Leadership Capacity

We will be intentional about supporting the development of formal and informal leadership. We will ensure the direction we are headed is understood and equip staff at all levels with knowledge, skills, and efficacy to take action to improve our system and success for students. Some examples of the work of our plan are:

• Dedicated time to meet with Principals and Vice-Principals
• Broadening understanding of school leadership
• Connecting moral imperative and collective responsibility
• Develop and foster initiative and provide project opportunities
• Explicitly connect student outcomes and school leadership
• Grow District-wide focus versus school silos
• Yearlong Leadership Series for all interested Principals, Vice-Principals, and Teachers
• Learning Series to enhance instructional leadership capacity

Keep scrolling to see how our district has been building leadership capacity this year!

Taking Youth to the BCSSA "Their Voices Lead Us: System Transformation Through Student Agency" Conference 

Skyline Alternate School

Two Skyline students attended the BCSSA "Their Voices Lead Us: Transformation Through Student Agency" conference in Vancouver last week.   The youth were engaged and interactive with the participants at the conference.  It was exciting to listen to the student's feedback and perspective as the conversation revolved around student voice and agency at school. When the youth were asked in their school experience how much agency did they feel they had at school (between 1-10)  The table was mostly between 1-3  and both youth responded with a 6 and an 8.  This sparked interesting conversation with all members around the table.   These are our future leaders.  

Growing Together with Skyline Staff

Skyline Alternate School

Skyline Staff attended VTRA Training in February and March.  The staff are growing together to gain knowledge, skill and efficacy to take action at Skyline to improve ourselves and our students. 

Learning Together with Dylan

Nesika Elementary

The staff leadership team from Nesika School came together with Dylan Wiliam at the SD27 Leadership series. We are curious: What can we do to change our habits to bring forward the best of what we have to offer - the best of teacher expertise? Thank you for learning to lead together.

Leading for Greater Attendance

Forest Grove Elementary

Principal Ty Litton shared with the Education Committee how his school is intentionally creating the conditions for greater student attendance. Focus on relationships with students and parents, student engagement in learning in the classroom, outdoors, and with community, student recognition, wrap around supports for individual students with attendance challenges, and attention to hand washing and hygiene, will all contribute to students being present at school and in their learning. 

Professional Development in SD27

Columneetza Jr. Secondary

Columneetza's Nara Riplinger presented to the School Board about Professional Development opportunities available in the district.  She has been instrumental in planning, organizing, and co-facilitating professional development events over the last few years.  Pro-D is for teachers to hone their skills, improve practice and stay current with changes related to teaching and learning. Nara is a Math & Science teacher at the middle school and also the Cariboo Chilcotin Teacher's Association Professional Development Chair. Thanks for all of your work, Nara!

Printing Practice Makes Perfect

SD27 Student Support Services

Our Occupational Therapist Carol- Anne King offered 2 workshops on the Oct 20 Professional Development Day to help teachers to start things off right with students printing. The morning session - Get Ready to Print: Kindergarten - had a focus on fine motor and gross motor development where teachers explored strategies to develop pre-printing readiness. In the afternoon, Carol-Anne led a workshop - Teaching Printing: A Developmental Approach - that drew on a cognitive approach to printing to identify strategies to support all students who are learning to print, especially those who are struggling. All the strategies explored can be used in conjunction with formal printing programs or alongside teacher-created programs.

Connecting Leaders

100 Mile Elementary

This October, a group of our principals attended Connecting Leaders with other principals from across the province to better understand the issues that are front and center and share ideas on how to address them. A common theme for many workshops presented was a focus on Indigenous Education. Being that this is one of our core Focus Areas for the district, this was another valuable opportunity to continue our learning.

We had a common presentation in the morning and then headed into smaller groups to take part in workshops that suited our individual needs and interests. A few of the workshops attended were “Organizational Systems”, “Wayi Wah! Leading for Anti-Racism Education and Equity for Indigenous Learners”, “Leading for Impact”, “Colonialism in Education”, and “Student Agency: Turning Challenges into Opportunities.” Common themes and common language help us strengthen our focus.

Inclusion Awareness

Learning for District Leaders

At our November Principal and Vice-Principal Meeting, we have the Rick Hansen Foundation present to the group on what the organization can offer schools in terms of programming and professional development for staff.  It was a great learning opportunity for Principals and Vice-Principal, and we are hoping they will take the information back to staff as well.  We have ordered books for all schools that will be shared as a resource.  It is our goal to have our schools become part of the Rich Hansen Foundation.  There are lots of great resources on the website for schools around inclusion.

Leadership Group Meets with Dylan Wiliam 

At the leadership dinner meeting this month, Dylan Wiliam encouraged our colleagues and critical friends to slow down, examine our practice, and take the time to ‘sharpen the saw’. It’s worth it! We can improve our practice and student achievement. 

The Impact of Professional Development in SD27

Columneetza's Nara Riplinger presented to the School Board about Professional Development opportunities available in the district. She has been instrumental in planning, organizing, and co-facilitating professional development events over the last few years.  Pro-D is for teachers to hone their skills, improve practice, and stay current with changes related to teaching and learning.  Nara is a Math and science teacher at the middle school and the Cariboo Chilcotin Teacher's Association Professional Development Chair. 

Thanks for all your work, Nara!

PVP Leading for Better Assessment

District Pro-D

SD 27 Principals and Vice-principals spent a day together in early October reflecting on current student achievement data and our assessment tools. They revisited and made decisions about our annual plan for district assessments. The team co-developed an upcoming day for interested teachers to learn and prepare for a round of Fall assessments that will be a good learning experience for students and provide useful information teachers can use to guide classroom instruction. There was a high degree of professional ownership by our lead learners to enhance assessment for learning in the Cariboo-Chilcotin School District. 

Leading Change for Improved Attendance

District-wide

Cariboo-Chilcotin School District has an intense focus on improving student attendance this school year. We intend to enhance success in a number of areas including literacy, numeracy, and Indigenous learning and culture, but will need students attending regularly to be able to make that happen. The PVP team is collaborating across schools to share ideas and effective practices. The school plan they are developing recognizes the complexity of the attendance issue and the many reasons students miss school, and includes strategies for all (universal), particular groups of students (targeted), and individual students. A key resource is the FNESC toolkit for raising the attendance of First Nations students. 

Case study: Reading Assessment at Columneetza

Columneetza Elementary

Host Principal Hattie Darney leads learning showing a workshop of teachers, principals, and district staff on how she and her staff are administering DART reading assessment to improve outcomes for all students. Their priorities on the most important questions, modeling the co-teaching, and collaboratively anchoring and scoring to move learning forward.

Building Capacity for Supervision of Field Trips

District Pro-D

13 Cariboo-Chilcotin PVP spent the October Non-Instructional Day (NID) completing the Outdoor Council of Canada Field Leader Supervisor Course to enhance oversight, mentorship, and approval of outdoor activities and field trips. As we strive to have all students in SD27 learning on the land on a regular basis, we are growing our leadership in this area for rich experiences balancing risk and safety. We will expand to include all PVP and create an ongoing community of practice.

SD27 Leadership Series

District Pro-D

SD27 staff gathered for their first dinner of the leadership series on the evening of Oct. 16th. This group continues to grow as staff connect to the benefits of learning, sharing, and laughing together.

Successful Staff Recruitment

Finance Department

The gains we made as a finance group this year were driven by our ability to become almost fully staffed in the finance department.  Once we achieved full staffing, we could better support the district as a district finance department.

We increased our training and support of the schools with leadership on best practices at the school level for the Principals and support staff at the schools.