Human and Social Development

Our students will study personal and human social skills and as they relate to students' identity in the world - both as individuals and as members of their community. We are learning that personal and human social skills encompass the abilities students needs to thrive as individuals, to understand and care about themselves and others, and to find and achieve their purposes in the world.

Goals

• Improve student sense of well-being. ​

Strategy/Goals

Continue to focus on SEL strategies including soft starts, building connections and relationships, and providing safe spaces for our staff and students.

Continued work around developing cultural identity and building pride around each of our individual strengths and stories.

Activities

Most classes are doing soft starts (counsellor also presented about them at a staff meeting last year), as well as mindfulness practices. Students who need it have built in break times, are allowed to take walking breaks, have fidgets, etc to provide for brain breaks. As a school we continue to focus on SEL strategies including soft starts, building connections and relationships, and providing safe spaces for our staff and students.

SEL circuit - Last year we received a grant to develop an SEL circuit that we will continue to support and build upon this year. This circuit will be built in to some student’s schedules and also used as needed to help regulate students through a series of big body movements, sensory activities and choice activities.

There is a real focus in our building on making connections, building strategies for students to find success and work through worries, developing relationships and checking in with students in order to build them up and support their needs.

We also employed a variety of strategies such as: Flip Your Lid activities, Cosmic Kids Yoga, SEL stories and discussions, CALM Kit lessons, Check ins, etc.

Metis Mitten Project – last December our community project involved the entire school, K-5, based off of the book Metis Christmas Mittens by Leah Marie Dorion. Our school used some of our ‘No-Uni Day’ funds to purchase 100 pairs of warm winter mittens. Some students coloured motivational cards, others pinned wooden bead hearts onto them and still other groups packaged them all together into care packages that were then donated, along with $500 donated from our community, to Cyrus Centre. Not only did this project provide warm mittens to at-risk youth in our community, but it was a great chance for us all to work together to help others in need.

Bhangra Dancers – we were part of the Traditional School team that had ATS students perform in our Vaisakhi assembly.

We are working on building connections between Traditional Schools as part of our work, as well.