School Overview
Happy Valley Elementary is situated on the traditional territory of the Coast Salish; more specifically the Esquimalt Nation and Songhees Nation. The school is in a rapidly growing area of Langford and is part of Sooke School District #62. The original school was built in 1912 and the current school was rebuilt in 2004, following a fire during a school day. Many of the children who currently attend Happy Valley have parents or grandparents who also attended the school. The school has strong ties to the local community and is well-supported.
Our school has expanded in recent years, in order to address our rapidly growing school population. Currently, there are 460 children attending Happy Valley in Kindergarten – Grade 5, and we are at capacity at all grade levels. We continue to have many families moving to the area, which includes a mixture of single-family homes, duplexes, multifamily dwellings, condos and apartments. Due to this steady influx of families with school-aged children, many of our in-catchment families have had to be redirected to attend other local area schools. We are looking forward to September of 2025 when we anticipate the opening of another Elementary school in South Langford which will support some of our families.
The long-tenured staff at Happy Valley have been part of the school for many years, and there is terrific collaboration amongst colleagues. Parents and families trust and appreciate the work of the school to support their children. In September of 2022, half of our staff will be new at Happy Valley, and we are looking forward to creating exciting opportunities for students.
In addition to the exceptional work of our teaching staff, our CUPE staff are an integral part of our success at Happy Valley. We have a large Student Support team who work together to support our most vulnerable learners. Students and families benefit from our staff’s deep care and exceptional efforts for all children. All adults at Happy Valley are all engaged in the work we do to ensure our learners feel valued and included.
For many years, Happy Valley has been supported by an extraordinary Parent Advisory Council. This dedicated group of parents has provided exceptional experiences and opportunities for all children through their fundraising efforts, hot lunch programs and PAC sponsored events. Families appreciate the effort our PAC makes to support classroom activities, provide family events and to ensure all children are included. Each year, the PAC works with administration to ensure new families are welcomed. We are fortunate to have such a high level of parental engagement.
Our Learners
The students at Happy Valley are kind, friendly and appreciative. They show empathy toward others and are comfortable engaging with our staff. They are especially welcoming toward new people who arrive at our building. Guests, parents and TTOC’s frequently comment on our positive school culture and supportive school environment. We are proud of our students and their caring ways, and credit staff and families with their positive influence.
Our students are diverse learners who want to do well. As a school, we reference the importance of being “Kind and Safe”. All children are familiar with this language and the expectations associated with it. We are continuing to work with students at all grade levels on self-regulation and solving problems peacefully. Our school enjoys a split lunch break where our youngest children in K-2 play outside first, the entire school eats at the same time, and the oldest students in Grades 3-5 play after. For the past 5 years, we have implemented a separate Kindergarten recess in the morning, so that our youngest learners have an opportunity to practice interacting with same-aged peers in positive ways. This is supported by our entire staff and supervised by a rotation of teachers and Educational Assistants. It has become a valuable routine at Happy Valley.
Recent FSA data included a participation rate of 40.9% of our Grade 4 students. This is our largest grade level cohort at Happy Valley. These children will be our oldest students and leaders in the coming year.
65.9% demonstrated they were “on track” in Literacy and Numeracy.
31% demonstrated they were “emerging” in Literacy and Numeracy.
These results are slightly higher than the District and Provincial average. We acknowledge that this is snapshot data and does not include all Grade 4’s nor does it address other grade levels.
Happy Valley Kindergarten children participated in the RTI research study pilot this year, and notable progress was documented in terms of student’s abilities in phonological awareness.
Teacher evidence and report card data from June 2022 indicates that most students in K-5 are developing or proficient across curricular areas. This includes adaptations made for our students with Ministry Designations. Staff noted progress and growth overall in the final term of 2022. We are continuing to look at relevant indicators to better capture student progress.
- MyEdBC Analytics
- School Sourced Data
- SD62 Analytics Dashboard
- SSM-FESL-SD62
Families at Happy Valley frequently report to our staff that their children are happy at school and that they enjoy their learning.
