Grant
Alternative Program Review Update
number 2
We have only a few short weeks to get our message out. This newsletter focuses on the survey which is due Oct 22. Your responses to this survey will be the most important contribution you can make into this process.
Survey
The survey is out and you can find it by going to www.surveymonkey.com/APRElemStaff_Parents. It seems to only work if you copy it into your address space. Note that there is an underscore between staff and parents. You can access it from any computer including the school your children attend. The Board wants to know why you send your children to Grant, let’s tell them! We must fill them out or the Board staff will think we don’t care. Please complete your survey by Oct 22. Grant will be hosting a “Survey Completing Party” at
Some suggestions for comments in your survey:
- In your comments section, tell them the timelines are too short, that it is not enough time to review our program.
- In keeping with the Alternative philosophy, we think that our children should be consulted too but no one is asking them how they feel.
- Be disappointed that this survey can be hard for some people to complete especially those without easy access to a computer or families with limited English. The letter we got in the mail is very detailed and hard to understand. They will not likely go to the survey because they can’t even read the letter.
If you are from Grant you might also say:
1. We have been asking for our catchment area to be expanded to include former Carleton School Board families. They continue to be denied busing to access the Alternative Program.
2. Grant has had to fight to stay open for almost 10 years now and we have not had time to grow our school since we moved, another disruption will be devastating because it scares potential families away.
3. Grant meets all the criteria for a day care according to the Provincial guidelines yet we have been passed over, where is our day care?
4. Talk about the Wizard of Oz experience last year that combined all the best elements of the Alternative Program.
Survey 101: How to complete the survey so the Board will listen.
- be specific,
- refer to your own experiences as much as possible
- don’t be shy about being really enthusiastic
- use the language of Alternative:
a. multi age groupings (children mixed together to give them an opportunity to learn and support each other at different levels and from each other),
b. parental engagement (parents coming into the school to work on projects they initiate like Fun Fridays),
c. student-led conferences where the children identify their goals and tell their parents how they will achieve them by showing their work,
d. anecdotal reporting instead of assigning an arbitrary mark, teachers explain how your children are doing in a respectful and supportive way and include
e. intrinsic motivation is where our children learn from within and not for marks or other rewards
f. acceptance and integration of all children, our children recognises everyone’s special qualities
g. talk about no competition instead of cooperation because most schools think they believe in cooperation and say so but the difference is we do not believe in introducing competition into the mix at all. We want our children to learn from each other rather than compete against each other.
- talk about how children help each other, we have many children in the school with varying needs and how welcome they feel here
- make comments, they matter when the staff are analyzing the data
- when answering question number 29 think about how we offer choice with an Alternative program and how we recognise that children learn in different ways and so that is why we teach to all the senses and why art nurtures creativity and is so important in everything they learn
Other Great Links
Updates, questions or coments and for a listing of committees if you want to get more involved go to http://programreview.asac-ottawa.org
We also have a Facebook group, Alternative Schools in Ottawa: More Choices