It’s Official! New Westminster Schools is a place where students love to learn…
First day of school in September for a kindergarten student at New Westminster Schools. Our hope: that students will leave Grade 12 as filled with curiosity as they were when they started kindergarten..
Renewing our mission, vision and values…
July 2018 – We started 2018 with a vision of New Westminster Schools as a place where students love to learn – and the evidence is everywhere that we are well on our way.
After 18 months of careful consideration weighing the meaning of words and their implication for the education of all students, Board of Education trustees, with the help of the public, established a new Vision, Mission and set of Values for the district.
These will guide and inspire us into the future.
Charting a course in a time of change…
In addressing the fundamental purpose of school, trustees felt a vision that was both an aspiration and realistic would be captured in the statement:
- New Westminster Schools is a place where students love to learn.
The district’s newly-forged Mission Statement is:
- to enable each student to learn in a safe, engaging and inclusive environment.
Renewing our Vision and Mission will drive strategic directions and inspire learning, teaching and support in all aspects of the educational journey.
Our Values…
Through it all, we’re guided by these six values:
- Collaboration: Purposeful, cooperative relationships to achieve shared goals and consider each other in our decisions and actions
- Engagement: Meaningful, purposeful, and relevant learning
- Equity: Fair treatment and the removal of barriers to learning, achievement, and the pursuit of excellence for all
- Inclusion: Learning where all people are welcomed, respected, and supported
- Innovation: Curiosity, inquiry and creativity
- Integrity: Ethical, principled and honest in our words and actions
A long and powerful conversation…
“This has been a long and I believe a powerful conversation,” former Superintendent Pat Duncan said as he helped guide trustees through the visioning process, which was finalized at the end of the 2017-2018 school year.
“A strategic direction for the district depends on our vision, mission and values.”
Value statements provide clarity that help guide the individual work of each member of the New Westminster school district.
That means, for every value identified, “it should be possible to point to many examples from all corners of the district of that value in action. Do you see this value embedded every day in the work we do?” Duncan asked.
Trustee discussions on key values such as equity touched on issues of systemic barriers to opportunities for all students to be successful in their education – and how the board can ensure these barriers can be overcome.
As former trustee Michael Ewen noted, values such as collaboration can also be made visible not only in the education of children – but in the work trustees themselves undertake.
“Collaborative decision-making requires lots of input; lots of discussion. It requires empathy for other people’s opinions. And it’s critical to making good, lasting decisions.”
The results can help set the district on the right path for the coming years.
All children are welcome and safe at New Westminster Schools: The New Westminster Board of Education passed a Sanctuary Schools Policy in the spring of 2017…