Final Blog

How might we leverage student engagement and passion by creating a progressive leadership pathway that strengthens students’ sense of purpose and belonging within their community?

My plan is not yet fully in action. Because grade 7 is an entry year at our school, my plan has two parts: sorting grade 8s into leadership roles and sorting 6-7s into leadership roles. However, I have introduced some new roles and rethought some roles as a result of my work and conversations through Cohort.

Students now have the opportunity to be part of the Athletics Team, rather than what we had called Intramural Captains. Athletics Team members are grade 8 students who are either Intramurals Leaders or Assistant Coaches. Assistant Coaches will support U12 and development teams and their teacher coaches. The students were really excited about this new role and we had many applicants!

I have also only selected one House Leader per house, whereas there had previously been two. The intention behind this is to select a grade 6 in the new school year, who acts as an “Assistant” House Leader (I have yet to think of the title that I want to go with: Assistant, House Leader In-Training…). Their role will be one of learning and shadowing as well as leadership to develop their own skills to be a House Leader or any other leadership role in the future.

Since beginning Cohort, we have also introduced the role of Lunch Supervisors which will carry over to next year. Lunch Supervisors are junior students who visit primary students at lunch to build relationships and support clean up and getting ready to go out for recess. The design of all of these roles has been to make leadership more accessible as well as provide more scaffolded opportunities to build skills. Each role now has some sort of mentorship opportunity or is an opportunity that connects to a future role with greater responsibility. The connections are not so structured as skills are transferable; however, there are potential connections that I have and will share with students to gather interest.

We have a cohort of 44 grade 7s. Of these students, 33 now hold leadership roles. Students who choose to become leaders go through leadership training once a week in May/June. Leadership training started yesterday and I felt a buzz of excitement through their questions and the thoughts they shared in discussions. Athletics Leaders were curious about what sports they could coach, Assembly Leaders were bouncing with excitement thinking about hosting Grade 8 Graduation, and the Community Engagement Team was looking forward to joining the current leaders on a trip to the food bank. I would not describe it as surprising, rather, it was an experience that supported my understanding that young people enjoy taking on responsibility, and they are motivated to do so in an environment that cultivates that.

I still have many questions for myself about implementing some of these new roles, in particular, Assistant Coaches because they are also athletes. The combination of playing your sport and coaching means potentially missing a lot of school. As well, I am sure that a few obstacles will present themselves when roles that have been created or moved to junior grades need to be implemented. However, so far, the planning is going as planned.

2 May 2025 by Uncategorized 0

How might we…

I left the first face-to-face session with a sense of purpose that guided the development of my question in our second face-to-face session. While Montcrest’s student leadership program is quite established after 12 years running in this format, one of my intentions is to boost engagement in leadership in the junior years so that we can improve our students’ sense of responsibility to a community and continue to develop their sense of self through leadership opportunities. After reflection and support from the Uplift Collective, I finalized my question: How might we leverage student engagement and passion by creating a progressive leadership pathway that strengthens students’ sense of purpose and belonging within their community? Since then, I have begun actioning my steps by researching elementary schools who have a leadership program or offer leadership opportunities in order to connect with people who have similar roles to mine or whose roles encompass coordinating these programs.

Through discussions I have had at in-person sessions, I am also thinking about how I can improve my oversight of our leadership program. Recently, I accompanied a few of our grade 8s who hold various leadership roles to the CIS Thrive Student Leadership Conference. After participating in workshops led by high school students, our grade 8s left the conference feeling invigorated and wanting to try make some changes at our school. As a result, I am hoping to leverage their interest and ideas to connect more with them and develop a smaller group of students who hold responsibility for bringing forward new ideas and keeping our student leaders more connected with each other so that we can develop deeper and more interesting leadership experiences and projects.

25 January 2025 by Uncategorized 4

Urgent vs Important – Reflections on the return to school

The Student Leadership Program at Montcrest School has largely been geared toward grade 7 and 8 students. Starting my new role as Student Leadership Coordinator, I am interested in expanding the program to the junior grades by thinking about how students can gain a sense of purpose and build their capacity for leadership through co-curricular action in their school community and by thinking about how to integrate student leadership into curriculum. After reviewing my tasks and goals through the Eisenhower matrix, I have identified some urgent, but important tasks as well as some not urgent, but important tasks. The tasks listed in not urgent, but important are where I intend to focus my action plan in my time in Cohort 21. Given that I am slated to be in this role for three years, my action plan may require a longer timeline than this season of Cohort 21.

Of the Season 13 Strands, my intentions for this season seem to resonate best with Pedagogy, Belonging, and Wellbeing (JK-6): “How might we best engage, support, and assess our JK-6 learners?” My action plan also relates to Pedagogy, Belonging, and Wellbeing for middle school. Thinking about student leadership through this lens, I am considering the ways that a sense of purpose and experiential learning positively contribute to wellbeing and belonging in the school community and the wider community, and therefore engagement in their school and neighbourhood.

Student well-being is promoted by taking into consideration their cognitive, social, physical, and emotional development. Belonging is essential to the human experience and is therefore a main tenet in a person’s well-being. All people want to feel that they are part of a community where they are accepted and can thrive. In order to facilitate this experience at school, educators aim to create communities within their classrooms by facilitating opportunities for students to get to know one another, encouraging group work, or highlighting students’ strengths. In addition to belonging within a classroom community, schools should think about belonging within the larger school matrix, forging relationships and opportunities across grades, school positions, and with the broader community. Positive well-being is also established through a sense of purpose because it allows individuals to feel valued within their communities. When we cultivate our students’ strengths and create time to reflect on these and their challenges, they are afforded opportunities to develop their sense of self.

According to the Ministry of Education’s Considerations for Program Planning, experiential learning consists of opportunities for students to see how their in-school learning relates to the larger community or world, empowering students to explore their sense of self. Leadership within their school community allows students to experience challenges, successes, and growth in their cognitive, social, and emotional development. In a leadership capacity, students use their decision-making, planning, relationship-building skills, and their empathy and emotional-regulation within roles that they are passionate about to affect change within their school. While these opportunities are available to students in grade 7 and 8 at Montcrest, I intend to think about how we can build these opportunities into the school life of our younger students.

As the new school year has begun, new roles within the leadership program have been added to address needs within the Montcrest community and some roles have been given expanded age groups to better include grades 4-6 students. Some of these roles are:

  • Equity & Inclusion Leaders
    • To attend Equity and Inclusion club meetings, lead discussions, plan opportunities, and connect with other leaders to support awareness and action initiatives inside and outside of the school community.
  • Recess Program Leaders
    • To take inventory, propose new supplies and games, and to support recess equipment signout on the pitch. Meet with the Director of School Life and Wellness throughout the year to give feedback and ideas on recess.
  • Primary Recess Support
    • To assist primary students with winter clothing items and support their transitions to recess.
  • Sustainability Leaders
    • To promote sustainability, love of the environment and nature, and to care for the living wall.
  • Innovation Captains
    • To solve problems that exist in the school community and collaborate with other captains on initiatives related to their roles.

Sources

Edutopia: How to Cultivate a Sense of Belonging at School

Considerations for Program Planning: Student Well-being and Mental Health

Considerations for Program Planning: Experiential Learning

Improving well-being at school

4 October 2024 by Uncategorized 2

Hello world!

Welcome to Cohort 21 Cohort 21.

The mission of this professional development initiative is to build a community of passionate CIS Ontario educators who are interested in refining and redesigning their practice through the exploration of new pedagogies, ideas and learning tools.

4 October 2024 by Uncategorized 1