I. General Information
School Name: Prince Rupert Middle School
School District: SD#52 Prince Rupert
Inquiry Team Members: Kerri Levelton: kerri.levelton@sd52.bc.ca
Mike McDowall: mike.mcdowall@sd52.bc.ca
Lori Leighton: Lori.leighton@sd52.bc.ca
Sheryl Proskiw: Sheryl.proskiw@sd52.bc.ca
Lauren Neiser: Lauren.neiser@sd52.bc.ca
Inquiry Team Contact Email: kerri.levelton@sd52.bc.ca
II. Inquiry Project Information
Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Transitions Study
Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Intermediate (4-7)
Curricular Areas Addressed: Not applicable
Focus Addressed: Social and emotional learning, Transitions
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? To have our incoming from elementary school grade 6’s gain a greater sense of community.
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Scanning: We noticed that the grade 6’s didn’t have a sense of community coming into the school in this transition from elementary to middle school. It took them several months to build a connection. We also noticed that parents may not feel connected or welcomed in our school.
Focus: We were hoping to have better behaviour and pride in our school from the grade 6’s. We also wanted the families to feel valued as part of our school community and for our current students to be leaders in this process.
Hunch: We noticed that in response to Covid, it broke some of our connections and we needed to find new pathways to rebuild these connections. In using our grade 6 and 7 students, we are building positive interactions between grade groups. Since Covid, we noticed that parents also have a mistrust in our school and we hoped to repair these connections. In the past, this transition was recognized through a single event and we felt that hosting several events throughout the year may be a more meaningful way to honour the transition.
New Professional Learning: We had a district led language and local Ts”msyen culture conference which helped staff recognize the importance of our local culture and the ways that they can access this learning with their students.
Taking Action: This spring we had 3 opportunities for our new grade 6’s to connect to our school before they begin in September.
1) School tour: Grade 6 students were divided into small groups and toured around by the current grade 7’s.
2) Family Night: Students and families were invited for a barbecue and were able to visit places in our school to familiarize themselves with our school.
3) Activity Day: Grade 5 students were able to take part in grade 6 activities and had a chance to partner up with the current grade 6, get to know the grade 6 teachers and did fun activities such as drumming, eating, building, drawing, etc. They were also partnered with another elementary school to familiarize themselves with other grade 5’s.
We also had our grade 7 classes partner with a grade 4 class throughout the year, to start building the connection earlier. We are curious to see how it is reflected in their experience next year.
Checking: We have seen positives changes as our teachers have become more positively connected within the school. We have seen class partnerships between schools. We have seen an increase involvement from school staff as they lead the activities for the students. We know we have more room to grow and we hope to find ways to measure parent involvement and student surveys.
Reflections/Advice: Next year:
- I will survey the new grade 6’s to see if the transitions help make them feel more comfortable in our school.
- I will survey the grade 7-8’s that helped the grade 6’s and see what they noticed.
- I also want to expand our team.
- I also want to find a more formalized way to connect to parents to share their voice and input.
- Our team will do some professional learning and exploring Jo Chrona’s book.
- We hope to build an equity team and focus on our equity plan to incorporate what we have learned.