Student Learning Survey responses from Grade 4 students indicated the following:
- 61% of students reported being happy at school all or many times
- 64.94% of students reporting feeling welcome at school all or many times
- Some staff and parent anecdotal feedback indicates that our school needs to work on diversity and equity (ie. increase teaching and appreciation for multicultural holidays; learn about the cultures of classmates, etc.)
Our Student Learning Survey of Grade 4 students indicated the following:
- 87.5% of students report feeling safe at school all or many times
- 62.28% of students report that they are learning about First Peoples at school sometimes or many times
- 48.05% of students report school is a place where they feel they belong all or many times.
Through our goal, we aim to increase the number of children who report that they feel belonging at school.
Our staff believe in the principles of “Universal Design for Learning”, and attempt to adapt environments and activities to best meet the needs of all learners in the classroom setting. It is ongoing work, and our school team approaches each child and their needs with a view to inclusion for all. At this time, 11.1% of our students are supported through Special Education Ministry Designations.
Our staff, PAC and students have identified an immediate need to address physical barriers to our play spaces for several children with mobility needs. This is part of inclusion work we have already started and will continue to develop next year. Our District and PAC support the need for inclusive and equitable play spaces, and we will be working together to create greater opportunities for all children to play together.
Focus and Planning
What focus(es) emerge as goals to pursue?
School Goal 1
To create a culture that welcomes, supports, and honours our diverse school community.
As a school community, we recognize that we need to undertake new learning related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to develop our school culture. This learning will be important for staff, families and students, and our action plan addresses all three of these groups. Students, staff and PAC have also identified a need to address physical barriers to our play spaces for several children with mobility needs.
Strategies and Actions:
- Engage staff in new learning related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
- School Planning Day session led by Dr. Gunderson on Sept. 1, 2022 for all staff.
- Invitation for staff to join Equity Team at monthly meetings. Equity team members currently include representation from teachers, CUPE and PVP.
- Equity Team sharing at monthly staff meetings (ideas, resources, successes)
- Collaborative time at monthly staff meetings to explore Equity themes
- Highlight District Multicultural calendar in weekly communications
- Use school-wide book “All Are Welcome” by Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman to create class inquiries through the “One Book” strategies (Fall 2022).
- Engage families in equity work through communication and raising awareness.
- Share learning activities and news in school newsletters.
- Invite participation in a welcome event for families to share our student representations of our inquiries based on “All are Welcome” (Fall 2022)
- Survey parents (Equity Team work)
- Engage students in new learning and encourage greater student voice and agency.
- Continue to have classes share the Territorial Acknowledgement on morning announcements
- Create a student “Equity in Action Team” in early 2023 to meet monthly
- Plan student-led activities for our school community
- Involve all classes in the “All Are Welcome” inquiries. Share with student and parent audience.
- Involve students in school-based survey and complete Student Equity survey in 2023
- Pursue possible opportunities to work with other school’s student teams throughout the Spring of 2023
How can the district support your goals?
Communication with ELL families.
Resource for multicultural calendar.
Support to create an inclusive and accessible outdoor play space.
Support for Capital requests to address a need for inclusive play spaces.
Resources.
Guidance and expertise to navigate our new learning.
Continuation of the work to provide metrics.
District offerings for teachers and staff related to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.
District offerings for teachers and staff related to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.
Reflect, Adjust, Celebrate
- School Sourced Data
- SD62 Analytics Dashboard
- Teacher Qualitative data
- Equity Data from School Planning Day (September 1, 2022)
- Core Competency Self Evaluation -Positive Personal and Cultural Identity (All Are Welcome)
- PAC feedback
- Student survey (to be administered to intermediate classes based on Equity survey)
- May 2022 Parent Equity Survey results and May 2023 Equity survey for students and parents
*We will measure our progress by seeing an increase in “sense of belonging” and greater engagement and involvement from our school community. We will be working with Dr. Gunderson to narrow our focus to set measurable targets following our School Planning Day work (September 1, 2022).
*To begin documenting following our September 1st School Planning Day