School Goals

At Beach Grove Elementary we have focussed on two primary goals over this past year: improving literacy through targeted learning profiles and supporting social-emotional well-being by balancing academic achievement with “Heart and Mind” principles.
Both these goals link with the Delta school district’s mission: “To inspire and nurture thriving future ready learners” and the Delta school district Vision 2030 where, “well-being and mental health flourish” and “high expectations exist for every learner”.  
  • Goal 1: Literacy Advancement
  • Inquiry:If we create structured reading practice across all subject areas, will our students become more independent at navigating text?
  • The school participated in an assessment pilot program in collaboration with district coordinators to analyze data and build learning profiles, providing targeted support where needed. Our students in grades 1-3 participated three times a week in “Skills Camp”; fun engaging lessons and instruction grounded in evidence-based reading practices that helped students practice targeted skills. Our hope is to see students develop the skills they didn’t have and eventually have fewer students in the intermediate grades struggling with reading. From our data in year one, we have seen promising success with this initiative and will continue in the next school year, 2026-2027.

Connection to Vision 2030 and Delta school district strategic plan (2025-2028)

Our literacy goal aligns with the Delta school district’s Strategic Plan (2025-2028), “students can use and apply their literacy (and numeracy) skills to meaningful and increasingly challenging learning experiences” and “develop and support collection and usage of new reading proficiency measures that align with evidence-based reading practices”.

  • Goal 2: Social Emotional Well-Being
  • Inquiry:
  • If we work on targeted social emotional learning strategies (Self-awareness, Self-management, Social awareness, Relationship skills, Responsible decision making) will students be able to realize their own potential and be able to access tools/strategies when challenges arise?
  •  Using “Ensouling Our Schools” by Jennifer Katz, staff foster flourishing communities. They promote the “Heart-Mind” connection—cultivating qualities like being “secure and calm”, “getting along with others”, and “solving problems peacefully”. We wanted to focus on the balance of self-actualization and happiness, with the need for resiliency and the ability to interact with others.

Connection to Vision 2030 and Delta school district strategic plan (2025-2028)

Our social emotional well-being goal aligns with the Delta school district’s Strategic Plan (2025-2028) under its guiding principle of “well-being and connectedness”. “..the well-being of staff has a direct impact on student well being, which is directly correlated to their learning (E. Oberle, K. Schonert-Reichl, 2016). As such, we will prioritize social, emotional and physical well-being and a sense of belonging for all students and staff, with a particular focus on mental wellness.” Through school wide assemblies teaching about the 5 qualities of the heart and mind, along with school-wide use of “gotchas” ,acknowledging students demonstrating any of the 5 qualities, we have seen an increase in “gotchas” going into the draw box each week, as well as students and staff showing a greater understanding and use of a common language to describe these heart-mind qualities. As well, students are engaging in “service learning”, problem-solving in more pro-social ways, and persevering through challenges.

Beach Grove staff understand the importance of being on the land, learning from it, and the value this has had on our students’, and staff’s, well-being.  We live in a beautiful location by the beach, with forests and wetlands. We know the importance of our students having a deep connection to the land so they can continue to be stewards of this place and learn from it.

As we move into our new school year, 2026-2027, we will be exploring deeper the evidence-based research, showing the benefits of outdoor learning and learning with the land, on the mental health and well-being for both students and staff.

In our last two years, we have had a school-wide book, (Be a Good Ancestor by Leona Prince and Walking Together by Elder Albert D. Marshall and Louise Zimanyi) to help kickstart our focus on place and our connection to it. We will have a new book to launch our new year in 2026-27. Stay tuned!

 

January 2025 Update-What Are We Learning?

Goal 1: Reading

We see the need for more targeted reading instruction and word work to help students improve their literacy skills throughout all the grades. By working collaboratively with our Coordinator of Inquiry (COI) and our Learning Support Team, teachers can see data that indicates the skill level of their students and can focus on individual student need with instruction tailored to the needs of the students in the classroom. This knowledge helps our learning support team work with the staff and students to have a targeted focus for the students at the school.

Goal 2: Social Emotional Well-Being

The World Health Organization defines mental health as ” a state of well-being emerging from the realization of individual potential, ability to cope with normal life stressors, working productively and contributing to the community.” We want to focus on the balance of self-actualization and happiness, with the need for resiliency and the ability to interact with others. (Ensouling Our Schools, Jennifer Katz and Richard Lamoureaux)

How Is it Going?

Goal 1: Reading 

At Beach Grove, we are involved in an assessment pilot working with Literacy coordinators from the district. Staff are working together to analyze the data. Learning profiles are created to help us understand targeted areas for support and strategies that may be helpful.

Goal 2: Social Emotional Well-Being

  • Use of the book, Ensouling our Schools by Jennifer Katz and Richard Lamoureux as a resource for learning with staff during staff meetings and professional learning days  (ie. How to Build Flourishing Learning communities Chapter 6, Addressing Mental Health Needs with All Students Chapter 7)
  • Introduced the Heart-Mind connection during a school wide assembly

  • Heart-Mind well-being refers to the balance between educating the mind and educating the heart. While there is a great focus in our society on academic achievement, research has demonstrated the positive impacts of developing our hearts – the way we “feel” and “relate to one another”. In fact, heart and mind learning are interconnected. Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education. The 5 qualities: Secure and Calm, Gets Along with Others, Alert and Engaged, Compassionate and Kind, Solves Problems Peacefully

 

Where to next?

Home and School Connection

Check out the Weekly HOWL (posted under newsletters)

2025 Beach Grove Coyote Howl newsletter-January 6-10

Beach Grove Coyote Howl newsletter January 13-17 2025.

Beach Grove Coyote Howl newsletter January 20-24

Beach Grove Coyote Howl newsletter-January 27-31 2025

Fall 2025 Update-Inquiry Question (Literacy focus) What Are We Learning?

Inquiry Question #1 (Literacy focus):

If we create structured reading practice across all subject areas, will our students become more independent at navigating text?

What led us to choose this focus?

SCANNING:

Students need more practice reading (observations and data from our Learning Support team and classroom teachers)

Assessment pilot with District Coordinators where teachers collected and analyzed specific data through the year 2024-25

HUNCH: We need to create time for consistent, structured targeted reading skill practice

How’s it going?

Our Coordinator of Inquiry goal is aligned with the reading goal; a primary focus this year was creating what we call, “Skills Camp” for our primary students.

Students gather three times a week for 30 minutes working on targeted skills that were identified in our data collection samples.

Our LST teachers, Librarian as well as classroom teachers each take a mixed age grouping and work on targeted skill identified for that specific group.

Sharing with parents our inquiry goal and the progress…

-on the school website

-In the weekly school newsletter, The Coyote HOWL

-at monthly PAC meetings

What evidence are we tracking and what are the results?

We will be starting assessments at the end of the month of October to help inform next groupings; skills needed in next groups

What new learning is happening for staff?

Time is allotted to collaborate and plan (Professional Learning days, “Lunch & Learns”, Collaborationtime)

Where to Next?

Where to next?

We need to look at how we will transition current groupings to new groupings from the assessments and identified skills

Based on our findings, what adjustments are we making and what impact are we hoping to observe?

We hope to see students develop the skills they didn’t have. We hope to eventually have fewer students in the intermediate grades struggling with reading.

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