Alain-Fortin Elementary School (2023)

  1. PLC Story
  2. PLC Practices
  3. Achievement Data
  4. Awards
  5. Resources

Our success story
École élémentaire catholique Alain-Fortin

In 2019, the staff at l’école élémentaire Alain-Fortin (AF) of the conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est (CECCE), decided it was time for a change. Because of the slow decline in our students' achievement data, the team decided that we needed to do more in order to make sure that no child was left behind. The vision and mission in conjunction with a positive school culture needed to be more focused. The school results were well below the province's and district school board's average. We were a school in crisis. The students were falling behind at every turn. We started by changing school culture. The school needed stronger, consistent collaborative teams to rebuild our pedagogy to ensure our students' success.  Before, the results were left more to chance rather than to being monitored, analyzed by our pedagogical collaborative teams. The school needed to become a better PLC by design.

First step in our journey: Building a positive school culture
We were committed to being more positive and inclusive in our collaboration. In the beginning, in our bi-weekly collaborative teams, which were composed of teachers and educators of the same grade level, we talked about mindset, ours and the kids’.  We co-planned our interventions in regards to better our positive and inclusive approach in order for all faculty to feel safe in their respective teams.  The ultimate goal for this aspect of our journey was to create a safe and secure environment for the staff to be able to share their biggest challenges, fears and to take risks in sharing this with their colleagues, this was our new mindset.  We started by opening our classroom doors, breaking down the walls in order to profit from everyone's strengths. This unified vision of what our positive school culture is: Croire que tout est possible. Believing that everything is possible. And this statement allowed us to then concentrate on the important aspects of our students' achievements: their strengths and their challenges.  As well, we started working on our pedagogical practices in order to build our capacity as educators and focus on becoming more efficient in our teachings.

Second step in our journey: Building a positive school culture and collaborative teams
As a united team and a solid plan, we started to finally feel more liable to these kids and to our profession. The beginning of our new collaborative teams were taking shape. Relevant data and monitoring were now guiding our decisions. Our results slowly started to increase and we knew why. Even through different challenges that we faced: very low scores, 16% of our students being special needs, even Covid, our focus never failed. We wanted our students to succeed and we were determined to make sure that no kids were left behind. 


 

In 2023, four years into our journey, we went from being one of the schools having the worst results, to a school beating all odds; poor achievement, low school attendance, low engagement from students for school success…  Our scores are now above and beyond the province’s and the school board's averages in reading, writing and math in both grade 3 and grade 6 in the provincial testing. This means our students are succeeding.  Our most powerful tools were the five questions that guided our conversations, formally in our collaborative teams and informally, every time we spoke about a student's challenges.  

  1. What do we want our students to know, understand, do?

  2. How will we know and how will they know that they have succeeded?

  3. How can we help the students that still seem to struggle?

  4. How can we challenge our students that seem to already master the concepts?

  5. What professional and pedagogical practices have the most impact and why?

We recognized that as professionals in education, we cannot stand on our own, we need to collaborate to ensure every child’s success. Pedagogical leadership is a shared obligation. The plan is a good one! We now share common core values, common goals, high expectations while offering high support. Everyone is on the bus and we are on route to assured success.

Third step in our journey: Becoming an effective PLC
Over the past four years, l'École élémentaire catholique Alain-Fortin has become a more effective PLC. Our collaborative teams doubled efforts, our engagements to students' success is stronger than ever, our SMART goals  ensure the success of every student has resulted in improvements in all subjects. Academic alignment in all subjects is non-negotiable. If you work at our school, you are expected to use these tools that are aligned for all teachers.
 

  1. Lead teachers are identified and they facilitate our “in house” professional development plan. Teachers observe and learn from one another. They co-plan, co-teach and co-evaluate all the students of the same grade. They are our students not my students. The data wall belongs to everyone on the collaborative team. 

  2. We make it a priority to identify the best practices and strategies based on collected data. Among our best strategies for learning, we identified 2 that are very effective and allow quick results: frequent structured practices reinvested daily and break up sessions for students (to be implemented next year). A variety of intervention clinics are offered to all students in need in every grade level. 

