Annual Report to the Community
September 2014 – June 2015
Dr John C. Wickwire Academy
A note from the Principal
I would like to extend gratitude to all staff, parents and other DJCWA community members for welcoming
Jennifer Lemire and myself as your school administrators this year. This was a very busy but productive year
for us with many memories of all students we got to know and support throughout the year. Good luck and
best wishes to our grade 5 students who will be moving on to South Queens Middle School.
A highlight this year was the opening of the outdoor trail that extends the perimeter of the school grounds.
This project would not have been possible without the continued support of our School Advisory Council.
The opportunities for extending student learning outdoors can now increase because of this new trail.
Another area of improvement in our school, although not directly linked to our school goals, is the increase
in the use of mobile technology. This year, every teacher was equipped an iPad to experiment with its
applications in the classroom. Moving forward, grade 4 students will be working with iPads as an alternate
tool to show their understanding and achievement of some learning targets that are set for them.
~ Charles Williamson (Principal)
Professional Learning
Data and Results
Over the past three years, one of our school goals
focused on the writing component of literacy
development. This year, Stephen Jamieson,
literacy mentor with the SSRSB has worked with
our teachers to enhance their understanding and
skills in using various aspects of literacy
instruction across grade levels. Some of the
topics addressed were:
One of the goal measures for our literacy goal is the
annual SELL and EXSELL data with comparisons over
five years. Our latest results (Spring 2014) show that
the percentage of students meeting expectations has
improved consistently in grades 3, 4 and 5.
 Balanced literacy approach in the classroom;
 Use of time (time to teach, time to practice,
time to share);
 Structures for planning reading and writing
workshops;
 Clarification of the progression of word
development.
Lorem Ipsum
Continuous School Improvement
Teachers at DJCWA completed their third year of participation in embedded time Wednesday afternoons,
working in collaborative teams. The purpose of their work during this time is to improve student
engagement, learning and achievement. This year, all teams worked on tasks directly related to our
continuous school improvement goals listed in the next section below. Examples of our teacher teams’
accomplishments this year are:
 All Grade 5 teachers gained a knowledge and skill for the
implementation of PATHS in their classrooms.
 Another team provided the staff with sample activities that can
extend learning from the classroom to outdoors. This is a wellrecognized approach to help reduce anxiety for some students and to
help maximize on how children’s brains learn.
 All other grade levels examined student writing on a regular basis to
determine next step for instruction and/or intervention.
All teachers have also been trained on a 5-step protocol they could adopt
to analyze student work during embedded time.
School Goals
The school’s improvement plan is organized around two goals that were first communicated in 2012-2013.
Goal 1: There will be an increase at each grade level (gr. 1-5) in the percentage of students meeting or
exceeding SELL/EXSELL writing expectations.
Goal 2: The number of students reporting moderate or high levels of anxiety will decrease, according to the
data collected from the TTFM surveys.
Parents may wonder what school improvement goals look like in the classroom. For instance, one might
wonder: How does a school attempt to “meet or exceed SELL/EXSELL writing expectations”? To answer that
question, here are a few examples:
 Teachers follow a “curriculum map” to track teaching and achievement of essential writing outcomes at
all grade levels.
 Teachers conduct small group guided writing sessions as a routine part of their language arts program.
 During “embedded time”, teachers monitor achievement of essential outcomes to inform instruction.
Dr. John C. Wickwire Academy
311 Port Mouton Road
Liverpool, NS
http://www.djcwa.ednet.ns.ca/
B0T 1K0
Telephone: (902) 354-7660