Core Support:Extra TIme and Escorted Intervention

Extra Time Group

Some of our students do their best to keep up with the day to day demands of school but find doing so very stressful.  To assist them we have created a support that provides them with a block every other day where they can work with a staff member to keep up with their assignments.  The group size is small and does not exceed five students.  The adult presence with the group is very important to provide the students with feedback as they as completing assignments.  This removes anxiety for them and allows them to feel prepared for upcoming classes.

Escorted Intervention

As much as it pains me to say this, some of our students choose not to hand in major summative assignments.  By not handing work in students are opting out of learning.  The school cannot allow this to happen.  In the past the classroom teacher would hunt the student down and try to get the work from them.  If they didn't see the student the period before lunch the student could get out of the building before they were found.

To ensure assignment completion we are piloting a program called Escorted Intervention with our Grade 9's.  Teachers refer students to the administration who have not handed in summative assignments.  Those students are picked up from the classrooms by myself or an Assistant Principal and taken to the Den where the students remain for the entire lunch hour while they complete the work.  It is up to the student to have a lunch which they can eat while they work.  I check to see that the work the student has done is worth of being graded and the students then submit the work to their teacher.  The teacher then removes the student from the Intervention list.

Our twoEscorted Intervention sessions were a rousing success with eight missing assignments being handed in for assessment and another seven close to completion.  Intervention is a beautiful thing.

New: Core Learning Support Program Starts at Woodhaven On Tuesday, January 11

Woodhaven Middle School is committed to helping our kids achieve high school completion and more training or education beyond that.  That goal has been coined 'High School +' by Mike Mattos, the author of the book shown above.  For the past five years I have been asking the teachers to take sole responsibility for the learning of their students.  I am proud of our staff.  They have done everything in their power to help our students get over the bar.  In fact, we are recognized in Provincial Accountability Documents as a high functioning school who does extremely well academically as measured by Provincial Achievement Tests.

Despite this we know that 15% of our kids don't pass those tests.  Our staff agrees that level of failure is unacceptable and does not meet the mission of the school.  We were determined to do something about it.  Over the next three days I will be outlining three strategies we will be employing to assist our kids/your kids.

Why three strategies... well there are multiple reasons students are not successful.  We are attempting to address three primary reasons students cannot meet expectations.  The strategies I will discuss are:
               1.  Core Skill Support
               2.  Supported Extra Time, and
               3.  Escorted Intervention.

If you have any questions about our Core Support Program please contact either myself or Mrs. Gericke at the school.