Acreman Elementary
2009 - 2010 School Development Report
Vision Statement of Acreman Elementary
Acreman Elementary’s aim is to promote a student-first philosophy in a supportive, nurturing environment, which incorporates high quality instruction leading to the fullest development of each child.
Mission Statement of Acreman Elementary
Acreman Elementary is committed to providing a safe, caring, and collaborative learning environment for all with an emphasis on student learning and achievement in Mathematics and Language Arts.
Table of Contents
School Developman Plan for Current School Year 15
OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR Chair: Milton Peach, B.A., B.A.(Ed.)
C.E.O./Director of Education: Ford Rice, B.A., B.Ed., M.Ed.
Message from the Director of Education
Since Eastern School District’s inception in September, 2004 many changes have occurred. Our efforts have now moved beyond structural reform and reorganization to developing our schools as caring, professional and purposeful places of learning and excellence. The School District has engaged in a process designed to accomplish this. Our strategic plan identifies the mission of our District to enhance achievement and success for all students within a healthy, active, safe, caring and socially just learning environment.
On behalf of Eastern School District, I acknowledge the many efforts of our teachers, administrators, support staff, parents and community representatives, particularly through School Councils. I encourage you to review this document and to converse with your school representatives. It is in this conversation that the school's goals and expectations come to life, in an atmosphere of support and accountability. When a community is better informed about its school, participation and ownership increases. The value of this report lies not only in what it says, but also in what it does.
I wish to congratulate each school for their commitment to achieving success as evidenced by this Annual School Report. Keep up the good work!
FORD RICE, B.A., B.Ed., M.Ed.
C.E.O./DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION
Message from Principal
It is so hard to believe that another school year has come and gone. As always, it was a very busy and productive year at Acreman Elementary. This report is meant to highlight our students’ achievements, our milestones, and the programs and services offered at our school. This report is also intended to provide all our stakeholders an opportunity to review our school development plan and to see what progress we are making toward fulfilling the goals in our plan.
The results from the data from the Grade 3 and Grade 6 Criterion Reference Tests were used to help guide us in focusing in the areas we need to concentrate on in our teaching and learning activities for our students. We also saw the several areas our students excelled in so successes were celebrated. These tests are reflective of the students’ learning in not just Grades 3 and 6, but also of their learning in all their previous grades. Data was also used from the Grade One and Grade Two Primary Language Arts Assessments to gather more information to help us in writing our school development plan. Please read further on in this report to get a more detailed report of both our results and our plan.
We continued to have many activities and celebrations throughout the school year and each time we were blessed to be supported by our parents, volunteers, and members of the general public. These events are great opportunities to showcase the work of our wonderful students and to continue to build strong ties between home and school. Many of these events were displayed in our school memories book – the first one created in many years.
Parent volunteers and local volunteers were instrumental in many ways. Our school’s Breakfast Program and the Hot Lunch Program would not exist without their support. We also held many book fairs, fundraising events, and field trips that depended on support from our wonderful volunteers. Our teachers continue to provide our students with many great learning opportunities and use those ‘teachable moments’ to their fullest. We are honoured to work with our fantastic students and they remind us each and every day that Acreman Elementary is a great place to work and learn.
Yours in Education,
Patricia Collins Yetman
Principal
Message from School Council
The Acreman Elementary School Council would like to thank all students, parents, volunteers, and teachers for a very successful 2009 – 2010 school year. Many special events took place during the school year and it was great to see such support from our many parents and volunteers whenever it was needed. Schools always need support from their parents and it is very apparent to see that Acreman Elementary has tremendous support from the communities it serves.
Our council meetings kept the members informed on the many events taking place at our fine school, as well as, opportunities to discuss and solve issues as they arose. We are lucky to have school council members dedicated to helping provide the best educational
opportunities for our students.
Students at Acreman Elementary continued to do well in the CRT’s as they did in the past and this data was analyzed by the staff to help direct their school development plan. Please read ahead to become more informed to this plan and what strategies will be implemented to make this plan become a reality.
The members of the Acreman School Council would like to thank you once again for your continued support and we look forward to another wonderful school year working with all the students, parents, volunteers, and teachers of this great learning institution.
