I. General Information
School Name: Cedar Community Secondary School
School District: SD#68 Nanaimo-Ladysmith
Inquiry Team Members: Theresa Kraeker: theresa.kraeker@sd68.bc.ca, Natalie Golbeck: natalie.golbeck@sd68.bc.ca, Ashley Beerling (moved schools), James Pascoe: jpascoe@sd68.bc.ca
Inquiry Team Contact Email: theresa.kraeker@sd68.bc.ca
II. Inquiry Project Information
Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study
Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Secondary (8-12)
Curricular Areas Addressed: Not applicable
Focus Addressed: Growth mindset, Social and emotional learning, Other: Circle of Courage
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? How does ‘Belonging” from the Circle of Courage framework benefit academic, social/emotional and school culture development in a small, semi-rural high school?
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Scanning: We’d noticed that while peer cohesion was strong enough, there was a sense of disinterest in school. Because our school is in a semi-rural community, there is little to do if one doesn’t arrive at school each day.
The motivation to do this, however, seems more peer driven than anything else. Students were unable to articulate how they were doing with their learning, where they were going, or what was next. Too often students shared, “I’ve got my 50%” and ceasing to attend or try after that. Additionally, students who did work hard to achieve at high levels used words like “apathy” to describe the rest of the school.
We also noticed that vandalism to the school was ongoing and the sense of school pride was mainly held by those in Athletics.
Focus: We surveyed our students using questions that focused on the quadrants of the Circle of Courage: Independence, Generosity, Mastery, and Belonging. Results echoed what we were seeing in the scanning phase, with the majority of concern (in all areas) coming from our grade 9 and 10 groups.
School-wide, Mastery was the quadrant with the lowest responses and so our initial inquiry question centered on, “how do we shift a culture of low expectations, to one of high expectations?” While this was appropriate based on what we were seeing and the survey results, it didn’t feel like we were focused on the right question. Partway through the year we realized, “belonging before becoming,” and so shifted our question to an exploration of belonging through school culture and identity. The language in the question still fit, the scope just widened.
Hunch: For a variety of reasons, we are a young school. Not only are we the newest secondary school in our district, but we’ve had several ‘stop and starts’ along the way. COVID of course was an interruption that affected us all, but for Cedar Secondary it came on the heels of another major physical and psychological interruption. Seven years ago, our school was closed and students were moved to two other secondary schools in the district. Two years later, after much effort and political upheaval, it was reopened and we have been in the process of rebuilding ever since.
We had a hunch that our school identity was unformed and this was getting in the way community and culture development.
New Professional Learning:
– Martin Brokenleg: Reclaiming Youth at Risk
– Structure of school wide Professional Learning Community
Taking Action: It is important that students can visualize and have an understanding of what the four quadrants of the Circle of Courage look like in action. We started the year by creating school-wide activities that focused on the four quadrants of the Circle of Courage. Participating in the Terry Fox Run for Generosity, Gym Riot for Belonging, Critical Thinking bridge building challenge for Mastery, and ….. for Independence.
We ‘ noticed, named, and nurtured’ actions that exemplified Mastery, Belonging, Generosity and Independence, behaviours through staff nominating students, and students nominating their peers. We then brought the entire school together once a week for weekly updates and reading through the nominations for Mastery, Belonging, Independence, and Generosity.
We also use this Weekly Gathering to celebrate other achievements in the school. When the basketball team wins a game or makes it to provincials, when the band gets a silver recognition in its first ever competition, etc. We love that the whole school knows what is happening around the building and participates in cheering each other on. This has had a positive effect though there is a group of about 45+ students who chose not to attend the 15 minute assembly. Next year, we plan on collecting data specifically from these school culture disengaged students, by talking with them directly.
Mid way through the year we surveyed the whole school with some questions about, “Who are We?” We asked teachers to lead conversations in their classrooms, choosing from the list of questions:
1. “What makes our school unique compared to others?”
2. “How would you describe our school’s atmosphere?”
3. “What values do you think our school embodies?”
4. “What are some traditions or rituals that define our school?”
5. “What do you think outsiders perceive about our school, and is it accurate?”
6. “What aspects of our school do you think we should preserve or enhance?”
7. “What do you wish people knew more about our school?”
8. “How do you feel when you walk through the doors of our school every day?”
9. “What kind of impact do you think our school has on the local community?”
10. “If our school were a person, how would you describe its personality?”
We then brought together a School Identity Committee made up of students of all grade levels to share, talk through, and develop action plans based on the the results of the student survey. Students decided they wanted the school to build a ‘catch phrase’ that everyone could remember and understand. The current draft phrase is, “rooted in community,” which is beautiful in its deceptive simplicity.
Checking: We learned that even though we don’t have wholesale acceptance of our Weekly Gatherings, they are making a positive difference in school culture. Students now identify it as one of our traditions and our graduating students shared these weekly experiences as one of the positive things we do to build community.
The end of the year came and went in a flurry, without asking the follow up four questions. Despite that, we know we haven’t yet made enough of a difference as this School Culture and Community work is ongoing and we are still in the thick of it.
Reflections/Advice: We spent a lot of time through this year naming, noticing and nurturing, student demonstrations of Mastery, Independence, Generosity and Belonging. We became aware though that staff and students needed some defined language to use to help them talk about these somewhat abstract concepts. In the latter part of the year, our focus broadened to include:
1. staff development of student friendly statements of Mastery, Generosity, Independence, and Belonging. These will be used at the start of next year where individual classroom conversations will add to this work by creating lists of behaviours that fall into each category. This will then go towards school-wide definitions.
2. This work morphed into our school visioning/school goals conversations. As the four quadrants of the Circle of Courage easily aligned with our district Strategic Goals, we realized we could work hard AND smart, by working on both things at the same time.