  3. The collaborative groups of teachers demonstrate creative teaching through differentiated instruction.

  4. At the end of every learning bloc, an alignment meeting is called to all collaborative teams to meet and discuss students' learning. Teachers will go from one team to the other, especially before and after grade level (for example a grade 2 teacher would consult grades 1 and 3). And we all ask 3 questions: What are we doing right? What are the essential learnings we need to work on more? What could we be doing better?

All students belong to every teacher. The success of the students therefore belongs to our team of teachers since they all play a role in the student's success.
 

Our values

Respect, responsibility, integrity, pride

Our vision

Believing that everything is possible

Believing in student success

Believing in personal development

Our mission

Our students will be…

  • lifelong learners

  • be passionate

  • be risk takers

  • be able to problem-solve and think critically

  • be able to look at things differently

  • be able to work independently and with others

  • be creative

  • be good citizens

  • be persistent

  • be honest and have self-respect

  • be resilient

  • be able to communicate

  • be happy

Our school’s SMART goal

Because of the new Math curriculum in Ontario, we focused our priority on Mathematics. 


  1. By the end of the 2022-2023 school year, 88% of the students from grades 1 through 6 will achieve a Level 3 (provincial norm) in math.

Every student at our school is successful because of our rigorous work in our collaborative teams and our focus on every single student in our school. We can honestly say that our school culture has never been better, that our vision is  clearer to make sure that no child is left behind. We are very proud of our journey and we never forget to celebrate our success.

 

Systems implemented at AF to provide additional time and support

  1. Improvement plan

    1. focused on the essential teachings of literacy and numeracy

  2. High achievement committees in all school priorities (suspended during Covid)

    1. meetings every quarter to analyze our school data 

  3. PLC design

    1. rigorous schedule for the collaborative teams to allow same grade level teachers to meet approximately every 2-3 weeks within the school day.  FSL and resource teachers attend some meetings as well.  Principals attend all meetings.  At these meetings, teachers choose a particular learning outcome, write common summative assessments, analyze data collected from formative assessments as well as discuss best practices and strategies.  We start with the end in mind and plan accordingly.  What are the best strategies to get them all there?  What are the best high impact pedagogical practices that will get them there and which one had the greatest impact?

Building teachers capacity to work as members of high performing collaborative teams that focus efforts on improved learning for all students.

Alain-Fortin now uses the same design for more effective collaborative teams and better student’s results as in my two last schools,  l’école Arc-en-ciel (AEC) and l'école Bernard-Grandmaître (BG). Also, at Alain-Fortin, we have common beliefs that are the core of our design. We agree that school culture is powerful and can make or break the faculty's effectiveness and well-being. It is important to return to and repeat our school's core values and vision regularly. The emphasis is put upon a growth mindset where errors are seen as opportunities of growth every day. We also have to work harder to boost our students’ resilience, mindset and growth. AF staff also believe that the expectation where all students can learn at a high level but also comes with high support from all the adults in the building. The tracking and monitoring of all students’ learning is a crucial part of the learning. It gives us a lot of knowledge on what and how we need to teach. It gives us guidelines and shifts our focus in the right direction. In our collaborative teams, there is an expectation that each teacher identifies the learning needs of each student in relation with the learning outcomes that have been set. This information is shared with them in order to identify the best strategies to help each student. By using student data to set our SMART goals, teachers have increasingly high and realistic expectations for our students. Teachers hold each other accountable and help each other to achieve these goals. These collective efforts make École élémentaire catholique Alain-Fortin, an effective Professional Learning Community. It is our belief that  we make better decisions and have a greater impact on every child’s success in schools by using this design.

Lucille Plante
Direction école élémentaire Alain-Fortin

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

Systems implemented at AF to provide additional time and support:

  1. Strategic imporovement plan in literacy and numeracy: We keep the focus on what is essential for students success.

  2. High achievement committees in all school priorities: We need to meet every quarter to analyze our school data (to be implemented next year)

  3. PLC model: A schedule for collaborative meetings was set up to allow same grade level teachers to meet approximately every 2-3 weeks within the school day. FSL and resource teachers attend most meetings. Principals attend all meetings. At these meetings, teachers choose a particular learning outcome, write common summative and formative assessments, analyze data collected from formative assessments as well as discuss best practices and strategies. We start with the end in mind and plan accordingly. All of our courses are guided by these 5 questions:

What do we want our students to learn?

How will we know?  How will they know?

