Since 1982 École Beairsto Elementary has been home to the Vernon School District’s early French immersion program. It is the largest single track gr. 1-7 French immersion school in the British Columbia and the largest elementary school in Vernon. At Ecole Beairsto we strive to have each child have a sense of belonging.
The school has 642 students, 26 divisions and a vibrant francophone culture. The school caters to a diverse population comprised of the entire school district. We are centrally located in Vernon on 27th Street, minutes walking distance from the downtown core. Our location gives many opportunities for walking field trips to the museum, outdoor skating, parks and art galleries. The building itself, a beautiful turn of the century brick edifice, is one of the oldest structures in Vernon, known originally as Vernon Central School (1905).
Depuis 1982, l’Ecole Beairsto est une école d`immersion française à voie unique. C`est la plus grande école élémentaire dans le district et la plus grande école à voie unique en Colombie-Britannique. En ce moment il y a 642 élèves de la 1e à la 7e année.
At École Beairsto we believe that all students show success when they are able to communicate their thoughts and opinions in a respectful way. That they love learning and have a desire and ability to learn and seek to further their knowledge. The ultimate goal is for learners to employ the core competencies every day in school and in life, and for the core competencies to be an integral part of the learning in all curriculum areas. Core competencies are sets of intellectual, personal, and social and emotional proficiencies that all students need to develop in order to engage in deep learning and life-long learning.
A Beairsto chaque élève est unique et a du potentiel. On aide chaque enfant à avoir du succès. On encourage chaque personne a vouloir apprendre, et apprécier les cultures de notre pays. Chaque enfant aime apprendre et sait communiquer et créer avec respect.
Our belief in celebrating the French culture unites staff and families alike, providing our students with a rich cultural immersion. The First Peoples principles of learning are included throughout the culture of the school with students presenting at assemblies. Our Aboriginal Support worker shares ideas and ways to incorporate the principles with all teachers. The school houses are now based on the Four food chiefs. The children are learning about how names were given and what each food chief represents.
Our library has been transformed into a learning commons incorporating literature and technological activities for our students. The room is vibrant and offers many opportunities for collaboration between teachers and students.
Our urban garden provides students an opportunity to connect with nature, to develop a sense of stewardship and responsibility outside of the classroom. Students also learn about plants native to the Okanagan and the water cycle in the garden.
The variety of behavior support programs at our school include; Zones of Regulation, Roots of Empathy, Superflex, bucketfilling. The overall theme is to follow the golden rule and to be kind all while speaking French. 🙂 We have a team called `les mots gentils` that works on delivering notes to students. They deliver these notes and film some of them. These positive messages and kind notes are shared at assemblies and also on the announcements.
Our aboriginal ways of knowing programs are presented in French.
Our daily “Radio Beairsto”, where student volunteers address the school over the PA in French. News items include, the weather, saying of the week, song of the week and joke of the week.
To build success for our students Beairsto has:
A – 5 Professional Learning groups that meet on a monthly basis. They are each exploring specific areas to move learning forward in our building. They report out at monthly staff meetings, sharing research and activities with other teachers.
1. French oral focus for students 2. Math focus 3.Effective behaviour support – culture 4.Reading focus 5.French oral focus for teachers
B – Monthly teacher Collaboration by grade level to focus on the learning of our students.
C – A pilot project with extra CEA time and Literacy teacher time given to our students who are not yet meeting in reading
D – A pilot project bringing Early French Immersion Primary teachers together to study Balanced Literacy
Since 1982 École Beairsto Elementary has been home to the Vernon School District’s early French immersion program. It is the largest single track gr. 1-7 French immersion school in the British Columbia and the largest elementary school in Vernon. At Ecole Beairsto we strive to have each child have a sense of belonging.
The school has 642 students, 26 divisions and a vibrant francophone culture. The school caters to a diverse population comprised of the entire school district. We are centrally located in Vernon on 27th Street, minutes walking distance from the downtown core. Our location gives many opportunities for walking field trips to the museum, outdoor skating, parks and art galleries. The building itself, a beautiful turn of the century brick edifice, is one of the oldest structures in Vernon, known originally as Vernon Central School (1905).
Depuis 1982, l’Ecole Beairsto est une école d`immersion française à voie unique. C`est la plus grande école élémentaire dans le district et la plus grande école à voie unique en Colombie-Britannique. En ce moment il y a 642 élèves de la 1e à la 7e année.
At École Beairsto we believe that all students show success when they are able to communicate their thoughts and opinions in a respectful way. That they love learning and have a desire and ability to learn and seek to further their knowledge. The ultimate goal is for learners to employ the core competencies every day in school and in life, and for the core competencies to be an integral part of the learning in all curriculum areas. Core competencies are sets of intellectual, personal, and social and emotional proficiencies that all students need to develop in order to engage in deep learning and life-long learning.
A Beairsto chaque élève est unique et a du potentiel. On aide chaque enfant à avoir du succès. On encourage chaque personne a vouloir apprendre, et apprécier les cultures de notre pays. Chaque enfant aime apprendre et sait communiquer et créer avec respect.
