Rocky View Schools (RVS) now has a plan in place outlining division-wide goals for the next four years. The board of trustees unanimously approved the 2015-19 Four Year Plan at the Feb. 5 regular meeting.
“There are fewer goals and strategies than in previous plans but (the new plan) is clearly building on those successes from previous plans,” RVS Superintendent of School Don Hoium said.
The 2011-15 Plan included four goals, 16 outcomes and 26 strategies (in year four of the plan). The new Plan includes three goals, nine outcomes and 14 strategies.
Goal one of the Plan is to empower students to be successful and includes outcomes for literacy and numeracy, 21st Century knowledge and skills, and learners taking ownership of their learning.
Goal two is to engage students in their learning and includes outcomes of real-world, hands-on learning experiences, innovative and effective practices, and community partnerships, which enhance learning.
One of the strategies in community partnerships is to continue to build relationships between home and school, which Hoium said translates into “parents seeing their roles as meaningful.”
Goal three is to enrich learners and ensure they are supported and outcomes include students feeling safe, valued and respected, making learning accessible, individualized and challenging, and making student-centered decision to propel achievement.
To address accessible, individualized and challenging learning, the Plan states the division will engage community partners to provide wrap-around services to meet the needs of learners aged zero to 21.
“(This strategy) is looking at expanding the work we’re currently doing with our wrap-around community partners,” Hoium said, adding early childhood learning is “critical” to the success of students and the division is “looking at how to better engage our community support services for those older students.”
RVS Trustee Bev LePeare said she likes the simple language in the Plan, saying the goals are “so simple but so important.”
“I think this is probably one of the best Four Year Plans we’ve had,” she said.
RVS Trustee Fiona Gilbert agreed. She said as a parent and school council member but not a trustee when the last Plan was developed, the language in the 2011-15 Plan contained too much “eduspeak.”
“I really didn’t understand what I was reading (with the 2011-15 Plan). (The 2015-19 Plan) is easy to read and understand and has so much less eduspeak than other ones.”
Hoium said much of the simplification of language used in the Plan came from feedback provided in the consultation process that began in October 2014 and included more than 2,00 students, parents, businesses and community agencies.
He said terms such as ‘authentic learning experiences’ were revised to ‘real-world, hands-on learning experiences’ to be a more “public friendly” term.
‘Learning is personalized’ was changed to ‘individualized’ because in a public school setting it is not possible to personalize learning to each individual student, however learning could be individualized through flexible grouping approaches and resource selection, according to Hoium.
“I think the part of the Four Year Plan I’m most pleased with is… the community involvement and public input,” RVS Trustee Todd Brand said. “It’s easy to ask for input but it takes a lot more work to actually make changes from that.”
The Four Year Plan is available at rockyview.ab.ca
