This January our school went through the District School Review process. This can be anxiety provoking and intimidating for staff but it can also be validating and reassuring that they are on the right track. Our District School Review School Team worked hard to get ready for the visit. Our first half day session was our opportunity to present to the team all we wanted them to know about JRC. It was important to us that they saw us for what we really were. Our students and staff worked to create vignettes for a multi-media presentation about what they believed was important and what they loved about our school. We started our presentation with this 20 minute video. Members of the team presented data, programs, supports , goals, future directions and identified look-fors. The Review Team had the opportunity to ask questions and clarify information and identify next steps for the classroom visit dates.

In preparation for the DSR Team visit we asked staff to work with their grade partners to identify evidence of the look-fors in their classroom. We gave each staff member post-it notes to correspond with the identified look-fors. With their grade partners staff tagged the evidence in their classrooms with the coloured post-or notes that corresponded to the identified look-fors. During classroom visits the team would be able to quickly see and identify evidence. Staff reported that felt the process was helpful. It allowed them to evaluate their progress towards school improvement. They felt that their hard work was validated and they also identified their areas of growth. It shone a light on areas of their practice that they needed to develop in order to meet the goals and identified look-fors of school improvement. As a staff we felt we had an honest and true assessment of our strengths and weaknesses and that we were prepared for the review team.

The day of the review was exhilarating. Staff were nervous but open and welcoming to the team of principals that arrived. We started the day with Learning for Breakfast an activity in which we invite our parents to join us at school with their children to engage in simple and fun literacy and numeracy activities. One of our look-fors was focused on parent engagement and we wanted the team to see first hand. Following Learning for Breakfast the team visited 6-8 classrooms. At the conclusion of the classroom visits we invited the team to our student led character ed assembly so they could see firsthand how we integrate our character development program into our classrooms and in assemblies. Again this was one of our identified look-fors and we wanted the principal team to see it in action. At the end of the day staff were invited to meet with the team for initial feedback. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and staff were elated with the positive accolades and response to their hard work.

The following week the team presented their report. They identified our areas of strength and our area of growth.

We were very proud of our strengthens:

Parents are valued as respected partners and efforts made to engage parents were successful.
Students are at the centre of all decisions we make.
Teachers examine all options in make students successful in their learning.
Staff are open, honest, reflective and collaborative.
Despite the challenges our students bring to the table teachers set high expectations for their students.
We have a strong sense of community and pride.
We have already started down the journey to implement inquiry based learning.

Areas of Discussion with our team:

Barriers to the implementation of technology: money, time, installation and teacher and student training.
Continue to embed character ed and parent engagement in all that we do but to go deeper and expanding student voice.
Provide more opportunities for students to engage in purposeful talk that allows students to explore problems and articulate their thinking.
Use inquiry learning as the umbrella in which we: embed technology into all stages of the learning process,ask questions, make inferences and connect learning, differentiate instruction and assessment, co-create learning goals and success criteria, use self and peer reflection, and provide opportunities for specific feedback and next steps.

Next steps as Identified by the team:

Revise school goals.
Review and revise the School Effectiveness Framework in the new format.
Create a multi-year ICT plan that reflects and supports the implementation of school goals.
Continue to provide opportunities for teachers to develop confidence, comfort and skills in the areas of teaching through inquiry and engaging students through the use of technology as part of the learning process.

So what now? We have been through the process how do we continue our focus on the items identified but the team? That is the next step in our school improvement process. Narrowing our focus, choosing our inch and defining our problems of practice so that we can improve teacher practice and our ultimate goal of student learning. A lot of work lies ahead of us!