I. General Information
School Name: Kwantlen Park Secondary School
School District: SD#36 Surrey
Inquiry Team Members: Brian Tait: tait_brian@surreyschools.ca
Christian Snead: snead_c@surreyschools.ca
Monique Prevost: prevost_m@surreyschools.ca
Mandy Gander: gander_m@surreyschools.ca
Inquiry Team Contact Email: tait_brian@surreyschools.ca
II. Inquiry Project Information
Type of Inquiry: Indigenous Education Impact Initiative
Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Secondary (8-12)
Curricular Areas Addressed: Mathematics / Numeracy, Science
Focus Addressed: Land, Nature or Place-based learning, Other: Transitions, Connection and Engagement
In one sentence, what is your focus for the 3-year cycle? While our initial focus for this three-year inquiry cycle was student transitions, our learning has led us to expand our focus to include connections, engagement, and belonging as key factors supporting Indigenous student success.
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Connections to Year 1: After further discussion with our Indigenous Education Team, and a careful review of the details of our primary scan in year one, we recognized that the limited information actually reinforced our current direction and focus, which is to “Initiate and Enrich Connections”. Thus, we did not feel that a rescan was necessary. Instead, we invested our time and energy into creating meaningful opportunities for students to connect with our school community. This included a strong focus on building relationships with the younger students across our Family of Schools, helping to foster a sense of belonging before they transition into Grade 8. We will be using the current grade 7s as baseline group and plan to do a progress scan at the end of their grade 8 year.
Additionally, in support of our transitions, connection and engagement focus, we created a math/science cohort to better connect and engage our senior students on their path to graduation.
To continue our scanning process, we reviewed student attendance data, academic progress, graduation status, course completion data, and anecdotal information gathered through ongoing student conversations and check-ins. We also reflected on feedback gathered through student voice opportunities and discussions with Indigenous support staff, teachers, counsellors, and families. These sources helped us identify recurring themes related to belonging, engagement, self-advocacy, and connection to school.
Our revised hunch was that while Indigenous students had access to supports and opportunities, some students were not consistently accessing them due to competing responsibilities, limited connections with trusted adults, or uncertainty regarding available resources. As a result, we shifted our focus toward increasing relationship-based supports and creating more opportunities for student voice and leadership.
New Educator Professional Learning: Building on our Year 1 learning, we recognized the need to think outside the box and create meaningful opportunities for Indigenous students to connect, feel a sense of belonging, and become enriched and engaged in their learning experiences. This required us to continue examining our practices and exploring ways to make learning more responsive to student strengths, interests, and cultural identities.
Our learning was supported through collaborative planning and reflection, professional development opportunities, collaboration with our Nations, Indigenous Education staff, district personnel, colleagues, and, most importantly, our students. Student voice played a significant role in helping us understand what was meaningful and engaging for learners and informed many of our decisions moving forward.
Through ongoing conversations and collaboration, we were able to share resources, strategies, and reflections with colleagues. This included discussing culturally responsive approaches, exploring opportunities to incorporate Indigenous perspectives into learning experiences, and working together to create engaging opportunities that supported Indigenous student success, belonging, and connection within the school community.
Taking Action: We hosted a number of events for students, including a Winter Solstice Gathering, a Beading Workshop for Grade 7 students, an afternoon of Bannock making, Indigenous art activity stations and Bingo for Grade 6 and 7 students, a Rattle Making Workshop for Grade 7 students, drumming collaborations, and our annual Community BBQ. All events and activities were supported by our Indigenous Student Leaders, who continue to be wonderful role models and mentors within our school community.
These opportunities provided students with meaningful ways to connect with one another, engage with Indigenous culture, and strengthen their sense of belonging within the school. We observed positive participation from students across grade levels and increased student engagement during Indigenous Education activities and events. The involvement of our Indigenous Student Leaders also helped foster leadership skills, confidence, and stronger connections between younger and older students.
We also created an Earth Science 11/Workplace Math 11 cohort to provide more opportunities for Indigenous students to engage with academic learning through a land-based approach. This course blends both curricula through an Indigenous lens and intentionally incorporates Indigenous ways of learning and knowing. By creating authentic, hands-on learning experiences, students will have opportunities to connect classroom learning to the land, community, and real-world applications.
Through this work, we have observed increased student engagement, stronger relationships between students and staff, and greater collaboration among educators supporting Indigenous learners. Colleagues have expressed enthusiasm for the opportunities being created and have continued to support the integration of Indigenous perspectives and land-based learning experiences throughout the school.
Reflections for Year 2: Through this inquiry cycle, we have learned that students thrive when they feel connected to their culture, community, peers, and school. The strong participation in cultural activities, leadership opportunities, and land-based learning experiences has reinforced the importance of creating authentic opportunities for engagement that honour Indigenous ways of knowing and being.
We have also deepened our understanding of the importance of student voice and leadership. Our Indigenous Student Leaders have demonstrated how powerful peer mentorship and leadership opportunities can be in fostering confidence, belonging, and community. Additionally, this work has reinforced the value of collaboration with Indigenous communities, colleagues, district staff, and students themselves in creating meaningful learning experiences.
Overall, this inquiry has reaffirmed that building relationships and creating culturally responsive opportunities are ongoing commitments that require reflection, collaboration, and a willingness to adapt to meet the evolving needs of our students.
Plans for Year 3: Year 3 will focus on strengthening connections with our elementary school students to continue building a sense of belonging, community, and confidence as they transition to Kwantlen Park Secondary. We will also focus on the implementation and evaluation of our Land-Based Cohort pilot program.
We will conduct a scan of our current Grade 8 students to assess how these community-building opportunities impacted their transition into the Kwantlen Park community. This will include gathering student voice, observations, and participation data to better understand students’ sense of belonging, engagement, and connection to school. We will also monitor participation and engagement throughout the year to determine the impact these initiatives have had on Indigenous learners.
A collaborative review of the Land-Based Cohort will also take place and will include student voice, educator reflections, and an examination of students’ learning experiences and connections to the curriculum. This information will help guide future planning and determine how the cohort can continue to support student engagement and success.
We will continue to increase the frequency of individual student check-ins, work collaboratively with counsellors and classroom teachers to monitor student progress, and strengthen connections with families. We will also continue to intentionally invite students to participate in leadership opportunities, cultural activities, school events, and decision-making processes related to Indigenous programming.
Through these efforts, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of both the short-term and long-term impacts of our inquiry while continuing to strengthen student belonging, engagement, leadership, and academic success.