What we have noticed:

Based on the responses seen in this fall’s evidence post, many students and staff feel Dixon is a community filled with connected people. When noticing student interactions and digging deeper with staff during a professional development day, we can see that we have some work to do to ensure that all members of the community feel a sense of belonging at school.

First step:

During our full staff professional development session, we saw some themes emerging. When consolidating the information, we can see that there are social emotional needs that are currently unmet and this is affecting students socially and academically. The staff want to address this in their classes and as a school.

Next step:

A Social Emotional Learning Committee was formed and teachers have created Family Teams activities to start addressing some of the areas identified by the whole staff.

Upcoming:

Starting in January of 2025, we will be doing social emotional based Family Teams monthly. The committee will continue to meet and look at selecting a social emotional program that can be implemented school wide to give teachers resources for lessons and provide further framework for Family Teams activities.

Future considerations:

How will we bring this all together? How can we incorporate our existing Dixon Pride matrix of Honouring Self, Honouring Others, Honouring Environment into our new direction?