2009 – 2010 Highlights We began the year in our newly expanded and updated facility. The new gym, library, computer lab, Autism facility and renovated office, staff room, grooming room and kitchen area was a wonderful addition and all students and staff were very happy to work in the new areas. In the gym, there was finally the room for our winter concerts, Parent Council BBQ, musical as well as the other activities that included our entire community. Our new parent room opened up to welcome parents. Many parents are in the room before school starts, at the end of the day and at all other times as well. Nancy Adkins, our special educational resource teacher, has been designing programs for parents, started a special program for parents of 3 year olds and has worked with parents on different ways to assist their children with reading and homework. There were also fitness workshops and nutritious cooking classes. If you haven’t visited the parent room yet, please do so. The coffee is always on! We continue to be an inclusive education school with almost all of our special education students included in age-appropriate classrooms. We also have a co-teaching model taking place in that the special education resource teachers work in the classroom with the classroom teachers. Having the additional support in the classroom is very beneficial to all students. As a staff, we focus on small group instruction in the classrooms (reading and math groups, activity stations and one-on-one instruction). Students do their work according to the level of their abilities. There is excellent EA support in the room. The success of inclusion and our co-teaching model is very evident and staff and students benefit. The priorities of Strengthening Math and Literary Skills with ICT was one of the priorities for the 2009-2010 school year. With the increase in resource support and with our co-teaching model, our students did very well with the priorities that were our focus. A computer teacher was hired this year and worked with teachers to use technology in theme explorations. Our students worked on strengthening their skills in summarizing, making connections and synthesizing and 85% of students gained greater than, or one year’s growth in these areas. The Math skill area (place value) that was targeted, showed 83% students gaining greater than or one year’s growth.
Another priority of ours was to sustain our Caring, Inclusive Healthy Community. All staff, students and other adults in the building continued to use our common language. “Make a Good Choice, Do Your Job, Show Respect, Be Safe” and strategies to promote empathy and understanding of another’s point of view were addressed. The seven teachings were used as a starting point and were the focus of our monthly assemblies. Our annual community conference was held at Robertson School this year and it was a wonderful evening – parents learned about face book and internet safety and children were entertained by a live dog and cat show.
Parent Council continued to provide tremendous support to school activities and we thank them, with Bonnie Janzen as chair, for all their hard work and dedication to the school. Outstanding parent support for student-led conferences, home reading programs and in responding to our parent surveys has been very gratifying for the staff. Thank you to all parents/guardians for your continued support. We truly are a “Community of Learners-Working Together”.
Looking ahead to next year….
2010-2011 Priorities
1. Continue to sustain our caring, inclusive and healthy community. This upcoming year, as an inclusive school with almost all of our special ed students integrated in regular classrooms, we will continue to sustain our beliefs and philosophy of inclusion. We will continue to work on the caring, inclusive and healthy initiatives we have had in place for the past three years. In addition, we will be implementing a school-wide anti-bullying program and will focus on our students’ conflict resolution skills. We continue to educate students on healthy eating habits and sustainability issues. In our parent room, there will be many more sessions offered - cooking and nutrition classes, exercise classes, how to help your child with reading and math plus the continuation of the very successful parent and child (age 3) play and learning group. 2. Work to develop and strengthen math and literacy skills with ICT Our literacy focus for this year will be on improving writing skills for the upcoming year. Math instruction will focus on place value with an emphasis on mental math strategies. Staff will also be involved with in-servicing for Information, Communication and Technology (ICT). CAP results in the fall as well as other assessment strategies will help to guide the individual instruction for each child at Robertson School.
Classroom changes / Staff changes: We will have a grade 4/5 combined classroom in addition to the two grade 4 and two grade 5 classrooms. The room number for the combined 4/5 classroom will be 133. Sarah Kjear will teach the combined classroom. We welcome our new .50 Computer teacher, Curtis Bilewitch and our new grade 5 classroom teacher, Tania MacKenzie. One of the grade 4 classrooms will be a job share with Donna Bain teaching in the morning and Christine Bartley teaching in the afternoon. Leanne Scott will teach the morning Kindergarten class and Reading Recovery and Diane Suppes will teach grade 1. Sharon Penner will also teach Reading Recovery and be the SERT for grade 4/5 and 5.
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Robertson School Newsletter