Springbank P.S.

Sprinbank Philosophy

Springbank is "Our School." Our school is comprised of teachers, support staff, children and parents who form a community involved in the process of educating children. Our children are precious and it is both exciting and rewarding to have the opportunity to live, work and learn with them. As educators, we play a major role in shaping the lives of children who are entrusted to our care. We help them acquire the values, knowledge and skills on which they will rely to become caring, responsible and productive adults capable of being life-long learners in an ever changing world.

At Springbank, we provide our children with a warm, caring and inviting place where they feel welcome, accepted and valued as individuals capable of achieving excellent results. In our interactions, we treat them with dignity and respect so that they may maintain a high level of self-esteem at all times. Our children feel safe and secure with us and feel good about themselves because of their success in meeting the high expectations we have of them. They are encouraged to make choices, set goals and to have some degree of control over their school lives. Their responsible behaviour makes a positive contribution to our school environment.

Our children maintain a high level of self-confidence as learners because they experience success in learning. The resources, strategies and activities we use in the teaching/learning process endeavour to reflect our children’s background and abilities as well as their learning styles, needs and interests. To help them develop socially as well as academically, we provide them with a well balanced program that includes both curricular and extracurricular activities. We foster and celebrate our children’s individual differences and we aim to provide them with learning opportunities that enable them to develop to their personal maximum potential.

Our parents are our strongest supporters. The strong partnership we enjoy helps us in enhancing our children’s learning opportunities and experiences. We realize that our parents were our children’s "first teacher." As such, they know their children better than anyone and have intimate knowledge of their talents and interests. At the school, we get to know the children in a different capacity as we observe them interacting with peers and undertaking academic challenges. By working closely with parents, we ensure that our children’s experiences at school are exciting, rewarding and productive. We also ensure that we can all learn and grow in a community that is sensitive to the needs, interests and aspirations of all its members.

Our staff, parents, children and community feel a sense of ownership and responsibility in ensuring that we create and enjoy a wonderful learning environment. We all contribute to this common cause by being actively involved in school life and by participating in a decision making process that always puts the children’s best interests first. Mutual acceptance, respect, trust and support result in warm positive relationships and a positive environment that permeates the whole school. There is an atmosphere of quality family style living in "Our School;" a nurturing environment where individuals feel safe to determine the level of risk to take while working independently or interdependently. Together we achieve impressive results in "Our School."