Community Open House and Survey Report
This spring our school held a community open house and follow-up survey to hear from parents and the wider community. We asked for input on what is working, what we might leverage or add, and what could entice new families to our area. We are grateful to the many people who contributed insights on their own best educational experiences, what they hope for the future, and ideas on ways we can enhance our programming. Out of the 63 contributions, several themes have emerged.
- Under the theme of impactful educational experiences:
- Arts and music education, outdoor learning, and having teachers who nurtured individual interests and passions were the most commented-on areas.
- Under the theme of untapped opportunities:
- By far the most popular idea was having workshop afternoons, where we invite families and the wider community in to share learning in multi-age groups. Ideas included theme days such as arts and crafts, environmental learning, or maker space challenges.
- The other two popular areas were intergenerational learning and enhanced opportunities to engage in hands-on problem-solving design challenges.
- The question of what might entice families to move to our area or choose our school had a wide range of answers.
- By far the most commented answer was more affordable housing and employment opportunities. Though these challenges are outside our domain, it is important to note how much this impacts families.
- The other two most noted suggestions were more outdoor education and increased connections with homeschool families.
There are some areas we are already engaging with such as intergenerational learning and setting up a Makerspace to enhance hands-on K-12 learning. All of our classes have regular outdoor, experiential learning and our PAC is funding music lessons. We know we can't do everything in a small school, but hearing from students, staff, parents and community helps us to focus on what is most important and most achievable.
Moving forward, we are setting time to explore regular workshop afternoons to bring families and the wider community into our school to share themes of learning. This will be a focus for the 2024/2025 school year.
Thank you to everyone who shared ideas, impactful memories, and visions for the future.
Victoria McAllister, Principal
