School Goal One
Given the relationship between long-term success and social emotional wellness, we will look to provide opportunities for students to understand, advocate for, and manage their wellness through a school wide, strength-based program.
If students have the strategies and support to positively affect their social & emotional well-being, will we see an increase in attendance, engagement, completion, and self-reports of positive well-being?
What Do we Know About ALL Learners:
Students with strong social-emotional skills including positive mental health is a prediction of long-term life outcomes such as stable employment, graduation from high school, completion of post-secondary and improved mental wellness in adulthood (Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, UBC Education, 2020). Establishing inclusive, caring, respectful, and safe learning environments plays a vital role in enhancing the mental health and well-being of students, staff, and families. Positive mental health is sense of emotional well-being that respects the importance of culture, equity, social justice, interconnections and personal dignity (Public Health Agency of Canada). Prioritizing positive mental health and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) cultivates learning environments that embrace and uplift all students. In inclusive, caring, respectful and safe learning environments:
- Positive and healthy relationships are nurtured.
- School staff collaborates with community partners to ensure students' safety and well-being.
- Students feel cared for by adults, both collectively and individually.
- Clear, consistent, and regularly communicated expectations are set for academics and behavior.
- Strategies for mental health promotion and social-emotional learning are woven into classroom instruction and school-wide activities.
- Comprehensive support is extended to students affected by inappropriate behavior and those engaged in such conduct.
- Students demonstrating unacceptable behavior receive fair and appropriate consequences, accompanied by supportive measures.
What Do We Know About ALL INDIGENOUS Learners?
Recognizing the unique circumstances, challenges, and opportunities faced by Indigenous peoples and communities, we acknowledge that many mental health challenges encountered by these populations are deeply rooted in historical and intergenerational trauma, socio-economic disparities, and discrimination stemming from the detrimental effects of residential schools and day schools. The resulting impacts extend to the mental health, well-being, and socio-economic, as well as educational outcomes of Indigenous students. There is an urgent need for collective action and accountability to address the profound harm inflicted on Indigenous peoples by Canada.
At Stelly's, our core belief is that, given appropriate support and opportunities, all learners can attain success. The key to learner success lies in fostering a culturally safe, compassionate, and inclusive learning community that actively cultivates strong relationships among every member of our school community, including students, staff, and families.
What Do We Know About OUR Learners?
Provincially, there has been a decline in the self-reporting of positive mental health. In the McCreary Centre Society survey (2018), 73% of grade 10-12 students across the province rated their mental health as good or excellent (2023 provincial results are not yet available). Over the last 3 years, provincial, Saanich, and Stelly’s Student Learning Survey data show a different picture of student mental health:
The 2023 McCreary survey results indicate that 40% of Saanich School district students in grades 7-12 rate their mental health as poor or fair (60% report positive mental health). Additionally, the majority of students experienced at least a little happiness, as well as stress, and despair. In the month before taking the survey:
- 66% felt happy most or all of the time, and 1% never felt happy.
- 88% experienced at least a little stress, including 15% who were so stressed they could not function properly.
- 66% experienced some level of despair, including 9% who felt so sad, hopeless or discouraged that they wondered if anything was worthwhile.
Additionally, the 2023 McCreary survey for Saanich School district detailed:
- an increase in youth mental health conditions, specifically Anxiety Disorders or panic attacks, Depression, PTSD, and ADHD,
- 24% of students reported missing classes in the past month because of mental health challenges (e.g., depression, anxiety) (an increase from 16% in the 2018 results), and
- 20% were too anxious or depressed in the past year to participate in extracurricular activities (up from 14% in the 2018 survey).
Our student learning survey results, the district’s McCreary survey results, and our anecdotal evidence collected from focus groups and individual empathy interviews at Stelly’s show a need for SEL programming.
At Stelly’s, we continue to see an increase in students struggling with attendance due to a lack of wellness. Additionally, we regularly have students referred to outside agencies such as Integrated Mobile Crisis Response Team (IMCRT), Discovery, Child & Youth Mental Health (CYMH), Indigenous Child and Youth Mental Health (ICYMH) and outside counsellors above the significant utilization of Stelly’s counsellors.
Positive mental health and overall well-being of students, staff and families is the keystone to learner success. SEL is an integral part of student mental health and wellness that can cultivate protective factors against mental health risks. Within a culturally safe, respectful, and inclusive learning community, the prevalence SEL education can provide the foundation for ALL learners to be successful.
This goal and focused inquiry questions align directly to our strategic priority in Mental Health and Wellness. Additionally, our intended approaches are deeply connected to the First Peoples Principles of Learning.
