Early literacy is an area of focus in our school. This year we have had to be very creative to be able to continue with our philosophy of early intervention in literacy at the grade one level. Early Intervention is a key component to ensure all of our students find success in learning to read. Collaborative planning and team work with our LST, Dr. Murtha-Toles, still allows us to provide daily intentional practice and intervention for those students requiring extra support. Once we can safely start our grade one reading groups again, we fully intend to continue with this daily extra reading time for all of our grade one students in levelled groupings to really target those areas of need.

Positive Behaviour Support is an important part of our school culture. We have a significant number of challenging students and it is important to build an understanding of how each child needs to be supported in his or her journey. We make a very intentional effort at developing strategies and supports that will impact the students in a positive manner and consequently allow them to develop more appropriate and desirable actions in future stressful situations. Student behaviour and social skills are also supported school wide with weekly character education assemblies for all students. Grades 1-4 have an extra 30 minutes per week in a smaller assembly group to hear the monthly theme broken down even further to an age appropriate level.

Health and Wellness would be a third area of focus in our school. As an admin team we have worked hard to provide a timetable that allows our teachers to be mentored and to build capacity in the teaching of the physical education curriculum. Our current physed specialist plans the physed classes and models the lessons once per week in every class at RBES. The teachers are able to learn the concepts as they are modeled to them and have a week to apply what they have learned with the students. The result is a rich physical literacy and movement program that all participate in. Our school also offers opportunities for x-country, floor hockey and track and field as well as various lunchtime activities for our students. Additionally, we have worked with the parents to bring in healthier options for hot lunches and encourage healthier eating through newsletters and classroom teaching.

Students in all grades at RBES have access to technology. There are SMART BOARDS or interactive projectors in all classrooms. All students have access to chromebooks several times per week and our library is evolving into a learning commons and has 20 iPads that can be used individually or in class sets by teachers for special projects. We are working to have technology be a tool that is used to enhance learning, rather than learning focused on “how to” use technology.

Our school has an extremely talented, dedicated, caring and professional learning team. They are collaborative in nature, passionate about learning and want what is best for each and every student. They epitomize Black Gold’s theme of “Inspiring Success”.