It is with great anticipation that we are looking forward to the 2023-24 academic year. We are blessed to have staffing in place, new students admitted, and class compositions set. The next step, then, is creating class lists.

Creating class lists is a wonderful and important task that we take very seriously. To help us do this, we ask students to identify peers that they would really like to be placed with next year. We counsel them to take this seriously, choosing not only friends, but those who are helpful to them in their learning and engagement. Sometimes our best friends are not best for our learning and it is good that students begin to recognize this, even now.

Our Classroom Teachers, Educational Support Coordinator, Child and Youth Worker and Vice-Principal then meet as a team to discuss each student and where they are best placed. We bring our knowledge of any additional information provided to us by parents/caregivers and outside support service professionals as well as our unique understanding of each student to the table as we work together to create classes that have:

• a balance of boys and girls
• a mixture of students with differing academic abilities, thinking about those who need additional support and extension and ensuring that we can meet all of those needs in one classroom, and
• a cohesive group of students who will learn and grow well together. We do our best to honour friendship requests (whenever possible and conducive to learning) as well as the social-emotional and behavioural needs of individuals

In all of this, we also consider each individual teacher’s strengths, personalities and the classroom environment that they create. We firmly believe that all of our staff at Cedars are gifted and talented in many ways and we do our utmost to place students in classes and with teachers who will meet each student where they are at and help them to flourish.

We know that a student’s peers and teacher can be very impactful on a student. In this way, we create class lists prayerfully, asking for wisdom and guidance as we complete this process. It is our deep hope that all students and parents will be thrilled with the outcome. However, this is not always the case. In this way, we ask for students and parents/caregivers to trust that learning and growth happens even in challenging circumstances, and to keep an open heart and mind to whatever class and teacher each student is assigned to. It is important to remember that resilience and a growth mindset is key to success in life.

Class lists will be shared after our year end BBQ as we wrap up our year and look forward to another great year together!

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns that you may have regarding this.

Sincerely,

Jessica Akehurst, Elementary Vice-Principal