School Board Survey
As part of the program review, the school board is surveying parents about the seven principles of the alternative program. You should have received a letter from the school board describing the survey.
Note that the program review's plan includes formal consultation with stakeholders in two ways: through this survey and by email to the school board's program review email address.
What You Need to Do This Week
The survey must be completed by October 22nd (next Thursday)
The survey is available online at http://www.surveymonkey.com/APRElemStaff_Parents
Paper copies are available by phoning Pauline Allen (Office Assistant, Quality Assurance) at
613-596-8243
Send your comments about what you feel to be the alternative program's strengths and areas of potential improvement to elementary_alternative_review@ocdsb.ca Because this email address is a formal avenue for consultation, the emails sent to it must be considered by the review team and distributed to the trustees on a weekly basis.
Survey 101: How to complete the survey so that the school board will listen
1) Be specific and refer to your own experiences as much as possible.
2) Don't be shy about being really enthusiastic!
3) Use the language of alternative education:
multi age groupings (classes with 2 or 3 grades, as well as other groupings like the French reading buddies)
parental engagement (parents contributing to the creation of the school environment, for example, the salad bar, the music program and the gardening in the yard)
student-led conferences and anecdotal reporting (teachers explain how your children are doing in a respectful and supportive way)
intrinsic motivation is where our children are motivated from within and not by marks or rewards
acceptance and integration of all children, the natural development of empathy
talk about non-competition instead of cooperation, most schools think they believe in cooperation, but we take an actually non-competitive approach in academics, athletics and fundraising
4) The last three questions ask about the program's strengths, areas of potential improvement and "other comments": think about how we offer a unique educational choice and how we recognise that children learn in different ways. Consider the specific examples of what Lady Evelyn does in the context of the seven principles. For example, last year's French-focused class explored core French in a way that embodied the alternative principles. The music program, which was a pilot project for one grade 3/4 class last year, but has now been expanded to all grades, is another example. You could also talk about the non-competitive environment, the attitude towards homework and testing or the reliance on anecdotal reporting. As was said above, be specific and speak from your own experience.