Background

The Personal and Social Competency is described as embodying “what students need to thrive as individuals, to understand and care about themselves and others, and to find and achieve their purposes in the world.”  Within the Personal and Social Core Competency, The Personal Awareness and Responsibility sub-competency involves comprehending connections between one’s well-being and personal and social behaviour, while the Social Awareness and Responsibility sub-competency focuses on the “awareness, understanding and appreciation of connections among people.” 

What is our focus? 

Our focus is on using the lens of the development of the Personal and Social Core Competency to:

• • Build connections and community 
  • Improve our community’s sense of balance and wellness

How did we determine our focus?

Over the past few years, we have been collecting data to best formulate what our school stakeholders value.  Through the scanning process, we considered the following: 

• How do we foster relationships?
• As a school, what do we value?
• How can we improve our community’s overall sense of wellness?

Our community voice was an integral part of this process. Staff, students, and parents were provided formal and informal opportunities through meetings, student focus groups, surveys, and professional development time dedicated for both staff and students to express what they see as important to our community.  

Our Actions

In order to work towards our focus and monitor our progress:

• Teachers will focus on Core Competency development in the classroom
• We will institute school-wide initiatives that help build our sense of community 
• We will develop classroom activities that promote wellness and balance

Our Evidence

The evidence we will use to determine if our actions are making a difference includes:

• Evidence that teachers are using Core Competencies in their day-to-day instruction
• Student Focus group discussions and debriefs (anecdotal evidence)
• Student and staff surveys