Inspired by Frere Antoine, a hardworking loving Oblate priest who was dedicated to helping others, our charism is to follow his example of “Living fully in Christ, through a life of service”. Through various engagements, students, staff and families will have opportunities for community engagement guided by the question: As one of God's children, how can you make a difference? Every grade level will coordinate a social justice project or school activity, for their grade or the whole school, that will empower students to experience or reflect upon the impact of their initiative and their ability to make a difference. The projects will be shared through our newsletter, and media accounts as well as the Division's Social Justice Report.

Reading is a fundamental skill that influences our learners’ success in every other subject area. “The Simple View of Reading may be eloquently distilled into foundational terms, but that doesn’t imply that the process of reading is easy or simplistic. Reading and the process of acquiring literacy, is not a natural or simple process, but a complex restructuring of the brain to engineer novel pathways for the unnatural task of literacy to be achieved.” Hollis Scarborough. Based on class performance we are focusing on phonemic and phonics skills in both French and English to continue to build our students’ reading skills. Within the Covid context which has affected our students’ learning environment for over a year and to varying degrees, we recognise that students would benefit form a variety of universal social and emotional learning (SEL) experiences. “SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.” CASEL We strive to identify common areas in which many of our students require support and provide opportunities to help our students building their SEL skills. Example of such areas could include self-awareness and social identities, self-management, executive function skills, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making.

At EFA staff have enriched their pedagogy by participating in a series of Community of Practice sessions called "Five Pillars of Reading". Staff will continue to engage in professional learning related to the science of reading in both English and French languages.

Our school staff, École Frère Antoine School Council (EFA SC) and École Frère Antoine Fundraising Association (EFA FA) endeavor to respond to our school communities’ needs through council and parent engagement meetings. When the ECSD Satisfaction and Provincial Assurance surveys are released we will focus on responding to parental perceptions and explore ways to have parents meaningfully engaged in their child’s learning.

Growing in Faith -Each grade level has coordinated the year’s celebrations with social justice projects. Students will be guided to reflect on the question: As one of God's children, how can you make a difference? For Thanksgiving grade 2 collected over $1500 of grocery gift cards and perishables for St Theresa’s Parish Food Bank. Due to COVID there will be an alternating Student Union, (aka conseil d’élèves). October and November had 23 dedicated Gr 6 volunteers. They helped deliver the perishables, created and organized crafts and games for Halloween and All Saints Day. They also created the Remembrance Day bulletin board and hallway poster to remind us of the “Je me souviens” theme and to keep others in our prayers. A new grade 5 committee will plan December and January activities including several social justice projects before Christmas. Student Success - Literacy screeners permitted assessment and identification of GR 2 to 6 students who require literacy support that will focus on building phonemic and phonic skills. Many supports are universal through whole class instruction, and small group sessions within the classroom. We have implemented a short term intervention program for GR 2 and 3 students identified by the literacy screeners to build French decoding skills and in GR 3 for English skills. We implemented Empower Reading, a robust year long program for students who have had a few years of English phonemic and phonic skills instruction, continue to struggle in Reading and meet screening guidelines. GR 4 to 6 students completed a Mental Health survey. The results demonstrate a very high confidence (88 -98%) of feeling safe, being accepted for who they are, understanding they play an active role and recognising that they are supported by all the adults in their lives. Girl Power, a club designed for GR 6 girls, is extremely well attended. To continue to support all our students’ mental health we have a ‘Collab’ time once a week whereby grade levels rotate between Social Emotional Learning sessions (SEL) and Music Liturgy. Music Liturgy will also incorporate social justice issues for the older grades. Music and spirituality also supports our students’ mental health. From September to mid November the SEL focus has been on Expressing Emotions and Feelings with Gr 1 & 2, and Self-Awareness with Gr 3 to 6. Self-Awareness Before the end of November the SEL lessons will focus on developing a Growth MindSet (Train your brain & I can’t yet!) with involvement from the homeroom teachers. The next SEL theme will focus on Social Awareness with the gr 1 to 3. Artist in Residence provided an engaging experience in learning about Indigenous culture and providing an artistic outlet for our students. An Excellent Place to Learn - Staff engage in professional learning related to interpreting screening data, and the science of reading in both English and French language. Staff attend professional development opportunities that meet their needs to build their professional knowledge base. Building Our Future Together - Staff have shared strategies to encourage parents to follow their child’s learning through PowerSchool. Newsletters provide instructions and video tutorials have been emailed to parents to help navigate the grading portal in PowerSchool. Parents of GR 4 to 6 students will be surveyed regarding their child's participation in a possible Physical Education ski activity on Dec 16th. On November 19th parents are invited to join a nationally recognized program called Kids4Kids Anti Bullying information session by Scott Graham, sponsored by EFA’s School Council. EFA SC has met three times, welcomed new parents to support school initiatives, advised on questions put forward by EFA’s administration and discussed how to help our community connect. EFA SC implemented community building initiatives such as birthday cards to recognise each child, a halloween guesstimating game, they also are preparing a survey for parents.