What do we do with students that already know? How do we engage the student that already know the concepts?

What do we do with students who are struggling? How do we help the students that still struggle with the concepts?

What are the best strategies to get them all there?  What are the best high impact pedagogical practices will get them there and which one had the greatest impact?

Our SMART goals and data walls are clear and displayed for everyone’s ownership.

  1. Lead teachers are identified and they facilitate our “in house” professional development plan. Teachers observe and learn from one another. They co-plan, co-teach and co-evaluate all the students of the same grade. They are our students not my students.

  2. Among our effective strategies for learning, we have identified 2 that are very effective and allow quick results: speed teaching and break up sessions for students (to be implemented next year). 

  3. A variety of intervention clinics are offered to all students in need in every grade level. 

  4.  The collaborative groups of teachers demonstrate creative teaching through differentiated instruction.

  5. At the end of every PLC  bloc, all teachers within the school meet for one hour sessions to discuss students' learning. Teachers will go from one team to the other, especially before and after grade level (for example a grade 2 teacher would consult grades 1 and 3). And we all ask 3 questions: What are we doing right? What are the essential learnings we need to work on more? What could we be doing better?

All students belong to every teacher. The success of the students therefore belongs to our team of teachers since they all play a role in the student's success.

 

2. Creating systems of intervention to provide students with additional time and support for learning.

Over the past four years, the Faculty at l'École élémentaire catholique Alain-Fortin has embraced the PLC model. Our SMART goal to ensure the success of every student has resulted in improvements in subjects tested: reading, writing and mathematics. Academic alignment in all three subjects are now in our AF team expectancies. If you work at our school, you are expected to use these tools that are aligned for all teachers from junior kindergarten to grade  

 

Systems implemented at AF to provide additional time and support

  1. Improvement plan

    1. focused on the essential teachings of literacy and numeracy

  2. High achievement committees in all school priorities

    1. meetings every quarter to analyze our school data 

  3. PLC model

    1. rigorous schedule for the collaborative teams to allow same grade level teachers to meet approximately every 2-3 weeks within the school day.  FSL and resource teachers attend most meetings as well.  Principals attend all meetings.  At these meetings, teachers choose a particular learning outcome, write common summative assessments, analyze data collected from formative assessments as well as discuss best practices and strategies.  We start with the end in mind and plan accordingly.  What are the best strategies to get them all there?  What are the best high impact pedagogical practices that will get them there and which one had the greatest impact?

3. Building teacher capacity to work as members of high performing collaborative teams that focus efforts on improved learning for all students.

Alain-Fortin now uses the same design for more effective collaborative teams and better student’s results as in my two last schools,  l’école Arc-en-ciel (AEC) and l'école Bernard-Grandmaître (BG). Also, at Alain-Fortin, we have common beliefs that are the core of our design. We agree that school culture is powerful and can make or break the faculty's effectiveness and well-being. It is important to return to and repeat our school's core values and vision regularly. The emphasis is put upon a growth mindset where errors are seen as opportunities of growth every day. We also have to work harder to boost our students’ resilience, mindset and growth. AF staff also believe that the expectation where all students can learn at a high level but also comes with high support from all the adults in the building. The tracking and monitoring of all students’ learning is a crucial part of the learning. It gives us a lot of knowledge on what and how we need to teach. It gives us guidelines and shifts our focus in the right direction. In our collaborative teams, there is an expectation that each teacher identifies the learning needs of each student in relation with the learning outcomes that have been set. This information is shared with them in order to identify the best strategies to help each student. By using student data to set our SMART goals, teachers have increasingly high and realistic expectations for our students. Teachers hold each other accountable and help each other to achieve these goals. These collective efforts make École élémentaire catholique Alain-Fortin, an effective Professional Learning Community. It is our belief that  we make better decisions and have a greater impact on every child’s success in schools by using this design.

Achievement Data Files

Additional Achievement Data

AF SMART goals :

Because of the new Math curriculum in Ontario, we focused our priority on Mathematics. 

Learning Bloc 1 : By the end december (2023), 80% of all AF students will be above and beyond the province's rates in Maths.  

Learning Bloc 2 : By the end of our school year (2023), 88% of all AF students will be above and beyond the province's rates in Maths.  

Not there yet but sure to be on it's way... 

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