The First Nations Education Steering Committee (FNESC) is hosting its annual Regional Sessions to discuss emerging topics in First Nations education. Note that one First Nations member of the Indigenous Education Council (IEC) of each school district and one school district representative per district are eligible to attend Day 1. Eligible school district participants may include superintendents, Indigenous education leads and trustees. Participants must register for their nearest session. Details can be found on the FNESC Regional Sessions web page and in this FNESC flyer.
Friday October 25, 2024
Acting Deputy Minister of Education and Child Care
Happy Friday!
It was a busy week doing direct engagement with your Safe School Coordinators and Food Coordinators. Both events were about learning, connection, and information sharing to foster safe, caring, and inclusive school communities. Topics covered with your Safe School Coordinators included a presentation from Safe and Sound Schools founder, Michele Gay, who provided resources and her personal experience of individual safety plans for children and adults with disabilities or diverse abilities. The two days ended with a reminder on the connections young people have while with us until grade 12, but what faces them as they leave our system. Thank you to Surrey School District for sharing Jonathan Mubanda and his story. At the Feeding Futures Gathering yesterday, attendees explored themes relating to reducing stigma, nutrition, and local food with an opportunity to hear from Qwustenuxun, an Indigenous Foods educator, who led an insightful discussion on incorporating Indigenous foods into school menus.
Please see a short update this week including an Analytics Engagement and Information Sharing Session hosted by our ministry’s Education and Analytics Office, and registration is now open for the First Nations Education Steering Committee’s annual Regional Sessions to discuss emerging topics in First Nations education.
And a reminder that Government will continue in a caretaker role for the remainder of the interregnum period.
I hope you have a great weekend.
Jennifer
For Action
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Analytics Engagement and Information Sharing Session
Please join us October 31 at 3:10 pm PT for the second Analytics Engagement and Information Sharing Session of the 2024/25 school year on Reporting SharePoint for School Districts, and engagement on how these sessions can help school districts improve student success. See the poster for more information and the registration link. Please contact EDUC.ReportingUnit@gov.bc.ca if you have any questions.
The recording for this session will be available on the BC K-12 Education Data Portal, under the Communications tab.
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Reminder: Request for Expression of Interest: Health Career Experiential Learning Activities
The Ministry of Education and Child Care is seeking expressions of interest from school districts for the development and delivery of interactive, experiential learning activities for students in Grades 8 to 10 that showcase in-demand, public sector health careers. To apply for this initiative, please review the Expression of Interest document and submit a completed application. Applications must be submitted to educ.skills@gov.bc.ca by 4 pm on November 1, 2024.
For Information
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Youth Data in the Point-in-Time Homeless Counts
The Ministry of Housing and BC Housing are looking for school contacts to conduct the Point-in-Time (PiT) Homeless Counts in BC schools over fall 2024 and spring 2025. The PiT Counts measure homelessness over a 24-hour period in communities. PiT counts give important baseline information on the estimated number, key demographic and service provision needs of people experiencing homelessness.
To support this important work in schools, a survey is generally conducted by school counsellors or other support staff who have a pre-existing relationship with students and knowledge of students’ living situations. The survey does not disclose the student’s living situation or other survey responses to anyone else, including staff, students or outside persons or agencies in an identifiable way.
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Equity in Action and Framework for Enhancing Student Learning (FESL) Contacts
As discussed at the September 27th All Superintendents Call, Districts have built significant capacity in supporting Equity in Action and are well placed to continue the work in alignment with other efforts to increase Indigenous student outcomes and address systemic barriers. Moving forward, reporting on Equity in Action initiatives should be integrated into the annual FESL report. For questions on how to integrate supporting Indigenous student achievement into your FESL report, please reach out to Kiersten.Fisher@gov.bc.ca. For questions related to Indigenous student data availability and access, please contact Jeremy.Higgs@gov.bc.ca. For all other questions on Equity in Action, please contact Leona.Prince@gov.bc.ca.
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Invitation to the 2024 CHART Lab Online Symposium Series to Support Youth Well-Being
The CHART Lab is hosting a free online symposium series focused on exploring ways to support youth well-being. All sessions will take place from 12 pm-1 pm PDT.
- On October 25, members of the Youth Advisory Council (YAC) will host an intergenerational dialogue about social connectedness.
- On November 5, YAC staff will present key findings from the 2024 Youth Development Instrument provincial report.
- On November 12, staff will discuss key takeaways from their project on school-based mental health promotion.
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Reminder: New Contractor Procurement Process: Framework for Enhancing Student Learning
A new process for contract opportunities to support the Framework is now open on BC Bid for retired or retiring sector leaders. This process, called a Request for Ministry Service Arrangement for Consulting Services (RMSA), allows contract holders to remain eligible for work for multiple years. Please email heather.churchill@gov.bc.ca with any questions about the RMSA.
