This school year, we implemented SELF (Social-Emotional Learning Focussed) – a support stream in response to the growing social-emotional needs that we observed over the last two years, including absenteeism, mental health, and struggles connecting to a traditional school and classroom environment. Attendance data, observations from Resource teachers, counsellors, and conversations with families, showed students’ increased feeling of disconnectedness from the school community for a variety of reasons.

During this first year of implementation, we have seen an increase in the number of students accessing the support stream. At the beginning of the year, we had 4 students enrolled in SELF. Currently we have 14 students participating in the support stream. The increase in enrollment is a clear indication that students are finding a sense of connection and belonging in different areas of our school community and specifically in SELF. We are noticing increased attendance and students are articulating they feel SELF is a safe place with direct, individualized support from trusted adults, their SELF teacher and counsellor. Students are also now self-advocating for and requesting this support.

We are encouraged to see an identified need in our school being met but we are exploring how we can continue to grow this support to widen its scope and impact to continually improve educational outcomes for our students. Our next step is to collect data from the enrolled students to plan how the support can grow next school year based on what they articulate directly. Student voice is an integral part of how this support will grow and evolve at SLSS.