School Overview
École John Stubbs Memorial School (EJSMS) is situated on the traditional territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, and more specifically the Esquimalt Nation, and on land currently owned by the Canadian Department of National Defense. The school property shares a fence line with the Royal Roads University forest and is within walking distance to Esquimalt Lagoon and the Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre. Several upstairs classrooms of the school have views of the Juan de Fuca Straight, and they overlook the Olympic mountains and peninsula. Students and staff often hear hawks and eagles flying overhead, and sometimes the school has playground visits from the peacocks that belong to the university.
At EJSMS, there are currently 73 students who identify as indigenous, 37 of whom identify as non-status, and 27 who identify as Métis. We are grateful and privileged to have Métis Elder in Residence Kookum Jo-Ina as a valued member of our school community. Kokum Jo-Ina teaches us Métis language, traditional crafts and has the presence of a much-loved grandmother. Our school also has visits from role models from different First Nations, both local and from further away. They teach us about their traditions and language, allowing us to learn about our place’s history and support our work towards truth and reconciliation. Our teachers and students often use the Royal Roads University forest for lessons and walks. Our middle school offers an outdoor education program where over the course of three years, all students learn about nature, food sources and how to survive in the wilderness. Indigenous ways of knowing, land-based learning and play-based learning are a big part of the school’s evolving culture.
Our school motto is ‘Ensemble on peut tout faire’ or ‘Together we can do anything’. The tradition and culture of our school is one of kindness and service to others. Our older elementary and middle school students support the younger students by being big buddies, supporting them with learning new games and being role models, as math peer helpers, as reading buddies, and by connecting with kindergarten students to help them learn their French alphabet. As the younger children mature and grow, they in turn help other younger children.
EJSMS was built in 2007 and the school is a two-floor building with a u-shaped design. It has two wings, one for the Elementary School (Grade K-5) and one for the Middle School (Grades 6-8). The two schools share a Learning Commons space and administrative offices. In 2014, EJSMS became a single-track French immersion school hosting both an Early French Immersion Program (with Grade K and Grade 1 entry points) and a Late French Immersion Program (with a Grade 6 entry point). Spaces for both programs are determined by a district lottery system.
Our school is a strong community where children learn to be kind, help others and to become active and contributing citizens in their school and surrounding community, and parents play a key role in this work. EJSMS has a very strong and engaged Parent Advisory Council that fundraises and volunteer incredible amounts of time to help support the many field trips and activities that are organized by our staff at the school. They also play a key role in bringing the parent community together to foster togetherness and help support the good communication that exists between home and school at EJSMS.
Our Learners
Total school enrolment at École John Stubbs in the spring of 2023 is 810 students, with 497 students enrolled in our elementary school and 313 enrolled in our middle school. As our school has grown over the years, we have seen a growing diversity of learners registering in our program. As our population has grown from 176 students in 2016 to its current enrolment, it has come to reflect the increasing cultural and ethnic diversity of the wider western-communities area. Currently, there are 64 students in our school who are allophone, or who speak a language other than English or French at home. Based on our My Education BC data, there are 17 languages other than English and French spoken at home by members of our school community, with Russian, Spanish and Korean being the most common home language among these families. As a school community, we have identified a need to better recognize and celebrate the strength that diversity brings to our school community.
|
Language Spoken at Home |
Middle School Students |
|
Persian |
0 |
|
Arabic |
0 |
|
Turkish |
0 |
|
Chinese |
0 |
|
Mandarin |
1 |
|
Korean |
3 |
|
Portuguese |
2 |
|
Spanish |
4 |
|
Russian |
7 |
|
Tamil |
0 |
|
Japanese |
0 |
|
Tagalog |
2 |
|
Urdu |
1 |
|
Vietnamese |
1 |
|
Philippine |
1 |
|
Hindi |
1 |
|
Farsi |
1 |
*French is the language spoken at home for 1 student in middle school.