Our belief in celebrating the French culture unites staff and families alike, providing our students with a rich cultural immersion. The First Peoples principles of learning are included throughout the culture of the school with students presenting at assemblies. Our Aboriginal Support worker shares ideas and ways to incorporate the principles with all teachers. The school houses are now based on the Four food chiefs. The children are learning about how names were given and what each food chief represents.
Our library has been transformed into a learning commons incorporating literature and technological activities for our students. The room is vibrant and offers many opportunities for collaboration between teachers and students.
Our urban garden provides students an opportunity to connect with nature, to develop a sense of stewardship and responsibility outside of the classroom. Students also learn about plants native to the Okanagan and the water cycle in the garden.
The variety of behavior support programs at our school include; Zones of Regulation, Roots of Empathy, Superflex, bucketfilling. The overall theme is to follow the golden rule and to be kind all while speaking French. 🙂 We have a team called `les mots gentils` that works on delivering notes to students. They deliver these notes and film some of them. These positive messages and kind notes are shared at assemblies and also on the announcements.
Our aboriginal ways of knowing programs are presented in French.
Our daily “Radio Beairsto”, where student volunteers address the school over the PA in French. News items include, the weather, saying of the week, song of the week and joke of the week.
To build success for our students Beairsto has:
A – 5 Professional Learning groups that meet on a monthly basis. They are each exploring specific areas to move learning forward in our building. They report out at monthly staff meetings, sharing research and activities with other teachers.
1. French oral focus for students 2. Math focus 3.Effective behaviour support – culture 4.Reading focus 5.French oral focus for teachers
B – Monthly teacher Collaboration by grade level to focus on the learning of our students.
C – A pilot project with extra CEA time and Literacy teacher time given to our students who are not yet meeting in reading
D – A pilot project bringing Early French Immersion Primary teachers together to study Balanced Literacy
Checking
Reflection and develop tools
Systematic team review of progress
Checking
Reflection and develop tools
Staff assessing ability vs effort for students. We will know that we have made a difference when students effort is synonymous with their ability.
Develop an oral tool for evaluation for the grades.
Develop a scope and sequence for oral vocabulary and expressions.
Systematic team review of progress
Team meeting to review the PM benchmark assessments.
Noticing the ones that do not make progress and include earlier detection and testing for other learning challenges.
Reporting to district 3 times a year
Scanning
Literacy and speaking
Literacy deficiencies in grades 2-4.
Scanning
Literacy and speaking
School based resource team notices a large number of students that are having difficulty in literacy. The team tested Phonological awareness in specific students. The results show a paucity in vocabulary knowledge.
In discussion of report cards it was brought forward that there is a difference between the ability of our students to speak French and their effort to speak often. Staff submitted report card results and noticed that this was common throughout the grades.
Literacy deficiencies in grades 2-4.
Focusing
Develop oral language and vocabulary in French.
Literacy Pilot Projects
Focusing
Develop oral language and vocabulary in French.
School based resource team assessed specific students who were Not yet meeting in French reading with a phonological test.
Literacy Pilot Projects
Pilot projects:
Inclusion in District Early Literacy Intervention
Developing a Hunch
Create target oral programmes and assessment.
Learning and teaching
Developing a Hunch
Create target oral programmes and assessment.
Looking at assessments at staff meetings – teachers can see the need for a stronger base line in data for our students. they would like to develop an oral French assessment tool for different grade levels.
The discretionary teacher is working with classes and small groups to further develop vocabulary.
Creating a scope and sequence for oral language
Learning and teaching
SBRT team and discretionary teachers are attending sessions and learning how to use a programme called Levelled literacy intervention. This will help Beairsto develop programmes in French that are targeted for Not Yet Reading students.
Learning
Discretionary teacher and PLC groups
Pilot projects and learning communities
Learning
Discretionary teacher and PLC groups
Discretionary Teacher working with small group students and teachers.
PLC groups:
Pilot projects and learning communities
Pilot Projects:
Primary teachers learning together about balanced literacy and how to fine tune for our Not Yet Meeting readers
Professional learning community:
Taking Action
Discretionary Teaching Position.
Pilot Projects and Professional Learning
Taking Action
Discretionary Teaching Position.
Discretionary position to focus on developing vocabulary in students. Discretionary teacher develops a plan to work with small groups of students and develops capacity in teachers working with classes.
Pilot Projects and Professional Learning
Meetings with all school based literacy teachers to plan how best to support our weaker readers. Who to target first. This team includes the director of curriculum, the Early literacy intervention district teacher, the School based resource teachers, the Discretionary teacher and administrators.
Pilot projects
Early Literacy Intervention teacher who is supporting Aboriginal students. At Beairsto there are 94 aboriginal students. We noticed that some of them also need extra support and the district was able to help with this by including Beairsto in the support from the Early Literacy teachers.
PLC about reading in our school and best teaching practice.