any more proud of the students who are impacted by Foothills, and who work so hard to reach their true potential and be set up for success in life after high school.
Percentage of teachers, parents and students who agree that students are engaged in their learning at school
83.1%
91.4%
68.4%
Overall Parent *comparedto961%in2021 Student Teacher *comparedto777%in2021 *comparedto94.9%in2021
2022: Percentage of teachers, parents and students who are satisfied that students model the characteristics of active citizenship
Parents and teachers recognize the challenges our students face, and also note their satisfaction of the citizenship and engagement students at Foothills have.
During the course of the pandemic, many regular citizenship activities and opportunities were curtailed due to restrictions.
Our staff and administration noted that external opportunities to demonstrate sound Foothills citizenship skills were limited outside of the school itself due to COVID-19. Even within the school, citizenship initiatives were limited due to measures in place to control the crossing over of student cohorts, and minimizing all-school gatherings; both of which are key to typical citizenship activities at Foothills Regardless, our students were able to be creative and they continued to demonstrate active citizenship, beyond the regular day to day elements of character and respect expected of all of our students and community.
Student engagement can be a key area of focus for many school students, and in particular those with Learning Disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and other associated disorders Therefore, we recognize the strength of our program when parents and teachers identify the high level of engagement our students have at school. This is even more meaningful considering that student engagement was likely impacted for some individuals by the uncertainty and anxiety caused by the pandemic, as well as at-home learning, and the impact of the previous year learning at-home.
Locally, we continued to develop the skills and intervention aspects of our program, with ongoing refinement to the measures, data collection and responses to the data with evidence based practices. Curriculum Board Members (CBMs) were implemented as a primary data source for benchmarking student achievement and evaluated to measure growth. CBMs are administered during skills classes, the data from which can also be used in IPP's
These measures allowed us to evaluate the process of individualizing student supports based upon a tiered system of support. We were fortunate to have the ability to provide 1:1 Read/Write instructors for Tier 3 interventions for those students who are most in need
Student engagement, citizenship and the sense of a safe and caring school have also all been supplemented in class with a range of programs, including the implementation of Open Parachute programming during skills classes. The development of the role of a guidance/careers counsellor has provided a greater opportunity for students to successfully map out their future plans, which has also been supported by a staff member responsible for the school-wide consistent approach in Learning Strategies, where many students’ executive functioning needs are supported and developed
2022: Percentage of teacher, parent and student agreement that students are safe at school, are learning the importance of caring for others, are learning respect for others and are treated fairly in school.
We continue to record levels of high achievement with regards to our graduates transitioning to postsecondary education. All students at Foothills Academy are supported and engaged to maximize their potential, based upon the individualized programming provided for them.
We know that our students are highly capable individuals who can achieve great success in life after school, and the post-secondary transition rates are a testament to that Our transition to post-secondary rates are exceptional given the fact that students will also attend post-secondary institutions out of the province (not measured by this data).
Also, some students elect to:
These results continue to demonstrate the impact our program has upon students, setting them up for
lifelong
2022: Percentage of teachers and parents satisfied with parental involvement in decisions about their child’s education
COVID-19 had many impacts including our ability to host in person meetings and parent volunteers. In spite of these challenges the scores remain very high overall and very high with parent data. Further analysis of the parent data did show a decline in parental involvement for high-school parents, which we believe to be a reflection of the pandemic as parents were unable to physically be in the school during COVID-19.
By contrast, parents in grades 6, 7, & 9, continued to have direct involvement with school events via Zoom; such as online transition nights and parent evenings for junior high and PATs High school parents did have a transition to post secondary night, but there have been indications that some grade 10 and grade 11 parents did not attend due to the uncertainty of the future and the additional stress and anxiety it could cause their children and families.
Additionally, there were no sports or teams which our families typically attend or volunteer with Unfortunately for many parents in high school, there had been no reason for them to have been in the school building for nearly two years; which likely contributed to some parental reports around decreased sense of not being involved in the school.
We believe that much of this was reflected in responses from parents in the data and from issued surveys Anecdotal feedback from high school parents was that there was a loss of connection during COVID; despite the ongoing efforts made to keep the community as connected and as engaged as feasibly possible Some parents felt that they only had ‘arms length’ involvement, and many parents at the first fully in-person graduation expressed great joy at being able to be back together again. Parents are excited to be back at general school meetings, IPP meetings, and school assemblies.
We continue our heighted efforts to rebuild parent engagement, especially in highschool, as we plan a semester one high school parent night in the new school year; where high-school parents experience the realities of a grade 12 class.
In alignment with the Education Plan, we continue to further Foothills outreach with our online programming, professional development and family workshops Additionally, our new structure for communications and community & alumni engagement will help us to build our community and provide more support and resources for the wider LD community.
The board directed that $196,500 be allocated to the building Maintenance Reserve fund as per a building life cycle review conducted by an engineering firm and that the remaining surplus be allocated to an Operating & Bursary Program reserve. Capital spending this year included the completion of two new Outdoor Classroom Learning Spaces
Although the pandemic caused a dramatic reduction in our ability to hold fundraising events this year, thankfully, due to the generous support of our community, we were still able to award 269 bursaries for the school and Community Services programs in 2021/2022. As the economy is emerging from the pandemic, we saw a decrease of 20% from the prior fiscal year in demand for financial assistance This financial assistance to families accessing our programs is valued at $ 1,094,439
As directed by Alberta Education, Foothills Academy has incorporated the accrual method of accounting. Capital assets are being amortized. For detailed financial information contact the Business Office at (403) 270-9400. Information can also be found on our website: wwwfoothillsacademyorg
Audited statements are available upon request. Auditor: Sihota Taylor