PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

Hello Maple Grove.  It’s nice to be back at work.  I’ve missed all the staff, students and parents for the past three weeks.  Thursday was my first day back and there was lots to catch up on.  I want to acknowledge the office staff for picking up lots of pieces and helping to ensure the school ran smoothly.  Thank you Ms. Peters and Ms. Lincoln.
I also want to extend my appreciation to our new Vice Principal, Ms. Smith.  Ms. Smith did an amazing job running the school and maintained her usual teaching load to boot.  She worked late into the evening and often on weekends!  Thank you Ms. Smith for being so dedicated and really stepping up to take on the leadership role.
I would also like to thank the staff who always pick up extra bits and pieces, often not even saying a word, and just running with it.
Finally, I would like to thank all the students and parents who volunteer at the school.  You bring so many unique and wonderful skill sets to our community.  The variety is awesome and only adds to make our school fantastic!  Bravo Everyone!

Reporting:

Throughout British Columbia, all school districts are working on revising and changing the way they assess, report and communicate student learning.  Vancouver is no different.  In the November 3 blog I wrote about some of the changes and gave examples of what the new report card (Report Card Day is January 26th) would look like.

Maple Grove School is currently part of a pilot project with 63 other schools in Vancouver in which we are looking at a revised process of communicating student learning as it relates to the new curriculum.  The district is planning on changing and implementing its reporting process as of September, 2018, and Maple Grove wants to position itself so that we are in a good place to be up to speed with how our province and district want reporting to take place.  Having said that, there are a few teachers who have opted to continue with a traditional report card for this last year.  Those reports will be sent out in December.

We appreciate your support and patience while the school works through this re-designed reporting process.  We are revising how we communicate student learning and are seeking a reasonable format to use.

Essentially, you will notice two significant differences:

1. Our conventional reporting process involved three formal report cards and two informal reports .  This will switch to two formal reports and three informal ways of connecting over student learning .
2. The other significant difference you will notice is that in conventional report cards we gave out letter grades and work habit classifications.  As part of the pilot, the new communicating student learning report will not have letter grades (these are available upon request from the parent). The new reports will continue with a classification for student work habits and achievement.

It is important to recognize that with a new/ re-designed provincial curriculum that is focused on 21st-century teaching and learning, we truly needed to update and upgrade our conventional reporting process and format.  We have been informed that our district will be mandating a new format in September, 2018, so many of our staff see advantages for working through the pilot this year to become familiar and acquainted with the new communicating student learning formats.  Thank you for your understanding.