Our initial scan of the school year provided us with proof that the things that we implemented last year with our students have started to bear some fruit. Making sure that all members of our community were familiar with our District’s Code of Conduct and demystifying what this document means, was essential.  It gave us common language to refer to, and an anchoring place for setting some clear expectations and boundaries for students, staff and members of the community to follow.  Without this, students and staff were left in a place of inconsistency while trying to address issues, clarify expectations, and provide fairness.

While we have a start, we have more to do.  Continued work around showing respect and kindness to all, following expectations, ensuring everyone feels accepted, and trying to build integrity with our students, remains a priority.

In addition, this year we are also working to build our students’ literacy (reading) skills.  Literacy was identified as our focus based on FSA (Foundation Skills Assessment) results in Grade 4 and 7 (2024), and student report card data (2025).  As we are a dual track school, we must take a deeper look at what our instruction looks like in French and English, dig deeper into what specific reading skills our students need, as they may slightly differ, and determine ways to move our students forward.

In September, students completed the RFRA (Richmond Formative Reading Assessment) to provide us with some baseline data from which to start. Spring boarding from this, we plan to survey our students to get their thoughts about reading – what they like, where they find success and where they struggle.  Using these two data points, our intent is to focus class instruction to address these lagging skills.

In the spring, we will conduct the RFRA again and have updated data that we can compare to the spring data.  We will have to wait for the FSA data from October 2026 to make the comparison for the FSA. Completing another student survey in the spring will also enable us to see anecdotally, if students feel they have made any gains in their reading throughout the year.