What Makes Caulfeild Great
October 5, 2016 - 5 minutes read
What makes Caulfeild Elementary a great school?
Our first Exploration Day is on Thursday and this is a question I expect prospective parents to ask. As the Principal of the school, I love this question because there is so much to celebrate.
The Learning
We are a high achieving school that embraces an inquiry mindset to learning. As a school we understand that conceptual learning that strives to teach the why and how, along with the what and when, will serve our students well in the future. Our classroom learning emphasizes the process that leads to the product. The product will be important when our students need to deliver as working adults, but as children, it is more important they understand “how to learn” which a focus on process provides.
This year we have a refreshed model of inquiry that supports not only an inquiry-based pedagogy, but also embraces the elements of design thinking that will be implemented in our Makerspace work. Through the development of a Program of Inquiry over the next two years we will be working together as a community of learners to establish the common language, expectations and learning experiences that leverage the power of the new curriculum from Kindergarten to Grade Seven.
When questions arise about “foundational skills” we are thrilled to point out that our students are excellent critical thinkers, creators and collaborators, and on provincial assessments such as the FSAs, our students are exceptional.
When we look to our Caulfeild graduates, the high schools express that Caulfeild students come prepared for the vigour of high school, especially in their ability to synthesis and analyze text as well as their ability to think outside the box. Twenty-five percent of the Grade Eights who made the Honour Roll with Distinction at Rockridge Secondary last year were from Caulfeild.
The Environment
Last year we innovated. Gone is the classroom most parents remember from their days in elementary school. Those classrooms no longer reflect today’s workplace. With a changing curriculum that reflects the skills and competencies that industry and business require of the next generation, we knew it was time to change our learning environments as space itself shifts mindset. Our classrooms are now areas of multiple environments (the office, the watchtower, the campfire, the waterhole) that encourage students to choose spaces that match their learning needs throughout the day. Each space in the room has a purpose that promotes self-regulation and collaborative learning.
This initiative of modernizing our classrooms with environmentally sustainable, non-toxic wood has been supported by the generosity of our forward thinking parent community.
Community – Be the Bear
We value community and connectedness. Through our whole school inquiry last year that delved into our beliefs and values as a community (both past and present), and we found that the animal we most identified with was the bear. From that inquiry, the Caulfeild Bears were born.
We demonstrate these characteristics through such initiatives as our Grade Seven Leadership program where our grade seven students take responsibility for classroom and office monitoring, production assistance, working with our younger grades and event management; we connect classrooms through the buddy program of older and younger students learning together; our mantra of REP (responsibility, empathy, perseverance and personal excellence in all we do); the work of our HOPE committee in making a difference in the community here and globally; and our invitation to special guests throughout the year that come teach us to Dare to go Further in our learning.
Caulfeild is an excellent school because of the commitment of our staff to always act in the best interest of the students; our teachers who continually model what it means to be life long learners by keeping their practice innovative and relevant to today’s world; and our parents who are incredible supporters of our school community and the initiatives we undertake because they recognize we are preparing their children for greatness in a world that will be filled with possibilities.
