Well-Being + Equity
SSRCE supports the growth of each student's heart (emotional well-being),
spirit (relational well-being), mind (cognitive well-being), and body (physical well-being).
Follow the link to access the grounding documents guiding our SSRCE Well-Being initiatives.
Enhancing well-being for students and our school community is grounded in equity and positive relationships. Increase the intentionality and impact of decision making using student evidence.
SENSE-MAKING
Identify theme(s)/ area of focus
Inform decision-making by engaging students
SETTING GOALS + TAKING ACTION
Identify a Goal
Identify Barriers
Plan Intentional Actions
REFLECTION + ASSESSMENT
Monitor Progress
Align and Adjust
Sense-Making
Engage your students, staff, and community
Identify theme(s)/an area of focus for your well-being work
Themes are aligned with Regional Student Success Goals & the Student Success Survey
Inform decision-making around specific areas of focus & actions by engaging students
Well-Being initiatives impact individual students, school culture and the school environment. We encourage you to consider multiple forms of data when determining your school's Well-Being SSP goals &/or a direction for other well-being initiatives.
Our Student Success Survey is the largest quantitative data set. To ensure we understand the context behind these numbers, we dig deeper to hear our students’ voices. Sometimes it takes a good conversation to truly understand what the numbers mean.
We encourage you to use data from the Student Success Survey & conversations with staff to identify the theme for your well-being work and/or your SSP goal.
The Notice/Wonder Protocol or the CASEL Data Reflection Protocol can support a purposeful review of data.
Align your theme with the SSRCE Regional Student Success Goals and the Student Success Survey.
Please see Setting Goals + Taking Action (below)for themes that mirror the Student Success Survey categories.
The data from the Student Success Survey helps inform the questions you ask students when seeking context for numerical data. Some possible ways to engage students are interviews, focus groups, or micro-surveys.
Engaging students to understand the issues deeply & respond can be the first cycle of your well-being CLT or SSP work.
What is the need + purpose?
In SSRCE, we envision Well-Being through the gift of multiple perspectives (Etuaptumumk/Two-Eyed Seeing).
In creating well-being goals, engagement of the school community is key. Engagement of multiple perspectives allows school teams to identify the most effective opportunities for positive impact and enhance buy-in from students, staff, and the community.
Student and community voice is key. To find out more, click here.
Well-Being goals in our Student Success Plans (SSP) are an opportunity to affect change in both student well-being and in the well-being of the school community. This positively impacts school culture and the school environment.
Enhanced student well-being will positively impact student achievement.
What are the guiding principles?
Well-being is an interconnective flow of balance amongst the four aspects of humanness: heart, mind, body, and spirit.
Well-being is nurtured and nourished through wholistic experiences which grow understandings of: Who am I? Where do I come from? What is my purpose?
There are many different ways to understand well-being. SSRCE encourages and celebrates multiple perspectives.
Who do we engage?
Your well-being work is informed by the students and staff that are affected most.
When engaging students and staff, ensure that you include folks with diverse perspectives and understandings of well-being and consider accessibility needs.
Through engaging traditionally marginalized voices at your school, you will clarify how issues of student equity and well-being are manifesting in your school; you will enrich ideas; and you will increase the impact of your actions.
It also best to engage those who will be most involved in making the well-being work goal happen. For example, if your well-being work relates to Physical Activity, engage your Phys Ed Teachers, and BAP facilitators, if it relates to Eating at School, engage your food service workers, if it relates to Relationships at School engage school counsellors, school psychologists, Schools Plus, SEL Consultant, etc.
The more folks that are a part of the process, the more perspectives, ideas, and hands will shape your goal! That being said, involve too many people and the process can become onerous and slow.
Groups of 12 can be a great size to facilitate for facilitating quality, focused discussion. We encourage you to engage groups of just students, just staff, and integrated groups of both. This will ensure both students and staff have the opportunity to share their ideas, uninhibited by the presence of the other, and also come together and share ideas and perspectives.
