As Mitchell received a new administrative team this school year (Mme Val and Mr. Narbett), it was important for students, their families and staff to get to know the admin team and vice-versa! Through scanning (listening and observing) and conversations, we have come to realize that our students love to be together and crave the special moments when they can gather and connect.

Therefore, we have been working hard since September to ensure our students and their families feel connected to:

• Adults at the school
• Each other
• Our community

As we soon enter November, we are proud to share the work that we have done to promote connectedness at Mitchell:

• Had two mini assemblies in September to reconnect with students, introduce new staff and remind everyone of our Firebird code.
• School-wide Terry Fox assembly and run (Sept. 20)
• Opened our doors to all families on Meet the Staff night (September 21) and gathered in the gym to get to know one another. 
• Staff connected during our Non-Instructional Day with an Indigenous Studies focus (September 22). In the afternoon, we gathered to discuss our next steps to support inclusion and indigenous education at Mitchell, including how indigenous education can be incorporated into everyday practice.
• School-wide assembly for Orange Shirt Day (September 29), where two divisions courageously shared a poem that they collectively created about the impact of residential schools on Indigenous Peoples and a very brave grade 1 student stood up in front of the whole school to deliver a moving land acknowledgement.
• Family conferences to connect with school staff (October 25 & 26)

As our school focus is to reconnect through the arts, we have also provided opportunities for school-wide art activities. These have included:

• A school-wide Indigenous feather mural project, which started on Orange Shirt Day, and continues through October;
• Our first Firebird Family Teams Assembly and activity (October 17): a collective “Friendliness” mural created by all members of our school staff and students. During the assembly, we also got to connect through music, collectively singing the Mitchell Song.
• A school-wide performance from “Andy the Musical Scientist” (October 12) where students connected through music.

Individual classes and buddy classes have also connected through art by engaging in various arts and crafts activities.

Several classes also had the opportunity to do a guided viewing of our new school mural with Mr. Narbett their classroom teacher. Students were asked: “How is Mitchell’s identity reflected through this mural?” Here were some of their answers:

• “This mural shows that we are all little plants just waiting to sprout.”
• “It shows that nature is important to us because there are lots of trees.”
• “We like sports a lot at Mitchell; there are many different types of balls, even a Pokeball!”
• “When I look at the mural, it reminds me of the diversity at Mitchell and that we are all welcome here.”

For more evidence of how our students connect to our new school mural, please watch the following video, which was created by the District:

https://vimeo.com/876038038/bd3644ef6b?share=copy

We are continuing to collect data and evidence of learning at Mitchell as we are moving forward to establishing a new focus. One thing that came up often during our class reviews in early October, is that our students need to learn and establish strategies for social and emotional well-being, such as self-regulation, recognizing and understanding emotions, problem-solving, resiliency and growth mindset. Therefore, we will do our best to put SEL at the forefront of our work at Mitchell, while continuing to focus on connectedness and the arts.

As part of our scanning, we will also look at data from this year’s FSAs, the Ministry’s Learning Survey (which will be administered in the Spring to grade 4s and 7s), written learning reports, and student surveying that we will conduct through the year. Our goal is to look at our school needs through a variety of angles, so that we may find some commonalities to guide us in establishing a future new focus or goal for Mitchell in the Spring.