LEAP forward

Lady Evelyn Alternative Priority Working Group
To revive ongoing dialogue and working relationship between teachers and parents in the broader school context and to engage students in the process of planning and direction for the long term for Lady Evelyn Alternative School the school council has decided to set up the Alternative Priorities Working Group starting with the school year 2007/2008.

The rough outline of this body is:
· it will consist of students, teachers and parents
· it will meet on a regular basis
· it will explore alternative education models and practice
· it will support, advance and implement innovative alternative education models at Lady Evelyn School

To refine the working group's mission and vision, as well as defining its composition and processes, we need volunteers to join the "LEAP" (that would be Lady Evelyn Alternative Priorities) ad-hoc committee, who are able to work over the summer months to put a framework in place for the coming school year. We need parents and teachers (ideally representing all kids' age groups). The committee is committed to seeking full school community input, as well as "mining" similar models at alternative schools across the province for their best practices.

All those who can commit to working on the ad-hoc committee, please respond to educationchair@ladyevelyn.ca by Tuesday, June 5th.
If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask council and education committee members at the family breakfast on Friday - hope to see you all there!

UPDATE on multigrade classrooms

Parents met with staff on Tuesday at their regularly scheduled meeting, as a fact finding mission on next year´s class composition. As promised, here is the update on what we learned from that meeting:

It is with great regret that we inform you that 3-grade multi-age classrooms have been eliminated at Lady Evelyn Alternative School . Next year's classes will all be grades 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6. There is no longer-term plan in place to revive or further explore this significant element of child-centred learning, which many parents see as an important option within the alternative school system. Although the option of re-establishing the 3-grade classes in the future was discussed, there was no commitment made to establish a process or plan that would enable this to become a reality.

While the commitment of staff to educating our children as best as they know is apparent, it was evident that the team feels they lack the appropriate tools to provide a complete alternative approach. There is a general sense that working with 3-grade multi-age classes is particularly challenging and is beyond their current capacity. We would certainly like to assist staff in whatever way we can in developing and enhancing their skills in this area and with other elements of the alternative philosophy, and we will seek to secure a commitment from leadership within the school and at the Board level to facilitate the necessary professional development.

It is further disappointing (and disillusioning) that we discovered this decision was made some weeks ago, absent of input from members of the school community, and parents and students in particular. The lack of inclusivity and communication is particularly concerning in an alternative education context.

To address the issues of consultation and communication and ensure future transparency in decision-making, we would like to develop a proposal for a decision-making process that would include participation of all of the stakeholders (teachers, students, parents). Such a process would provide a multilateral forum for determining the alternative nature of the school, in all its diversity and in the short- and long-term.

The education committee will be drafting this proposal at the next meeting (May 14, 7:30pm at the school) to present to school council on May 28. All committee and council meetings are open to the entire school community, so please come and participate in this important discussion.


the Education Committee