Blog Posts

Over the last six months, our secondary schools have launched B.C.’s first-ever Student Community of Practice for Equity (SCOPE). Fifty-two grade eleven students, with teachers and school administration, are exploring a fundamental inquiry: What does it look like to center student voice and leadership through ongoing cycles of listening, uncovering, reimagining and, ultimately, moving forward with action?

Our secondary schools in the Abbotsford School District are in the initial stages of reimagining how high school should look and feel. Robert Bateman Secondary School has been working through a process with two student groups. Six grade twelve students started our student voice work last spring.  We have a second group of six grade eleven students working on this project this year, with teaching staff joining.

Student voice is an initiative started at Abbotsford Senior Secondary in 2021. Student Voice hosts students from all different backgrounds that encompass the school’s demographics. These students meet every Thursday to delve into school and community-based topics that they identify. Previous topics have included rewriting the school dress code, organizing a better way for grade 9 orientation, and Indigenizing school announcements.  

Student success is a focus of the Abbotsford School District. The desire for student success permeates through all levels, from senior management to building administrators, classroom and support teachers, education assistants, and students. At Abbotsford Traditional School (ATS), we have a reputation for preparing our students for the expectations and rigours of university–academic student success. This is one kind of student success. Another kind of student success is accomplishing academic achievement in parallel to student well-being.

The teaching and support staff at Rick Hansen are actively pursuing their commitment to student achievement and understand that getting a pulse on the mindset of the current teaching climate is an essential factor in this pursuit. As every teacher in our school community is trained in Inquiry-Based Learning, they know that IBL is the best vehicle to not only hear from as many of their colleagues as possible but also to create in-house ideas, strategies, and solutions for everyone can buy into.

Two months into our new school year, we are well underway in intentionally making Yale a more equitable, culturally inclusive, and responsive school through the lens of equity, anti-bias, and anti-racism. As we listen to our students, one thing that they keep telling us is that they value positive relationships with Yale staff. Our students want to belong to a school community where staff know their students, and where every person’s individuality is acknowledged and respected.

When asked to reflect on a classroom, most of us will envision rows of desks facing a blackboard where a teacher stands. For decades, this image represents the learning space for millions of students and yet excludes how we learn naturally and daily in non-school environments. True knowing and understanding mean being able to transfer knowledge from one setting to another.

In May this year, six Grade 11 WJ Mouat students participated in a Mental Health Forum hosted by the Abbotsford School District. They were tasked with reviewing the YDI (Youth Development Index) survey results for WJ Mouat and to come up with an actionable plan to help improve student well-being and mental health at their school.

Each year in second semester Abbotsford Senior Secondary teacher Nikita Griffioen and her Art Activism students combine their passions for making art and for making the world a better place. Art Activism is a truly collaborative course - the students decide in collaboration with each other and with Ms. Griffioen what particular social issue to explore deeply, develop a collaborative relationship with a community partner, then engage their peers and their community through an art show chronicling their discoveries at the Reach Gallery.

Wrestling

Our one-man team of Gurjot qualified for the BC Championships this week at the Pacific Coliseum on February 24 to March 1. Gurjot has had a great season so far finishing first in several tournaments. He won his weight class at the EVAA Championships. He has a great opportunity to win a medal at the championships.