Sunshine Coast School District

Welcome Letter to Parents of Kindergarten Students (2012):

January 23, 2012

Dear Parents of Children Entering Kindergarten:

Welcome to school on the Sunshine Coast!

Your child is about to start a wonderful journey. We believe education is a partnership between home and school and invite you to join us in this exciting adventure.

As parents, you have firsthand knowledge of how your child learns. You have observed your child's constant, active attempts to make sense of the world. You have witnessed the intense concentration of his/her body and brain trying to figure out people and experiences.

You also have experience as your child's first teacher. Throughout your child's infant and pre-school years, you have worked to assist your child to learn in many ways.

Among other things, your child has probably learned to:
•    walk, run, climb, hop, skip, dance and jump;    
•    listen, speak, sing and shout;
•    like himself/herself;    
•    care about and get along with others;
•    play and work in various ways with different materials;     
•    look after many of his/her basic daily needs.

He/She has also learned to:
•    explore and discover;    
•    wonder about the world and the people in it;
•    ask questions; and    
•    think.

Your child is unique in many ways.  No other child in the world said the same first word at the same moment as yours.  No other child learned to walk in exactly the same way or at exactly the same time.  No other child has had identical experiences, thoughts, interests or ideas.  You know your child's strengths and needs better than anyone.

We are confident that your child's schooling experience will continue the learning process started at birth and supported by you for the past few years. We look forward to assisting each child to continue to develop in many ways throughout his or her school experiences.

By combining your knowledge and ours, we can assist your child to become a self confident, life long learner.  Please call your child’s principal if you have any questions about your child’s education.

Sincerely,

Patrick Bocking
Superintendent

Letter to Parents and Guardians regarding Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA)

January 17, 2012

Dear Parents and Guardians,

The Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) is an important opportunity that our schools have each year to assess the reading, writing and numeracy skills of their students in grades 4 and 7.  While the results play no role in providing data for report cards, individual FSA results are shared with parents.  It is a “snapshot” of how each child is performing on a given day. Classroom assessment of learning is the ongoing collection of student achievement throughout the year.

Key points regarding the FSA:

• As for any other mandated program in our schools such as math or literacy instruction, the FSA is to be completed by all students in B.C. Exceptions are rare and would be a family emergency, long term illness, extensive adaptations or other extenuating situations. If these apply, please speak to your child’s principal.  The principal will assess any request based on the above major issues.

• FSA is aligned with the B.C. Performance Standards and is written and marked by B.C. educators.

• FSA is not used by School District No. 46 to rank students or schools on the Sunshine Coast.

• FSA (along with report card and other data) helps schools and districts to focus their efforts to improve student results on the B.C. Curriculum.

• FSA is very similar to regular classroom assessment assignments and is not damaging in any way for students. It is a good opportunity to practice assessment skills.

• The total time taken for all activities, spread over several days, is approximately 4.5 hours. Of this, approximately two hours is spent completing the assessment at computers.

• The FSA is a part of the School Act and its Regulations. It is a part of good assessment of students and will lead to a better understanding of effective instruction and is, therefore, a good use of instructional time.

• Students with special needs are provided with accommodations to match their learning needs as identified on the Individual Education Plan.

Parents and guardian can support the FSA by encouraging their child to do their best and making sure they are well rested and attend school during the assessment period. As well, if you have any questions regarding the FSA or your child’s participation in this assessment, please do not hesitate to contact your school principal.

Please review the attached brochure for further information regarding the Foundation Skills Assessment or go to www.bced.gov.bc.ca/assessment/fsa  

Sincerely,

Patrick Bocking
Superintendent

Patrick Bocking, Superintendent, reading to children at Halfmoon Bay Elementary School.  Click here to access the Superintendent's Blog.

Letter from Superintendent to Parents/Guardians - October 11, 2011 regarding Job Action

School District No. 46 (Sunshine Coast) publishes an Annual Report to the Community in August. Below is the August 2011 message jointly written by past superintendent, Deborah Palmer and incoming superintendent, Patrick Bocking.

As the school year ended on June 30th, the board and superintendent had numerous opportunities to meet in schools across the district and gathered with individual school communities to celebrate our students’ achievements. Graduation from our secondary school programs included our traditional high schools, our alternative secondary school and our apprenticeship program “graduation” in culinary arts and construction framing. It is evident that for a small school district, we provide a variety of paths to success based on individual choice and personal strengths. These successes vary from student to student and are brought to fruition with the ongoing dynamism of our teaching and support staff, and family support networks, both formal and informal.

Like all years prior, this one has provided both opportunities and challenges academically, socially and financially. We do, however, have a number of aspects to be very proud of. Communication to and from the wider community is critical for everyone’s success and our new website is beautiful and smoothly transitions the user from one aspect of the district to the other. The families of schools have begun to gather in groups to share common ideas and challenges and are shifting towards looking at their school populations, not as a specific grouping of five to 12 year olds, but as a continuous population of young people who begin with us through our early learning programs and continue through high school, well into adulthood through programs like community literacy, recreation and sport.

Patrick Bocking, Superintendent, will lead the district’s new senior management team. Past Superintendent, Deborah Palmer, will transition from the district leadership team to the principalship of Gibsons Elementary School. The opportunities Deborah was provided with to lead the district through interesting times in education in our province was enjoyable, and now she looks forward to the daily excitement of learning and instruction.

This year we welcome full day kindergarten into all nine of our elementary schools. This exciting program began in September 2010 with six schools. During the first year of the program we met as educators numerous times to ensure an excellent program was in place for our students. We are all overwhelmingly impressed with the academic, social and emotional development that these young learners gained. As well, we celebrated the opening of the new kindergarten modular space at Cedar Grove Elementary School. For the fall we look forward to the opening of the sixth StrongStart Program which is to be a combination of “Our Town” opening at the Sechelt Learning Centre and a mobile program to outreach into the smaller communities of Langdale, Davis Bay, the Sechelt Indian Band lands, Sechelt Learning Centre and Egmont. At the high school level we continue to support our students as they choose programs that best meet their future goals, whether they be in the workplace, college or university.

Education is a very special part of our community. Those of us who are privileged to work with young people every day feel energized and excited by the potential that we see in our students as they learn and grow. Those of us who work in a support role work very hard to ensure that our students and staff are well organized and that our students and staff work and learn in safe, clean and comfortable schools. We have an excellent team of professionals who strive, together every day, for our students’ success.

Welcome back to another year of learning!