Community & Connections
“Character” are the qualities that make us who we are, and include those personality traits that we aspire to attain and develop. Our character education programme is titled Community & Connections and students have a block of time each day where homeroom teachers advise students, teach social-emotional learning and healthy living skills. It is during these designated blocks where students will explore two fundamental questions: Who am I? And how do I connect with my community?
We believe in the power of our community and this community extends beyond our school’s walls. Students will learn the value of, which will include their involvement in, community service and stewardship during this class. As a Round Square school, we believe in the importance of teaching our students a globally minded education. Round Square is a global network of innovative schools in 50 countries on six continents that share a passion for experiential learning and character education. Collingwood School remains the only Round Square school in the lower mainland of British Columbia. The Round Square approach is built around six IDEALS of learning: Internationalism, Democracy, Environmentalism, Adventure Leadership and Service. Our homeroom teachers will utilize these IDEALS while planning the learning activities and experiences that will take place during their Community & Connections blocks.
We believe that Community and Connectedness make us whole.
Rationale
Collingwood believes the Community & Connections programme will:
Prepare our students for meaningful lives. Homeroom teachers will utilize the IDEALS of Round Square to help students learn skills and tools to live in an ever-changing world. Community & Connections will contribute greatly to Collingwood School living its mission.
Lead to greater academic success for our students. As much research indicates, schools with a comprehensive character education program have higher rates of student achievement. “Schools with higher total character education implementation tended to have higher academic scores on academic measures for the year prior to their application, the year after their application and the subsequent two years” (Benninga et al, 2003).
Give our students a better understanding of themselves as individuals and citizens of our community/world. One of the fundamental goals of this programme is for our students to explore the question: Who am I? We believe that the examination of this question will make our students happier, more motivated and inspire positive behaviour and thought.