Bawlf School Council GM – June 16th
2013/2014 Principal’s Report
We strive on a daily basis to ensure our school culture reflects our desire to provide the highest quality education for our students and their families. Through our purposeful work around building caring relationships, passion, and responsibility for our learning, our “Pillars of Excellence” have come alive in our building and become the foundation for all of the work that we do.
It has been an amazing year of growth, achievement, celebration and preparation for Bawlf School! Every year we are able to look back, appreciate the hard work and remember the moments that have defined our year. As we look back over the 2013/2014 school year, it is so difficult to choose one or two defining moments. We have had an extraordinary year with many causes for celebration.
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elcoming Rosalind – We were honored to begin the year with a number of new families choosing to have their children attend Bawlf School. The closure of Rosalind School was a difficult time for many and it was our goal to make the transition as sensitive and seamless as possible. We started the year with every student receiving a Bawlf School T-shirt from our High School Student’s Union as we welcomed everyone (old & new) back to school. Our enrolment numbers increased from 279 in 2012/2013 to 323 in 2013/2014.
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nstructional Opportunities – We are a small rural school and are extremely proud of the purposeful programming decisions we make. Again this year, we were able to offer single grade instruction in all core subject disciplines for ECS – grade 9 as well as single-course, direct teacher instruction for all of our Gr. 12 provincial Diploma Exam subjects. Through our partnerships with ADLC and CCHS, along with our own Bawlf School fine arts options we were able to continue to offer our students optional courses that were specific to individual learners and their interests. While many rural Alberta school French programs are being cut due to declining enrolment and lack of interest, we have been able to maintain our program within grades 4-12 and even begin our program planning for French next year! Bawlf School students were still able to access Math 31 via video conference and enjoyed the freedoms within our High School Flexibility timetable to set up alternate learning opportunities through Work Experience, RAP and Green Certificate. Inspiring Education in Alberta has shown us the vision for the future of education and set a direction for us to collaboratively transform the education system for all students. We have worked hard this year to ensure that we are providing our students with learning experiences that inspire them to achieve success and fulfillment as engaged thinkers and ethical citizens with an entrepreneurial spirit. Many of our high school students had the chance this year to engage in one of the ultimate project-based learning opportunities available – The China International Travel Studies Trip!
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eadership and Support – We welcomed a new leadership model to our School Council this year. Healthy Lunch & BEST took executive seats on our School Council along with a new Member at Large. This was decided in an attempt to join the various volunteer groups and have them all work together to support the school by providing many of the extras our children appreciate and love about our school. This year, our Bawlf Educational Support Team (BEST) supported many of our extra-curricular programming opportunities through a generous donation of Casino raised funds. Some of the learning opportunities our students enjoyed included fine arts performances, fieldtrips to various sites and locations within central Alberta, as well as an entire class set of Chromebooks to be used in their daily learning! Not only has this group of volunteers worked tirelessly to support our students, they have also worked to build relationships with our parents. Our School Council offered parents opportunities to become better informed about some of the goings on within the school. They offered parents a ConnectEd information sharing evening, opened up conversations around assessment and our Administrative Procedure 360, hosted information evenings about the vision for our new school and offered virtual tours to help us all see the vision of our new school clearer. They also brought in community coaches to introduce volleyball and basketball and work on skill development in our younger children who are often overlooked in these sports due to their young age. Through the work of our Healthy Lunch team and parent volunteers, our students were able to order various healthy lunches throughout the year. They also hosted us as we attended and celebrated our 2nd Annual Year End Picnic celebration! These are only some of the highlights we’ve enjoyed as a result of the leadership and support of our parents!
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iana on Leave – With a busy school year in the works it was with trepidation and excitement that we wished Diana well as she took a leave of absence to focus on her personal health. Stacey Dunnigan, our Vice-Principal, was charged with the duties of Acting Principal during the 7 months that Diana was on leave. After many months of rest and recuperation, we were happy to welcome Diana back to her leadership role at the beginning of May.
