Sir Winston Churchill High School

Today we were very fortunate to visit one of the best schools in Calgary. We thank Dave Nickell, our mentor for hosting us and being a wealth of knowledge. We certainly found our visit very informative and found it gave us lots to think about.  We have tried to be brief!

INTRODUCTION

- Teachers are scheduled to take 3 out of 4 classes and are actively encouraged to be involved in extra-curricular activities. Staff are also expected to be involved in extra-curricular activities and would do between 70-150 hours per year.
- Some teachers will teach 4/4 if they are not involved in extra-curricular activities.
- Incorporated the International Baccalaureate (IB) into the school in 2003. About 25% of the 2014 graduating class has taken at least one IB course.
- School finishes at 1pm on Fridays. Most use this time for marking, preparation or involvement in sporting activities.
- The School day officially starts at 8.55, however, they run Tutorial sessions from 8.15-8.55am. Tutorial sessions are for students wanting to get some extra help in a certain subject. Tutorial rooms exist for every subject on a rostered basis and have up to 3 teachers available. This is an optional service that students can access, or if they missed a day of school they are expected to go to the tutorial session the next day.
- Clubs meet at lunchtime / most sport is after school.
- Spares (frees, private study lessons) are not supervised. Students can choose what they do during this time (including leaving the grounds), but are not allowed to sit in the hallways. Most go to the library, cafeteria or study spaces. Students who are 'at risk' must go to The Learning Centre for supervised study.
- Student stress is an issue due to the prestigious nature of the school.
- Lots of support systems are in place for students e.g. The Learning Centre, The Class, Guidance Counsellors, Tutorials, Supportive teachers etc

SCIENCE/ MATHS
- Resource on the website - Science Process Skills Booklet. This is introduced in Year 10 and used all the way through to the end of Year 12. Students have easy access to it. It provides students with concept definitions, text type scaffolds etc. Teachers refer to it often, providing consistency in how concepts and text types are taught.
- One teacher is using the flipped classroom approach in most of her Math lessons. This is where students watch the filmed lesson at home and come to class to work on questions etc. This provides students the opportunity to work with the teacher and get immediate help as it is needed. Examples are on You Tube - The Davis Domain. A disadvantages of this approach is that the student may have misinterpreted the lesson and then by the time the teacher works it out the student has already reinforced the error.

TIMETABLE
- The timetable is set by The Board of Education.
- Students study 4 subjects per semester. In year 11 students can have one spare (free lesson) over the year e.g will study 7 subjects. Year 12s can have 1 spare each semester.
- School times - Monday to Thursday - Session 1: 8.55 -10.15am, Session 2: 10.20 - 11.40am, Lunch: 11.40 - 12.20pm, Session 3: 12.25 - 1.45, Session 4: 1.50 - 3.10
- Concern from staff - next year the timetable structure will be changing. Instead of having the 4 lines spread evenly over the morning and afternoon sessions, next year two lines will only operate in the mornings, while the other two will occur in the afternoon. An example of this being an issue is in PE with outdoor practical activities been set in the morning when conditions will be hypothermic. Also in Maths and Science, teachers would ideally like some morning time due to student attentiveness, but this is not guaranteed.

SETTING OBSERVATIONS

- Leadership structure: Principal, 3 Assistant Principals - timetable / budget, diploma exam, / facilities and maintenance. Learning Leaders for each faculty area.

- At the beginning of the day many students sit in the hallway working on their homework, studying etc. There is a lack of windows compared to 'home'.

- Staff remain in their department areas at lunchtime. The department office space has a fridge and other kitchen facilities. Not many teachers use the staff room, in fact it is often used for Muslim student prayer.

- Students have access to the D2L website (school intranet) where they can access practice exams and other samples of work. The school has a Scantron, which scans multiple choice questions of an exam/ test which gives them immediate results.

-WOW moments: walking in to the Cosmetology classroom (Hair & Beauty)  and the two Mechanics workshops / Schwarz Motor Repairs!
-For a school of 2000 they only have one full time, permanently on site computer technician, who works above and beyond his hours.

- No school uniform.

- Very multicultural.
- The school holds assemblies at the beginning of the year in year levels, as the school is too big.

- Very few part-time staff.

- Police constable on site - may break up fights, deal with issues around stealing etc. Mostly their job is about being a presence in the school, someone students can talk to if needed, ask questions etc. The Constable also gives seminars to students.

LEARNING CENTRE

- 2 staff members and 2 assistants are in the room full time. One is an English teacher the other is a Maths teacher. Occasionally a Social Studies teacher comes in to support.

- They have a course students can study in the Learning Centre called the Learning Strategies program. Students can study this course for credits in Year 10. The course includes identifying their
learning style, strategies to prepare for exams, study skills etc

- Any student can drop in and get support with their studies.

- Students come in who have learning difficulties and can get assistance with their work.