With growth, our school population has also seen an increase in the complexity of student learning needs. In our elementary school, 8% of our students have a Ministry of Education and Child Care designation, the majority of which (40%) are severe to moderate behavior designations. In our middle school, 15% of our students have designations, the majority of which (45%) are severe to moderate behavior designations. Most designations in this category are related to mental health. As a result, staff have identified classroom-based and school-wide social emotional learning as a focus area for our school plan. We know that our students do well when they feel cared for, safe and welcome at school and, as a school, we have been building resources and teacher skills to deliver improved programming and supports for our students. In classrooms, teachers have quiet corners, self-regulation posters, and they model breathing and coping strategies as part of their daily practice. Recognizing that some students need additional and more diverse supports to be ready for learning, our Inclusive Support Team works collaboratively with classroom teachers to identify students who benefit from small group and one-to-one supports to help them grow and learn in their understanding of their needs and what strategies work for them.
In 2021-2022, staff anecdotal observations indicated that prolonged student absences from school due to the COVID-19 pandemic had led to an overall drop in students’ French language skills. Our staff feel that students require additional support to help re-develop their French oral language skills and vocabulary lost during their extended absences from the French-speaking classroom environment. Universal classroom strategies to support our students with their oral French skills, as well as targeting supplementary supports for struggling learners in small group and one-to-one sessions, has yielded some positive results but there is still work to be done.
- MyEdBC Analytics
- School Sourced Data
- SD62 Analytics Dashboard
Focus and Planning
What focus(es) emerge as goals to pursue?
School Goal 1
To further develop a learning environment that is culturally responsive where learners feel welcome, cared for, have a strong sense of belonging, and see themselves represented in the school community while learning in French.
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Increase the variety of culturally responsive books in classrooms and the Learning Commons.
- Involve students, parents and staff in bringing culturally responsive events and celebrations to classrooms and school assemblies to honor all students and their families.
- In morning announcements in the student-led ‘Jagzone,’ plan culturally responsive information sharing and learning.
- Create and extend clubs such as a multi-cultural leadership club, dance clubs, sports clubs, art clubs, friendship club, rainbow club, etc. to enhance our current offerings and support more children.
- Develop assembly programming where students are centered in the event and have an opportunity to be recognized and celebrated.
- To celebrate and demonstrate why we value speaking and learning the French language in our schools in more visible ways, and put supports in place to help students grow their confidence in learning oral French.
School Goal 2
To further our students’ understanding and respect for our local indigenous cultures and those represented within our community of learners.
- Teach the ‘why’ behind the territorial acknowledgement and support students in learning a common one to recite as a community.
- Support students in developing their own land acknowledgements to share in class meetings, announcements and assemblies.
- Invite students and staff to re-envision assemblies to be more aligned to Indigenous Principles of Learning.
- Collaborate with our Na’tsa’mat Indigenous educator to plan for more opportunities for hands-on learning with local indigenous artists and knowledge keepers.
- create excitement and connection moving forward and appreciation for what is around us with the weaving of the seven sacred teachings and Salish Moons into our school calendar for year-round exploration.
How can the district support your goals?
- Help our school connect with guest speakers who could speak at assemblies about the important cultural or religious events throughout the year
- Gather detailed data about diverse backgrounds across our district and by school. Share with schools.
- Prepare a year-calendar that identifies the important cultural dates for our diverse community members.
- Add to the signs in our school by adding Local Language. Either Lekwungen, Sencoten or Metis. This needs to be clarified with NIE dept.
- UDL Planning for inclusion for all students.
- Professional Development around restorative practices.
- Teacher/EA/PVP professional development around Competency Based IEPS.
- Continue to support our Metis Elder Kookum and other role models.
- Professional development regarding Territorial Acknowledgements so that we can teach our students to create their own.
- Support staff with strengthening our relationship with the nations with whom we work.
- Present the results of the Student Learning Survey to our staff to further our school planning.
