Building Collective Efficacy: What process did your school take in developing your School Growth Plan?
Kalamalka Secondary is a grade eight to twelve school in Coldstream, BC. We have over 670 students, including over 50 international students from all over the world. Our mission is to foster achievement, self-esteem and social responsibility, in a safe, supportive, and progressive environment. We offer a selection of elective courses that include Art, Band, Choir, Jazz Band and Theatre Productions from the Apple Box Theatre Company. Our Applied Skills includes Electronics/Robotics, Foods, Textiles, Woodwork and a Skills Trade Sampler course that explores carpentry, electrical, plumbing and welding. Our students also have the opportunity to take academic courses such as AP Calculus, AP Language and Composition, AP Literature and AP Psychology. We are proud of our strong athletic program. In recent years we have sent the following teams to Provincial Championships including Jr. and Sr. Boys and Girls Volleyball. Jr. Boys and Sr Girls Basketball, Sr. Boys Soccer, Golf, Cross-Country and Track and Field. Our parent community is very supportive of the school. Many parents attended Kalamalka as students. Parents expect their students to be successful in school and prepared for post Kalamalka life experiences. Kalamalka students achieve well on Provincial assessments and are continuously striving…’toward honour and excellence.’
Evidence-Informed: What data is driving your goal(s)?
Each year we gather data from Ministry Assessment Data, Student Learning Surveys, the Youth Development Instrument and school data. We present our goals to our students, staff and parents in our September assemblies, staff meetings and PAC meeting. We continue throughout the year looking for reflection and feedback of where we are progressing and what we can do to improve.
Student Success
keyboard_arrow_downStudent Success To provide many pathways for all students to pursue and achieve desired outcomes.
Strategic Plan Goal(s):
District Strategic Plan
Actions: What will we do to support all learners?
In order to support numeracy and mental health, we programmed our grade eight students in to linear math and PE. We completed two non-fiction reading assessments with our grade eight students this year.
Reflections & Results:
Next Steps:
Middle Years Literacy - We will work sentence structure, using evidence to elaborate through multiple points, and writing process. Numeracy - Relationships between decimals, fractions, rates, ratio, proportion and percents. Manipulating simple equations, estimating, fractions and integers. Middle Years Success Coordinator - to help facilitate coordination of the middle years students, families and staff.
Leadership Excellence
keyboard_arrow_downTo empower all staff to contribute to organizational excellence in the service of student success.
Strategic Plan Goal(s):
District Strategic Plan
Actions: What will we do to support all learners?
We have several teachers that have taken initiative to work with our teachers in our family of schools. Our grade eleven and twelve students have gone into the schools to do mental health awareness, building community through activities and wide games with the grade 6 and 7 students. We have also invited students to participate in our Capstone presentations, athletic events and transition activities.
Reflections & Results:
Next Steps:
Community Connections
keyboard_arrow_downTo build strong relationships amongst all community members in the service of student success.
Strategic Plan Goal(s):
District Strategic Plan
Actions: What will we do to support all learners?
Our students have worked to support various organizations in our community. Our PE classes have sandbagged during flood season. Safe Schools has raised money for an animal shelter. They also raised money for the Ride Don't Hide Canadian Mental Health Association. Our students helped by participating in the event and were helped the organizers as road marshals. We also participated in the Thanksgiving Food Drive in September, where food donations were collected at school and in the community. We also had students help with drop-off and sorting at the Salvation Army House of Hope. We have also had students participate in the Climate Action Ripple Effect and done project based learning on how we can positively impact our environment.
Reflections & Results:
Next Steps:
Kalamalka Secondary will celebrate 50 years in 2025. We will have a 50th anniversary celebrating our school in Coldstream by welcoming the public to an open house in the fall of 2025.