- Students with cognitive delay will come in for a block of time each day and study English and Maths. An SSO will go into the classroom with these studens to support them with writing etc. They will only study courses that provide life skills eg Food. Will go to classes to learn the basics, but are not assessed. Rather they are marked on their effort, attitude and participation.

-Peer support - students who tutor their peers often come in at 8-8.45 before school starts.

-The room exists for students willing to work.

-Open 8-4pm.

-These teachers don't have prep or marking.

- Liaison between teachers, parents and students. Strong communication with teachers. Teachers will send info/ emails to the learning centre to let them know what students are working on.

- Help with year 12 transition

- Write all learning plans for students with learning difficulties referred to as IPPs. These are discussed with students then sent to parents.

THE CLASS

- Room set up for students who struggle in a normal classroom setting. These students
 have high anxiety for a multitude of reasons.

- 1 teacher, 2 assistants. Funded by The Board of Education.

- Sometimes an assistant may go into the classroom with the student.

- A psychologist comes in once a week to work with these students. There are 18 students on their books at the moment.

- Behavioural specialist comes in and works with students individually, will accompany them to class and provide support with behaviour as needed.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

- Staff are encouraged to attend professional development. They are given $400 to spend on T&D per year. They can choose to cash it in every 3 years for $1500. This means they can choose to do
something bigger with their time and money.

LEARNING LEADERS

- Have 2 teaching lines out of 4 per semester.

- Their role is about liaising with their faculty, informing and sharing ideas/ instructions from Admin and The Board of Education

- Schedule who will teach which class. Teachers wanting to teach IB classes are given 1st priority, as there are fewer IB trained teachers.

- In charge of the budget and ordering supplies.

- Support staff in their faculty wherever necessary eg Tech issue, will take relief lessons if someone needs to go to an appointment

 No extra duties outside of the one faculty area (except for the extra curricula expectation).

- Any teacher performance issues are dealt with by the principal / assistant principals, not the learning leader.

- Go to Learning Leader meetings to discuss curriculum changes. Need to share this information with faculty. Don't do any curriculum writing. Programs of study dictate what is taught. Teachers are trusted to follow this in preparation for student exams.  Exam results are one indicator of teacher success.

- Conduct faculty meetings once a month. These are more about sharing information, than anything else. Faculty meetings are planned in parallel to staff meetings, which are also held once a month.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

-There are at least 10 teachers in the faculty,  who predominantly teach PE.

- The aim is to develop life long engagement in PE, this includes 'disguising' running through
activities rather than running laps.

- There are a variety of PE courses that students can choose from and include; Sports Performance,
Sports Management and Yoga. These courses can be taken in years 10-12. (See the website for more
details)

- PE is compulsory in year 10 for one semester.

- In year 10, a PE unit typically goes for 7 days (activity specific). This is due to length of the lessons.

- Topics will vary from year 10-12 and aim to expose students to a variety of activities

(Some different activities include CPR, Combatives, Curling, Social Dance, Rock Climbing, & Camping). The website has more detail.

- Outdoor Education is not offered, however, it is combined through PE. Students often choose PE specifically to access the Outdoor Education component, as that is the incentive to take the course due to the social and personal development as well as the life long learning.

- They bring in outside experts (eg hip hop instructor) 

- Students will do a self evaluation after each practical unit to see where they think they fit. Teachers will give specific feedback according to their evaluation.

- Technology is rarely used in PE classes, this is because of time constraints, concerns about increasing obesity levels, access out on the oval and the associated costs. Videoing performance and reviewing is starting to occur in some classes.

- Students are evaluated and marked on the following:

       Attitude and participation - 40%-50%

       Knowledge and understanding - 0-25%

       Physical skill and fitness - 25%-50%

       Class citizenship 0-25%

- Effort is recognised as they are mindful not to "put the kids off" - even though they have high standards.

- Theory work is limited and is comprised of peer evaluations, assignments and the occasional written
test.

- Leadership courses in each year level are enjoyed by students.

- Students are encouraged to choose extra curricula activities (School Sport) where they train up to 4
nights a week from 4:00pm until 5:30pm. One of these nights is "game night".

- Of the 2000 students in the school, 1500 are involved in sport. The Principal sends a letter home to every student/ parent to congratulate them on being involved on the extra- curricular activity. He signs every one of those letters personally. He doesn't want to email it as it isn't personal enough. If they don't receive at least 2 letters a year, he believes they are not doing enough and should be getting more involved in the school.

- An outcome of the Sports Management course is where students are expected to be a trainer for a sports team for a minimum of 60 hours during the school year. 

- On a Monday afternoon, we witnessed the following sports in action; Boys and
Girls Rugby, Hockey, Athletics and Soccer. The principal was out supporting the boys soccer team game night. One of the students injured her knee and a student sports trainer was able to assist.

CONCLUSION
We really appreciated the willingness of the staff to so freely welcome us into their school and the ELL class in particular who showed such interest in the Aussie way of schooling. An impressive start to our school visits, we feel like we covered so many different aspects of what they had to offer.