Assignment+2+Community+Analysis

Welcome to Collingwood School in West Vancouver, BC and one of the most affluent postal codes in Canada. With a population of 42,131, this mostly English-speaking, Anglican population is replete with senior management professionals and the second highest percentage of people aged over 65 in the province. (Statscan) Within this special postal code is located Collingwood School. With a population of 1,161 between the Junior and Middle/Senior school campuses, we draw mostly students from the North Shore (West Vancouver and North Vancouver), but also students from as far away as Surrey. One thing they all have in common is motivated parents keen on their children's success. The average parent income is $178,900. Our ethnic make up is predominately English with representation from a wide-range of cultural groups, as well as a smattering of international students.

Top Ten Languages Spoken in Home in 2010/11 English 82.0% Korean 6.8% Persian 2.9% Chinese 2.6% Mandarin 2.5% Spanish 0.6% Russian 0.4% Cantonese 0.4% Polish 0.3% French 0.3%

From the Class of 2010, 96% is attending a post-secondary institution including schools like Barnard College, Brown, Carnegie Melon, Cornell and Duke Universities in the United States. Our graduates received over $724,350.00 in scholarships to many of the best universities in Canada, the US and the UK. Expectations of our senior students are high. They have the resources at home and at school for success.



Looking specifically at English 8, there are 102 students enrolled in Grade 8 at Collingwood School. As our students write an entrance exam, all are competent English students able to read and write proficiently in the English language.

As grade 7's students, this group performed well on their FSA's, though writing seems to be an area of weakness.

**Community Resources**
A partnership with the following augments our own resources:

North Vancouver District Library West Vancouver Memorial Library Library Without Walls

Library Without Walls offers our students access to so many e-resources, audio books and ebooks, in a variety of formats. Students can download mp3 files or ebooks in formats that will fit their digital readers or mp3 players. The digital possibilities are endless; however, the teacher-librarian noted her frustration in often finding etitles "checked out" and waiting for what seems like an eternity on waiting lists for the opportunity to check out many novels. Even though students may not find an available copy of the book they wish to readthe first go-around, introducing them to this convenient service will help mitigate the excuse: "I couldn't get to the library to check out a book." So many of my students have digital devices, ebooks are a easy solution for their lackadaisicalness.

When I asked our teacher-librarian to describe opportunities for partnership with our local public library, she could not cite any specific circumstances where any collaborate work had occurred, but she does link to the site on our school library website, so students can check the West Van Library and North Van District Library catalogues for any books that our library cannot provide.

=Grade Level and Curriculum Area=

English 8: Reading and View

All 108 students in Grade 8 have made use of the collection. A "private reading program" means students are provided with book talks by our teacher-librarian and the opportunity to select novels for this reading program. They are expected to complete book review forms for each novel they read. Because we provide silent reading time in our English 8 classes, students use the library quite extensively to take out books for silent reading.

Students have also used e-resources including Noodle Tools to create bibliographies and data-bases to search for information about a social justice issue; they have summarized the article they selected along with citing the work in notecards in Noodle Tools. The database used most often is EBSCO.

=The Library=

The library program is both fixed and flexible. The doors are open from 8am - 4:30pm Monday-Thursday and 8am-3:30pm Fridays. Teachers are welcome to bring classes in having scheduled time with the teacher-librarian and/or her teacher-assistants. The teacher-librarian will also leave the library and visit classrooms for book talks or to work with e-resources. This provides a great deal of flexibility. Our school has several computer labs as well as laptop carts, so access to our library databases is rarely an issue.

=The Long and Short of It=

Collingwood School is a destination school on the North Shore of the Metro Vancouver area. The community consists of upwardly-mobile professionals who bring high expectations for their children's success along with their cheque books. We are run by a Board of Governors, many of whom sit on their own Boards, running successful businesses, partners in law firms and so on. With tuition starting at $14,000 for primary grades, our parents are generally people of means or people who are willing to sacrifice for the sake of their child's education. Either way, as a university prepatory school, an AP school, a four stranded school (arts, academics, athletics and service components are required of students) and an imaginative education-focused institution, the expectations of the faculty and staff is to provide a top-notch learning environment for our charges. This a community is wealthy and has high expectations.