How do we engage?
For a wholistic understanding of your students + your school culture and environment, we encourage you to engage multiple perspectives and data sources.
Engage staff:
Follow the Notice/Wonder protocol or the CASEL Data Reflection Protocol to review Student Success Survey results with staff.
Identify a theme (see Well-Being Menu below).
Collectively develop questions to engage students and community.
Engage students and community in one or more of the following ways:
Interviews – Speak directly with your students and staff to get their perspective
Focus groups – Facilitate conversations within and between stakeholders. Ask big questions and create space for reflection and ideation.
Fish bowl – This offers a chance for larger groups to listen to a smaller group’s experience.
Micro-surveys- Create and facilitate a survey and allow your students to answer different questions.
Vote with your body –Create a scale from 0 to 10 in a physical space (i.e. the wall to the left is 0 or disagree and the wall to the right is 10 or agree)Pose a question and ask participants to stand in the place on the scale that best represents their answer.
When do we meet?
Possible days, times, and conditions for the work:
Conditions for Empowering Student Engagement
We are constantly engaging our students at school. To meaningfully engage students in decision-making, leadership, reflection, and action requires certain conditions. When engaging students, ensure that there are:
Opportunities to make a meaningful contribution.
A committed, supportive adult.
A plan to share back results or impacts and reflect.
A culture of support and safety within the group of students and staff involved.
Necessary resources, training, and support in place to support participation.
Staff Engagement
While it can be tricky to find time to engage meaningfully with staff, we have some options:
Staff Meetings
School-Based PD Days
Collaborative Learning Time
After school sessions
Collaborative Meetings with Regional Staff (SSP Lead, Well-Being Support Team)
Let's connect to set a date and time that works for you!
Please connect at:
ssrcewell-being@gnspes.ca
Where can we find support?
Please reach out to
ssrcewell-being@gnspes.ca
Setting Goals + Taking Action
Identify a Goal
Identify Barriers
Plan Intentional Actions
You have consulted the Student Success Survey data, worked with staff to choose a theme, and engaged students within the theme. Amazing work!
You are ready to determine your well-being goal!
You may also want to identify any barriers or limiting beliefs that might get in the way of this work. Does the team need any PD in this area to overcome the barriers? If so, please reach out to ssrcewell-being@gnspes.ca for PD support.
Finally, access a menu of possible actions to meet your goal. Click on each theme in the Well-Being Menu (below) for actions.
Student and staff responses will inform actions. You can draw on the possibilities listed within each theme, if needed.
Every 90 days your team will re-assess students to determine impact and next steps.
Reflection + Assessment
Monitor Progress
Align and Adjust
How can we be sure we evaluate and share what is most essential?
If you are assessing the impact of your well-being work in short-cycle, your assessment will be related directly to your goal.
Assessments of process, progress, and impact are done approximately every 90 days and will inform the next step of your well-being work.
You might choose to measure growth quantitatively by using pre- and post- student assessments (surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc.).
You can choose to include qualitative data that demonstrate process, such as pictures or other artifacts (posters, etc.).
What are the artifacts that will be the most powerful representations of what we have created?
Reflection + Assessment options, may include (but are not limited to):
Interviews – Speak directly with your students and staff to get their perspective
Focus groups – Facilitate conversations within and between stakeholders. Ask big questions and create space for reflection and ideation.
Fish bowl – This offers a chance for larger groups to listen to a smaller group’s experience.
Micro-surveys - Access one of these survey templates or create your own.
Student artifacts - Expressive images, writing, videos, posters from students and/or community.
For additional ideas:
Street Data: A Next Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation by Shane Safir and Jamila Dugan
When you are ready to collaborate in any of these areas (Sense-Making, Setting Goals + Taking Action, Reflection + Assessment),
please reach out to the Well-Being Regional Team at ssrcewell-being@gnspes.ca