As a staff we have placed a lot of time into thinking about how to support our learners in their Social Emotional Learning. Our Care Circles language lives in how we interact and learn together. We have plans for school wide activities for the 2023 - 2024 school year where we will continue to learn about the importance of Caring for Self, Caring for Others and Caring for this Place.

When we met as a staff during our final professional development day in May of 2023 we took time to reflect upon our year together, looked back at the data that emerged from our scans and teaching over the course of the year and looked at developing some professional learning goals for the upcoming school year.

We used the framework of Now, Not Yet, and Next to guide our discussions. We could see by being intentional and taking the time to teach, practice and learn how to make genuine connections made a difference in our students' sense of belonging to their school community and place. When we are Caring for Ourselves our needs are being met and we are more likely self-regulated and ready to learn. We are able then able to Care for Others in our school community and Care for this Place we call Quilchena.

Upon our return in September, our focus is to continue to gather and bring our community together, with both our returning students and our new students. We have 65 new students to Quilchena this year, that is 1/3 of our school population.

Some samples of staff discussions regarding our focus for this year included the following comments:

To continue with our Quilchena Care Circles and bring in our new student population so that they part of our common school language and feel connected.

A continued focus on SEL can make a tremendous impact in fostering a positive learning environment.

A continued focus on SEL as it is more relevant and important than ever for our students who carry many worries.

Staff Wonders:

• How to support our students to arrive to school on time and feeling ready to learn
• How to support advocating for self and needs (with learning and socially) – noticing growth but continuing to need support
• How to support students not only with how to communicate but when to communicate, especially when feeling big emotions
• How to continue to use our core competencies as our stepping stone to help students become more self-aware
• How do we focus more on finding happiness in ourselves and in our learning

Early ideas for Next Steps:

• Provide more opportunity for students to connect and continue to have leadership opportunities (family teams, lunch monitors, assembly crew, clubs)
• Continuing to plan activities that promote health and wellness (morning walk, monthly runs, biking to school, morning circle)
• Continue to develop intergenerational relationships within the school population to connect our school community
• Making the connection between our core competencies and big ideas explicit when teaching
• Activities and school-wide anchor texts that support diversity and inclusion