School Overview
PEXSISEN Elementary opened in September 2022. The school shares the property with Centre Mountain Lellum Middle School, which opened in November 2022. PEXSISEN's capacity is 500 students in 21 divisions. However, it will open with 17 divisions and approximately 360 students in grades Kindergarten to Grade 5, with 95 of those students in Kindergarten. As our school is a new build, we do not yet have a history to share. However, we are excited by the unique features of our school that will support us as we begin the journey towards an exciting future. Our school is built around the notion of community, with shared and flexible learning spaces both in and outside the building. We have an extensive area devoted to gardening and outdoor learning, including large covered spaces, a roof top classroom and a nature-based play area. The school is filled with natural light, windows, and large open spaces. The colours throughout the build are based on natural elements, which bring both a sense of calm and of quiet excitement. We share our school site with a middle school and are looking forward to all the opportunities that will bring for collaboration, mentoring and community building. One of the most important features of our school is its name. Gifted to us by the Songhees Nation, PEXSISEN means the “opening of hands” or “hands wide open” and, as Elder Butch Dyck of the Songhees Nation noted, encapsulates the feelings of gratitude and protection. Embracing our beautiful name will us to help lay the foundation of a safe and healthy learning environment, with a strong culture of inclusion and equity.
Our Learners
We know that our students are coming from schools across the district, including schools in Milne's Landing, although predominately from David Cameron (approximately 135 students) and Willway Elementary (approximately 40 students). We have visited each of the schools where children are currently attending to learn about them from their teachers and the administration staff. In many cases, we have also met the students from these same schools. They appear excited, curious, slightly apprehensive and, for the most part, ready to start a new adventure. We do not yet have data on the students’ learning, other than their progress reports, but we asked all the students’ current teachers to provide further information by filling out transition forms created for this specific purpose. We are hopeful to have them back to us prior to the end of the school year. Once we receive this data, we will use this information to best inform class placements and supports. We do know that we have many students joining us from different parts of the world, some newcomers and some requiring significant ELL support. We also know that we have learners coming to us who have complexities and vulnerabilities who will need additional support from our Inclusion team, some of them coming into school for the first time as Kindergarten students. We have connected with the teams who are currently supporting all of these children and believe we have the relevant information to effectively support the transition into our school.
- School Sourced Data
We are waiting to meet and hear from our students in the fall when our school opens.
Focus and Planning
What focus(es) emerge as goals to pursue?
School Goal 1
To develop a sense of belonging and connection to and within our school, inclusive of place and space and one another.
Our Action Plan will evolve as the staff, students and families have the opportunity for conversation and connection. For us, the process of opening our school is still in its infancy, and we have not yet had the opportunity to meet as a community to begin the dialogue that will be required to fully articulate our Action Plan.
We do however have a few first steps that we believe will build a foundation of belonging and connection.
- Host a Meet and Greet event with all staff from Centre Mountain Lellum and PEXSISEN. We invited the architects who designed the school to share their vision, so staff understood the "why" of how the schools were built. We also had a meal and time for the staffs of both schools to connect. It was our first step in supporting a sense of belonging for our teams.
- Reach out to staff for input about resources and supplies. This has been done throughout the last 5 months. All decisions that have been made regarding resources, including but not limited to, chart stands/carpets/manipulatives/jerseys/PE equipment/IS resources/levelled readers/subject specific resources/Library Commons/flex furniture/colours, were done in collaboration with staff. In this way, we are hoping that all members of the team feel that they have had input and that their voices are both heard and represented in the school environment.
- Build classes at the end of the first week of September. We will have 42 staff members and 350 students coming together for the first time on Sept. 6th, and we believe that we will need some time to get to know each other before creating robust, balanced and inclusive classrooms. We have connected with PISE to help us through this process. The focus will be on team and relationship building across the school.
- Create family groupings of students and staff. The school has 4 separate wings with classrooms organized a communal flex space. Although we have staff coming from different schools across our district, we have a significant number of them coming from two schools. When organizing class placements for teachers, we ensured that these teachers were in different wings so that staff had a chance to develop new relationships and learn from new peers. We have also decided that each wing will house students from different grade levels. In this way, we will create "family groupings".
- Planning Day, September 1st. We will spend time-sharing our initial thoughts about the vision for our school. The process will be collaborative and interactive. It is interesting to note that the significant majority of our staff, particularly our teachers, have more than 12 years seniority, with some having more than 20 years in our district. We are curious to see what this depth of experience and skills brings to the opening of a new school and the creation of a school vision.
- Jody Carrington Relit conference on August. 27th. We have registered and it will be open to all interested staff, as it can be accessed virtually. This was an initiative brought forward by a teacher and an EA, and has been positively supported by other staff members. One of our teachers will be hosting in their home. This will be a wonderful opportunity to connect and begin the process of belonging.
- Booked Jesse Ruben to present to both Centre Mountain Lellum and PEXSISEN on October 19th. He will be showcasing information and music from the We Can initiative. We are hopeful that this will be another opportunity for building a sense of common purpose and connection, not only in each of our separate schools, but also as a community between our school
- Develop a plan for creating a meaningful connection with our school name through connecting with and learning from the Songhees Nation.
- Write letter to Songhees Nation requesting meeting to commission art for school.
- Tour of school with representatives from Songhees Nation and artist collective.
- Meeting with artists to confirm the art pieces that will be commissioned. Art will not only be a means of beautifying our school, but also be used as a teaching resource.
