Report - Chignecto-Central Regional School Board

EDUCATION SERVICESCommunity Education andPartnershipsApplications are now being acceptedfrom Grades 11 and 12 students into theConstruction Association of Nova Scotia’sBuilding Futures for Youth Program.Students who are accepted into the programreceive safety training from the NovaScotia Community College, paid summeremployment in the construction industry, andthe chance to earn up to three CooperativeEducation credits. The program is available asa result of a partnership among the Chignecto-Central Regional School Board, ConstructionAssociation of Nova Scotia, Nova ScotiaCommunity College, Nova Scotia Departmentof Education and Nova Scotia Departmentof Labour and Workforce Development.Applications are available online at www.buildingfutures.ca.School Breakfast Program Funding has beenallocated to 74 CCRSB schools. During the2010-2011 school year, over 450,000 schoolbreakfasts were served throughout the region.French ProgramsStaff are very pleased to have three full-timeFrench language monitors and four part-timeFrench language monitors working with ourstudents and teachers in French Programsthis year. This was made possible throughthe Odyssey Program. Their role, under thesupervision of the teacher, is “to encouragestudents to improve their knowledge of thetargeted language and culture — including allforms of language, art, music, and the sharedvalues of a particular society — and to use thelanguage on a daily basis.”Special thanks to Riverside Education Centre,Cyrus Eaton Elementary, Pugwash DistrictHigh, Oxford Regional Education Centre, TruroElementary, West Pictou Consolidated, EastPictou Middle, F. H. MacDonald Elementary,and Highland Consolidated schools forwelcoming the Odyssey Program monitors intheir schools.French Programs staff are pleased to haveTammy Kennedy-Fortune from Walter DugganConsolidated join the Department of EducationCore French pilot of literacy strategies this year.This pilot is in its third year in CCRSB, withtwo classes at the junior high level (MelissaHarrison and Candace Westhaver at CentralColchester Junior High) and two others at theelementary level (Bonnie Moore at West EndMemorial and Lisa Gibbs at Redcliff MiddleSchool). The post oral proficiency results ofthe students in the pilot classes have beenvery positive in the past two years. Staff looksforward to continued student progress as wefurther implement these strategies in CoreFrench Cohort classes.International Student ProgramCCRSB has 157 international studentsfrom 19 different countries attending 16of our schools. These students participatethrough the Nova Scotia International StudentProgram (NSIP).There are short-term groups from Spain,Colombia, and Korea involved in CCRSBschools at this time.LiteracyCCRSB Early Literacy Support:In September 2011, CCRSB implementedthe new Early Literacy Support in both Frenchand English Programs. This Early LiteracySupport respects the parameters in therecent Nova Scotia Early Literacy SupportFramework, Succeeding in Reading. TheCCRSB Early Literacy Support embeds bestresearch practices from Reading Recovery®and CCRSB’s Intensive Short Term LiteracyIntervention (ISTLI) and replaces both theseinterventions. This two-tiered, inclusive,support will target developing readers andwriters, as well as, boost students in GradesPrimary to 3, with the goal to have thesestudents reach grade level expectations.Literacy 95:As part of Literacy 95, all teachers new toGrades 4-6 were invited to a professionallearning opportunity in early Septemberto support their work this year. Thesession focused on the Gradual Releaseof Responsibility Model, ComprehensiveLiteracy, Reading and Writing Workshop andprofessional resources and CCRSB Online.Literacy Mentors:CCRSB currently has 8.9 full time equivalentliteracy mentors supporting teachers inseveral P-12 classrooms. Mentor support isan in-class support respecting primarily thecoaching stance but also supporting throughthe consulting and collaborating stances.All work by literacy mentors respects theparameters of the CCRSB Mentoring andCoaching Framework. Teachers continue tovalue this in-class support.