Wanda Barron
Chair
Acreman Elementary School Council
2009 - 2010
Members of Acreman Elementary School Council 2009 – 2010 School Year
Wanda Barron – Chair
Rosemary Whiteway –Vice Chair
Carolyn Jerrett – Community Representative – (Cavendish)
Mildred Pitcher – Community Representative – (Hopeall
Jennifer Hillier – Community Representative – (Green’s Harbour)
Benita Reid – Parent Representative
Wendy Perry-Granter – Teacher Representative
Cathy Reid – Teacher Representative
Patti Collins Yetman – Principal
Overview of School
Our School Community
Acreman Elementary is part of the Eastern School District - Western Region which has 125 schools. ~Our school currently has an enrolment of 82 students and offers grades Kindergarten through Grade Six. ~The average class size is 12 students and 20 per cent of our student population is receiving special services support. Our school serves the Trinity Bay communities of Cavendish, Whiteway, Green’s Harbour and Hopeall. ~Most students are bussed to school.
Acreman Elementary has a total of 8 full-time staff, 2 part-time staff members (1 teacher is shared with another school and an 80% educational unit). A guidance counselor is assigned to our school approximately 33% time. We currently have 1 student assistant who is assigned 5 hours per day. ~In addition to staff based at school, we have itinerant services for speech-language pathology and education psychology. ~Full time secretarial, maintenance, and custodial support services are provided.
Our school offers the entire provincially prescribed curriculums in Kindergarten through Grade 6 with the exception of French in Kindergarten and Grade one. ~We have enhanced our Physical Education program by providing an aerobics class for our primary students every Thursday. ~There is an emphasis on enhancing the music program also. ~We have one primary and one elementary choir class every week and we have a school band comprised of elementary students who have practices twice a week during lunch time.
Key Highlights/Special Projects
Our students performed many times for our public during assemblies and concerts. Our school was represented at the Kiwanis Festival. We celebrated the 100th Day of School, Education Week, Family Literacy Day, Primary Science Fair, Elementary Heritage Fair and Family Math Day with members of our school population and members of the general public. All events were very successful and well attended.
Our year-end assembly saw many students win awards. The following is a list of the winners.
1. Trinity Conception Family Resource Centre Awards (Grades 4,5, and 6)
Grade 4 - Sara March Grade 5 - Nicholas Bryant Grade 6 - Charlotte Bryant
2. Super School Spirit Award (monetary award sponsored by Roger Green)
Kdgn. - Jenna Green Grade 3 - Bradly Green Grade 6 - Tia Murphy-Rowe
Grade 1 - Chelsie Reid Vincent Grade 4 - Roger Reid
Grade 2 - Hailey Hunt Grade 5 - Sabrina Rowe
3. Athletes of the Year – Renamed the Craig Shute Memorial Athlete of the Year (given to Grades 4, 5, 6)
Grade 4 - Female: Kayla Pretty, Male: David Green
Grade 5 - Female: Emma Gilbert, Male: Jackson Hutchings
Grade 6 - Female: Ashley Jackson, Male: Lucas March
4. Music Award (given to Grades 4, 5, 6)
Grade 4 - Kayla Pretty Grade 5 - Jackson Hutchings Grade 6 - Kyanah Rumbolt
5. The Roger Green Award (Grade 6)
Winner: Chantal Norman
6. The Women’s Institute Award (Grade 6) (monetary award)
Male: Lucas March Female: Charlotte Bryant
7. Ed Penney Award (Grade 6)
Winner: Heidi Jackson
8. Art Award (Grade 6)
Grade 4: Brittany Mayne Grade 5: Tara Engle Grade 6: Lesley Cumby
9. Acreman Award (Grade 6)
Female: Heidi Jackson Male: Ryan Higdon
Partnerships
Our school is involved in a very important partnership with the Newfoundland and Labrador Kids Eat Smart Program. ~This program helps our school offer nutritious breakfast and lunch to all our students. We are partially funded by this program and we received many generous donations from parents and different groups in the community. Approximately 30 – 40 students participated in this Breakfast Program on a daily basis.
Other partnership/presentations offered to our students this year included a fire safety presentation by Mr. Everett Pitts, and a presentation about the importance of helmet safety by the Newfoundland and Labrador Safety Council. Members of the clergy were always present at all our assemblies. We continued to add to our wall display of pictures of war veterans and people who have served or who are currently serving with the Canadian Forces.
