Our Learning Story
Bankhead Elementary School (BHE) has a population of approximately 400 students who come from diverse backgrounds and stories. Our school growth plans have reflected a strong focus on social-emotional learning, as well as infusing 21st Century Attributes of a Learner (Learner, Thinker, Collaborator, Innovator and Contributor), inquiry based approaches alongside technology in all areas of the curriculum. We have in the past focused a considerable amount of attention to quantitative data, observation, and feedback that we gathered as educators from our students. Our basic beliefs have been that in order to strive towards academic excellence we must meet the basic needs of each student which may encompass nutrition, exercise, a sense of belonging, safety and feeling valued in our community. To that end BHE has, over the years, developed a number of strategies and supports to create the foundation for effective learning. Additional goals were also developed to focus on enhancing writing as a critical area of a child's educational experience.
We have worked diligently over the past several years to create a collaborative culture to view what we believe has been working successfully for our students and what we need to focus on to continue allowing our students to grow and thrive. During the 2015/16 school year, the district adopted a new model for communicating individual school growth to the community at large. Rather than setting goals and working to meet targets as in the past, the newly adopted model is more responsive to student needs as it begins with inquiring about what is happening for the learners and in turn, informs directions for the staff of the school. Specifically, the guiding question is asked, " What's going on for our learners?" Identified below is a brief visual of the implementation plan that was followed.
Additionally, the focus of the school year was to improve the Communication of Student Learning between staff, students and the parent community. Significant growth occurred in this area over the year and we strive to continually further develop in this area.
