June is here and as the school year concludes, it is time to reflect on the fantastic year we had as a learning community. The 2022-23 school year was significant one to remember for many of our students and staff. For this was the first year they had experienced school without masks, staying six feet apart and other mandatory pandemic measures. Post pandemic staff believed it was essential to solidify a strong sense of belonging and community for our students. As a result, we intentionally scheduled whole school lunch and recess at the same time, held school assemblies and pep rallies, implemented buddy classes, celebration of learning days, clubs, and held a school wide fine arts performance night etc.
Our School Development Plan was in year three and students and staff focused on the following domains:
Literacy- comprehension skills specifically fluency
Numeracy- number sense focusing on computational procedures
Well-Being- sense of belonging concentrating on building staff capacity and providing students a variety of exciting opportunities during class time and extracurricular clubs activities to engage in school
Early qualitative and quantitative data suggests our efforts in a variety of these areas are making a positive impact on our students and staff. The 2023-24 school year will be year one of the next 3 year cycle for the School Development Plan but will continue to build on, or an extension of, existing targets.
I hope the summer provides many opportunities for students to venture outside to play, explore, have fun adventures, and spend quality time with family and friends. I look forward to seeing familiar and new students on August 31st 2023 (first day of school for students) and the opportunities and challenges a new school year brings.
Respectfully,
Glen Steed
Principal
Thorncliffe School