3-4 Year School Development Plan
As of June 2010, we came to the end of our 3 year school development plan. We are starting the process over this year with internal reviews, surveys, data analysis, and other components of this process. This process is very meaningful as we are able to determine areas of strength and what areas we need to focus on while we develop a new four year plan. It gives us a great map to follow to help make this a great school. Below is a review of the plan we started in 200.7
Goal 1: To improve student learning and achievement in K-6 Language Arts by June 2010.
Year |
Objective |
Objective |
2007 – 08 |
K-6 students will improve their skills in the area of process writing. |
K-6 students will improve their comprehension skills from a variety of text forms. |
2008 – 09 |
K-6 students will improve their understanding of informational texts from different subject areas. |
K-6 students will demonstrate their understanding of visual texts indifferent forms and cross curricularly. |
2009 - 10 |
K-6 students will demonstrate improvement with their listening and speaking skills. |
K-6 students will demonstrate their ability to use more voice in their writing. |
Goal 2: To improve student learning and achievement in K-6 Mathematics by June 2010.
Year |
Objective |
Objective |
2007 – 08 |
K-6 students will improve their Problem Solving abilities. |
K-6 students will improve their abilities in the Number Concept strand. |
2008 – 09 |
K-6 students will improve their abilities in the Number Operations strand. |
K-6 students will improve their abilities in the Data Management strand. |
2009 - 10 |
K-6 students will improve their abilities in the Estimation Strand |
K-6 students will improve their abilities in the Measurement strand. |
Goal 3: To continue to strengthen our school culture that fosters a safe, caring, and collaborative learning environment by June 2010.
Year |
Objective |
Objective |
2007 – 08 |
Students will become more contributing members to the school community. |
Community members will be given more opportunities to contribute to the school community. |
2008 – 09 |
Parents will become more contributing members to the school community. |
Students will be given more opportunities to participate in curricular and non-curricular activities. |
2009 - 10 |
Students, parents, and teachers will work together to create a respectful school culture environment. |
The school will create more activities and opportunities to help build students’ self-esteem. |
Operational Issues
Year |
Issues |
Issues |
2007 – 08 |
To work with district personnel to help make maintenance more efficient and effective. |
To work with the school council in their goal of creating a playground area for the students. |
2008 – 09 |
To continue to upgrade the computer lab with regards to structure. |
To set up an organized structure for parent volunteers (when and how volunteers will be utilized). |
2009 - 10 |
To continue to upgrade the school library with regards to structure. |
Update and revise the student handbook. |
Report on School Development Plan for Previous Year (2009-2010)
Goal 1. To improve student learning and achievement in K-6 Language Arts by June 2010. |
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Objective 1.1 K-6 students will demonstrate improvement with their listening and speaking skills. |
Objective 1.2 K-6 students will demonstrate their ability to use more voice in their writing. |
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Commendations 1.1 Students’ speaking skills are improving but they still work in the area of listening skills. These strategies are now part of all teachers’ daily routines and part of their long range plans. |
Commendations 1.2 Primary children are slowly developing this skill as it does not come natural to all primary writers. Elementary students demonstrate this skill upon demand but not at all writing opportunities. There has been more opportunities for students to read/retell stories such as Readers’ Theatre. |
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Recommendations 1.1 Teachers will integrate more listening comprehension activities in their classrooms. |
Recommendations1.2 Teachers will continue to build their own store of exemplars. Students will then see great examples of writing with voice. |
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Report on School Development Plan for Previous Year (2009-2010)
Goal 2. To improve student learning and achievement in K-6 Mathematics by June 2010. |
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Objective 2.1 K-6 students will improve their abilities in the Estimation Strand |
Objective 2.2 K-6 students will improve their abilities in the Measurement strand. |
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Commendations 2.1 Estimation skills were used many times throughout the year such as Book Fairs, Math Day, and 100th Day. Getting family involvement was great and parents saw what students were learning in school. |
Commendations 2.2 Measurement skills were used many times throughout the year such as Winter Healthy Living Commotion, 100th Day, and Family Math Day. More manipulatives, literature, and resources purchased to help teach these skills. |
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Recommendations 2.1 100th Day and Family Math Day should be annual events. |
Recommendations 2.2 Strategies learned and new resources will help teachers in their delivery of the math program. |
Report on School Development Plan for Previous Year (2009-2010)