- Provide training for staff regarding anti-racism and inclusion for all. This should include a trauma-informed lens.
- Provide professional development related to creating a more inclusive classroom environment and planning more inclusive lessons.
- Support acquisition of resources and guest speakers to further develop our understanding as educators regarding diversity and inclusion and recognizing micro-aggression and racism.
- Provide focused development on topics that support our school to de-colonize classrooms and school events, and develop inclusive and culturally sensitive practices.
Provide support for our school to create strategies and activities that become part of our school's cultural growth towards a more inclusive learning environment.
Help our school find guest speakers to develop our understanding of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Reflect, Adjust, Celebrate
- MyEdBC Analytics
- School Sourced Data
- SD62 Analytics Dashboard
- SSM-FESL-SD62
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The school will increase its selection of culturally responsive literature available to students in classrooms and the Learning Commons.
- Share more about what is happening in the school to celebrate culture and diversity on an ongoing basis rather than during specific events or times of the year. We will be seeking feedback from families as well.
- Look at the data related to the amount of French being spoken in the school, and work with staff to co-create strategies to enhance the amount of French being spoken in our classrooms during instructional time.
- Include more student voice and artifacts in our future school plan documents.
- Increase in students taking up strategies independently that work for reducing anxiety and stress at school, and a shift in our staff’s responses to student needs in this regard.
- Sharing the school goal and revisiting goals collaboratively.
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Work on continuing to encourage staff and students to take the risk and challenge themselves either in groups or individually to recognize the territory.
- Taking the acknowledgement a step further and incorporating some of the local language in the acknowledgement is a step that we would like to encourage this fall.
- Sharing more of the work that we are doing at the school level to support truth and reconciliation with parents and the community at large.
- Student learning survey results.
- Sharing the school goal and revisiting goals collaboratively.
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- Over the course of this school year, the school has increased its selection of culturally responsive literature available to students in classrooms and the Learning Commons significantly. The increased diversity of reading materials brought with it increased scrutiny by members of the community.
- Our objective in the coming year is to share more about what is happening in the school to celebrate culture and diversity on an ongoing basis rather than during specific events or times of the year. We will be seeking feedback from families as well.
- Looking at the data related to the amount of French being spoken in the school, and knowing how critical oral language development is to growth in reading skills, we will work with staff to co-create strategies to enhance the amount of French being spoken in our classrooms during instructional time while still honouring home language and identity.
- Seeing the data that relates to belonging, feeling cared for and feeling safe, we will engage in some focused interviews with students to determine what we can do as a school to improve. We hope to include more student voice and artifacts in our future school plan documents.
- We have seen a great increase in students taking up strategies independently that work for reducing anxiety and stress at school, and a shift in our staff’s responses to student needs in this regard. We will work to keep up this great work.
- Sharing the school goals and revisiting them at each or every second staff meeting will be a very important piece of enacting the plan. We work really well as a community at John Stubbs and creating time and space to work on goals collaboratively reaps great benefits for both students and staff alike.
- Students at EJSMS are very respectful and thoughtful when they witness an adult or students giving a land acknowledgement. We will work on continuing to encourage staff and students to take the risk and challenge themselves either in groups or individually to recognize the territory.
- Taking the acknowledgement a step further and incorporating some of the local language in the acknowledgement is a step that we would like to encourage this fall.
- Sharing more of the work that we are doing at the school level to support truth and reconciliation with parents and the community at large is another area that we hope to focus on this fall. While students and individuals who work in the education system have had extensive opportunities to learn, our families are still emergent learners and education helps everyone move forward.
- Student voice and what experiences are meaningful to them, what they wish to learn more about should be included in these plans. Every year when we do student learning surveys, we seem to have to remind students what they did with our Na’tsa’maht educators. Once we do, they can’t tell us enough about how much they enjoyed the learning. National Indigenous Peoples Day and the celebration at Royal Roads was a highlight of the year for many students.