Growing in Faith -Each grade level has coordinated the year’s celebrations with social justice projects. Students will be guided to reflect on the question: As one of God's children, how can you make a difference? December was a month to help warm the hearts and bodies of others. Kinder collected hats & scarves that were presented on a paper plate representing their smiling faces. Gr 1 collected socks for the Hope Mission, Gr 3 coordinated for the remaining grades and collected over 2 cubic meters of hats & mittens for St Elizabeth and St Theresa Calcutta’s students. Gr 4 coordinated a daily Diversity Challenge for students over the end of January which focused on getting to know each other's uniqueness then flowed into Black History Month coordinated by the Assistant Principal and gr 6 teachers. Gr 5 & 6 also had a guest speaker “Ma culture et ‘RESPAIX’”, the latter word is an amalgamation of respect and peace. Student Success - A variety of literacy screeners were used again to identify and track growth with Kinder to Gr 6 students. We are continuing with a small group intervention program for Gr 2 and 3 students as in November that will focus on building phonemic and phonic skills, and Gr 4 as of the end of February, focusing on comprehension and fluidity. Many supports are universal through whole class instruction, and small group sessions within the classroom. We continue with Empower Reading, a robust year long program for a few gr 3 to 6 students who have had a few years of English phonemic and phonic skills instruction however continue to struggle in Reading and meet screening guidelines. Kindergarten and Gr 1 students' mathematical skills were also assessed with a standardized screener, which will be repeated in May. The majority of students are supported in class through teachers’ diversified bank of strategies and scaffolded lessons. Guy’s Group, a club designed for pre-pubescent Gr 6 boys, is extremely well attended. We continue to support all our students’ mental health with a ‘Collab’ time once a week which we have renamed SEL (Social Emotional Learning) and Music Liturgy. Grades 1 to 3 SEL also includes a mindfulness and breathing component through yoga. Music and spirituality also support our students’ mental health; the focus has been on how each is unique in God’s eyes. With grade 1 to 3 the skills of Self-Management will be concluded in February (skills of self-regulation, mindfulness, handling difficult things, personal safety, and impulse control). SEL sessions focused on developing a Growth Mindset (Train Your Brain & I Can’t yet!) will commence by March. Starting in February and continuing in March the SEL focus will be on Self-Management skills with grades 4 to 6 will include topics identifying their personal triggers or cues of emotional discomfort or stress, understanding that we all experience stress, exploring a wide variety of calming strategies, ‘Mindful Me’ strategies and positive self-talk. Growth Mindset skills in these grades were explored in November with their homeroom teachers. The next two SEL themes are Relationships and Responsibility. An Excellent Place to Learn - Teaching staff engage in professional learning related to interpreting screening data, and the science of reading in both English and French language. The focus has been on- building vocabulary and honing reading comprehension strategies. As a staff we participated in two EDIAR sessions to build . Staff attend professional development opportunities that meet their needs to build their professional knowledge base. Building Our Future Together - EFA School Council has participated in an EDIAR and ECSD Assurance Survey. EFA SC have met twice, prepared and posted to our parents a School Council and EFA FA survey which closes early-February. They have also developed 5 videos for Kindness Challenges culminating on Feb 14th which the student body enjoyed and took to heart.