876 thoughts later: Thank you for your feedback!
Thank you for joining the conversation to help chart a course for our school
district for the next five years. Our online forum is now over. We will be
sharing our findings with you soon!
Be a Part of it: Strategic Plan 2019-2024
May 1, 2019 – We launched an online forum and a series of community dialogue sessions that took place throughout the month of April – and invited you to help us chart a course for our future.
Thanks to your participation in our online forum, we have a grand total of 876 thoughts from 636 participants: students (28%), parents (46%), staff (23%) and community members (2%).
Our Thoughtexchange forum was a place where you could not only voice your ideas, but also see the ideas of others – and highlight those thoughts that mattered most to you. You provided 24,510 ratings.
We are able to segregate parent thoughts, student thoughts and staff thoughts, as well as to see what matters for everyone.
Here’s some of what we found. We will be analyzing the data, identifying themes, and sharing our findings with you soon.
Top thoughts: “We are unique. Sometimes we can be leaders”
Students
One student wants to study science more and to be a ‘space studyer.’
Another called for fewer tests and more focus on ‘making sure we understand what we are doing.’ That thought was ranked #3 of all 251 student thoughts.
In fact, the call for deeper understanding in student learning struck a chord for parents, staff and community too. Among all participants, the thought ranked #3 among the total of all thoughts combined.
Parents
For parents, support for music, the arts and outdoor education programs was the #1-ranked thought.
Parents also want to see consistent forms of communication about student learning between teachers and parents. That thought ranked #3 of 390 parent and community member thoughts.
Staff
As for staff, the #1-ranked thought of 194 was the call to use the expertise in the District. “We are unique in NW. Sometimes we can be leaders.”
We now have your guidance on ideas like:
- flexible schedules
- more learner-centred options
- more resources, and more collaboration opportunities for teachers
- more library resources with books AND technology, and
- another 871 thoughts to go!
“We’re setting key directions that will anchor us as we address a changing educational landscape in a rapidly growing community,” says Superintendent Karim Hachlaf.
We value your ideas…
The New Westminster Schools Board of Education values your ideas as we develop our five-year Strategic Plan. Our 12-day online forum and ongoing consultation process will help us identify key directions for the next five years and help inspire student learning to 2024.
In our online consultations with our learning community, we asked: What do you want to see more of – and less of – in our school district? What would you like to see done differently?
Our conversation with you was guided by these overarching questions:
- How can we anchor our work on a daily basis in our mission to ensure each student in our schools is learning in a safe, engaging and inclusive environment?
- How can see our values in action, no matter where we look: Inclusion, Innovation, Integrity, Collaboration, Engagement, and Equity?
- How can we make our vision a reality, so that New Westminster Schools is indeed a place where students love to learn?
“We are looking at setting key directions that will anchor us as we address a changing educational landscape in a rapidly growing community,” said New Westminster Schools Superintendent, Karim Hachlaf.
That includes looking at such issues as long-range planning for future schools and facilities, addressing how technology supports teaching and learning, supporting personalized learning that engages all of our diverse learners, and nurturing our community partnerships.
The process of setting up interviews, creating engagement teams, and holding community dialogue sessions and surveys is helping us get clear about the aspirations of our students, parents, staff and community; get focused on the directions we will choose to follow, and get moving with concrete objectives that will lead to results.
Our Five-Year Strategic Plan process was launched in conjunction with our budget discussions for allocating our 2019-2020 budget resources this spring in support of student learning.
Student representatives from our middle schools and high school gathered in spring for the district’s first ever student symposium. They shared their ideas on what is most important for student learning – part of an in-depth Budget process that is unfolding along with our newly launched Five-Year Strategic Plan discussion.