Our Program
William Roper Hull School has about 130 students, Grades 1 to 12. Students are placed in classrooms based on their academic and treatment needs. Each classroom has one teacher and at least two educational child and youth care workers. We also have “satellite” classrooms in three community schools. We call these STAR classrooms (Student Transition And Reintegration). Some students will transition to these classes.
Our goal is to make school interesting and consistent. We will encourage and support you as you learn new skills. When we see inappropriate behaviour, staff will work with you to understand the reasons for the behaviour and how to manage the situation better in the future.
The staff at William Roper Hull School are trained to help students in the best way possible. Below are some of the approaches we use:
- ARC
Is a way of understanding how children learn. It stands for Attachment, Self-Regulation and Competency. Through ARC we understand that students need to feel safe and trust the adults in their life in order to feel healthy and happy. We will try our best to develop a good relationship with you as well as help you to learn. - NMT
Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics. This approach helps staff understand about typical brain development and how some things can change how children’s brain grow and learn. With this understanding, our staff help students learn about themselves, how to get along with others, and strategies to re-focus and regulate. - Circle of Courage
Our staff are also trained in the Circle of Courage. You will hear words like generosity, mastery, independence and belonging throughout your school day. (see further below)
Individual Program Plans (IPP’s) & Individual Crisis Management Plan (ICMP’s)
All students attending Hull School have an Individual Program Plan (IPP). When students first come to the school there is a six-week assessment. During this time, the students and the classroom staff develop an IPP. Each IPP is unique and covers the goals the students are working toward at school, how students can best be supported by the staff, and how long it may take for them to reach their goals. Any special supports or services will be noted in the IPP.
At the end of the six-week assessment, each IPP is reviewed with the student, their parents/caregivers, and other people who are involved in the student’s life. After this first review, a meeting is held every three months to look over the IPP goals and discuss the student’s progress.
During the first six weeks, the classroom staff and school transition counsellor will also be working with each student to create an Individual Crisis Management Plan (ICMP). This document is designed to help the classroom staff get to know the students better and learn how best to support them. The ICMP is used to identify individual student triggers, escalation, outburst and recovery stages including the strategies that staff can use to help the student through the phases. The ICMP will include behaviours we might see if students are getting frustrated and what strategies we can use to help them regulate and regain a sense of calm and safety so that they can continue their day engaged in learning and other activities.
Twice a year, teachers prepare a progress report which focuses largely on academic work..
Literacy
Our school helps all students develop their reading and writing skills through various programs:
- NATURE: (Need At least Twenty minutes Uninterrupted Reading Everyday). Every day your whole class, including staff, read silently for 20 minutes. You choose what you read. The whole school reads during this special reading time.
- The Literacy teacher provides both individual and small group instructions for some students who need help in improving reading and writing skills. The Kaplan Spell Read program is one way students learn to improve reading. Another way is by spending time reading with the literacy teacher.
Circle of Courage
Circle of Courage, which originates from Indigenous parenting practices, has been the underlying philosophy at William Roper Hull School for many years. The Circle of Courage describes four universal growth needs of all children: Belonging, Mastery, Independence, and Generosity. A medicine wheel helps to illustrate the four quadrants that make a whole circle. Thus, our primary focus is to establish a healthy sense of Belonging for all of our students, offer them opportunities to achieve Mastery, support their Independence, and allow them to give back to their community through acts of Generosity. Visit the Circle of Courage website for more information.
The Circle of Courage is used to develop self-awareness and empathy in students. This philosophy centers on the belief that a healthy "whole" person has developed an appropriate balance between four key personal and interpersonal factors:
- sense of belonging,
- sense of mastery,
- sense of generosity,
- sense of independence.
Teaching around the Circle of Courage is used extensively to encourage students to examine their own actions and the actions of others. Students are asked to look critically beyond an immediate event to explore the relationship between belonging, mastery, generosity, and independence, and an individual^s actions. Underlying issues that may result in inappropriate behaviors are examined as reactions to an imbalance or a lack in one of the necessary factors.
Trauma Informed Practice
In 2010, we became an active part of the Trauma Sensitive School Initiative with CBE.
We have adopted a trauma-informed framework: Attachment, Self-regulation and Competency (ARC).
We are aware that many of our students may have been exposed to traumatic experiences and/or have had broken relationships that impact who they are today. The ARC theory emphasizes the necessity of first building positive relationships in order to develop more complex competencies such as self-regulation, social skills, problem solving, insight, etc. More information can be found at: www.traumacenter.org
Hull Agency has also partnered with the ChildTrauma Academy which promotes NMT (Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics) under the direction of Dr. Bruce Perry. Our education and training in NMT has offered our program a developmentally-informed, and trauma-sensitive lens that increases our understanding of and empathy toward our students. For more information go to www.childtrauma.org.
