By Greg Nikkel
School improvement plans have been developed for the five schools in the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division, and the progress towards improvements will be shared on a division-wide website that will have access controlled by the division administration.
The website will include ongoing data on each school and each classroom, including a year-end summary on how the schools are doing in each area, from engagement in school activities to academic and community events and activities.
In a presentation to the board of trustees at their monthly meeting on Wednesday, education technician Lynn Colquhoun said this is a “living improvement plan” that is the same for all of the schools, and having it all laid out on the website “is going to allow us to have everything in one place. I think it’s going to be very valuable for us.”
Comments from St. Mary’s School principal David Murphy were provided as examples of what their school is doing to enact this plan.
“Some people think we spend a lot of time and energy celebrating academics, but it’s a lot more than that. We celebrate a lot of accomplishments, spiritually, academically and socially,” he said, noting in the school there are students “who struggle to get along with each other”, and they are working to address this aspect of school life.
Sports at St. Mary’s is a very active part of the school, he said. “We do well to compete in the school as well as outside the school.”
Academically, many of the students above 80 per cent in reading fluency and math, and “certain classes really excelled, but certain classes we need to do work with to go in a better direction.”
All of this is laid out on the website, which parents and SCC members can also view, as they are for each of the other schools, and thus the improvement of the school’s students can be tracked throughout the year, said Colquhoun.
“In the past we’ve celebrated things in June. With this website, we can celebrate in real time, a process we can see all year long. They can use with the SCC and with parents. We can support our principals. Instead of reflecting at the end of the year, it becomes a year-long process,” Superintendent Chad Fingler added.
Education director Gwen Keith noted this system is used by larger school divisions with 40-plus schools, so for their division with five schools it can be even more efficient for their use in tracking improvements in the schools.
Asked if there are any security issues having this data on schools available on a website, Colquhoun said the access to the website can be controlled by the administration. “I can assure you, we can always be better. It’s on the radar for every school division,” said Keith, adding about three-quarters of what is on the website can be “open and transparent” for the public to see, and the remainder is available only by the secure part of the website with the proper log-in codes.
