Derrydown Public School
Our School Improvement Plan
Literacy
At Derrydown, we place a strong emphasis on high levels of achievement in Literacy. This year is no exception! After analyzing school-based data and EQAO, our SMART goals for this school year are:
- To increase the number of students in Grade 3 working at Levels 3 & 4 in Writing and in Reading by June 2019.
We will use Professional Learning Teams throughout the year to ensure that teachers are working collaboratively to align instructional and assessment practises. Teachers will focus on shared and modelled Writing and Guided Reading strategies, and engage in professional development that is focused on building foundational literacy skills.
Numeracy
In Mathematics our school is striving to provide an integrated program that incorporates all learning styles. Our SMART goal in Mathematics is to increase the number of Grade 3 students achieving Levels 3 & 4 by June 2019. With the support of the Teaching and Learning Coach, teachers are working together regularly to develop common open-ended rich learning and assessment tasks that promote problem-solving and communication skills in Number Sense and Numeration. Our teachers will have opportunities to attend professional development sessions focused the development of foundational early math skills.
Pathways
It is important to the Derrydown school community that our students are successful at every stage of their educational pathway. As a result, our teaching staff focus on preparing our Grade 5 students for a successful transition to Middle School. Every year we seek out opportunity for collaboration, interaction and communication with the Middle Schools (English and French) to plan for successful transitions. Opportunities will be created to enable students and parents to attend orientation sessions at the Middle Schools to learn about their school community, programs and various pathways to meet student goals.
Community, Culture & Caring
Our Safe and Caring Schools Committee meets regularly and has Parent and Student representation. Character matters at Derrydown! We have monthly assemblies to provide explicit examples of "good character" and to recognize students and celebrate our successes. With this in mind, our SMART goal is to increase the number of students receiving "good" in the area of Self-regulation on their Report Cards in Grades 1-5 by June 2019. We will focus on three areas:
- Recognize student success at Character Development assemblies
- Establish and support initiatives through the Athletics, Leadership and Extra-curricular Committees
- Implement a Restorative Practice model to promote positive school discipline.