Vernon Secondary School enrolled its first students in September, 1968. For the next fifteen years, the school housed all of the grade 11 and 12 students from the Vernon and Coldstream areas. In 1983, Vernon School District Secondary Schools changed to an 8 – 12 structure and Vernon Senior Secondary School enrolled its first grade eight classes to become Vernon Secondary School. In January, 2013 the school proudly moved into a new $38 million dollar state of the art building on the same grounds. The three-story LEED Gold rated building is on 184, 500 square feet and has a natural light design with water flow reductions, a ground source heat exchanger, and a geothermal field that makes VSS a carbon neutral success story.
Vernon Secondary has approximately 1000 students, with fifty of these students being from various countries around the world as part of our district international program. The majority of our students come from our three elementary feeder schools; Silver Star, BX, and Hillview. Currently, there is a Board motion in place that restricts VSS enrolment to in catchment students only due to forecasted increased enrolment due to local home building projects. English is the primary language spoken in the homes of 97% of our students. VSS offers three language programs French, German, and Spanish. Ten percent of our students are Aboriginal and these students are serviced by our Aboriginal Support Worker and a district Aboriginal Lead Teacher. Ten percent of our students are also coded with a special education category. VSS hosts a district Resource Room program for special needs students with significant physical and/or intellectual challenges. The majority of our Resource room and Life Skills students will be pursuing an “Evergreen” School Leaving Certificate. VSS also host a CONNECTIONs program for students who are struggling or need more support than our regular program provides. Students in CONNECTIONs have individualized programs and are referred to the program via our School Based Team. All our students have access to our Student Support Services Team that includes 5 Learning Resource Teachers, 2 School Based Counsellors, a team of certified Educational Assistants, a North Okanagan Youth & Family Support Services Worker, a District Drug & Alcohol Counsellor, a Mental Health Worker, and an RCMP School Liaison Officer.
Vernon Secondary School has a proud history of achievements in athletics, fine arts, and academics. VSS athletes are recognized provincial contenders in football, volleyball, basketball, and cross-country running. Our Fine Arts and Applied Skills programs have earned a reputation for excellence in musical theatre productions, artwork, metalwork, woodwork, and automotive. Academically, VSS students have been recognized among the best in British Columbia. Most recently, VSS has received recognition for a variety of strong career education programs and its High Performance Program to support elite performers in Athletics and Fine Arts. The academic awards presented at our graduation ceremony regularly exceed $150,000 through scholarships, grants, and bursaries. We proudly offer a number of ACE-IT Apprenticeship opportunities through our district coordinator. The school has a focus on Panther Pride. Go Panthers!
Vernon Secondary School values the unique attributes of each individual. We seek to provide a secure environment in which learners strive to achieve their personal best. We seek to enhance the attitudes, knowledge, and skills of all students so that they may become lifelong learners and adaptable, contributing, and responsible citizens.
Students having a connection to each other, the teachers, and the school.
Athletic Programs – Many students are connected to the various sports teams, and VSS competes competitively with schools locally as well as provincially.
Clubs – There are many clubs for students to also get involved. For example the chess club, SOGI, Jazz band, and coding club. Each year clubs take on a new flavor.
Student Voice – allows students a chance to get informed and give their advice on how the school can be more successful.
School Based Resource team – works collaborate to work with students who need extra support.
CHIMO Days – a VSS traditional spirit week involving a variety of games, activates, completions, showcases and themes that is embraced by the entire school and staff. This is led by our leadership class.
Drama Productions – usually two major productions are put on in our beautiful theater by our drama classes.
Monthly Spirit Days – showcasing school talent and monthly slideshow highlights
VSS Staff – take great pride in our school and student success. They encourage students to reach their potential and personal best.
Academic Success – our annual awards night recognizes 40% of our school population excelling
Success is a continual process which is outlined in our Spiral of Inquiry
Vernon Secondary School enrolled its first students in September, 1968. For the next fifteen years, the school housed all of the grade 11 and 12 students from the Vernon and Coldstream areas. In 1983, Vernon School District Secondary Schools changed to an 8 – 12 structure and Vernon Senior Secondary School enrolled its first grade eight classes to become Vernon Secondary School. In January, 2013 the school proudly moved into a new $38 million dollar state of the art building on the same grounds. The three-story LEED Gold rated building is on 184, 500 square feet and has a natural light design with water flow reductions, a ground source heat exchanger, and a geothermal field that makes VSS a carbon neutral success story.
Vernon Secondary has approximately 1000 students, with fifty of these students being from various countries around the world as part of our district international program. The majority of our students come from our three elementary feeder schools; Silver Star, BX, and Hillview. Currently, there is a Board motion in place that restricts VSS enrolment to in catchment students only due to forecasted increased enrolment due to local home building projects. English is the primary language spoken in the homes of 97% of our students. VSS offers three language programs French, German, and Spanish. Ten percent of our students are Aboriginal and these students are serviced by our Aboriginal Support Worker and a district Aboriginal Lead Teacher. Ten percent of our students are also coded with a special education category. VSS hosts a district Resource Room program for special needs students with significant physical and/or intellectual challenges. The majority of our Resource room and Life Skills students will be pursuing an “Evergreen” School Leaving Certificate. VSS also host a CONNECTIONs program for students who are struggling or need more support than our regular program provides. Students in CONNECTIONs have individualized programs and are referred to the program via our School Based Team. All our students have access to our Student Support Services Team that includes 5 Learning Resource Teachers, 2 School Based Counsellors, a team of certified Educational Assistants, a North Okanagan Youth & Family Support Services Worker, a District Drug & Alcohol Counsellor, a Mental Health Worker, and an RCMP School Liaison Officer.