- Meeting with Elder Butch Dyck at Royal Roads to create a video of his teachings around the gift of our school names. Video will also be used as teaching resource.
- Mount the Territorial Welcome at the front of our school.
- Continue to learn about local Indigenous history, place and culture.
School Goal 2
To develop an understanding of food sustainability and healthy living through connecting to the land while also accessing the knowledge, experiences and cultural perspectives available in our diverse community.
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Develop a garden community within our school through our partnership with the Growing Young Farmers Society.
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Involve students and parent volunteers in order to provide opportunities for students to learn, try, and develop an appreciate for healthy foods (i.e., smoothie and salad bar days).
- Connect goals of Affordability Grant to a focus on supporting access to healthy foods for all children and their families.
- Invite our Na’tsa’maht classroom program assistant (Derrick Titin) to share resources of Indigeneous knowledge and traditions around food (i.e., clam gardens, harvesting, indigenous plants).
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Provide support to parent volunteers in order for them to share traditional foods and food experiences from their culture. Ideas could include a cultural fair, a family pot luck, in-class demonstrations. We want to celebrate and support connections between our diverse school population.
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Provide support to school librarian to purchase books which celebrate food from a variety of cultures and support learning in the garden.
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Participate in the Backpack Buddies program which provides families with food and snacks for the weekend.
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Offer a garden club and develop garden mentorship opportunities with other classes (in addition to the Growing Young Farmers program).
9. Provide opportunities for students to learn and practice compost education and vermicompost.
- Explore how we can expand outdoor learning opportunities on our school grounds and in community, especially in our school garden.
- Continue to work with and learn from our Na’tsa’maht Department and Na’tsa’maht Cultural Support Worker, and Role Models to bring more learning connected to land and place outdoors through our SD 62 Role Model Program and other school and community opportunities.
How can the district support your goals?
Our registrations indicate a significant number of newcomer families. In order to work create a sense of belonging with a focus on diversity and inclusion, it will be necessary to look to specific departments to help us support these children and their families.
- Teachers and EAs from International working with our staff to support newcomers.
- Support in helping newcomer families learn how to navigate and connect with the school.
- Staff necessary to support newcomers and ELL students.
Again, with a focus on developing a sense of community and belonging, it will be important to support all members of our community. There are students joining us with impacted functional language and communication skills. The support of the IS department will be critical.
Professional learning and resources specific to communication and ASD will help us to foster a community that effectively supports all learners, as well as the staff who care for and teach them.
- Professional learning about appropriate Indigenous Languages.
- Support connecting with an elder in residence.
- Consistent support by a Na'tsa'maht Classroom Program Assistant.
- Continuing support helping us make authentic connections with the Songhees Nation.
- Accessing role models who will teach us about native plants and land based learnings.
- Professional learning as outlined above.
Reach out to Healthy Schools team for support around gardening and food sustainability. We have people in our District who are working directly on these portfolios and we are excited to partner with them in developing our plan.
Reflect, Adjust, Celebrate
- School Sourced Data
- SSM-FESL-SD62
We will use the SSM data for 2022-23 as a baseline for determining our students' sense of belonging and connection to the school. We will be able to measure our progress in the 2023-24 year when we can compare the data.
We will know we are making progress towards our goal when students, staff and families are able to explain their behaviours and choices reflective of a collaboratively developed school code of conduct and vision statement.
We will know we are making progress when students, staff and families are able to articulate their personal sense of belonging, impact and connection to the community.
We will know we are making progress when members of our community can say..."At PEXSISEN we believe......"
We will use the Equity Scan Data as a baseline, just as we will do with the SSM data.
We will know we are making progress towards our goal when all members of the school community can explain the meaning of PEXSISEN and its importance to both themselves and the community.
We will know we are making progress towards our goal when all members of our community can share their understanding and connection to the art pieces which represent our school name, as well as the art which represents the Territorial Acknowledgement.
GOAL 1
Indicator A
* We are currently waiting for the Student Learning Survey Information to be uploaded by Ministry.
Indicator B
*At our Year-end Assembly, we asked students and staff to complete the following statement- "At PEXSISEN we believe in"
The answers were as follows: kindness, everybody is welcome, we make friends with everyone, food and water are important, open hands, we need to be kind to our teachers, safety, respect, and building a family.
Indicator C
During the last half of the year, we decided to add another indicator of success in meeting our goal of developing a sense of belonging; that being of academic connection. We wanted to determine a baseline of our students' writing competency. We had all of our students engage in a school wide write. The teachers then collaborated to assess the writing using the BC Performance standards.
*The results of School Wide Write are as follows:
(The results are a reflection of the entire school population, minus 20 students who were absent)
10% emerging
30% developing
50% proficient
10% extending
*FSA results for Grade 4 are as follows:
(Participation rate- 72%)
Literacy
72.22% on track
27.78% emerging
Numeracy
72.22% on track
27.78%i emerging
GOAL 2
GOAL 2
*Indicators
We have followed through with each of the Action Plan steps.
1. We have a working school garden with 8 classes participating in the program.
2. Affordability Grant supported a robust lunch program for many students. Our SEF organized and implemented the program. We also provided a small breakfast offering for a few students. The Affordability Grant has also allowed us to purchase many cooking supplies including grills, blenders, crockpots, and cookware.
3. We created a schoolwide cookbook which reflected our very diverse school population with an emphasis on multicultural foods. Our families contributed their favourite family recipe. We used our school mural as the cover.
4. 28 families are participating in the Backpack Buddies Program.
5. Connected with Matthew Kershaw as a resource to grow our gardening program.