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elebrating Excellence – Our motto of Achieving Excellence is not just a motto it is a way of being! We work hard throughout the year to develop meaningful relationships with our students, set high expectations that we know they are capable of achieving and support them as they work towards their goals. We have had an incredible year of Achieving Excellence – personally, academically and athletically. We have celebrated champions at regional, zone, and provincial levels in many different sports as Bawlf School continues to make its’ mark in the world of athletics. Many of our students are involved in activities outside of our school that we are able to celebrate and acknowledge. Raice Szott was the only female hockey player invited to play on the Canadian Cowboys European Tour Team that travelled to Slovakia last summer. We have had the opportunity to celebrate the fine arts talents of many of our students who are actively involved in Camrose theatre, and have even enjoyed the work of Natalia Beattie who worked many hours this year to create a painting of our old Bawlf School building which will be displayed proudly in our new school. We were also able to celebrate a gold medal victory in culinary arts with Madisson Huseby at her final Skills Competition. Our most significant celebration of excellence this year belongs to our Graduation Class of 2014! We were very proud to acknowledge and celebrate 13 years of hard work, bumps, bruises, adversity and resilience as we offered 25 of our grade 12 students our sincerest congratulations. Well done!
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ssessment – We began this year with our fully developed and carefully planned Bawlf School Assessment Plan. Admin Procedure 360 within Battle River School Division has created much conversation and concern for the potential positive and negative impact it may have on our students. We continued to recognize the need for our parents to be informed, have a voice and understand the future of their child’s education. We worked, with the support of our School Council, towards hosting one or two Assessment Evenings for parents. How we report on student achievement (particularly with regards to the high school reporting of grades), how to understand the assessments your child is bringing home and what the various levels of achievement are actually telling you was the focus of our learning and presentation planning. In addition, much work was done over the past year within the school division regarding assessment. In consultation with all stakeholders in our school division, the Board of Trustees approved the following recommendations regarding Admin Procedure 360;
#1) ThattheSuperintendentdirectallHighSchool(Gr.10,1112)marksbefirst derivedandrecordedasnumericdata,effectiveSeptember2014.Onreportcards,
overallgradeswillbereportedaspercentagesandalsoasalphalevels.
#2)ThattheSuperintendentreviseAdministrativeProcedure360toreflectthese
recommendations.
#3) That the Superintendent directs that important aspects of student assessment (including but not limited to clear learning targets, rich descriptive feedback, curriculum-aligned assessment and outcome-based recording of evidence) continue to be communicated, developed, supported and implemented from Kindergarten to Gr. 12. This will ensure Battle River remains consistent with Alberta’s Teaching Quality Standard, Alberta Education’s requirements, the Inspiring Education outcomes and student assessment research.
#4)ThattheSuperintendentworkwiththeStudentAssessmentRecommendationsCommitteetoensurethat#3iscarriedoutacrosstheDivision.Thiswouldincludestudents,staff,parents,communityandTrustees.
We look forward to our continued journey in assessment during the 2013/2014 school year!
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ransition From Old to New – There are only 10 days remaining and we will be walking out of this old Bawlf School building for the last time! It seems as though we have spent the past year imagining what it would be like and now we are here. Many people have worked very hard to ensure that we will be taking the items that we will need for continued learning in the new school as well as planning for the all the new items that will needed as we arrive in the fall. Saying “Good-bye” to the current Bawlf School was difficult to do for many, as our Staff and School Council hosted an Open House for the greater Bawlf Community. On May 25th we celebrated the past, present and future of Bawlf School. It was our hope that our community would have the opportunity to walk through the school, reminisce about the past and learn more about the future of Bawlf School as we worked towards the move into our new building. We were able to celebrate the history of this building and reconnect to the many good memories and stories that will continue to be told for years to come!
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ponsorship and Fundraising – As we look towards the future, which is right around the corner, we are excited about the new opportunities that a new school building will bring to our students and the community of Bawlf! BEST, our School Council and the staff & students of Bawlf School began the task of fund raising for items that are not included in a new school build, but that we would like to have. We kicked off the fundraising campaign with a school wide fundraising event. It was a fantastic experience which yielded unimaginable results! Our students were excited to be a part of something big and help support the efforts of our School Council. They knew that the money they raised will go towards creating a 21st century school that they will be able to enjoy for many years to come! As well as collecting pledges from neighbours, family and friends, each homeroom class planned various activities that helped them raise funds. Examples included; popcorn sales, used book and DVD sales, penny collections and a nickel line (ECS). Our goal was to raise $5000.00 by June 10th. We were so excited to gather our student body together and celebrate our efforts. With the support of our community and the hard work of all of our students we were able to raise over $21 000.00! As a result, our students were very excited to be able to determine a 'new' hair colour for Mrs, Dunnigan. Our grade 3 class collected the most money, bringing in over $4000.00! They chose the colour green! The celebration was exciting and the students were very proud to have reached and exceeded their goal. It is just one more example of how the students in Bawlf School are Achieving Excellence!
Stacey Dunnigan
Vice Principal
Bawlf School