Vernon Secondary School has a proud history of achievements in athletics, fine arts, and academics. VSS athletes are recognized provincial contenders in football, volleyball, basketball, and cross-country running. Our Fine Arts and Applied Skills programs have earned a reputation for excellence in musical theatre productions, artwork, metalwork, woodwork, and automotive. Academically, VSS students have been recognized among the best in British Columbia. Most recently, VSS has received recognition for a variety of strong career education programs and its High Performance Program to support elite performers in Athletics and Fine Arts. The academic awards presented at our graduation ceremony regularly exceed $150,000 through scholarships, grants, and bursaries. We proudly offer a number of ACE-IT Apprenticeship opportunities through our district coordinator. The school has a focus on Panther Pride. Go Panthers!
Vernon Secondary School values the unique attributes of each individual. We seek to provide a secure environment in which learners strive to achieve their personal best. We seek to enhance the attitudes, knowledge, and skills of all students so that they may become lifelong learners and adaptable, contributing, and responsible citizens.
Students having a connection to each other, the teachers, and the school.
Athletic Programs – Many students are connected to the various sports teams, and VSS competes competitively with schools locally as well as provincially.
Clubs – There are many clubs for students to also get involved. For example the chess club, SOGI, Jazz band, and coding club. Each year clubs take on a new flavor.
Student Voice – allows students a chance to get informed and give their advice on how the school can be more successful.
School Based Resource team – works collaborate to work with students who need extra support.
CHIMO Days – a VSS traditional spirit week involving a variety of games, activates, completions, showcases and themes that is embraced by the entire school and staff. This is led by our leadership class.
Drama Productions – usually two major productions are put on in our beautiful theater by our drama classes.
Monthly Spirit Days – showcasing school talent and monthly slideshow highlights
VSS Staff – take great pride in our school and student success. They encourage students to reach their potential and personal best.
Academic Success – our annual awards night recognizes 40% of our school population excelling
Success is a continual process which is outlined in our Spiral of Inquiry
Checking
Data Summary Sheet
Checking
Data Summary Sheet
VSS Data Summary Sheet
Open the link below to look at our data that supports our goals. Data includes Ministry Assessments, Grade to Grade Transitions, Graduation Rates and Student Learning Surveys.
Scanning
Goal 1 - Improve School Connectedness
Goal 2 - Improve School Achievement
Scanning
Goal 1 - Improve School Connectedness
Our two school goals are very interconnected. We know from research that students who feel connected with their school achieve much better. This school year was challenging to work on Connectedness as we are in a Pandemic. Having said that we adapted as much as possible. For instance we still ran modified spirit week: Chimo Days. As we move toward post-Covid, our school will refocus on this goal.
Goal 2 - Improve School Achievement
Our focus areas for this goal are: Literacy and Numeracy.
Focusing
VSS Behaviour Program
Technology Committee
Focusing
VSS Behaviour Program
VSS Behaviour Program – Targets Goal 1
The VSS Behavior program is lead by a group of teachers in the school to promote positive behavior and connections to our school.
Panther Pride at VSS consists of: Respect learning, Respect myself and others, and Respect the Environment.
Students are recognized for showing Panther Pride via a Panther Pride ticket system. This creates an opportunity for teachers to have a positive authentic interaction with students who are doing it right at VSS. The team also works with staff to identify areas for improvement and then designs school wide lessons. A recent example was a grade 8 focus on consistent expectations and giving them breaks in cohorts. The Behavior team also works with staff and students to provide consistency and clear expectations for school routines. The nature of the Behavior Teams work continues to evolve with the needs of the school as they arise.
Technology Committee
The VSS Technology Committee was formed in the fall of 2018. In 2013 when the school was opened, the school was outfitted with the current technology for teaching and learning. We are now 8 years past and the world of technology continues to change at a rapid rate. The focus of the VSS Technology Committee is to develop a school plan that considers the needs of the school in the following areas: Learning, Teaching, Research and Development, and Infrastructure. Once our plan is developed it will need to be updated yearly.
Developing a Hunch
VSS Behaviour Program
Developing a Hunch
VSS Behaviour Program
Learning
Numeracy
Literacy
Learning
Numeracy
How do we adequately prepare our students for the Numeracy Assessment?
Developed a cross-curricular team
Working to develop a cross-curricular approach to numeracy
Working to develop a culture of numeracy in junior grades
Literacy
How do we develop and improve the literacy skills of our grade 8 and 9 students?
What do we mean by literacy
Working to read for meaning – cross curricularly
Working to develop a clear understanding of performance standards and utilize them regularly
Consistently, frequently and clearly apply these standards to move students forward
Taking Action
Taking Action