School Improvement Plan

What is a school improvement plan?

A school improvement plan is a roadmap of the changes a school undertakes to make, to improve its level of student achievement. The plan shows what, how and when these changes will be made.

Why is a school improvement plan needed?

School improvement plans help principals, teachers, and school councils answer the following questions:

• What are our strengths as a school?
• What areas do we need to identify for improvement to reach all students and improve student achievement?

These plans encourage staff and parents to monitor student achievement levels. With current, reliable information about how well students are performing, schools are better able to respond to the needs of students, teachers, and parents.

How does the plan enhance learning?

The objective is to improve student achievement levels by enhancing the way curriculum is delivered, creating a positive learning environment, and increasing parental involvement in their children's learning at school and at home. The plan involves teachers, school councils, parents, and other community members working together to gather and analyze information about the school and its students, so that they can determine what needs to be improved in their school.

Goals for 2013-2014

Teachers assess and evaluate student learning regularly, throughout the year.  The data gathered provides valuable information about the learning needs of individual students and the group as a whole. This data drives instruction.  Each of our individual classroom's goals are determined based on the data of the current student cohort. 

In all grades we are focusing on using focused and purposeful dialogue, or 'accountable talk', to deepen students' understanding in all content areas.  Communication is a key element as our students deepen their understanding of new skills and concepts through individual, partner and small group work; orally, using media and in various written formats. By accessing and using manipulatives, discussing various solutions or ways to address a task or problem, students broaden their knowledge.  Critical thinking skills lead to the development of a deeper understanding of complex problems and issues, how to approach them and how to persevere to an end point.

Our Commitment to Increased Student Achievement

Key focus areas: Literacy, inquiry, research skills and technology ... problem solving, reasoning and proving, selecting tools and computational strategies, connecting, representing and communicating.

MATH: Provincial and Board data state that educators need to access ongoing, research based theory and practice in teaching and learning, to enhance opportunities for students in all grades as they grow and develop.

At McNab Public School we believe ... if students effectively deconstruct questions in math to deepen their understanding, and follow through to test strategies, construct meaningful responses, communicate understanding effectively then their skills will improve.

 Our staff are committed to:

• during learning, students receive ongoing, descriptive feedback based on the success criteria
• a culture of high expectations supports the belief that all students can learn, progress and achieve
• professional learning is continuous and responsive to student learning needs, identified by a wide range of data and informed by Ministry policy, resource documents and board guidelines; designed to deepen content knowledge and refine instruction to support student learning and achievement