Blog Posts

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.

We are watching the movie "Dead Poets Society" and a scene came on that made us pause and reflect.  It was the scene where Mr. Keating (Robin Williams) asks the students to rip out the introduction of their poetry textbook.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkpWk8FJsys

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.

Our driving question at the secondary level is “How can we create a co-constructed inquiry-based learning experience that is SEL informed?” Key underpinnings of this question are the understanding of student voice and choice or natural differentiation, student agency using inquiry, and leaning into social-emotional learning or connection with and understanding the learning needs of the students in the room. 

Last week, our Superintendent shared an updated that highlighted Dr. Bonnie Henry’s announced planned changes to public health orders over the coming days and weeks, focusing on resuming more types of activities and events.  We understand that there are varying levels of comfort as we begin to move towards the next stage in our provincial Restart Plan, but ultimately this is exciting news for our community and serves as a signal of better days ahead.