NEXT MEETING - May 13th @ 2-3pm

Upcoming Thursday LST Meeting Dates:
June 10 (morning)

The 5th annual McGill Summer Institute for School Psychology Conference is now open - taking place virtually from Tuesday, May 25th through Friday, May 28th. This conference will feature workshops on service provision for immigrant and marginalized children, interventions pertaining to trauma-informed care, autism & cognition, bullying, child sexual abuse, and the role of educational technology in teaching and learning processes. Workshops will be offered in English and French. Follow these links for more information: 
- Information on speakers
- Registration information (registrations accepted up to May 24th, 2021)

This September 2021, Simon Fraser University Advanced Professional Studies will be launching an on-line Inclusive Education Graduate Diploma program. Over the span of two years, you will learn, collaborate and reflect with other educators from around British Columbia. This program will consist of a weekly 2-3 hour on-line class on Tuesdays and a one week long Summer Institute in August 2022 and 2023. At the end of successfully completing the program, you will be granted a Category +5 status, you will have gained a strong collaborative network with other BC educators and you will be enriched with new inquiries into inclusive education. 

Come join us and other BC educators for our upcoming on-line Info Session on Wednesday, May 19th at 3:30pm-4:30pm

New resources to support the CB-IEP can be found on the support for learning page under Staff Resources – IEP and follow the link to the Shelley Moore webinar series archive.

Accessing alternative text is a preventative measure that can be introduced when a delay is first noted, before any diagnosis and/or designation. With our province‘s move away from interventions that are diagnosis-based to those that are needs-based, it seems timely and appropriate to review our own process for allowing student access to ARC-BC materials in SD 61.  

The goal of ARC-BC is to provide students with perceptual (or print) disabilities and their educational teams with high quality digital alternate format materials that align with BC‘s K-12 curriculum.  Criteria for accessing ARC-BC materials is based on a student having one of the following: severe or total impairment of sight or hearing, or the inability to focus or move one‘s eyes, the inability to hold or manipulate a book, or an impairment relating to comprehension. 

Traditionally, access has required determining student eligibility based on criteria and then inserting the completed PRCVI eligibility form into the student file. However, in reviewing this process it was recognized that we can better support learners needing to access ARC-BC materials without this step, so it is no longer necessary to complete this form.

If you would like more information about accessing ARC-BC materials for your students, please contact District Learning Support Teacher and ARC-BC representative, Tanya Ross.

The staff was excited to share their new code of conduct and their process for creating it. Recognizing the existing code of conduct was based on traditional language, they hoped to create something that was more child-friendly with a focus on 4 key expectations 
1. I take care of myself.
2. We take care of each other.
3. We take care of this place.
4. Our actions are safe.

Grounding their work in meaningful discussion around “what are our values,” the dual-track school staff looked to the Safe and Caring Schools elementary code of conduct exemplar as a starting place. They played with the language until it felt relevant and fit their needs, working collaboratively to develop it from a social thinking lens. It was important to them that the language was translatable into French, supportive of their diverse population of students, and easy for all students from K to 5 to understand and remember. A key consideration was exploring their sense of place as a school community and what that means in the context of a code of conduct. 

Students supported the project with their art work, learning about the concepts and illustrating what each one meant to them. They used a template so the art can be easily changed as their school community changes (current artwork includes plenty of masks!). Much care was taken to teach the concepts of the code of conduct, using the Monique Gray Smith book, You Hold Me Up, for example,  to teach the idea that “we take care of each other.” There are plans to continue integrating the concepts embedded in the code with literature and SEL lessons moving forward. The colourful printed posters will be posted in high visibility spots in classrooms and throughout the school; currently the poster and can be seen on the school website as a movie with plans to layer sound files of student voices onto it in the future.

At the end of the day, it is a code of conduct that is relevant to all students, staff, parents and families, and visitors to the school. One student’s response to the new code of conduct says it all: “Wow! This is like a roadmap for good behaviour!” If you would like to learn more about Ecole Willows School’s process or their code of conduct, please reach out to teachers Kelsey Anderson or Evelyn Morales, or Principal Brenna O’Connor.