Self Reported Positive Mental Health Grades 10 & 12
Stelly's Student Surveys - Collective Data
First Peoples Principles of Learning
The Social Emotional Wellness Goal needs to ensure that:
- Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits and the ancestors.
- Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place).
- Learning recognizes the role of Indigenous knowledge.
- Learning requires exploration of one’s identity.
- Learning involves recognizing that some knowledge is sacred and only shared with permission and/or in certain situations.
In discussing all the components of social emotional healthy schools, we can consider the Tier 1 aspects that are outlined in School Mental Health Ontario’s “Aligned & Integrated Model (AIM)”.
Welcome – Social & Physical Environments. At Stelly’s, we:
- Spend the first week of each new semester focusing on classroom culture and relationships within our classrooms.
- Have increased the number of social tables in common areas around the school for students to sit at during break and lunch
- Have Mug-up every Friday which includes a fun, friendly staff competition that usually occurs in the hallway for students to enjoy themselves and laugh with us as we believe that a happy staff means happy students.
Include – Student Engagement & Belonging. At Stelly’s:
- We offer a Social Leadership class that organizes and runs fun events for the student body (ie, School Spirit Assemblies, Friday Fun Days, Spirit Weeks, Fill-the-Hive Food Drive, Kindness Drive for holiday hampers)
- We host numerous clubs and teams that provide a space of belonging for many students (ie, GSA club, BIPOC club, Social Justice Club, Culture Club, Book Club, Gardening Club, Paddling Club, Model United Nations Club, Dungeons & Dragons Club, Textile Arts Club, Chess Club).
- We have an Elder in Residence that is present in our Cultural Room and our school.
- We arere completing the renovations to move the Cultural Room to the front of the school to mark its presence and importance in our school.
- We spend extra time and resources focussing on a positive transition into high school with grade 8 visits for a day in May/June, offer a TRAILS program for a selection few that might need an extended transition period, student summer tours in August, student leadership phone calls to welcome new students to Stelly’s, have just grade 9s on the first day back in September, and have staff (ISTs, counsellors, admin) do transition meetings with their Bayside counterparts to discuss student who might need more support than typical.
Understand – Mental Health Literacy & Knowing your Students. At Stelly’s
- We have begun developing a systems approach to SEL that is planned to be implemented in the 2024/2025 school year.
- In our October & November staff meetings each year, we complete a Relationship Mapping activity with the entire staff to identify which grade 9 students might not yet have a positive staff relationship and then we undergo process to make this happen. We also come back to this list at the beginning of the next school year to determine which students as grade 10s do not have a positive staff connection.
Promote – Curriculum, Teaching & Learning. At Stelly’s:
- Our Physical & Health Education (PHE) teachers as well as our Career Life Education (CLE) 10 and Career Life Connections (CLC) teachers continue to provide learning opportunities around the health and well-being components of the curriculum.
- We employ three counsellors (1.5 FTE) and a full-time Youth and Family Counsellor (YFC) who work collaboratively to support our student body.
Partner – Home, School, Community Partnerships. At Stelly’s:
- We have begun to have a Welcome Back BBQ at the beginning of each year to invite parents and students into the school.
- We will be having a course selection evening in the TSARTLIP Community to assist our Indigenous families with guiding their children with the course selection progress and graduation planning.
- We have developed a long-term partnership with Human Nature Counselling that works with a small group of students each year to use nature and relationship-building to connect these students to staff members at our school.
- We have great professional relationships with and make referrals to community partners such as IMCRT, High Risk Team (VIHA), CYMH, Discovery and other external organizations.
Over the 2023-24 year, we will track progress on our initiatives identified in this year’s plan. And, specifically:
- Class profile meeting - bi-annual review of academic and SEL strengths and stretches with Inclusion support team (IST, counselor, admin, ELS, SLP, Psychologist, Literacy intervention) to guide term to term interventions in the area of SEL and support using the 3 tiers of intervention model and track and adjust over the year;
- Report card: data from previous year and current year to observe the work habits and growth mindset (resilience to difficult tasks);
- Teacher capacity - Through PRO-D and Lunch/Learn - Increase in teacher competency in the area of SEL and regular targeted instruction of strategies (modeling) with students, increase use of common language in the area of SEL;
- Teacher observations - increase in student awareness of applying strategies, increase academic readiness, increase motivation, increase resilience and perseverance; and
- Student Empathy interviews/ Survey- base line on mental wellness, strategies to that are used to persevere through tasks and be resilient.
Summary learning, based on evidence gathered over the year, will provide us with key learnings to guide next steps for the 2024-25 school year and beyond.
