This school year we are continuing our work in the Social Responsibility area, more specifically on the Kindness Umbrella - Kindness to self, to others and to place.

Student Learning Survey 2023

We have received our Student Learning Survey results from the spring of 2023.  In this survey, the Grade 4 and 7 students answered questions related to their well-being, their sense of belonging and kindness.

These were some of the results:

Almost 90% of the grade 4 students stated that they were happy all of the time, most of the time or some of the time to be at Diefenbaker School. (Kindness to self)

Almost 90% of the grade 4 students stated that they are learning to solve problems with others in a peaceful way all of the time, most of the time or some of the time. (Kindness to others)

Almost 90% of the grade 7 students stated that they are learning how to take care of the environment at Diefenbaker school all of the time, most of the time or some of the time. (Kindness to place)

Next steps:  

The Student Learning Survey results were limited to last year's Grade 4 and 7 students.  For this reason, we would like to ask students in all grades the following questions so we can keep track of our progress on making Diefenbaker a kind place to be!  We also have students new to the school in Kindergarten and Grade 6 Late French Immersion whose input we will need. 

• What are you learning about kindness?
• Why is learning about kindness important?
• Are there two adults at our school who believe that you will be successful at school

Once we collect the survey results from students in all grades, we will share this data with our staff and collaboratively determine our next steps for this school year as a staff.  Questions we would like to ask our staff would be:

What is going on for our learners?

Why does it matter? 

What are our strengths as a school?  

What should we focus on this year? 

Student voice 

We have also met with our Grade 6 and 7 Student Leadership team.  Student leaders voiced the kinds of initiatives that they feel we should be pursuing this year to give all students opportunities to practice and get better in showing kindness.

The student leadership team would like to do an ongoing school-wide kindness activities such as monthly bulletin boards about:

Kindness motivational quotes

What makes Diefenbaker great

Ways we can be green at Diefenbaker

Kindness facts

Rainbow message finger prints.

Student leaders also proposed to treat staff with snacks, water school gardens at lunch, give compliments days and many other creative ideas for all to give and receive kindness.