Goal 3. To continue to strengthen our school culture that fosters a safe, caring, and collaborative learning environment by June 2010. |
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Objective 3.1 Students, parents, and teachers will work together to create a respectful school culture environment. |
Objective 3.2 The school will create more activities and opportunities to help build students’ self-esteem. |
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Commendations 3.1 Students are more aware of what behaviours can be considered bullying behaviours. We see more parental involvement in all our activities and events. |
Commendations 3.2 We have seen evidence of growing school spirit among our students. Teachers are using more DI strategies as a way to ensure more student success and building students’ self-esteem. |
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Recommendations 3.1 Character education will be an objective for Goal 3 for the 2010-2011 school year. |
Recommendations 3.2 We will continue to have students make the morning announcements and sharing good news with the “Acreman News” |
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Operational Issues Report 2009-2010
Year |
Issues |
Issues |
Issues |
2009 - 2010 |
To continue to upgrade the school library with regards to structure. |
Update and revise the student handbook. |
To continue to upgrade the computers in the school (at least 3 refurbished Pentium 4 in each classroom) |
Report |
We added more literature to the library as well as purchased more racks to display new literature to our students. |
This was completed through staff meetings with input from staff members and the guidance counselor. |
This was completed by Christmas but we continue to replace computers as the older models break down. |
Summary Report on the School’s Most Current Data
This data is used to help validate and direct our school development plan. When we see areas of need, we add strategies to our school plan under the appropriate goal to help address the need. This external data is used in conjunction with the internal data we gather at the classroom and school level. We are able to detect trends over years (compare how we, as a school, have performed over a number of years) and see how we compare with the rest of the district and with the province.
Primary Language Arts Assessment
Grade 1: Percentage of Students Performing At or Above Provincial Benchmark
Grade 2: Percentage of Students Performing At or Above Provincial Benchmark
Criterion Reference Tests
School Development Plan for Current Year
1 Year School Development Plan
School Development Plan 2010 - 2011
Goal 1: To improve student learning and achievement in K-6 Language Arts by June 2011. |
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Objective 1.1: K-6 students will improve their abilities in the area of narrative reading. |
Objective 1.2: K-6 students will improve their abilities in the area of narrative writing. |
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Strategies: 1.1.1 More narrative books will be added to the school library. 1.1.2 Teachers will order more leveled literature in order to better support primary readers. 1.1.3 Teachers will use more Readers’ Theatre activities to help students develop their narrative reading skills. 1.1.4 Teachers will demonstrate and model how to summarize narrative texts to their students. 1.1.5 Teachers will use more graphic organizers and story maps to help students summarize narrative tests. |
Strategies: 1.2.1 Teachers will use more DI strategies such as story maps, graphic organizers, and interactive bookmarks to help students with their narrative writing. 1.2.2 Teachers will model and help students use sequencing while they complete narrative writing. 1.2.3 Teachers will highlight activities that promote more word choice as students complete their narrative writing. 1.2.4 Teachers will model how to use more dialogue and conversation while writing narrative texts. 1.2.5 Students will use sequencing as a strategy during the writing of narrative texts as a way to develop a better story sense. |
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Indicators of Success: 1.1.1 Students are exposed to more narrative texts in the library. 1.1.2 Primary students are better supported in the area of narrative texts while developing their reading skills. 1.1.3 Readers’ Theatre being used regularly to help support the reading of narrative texts. 1.1.4 Students are better able to summarize narrative texts. 1.1.5 More story maps and graphic organizers are used to help students summarize narrative texts. |
Indicators of Success: 1.2.1 Teachers are using more DI strategies to accommodate all learners. 1.2.2 Students can sequence narrative texts
better. 1.2.3 Students are using more word choice while writing narrative texts. 1.2.4 More dialogue and conversation are used in students’ narrative writings. 1.2.5 Students are developing a better story sense while using sequencing in their narrative writings. |
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Goal 1. Support Plan |
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Financial |
Professional Development/Time Required |
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1.1.1 Purchasing more narrative books for the school library - $1000.00 1.1.2 Purchasing leveled literature - $1000.00 1.1.3, 1.1.5, 1.2.1, 1.2.3 – Purchasing teacher resources for Readers’ Theatre, graphic organizers, story maps, and word choice. |
1.1.1 Professional Development on Readers’ Theatre – ½ day |
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