Our Student Services team works collaboratively with teachers and families to support students who have additional diagnoses above and beyond their gifted code. Twice Exceptional Learners make up approximately 10% of our elementary student population and are supported either by classroom teachers and/or a Teaching and Learning Assistant. Students with Mild/Mod diagnosis or Severe diagnosis are entitled to accommodations outlined in their Psychological Assessments and will be facilitated by your child’s teaching team. Regular and frequent IPP meetings help inform parents about their child’s progress.

All students at Westmount have an IPP or an Individualized Program Plan. When students have a specialized designation or coding, Alberta Education requires a formalized document. The IPP helps teachers and students set goals around giftedness and/or other exceptionalities in order to promote and foster growth. Teachers at Westmount develop a student’s IPP in the fall, with parent input and observation. All IPP goals are reviewed in late winter and evaluated in June.

What can an IPP do for your child? An effective IPP is one that increases the understanding of a students’ learning needs and strengths, provides a snapshot of effective strategies and/or accommodations and enhances communication between teachers, parents and students.

For further information on the IPP please visit: https://education.alberta.ca/instructional-supports/individualized-program-plan-ipp/everyone/ippisp-overview/

Student Services is happy to support the Admissions process at Westmount Charter School. Click the here to go to the Admissions main page.

The Student Services team at Westmount is happy to support classroom teachers and students with Early Literacy Development.  In Kindergarten and Grade 1, additional Leveled Literacy Intervention classes are added into the day for students who require additional literacy support. These classes are smaller in number and taught by a Student Services Specialist.  Using an Inside Out approach, students build confidence and learn to take risks in a smaller setting.  Students in grades 2-4 receive support based on referrals from the classroom teachers.

When organizing for instruction, the goal is to match each English Language Learner to the most appropriate program or class and ensure teachers have access to the support and resources they need to meet the student’s learning needs. Instructional supports need to be responsive to the student’s academic and language learning abilities, needs and interests. These supports should be revisited and adjustments made when necessary, as student needs change.

For students who are coded as English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners, Alberta Education requires the completion of the ESL Proficiency Benchmarks. These benchmarks are completed annually by all teachers (K-4) during the month of December. All benchmarking is used to inform EAL pull-out or in class support for students.

For more information on Alberta Education’s approach to supporting EAL students and an example of the benchmarks please refer to:

http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/eslapb/index.html

Throughout the year, students who are both struggling academically and needing cognitive stretch due to their above grade level abilities, may be seen by our team via one to one support. Through this targeted intervention, students referred are scheduled into blocks of time in order to develop a lagging skill or enrich their learning.  Academic support varies from grade to grade and is individualized to meet the needs of the students. Teachers identify those students requiring further support and/or stretch and complete a referral for service.

Student Services welcomes the opportunity to assist teachers in assessing students in Math and LA. Kindergarten assessments in literacy and numeracy are conducted at the beginning of each year in order to determine ‘just right’ reading and number levels. Our team may also conduct English As Another Language assessments on an as needed basis.

Social Emotional or Acadmic support can also be received through small group intervention. Should students struggle at the classroom level, your child may be referred for small group work once per week with our Student Services team. Referral cycles usually last between 4-6 weeks and have a specific area of focus.

Areas for which your child may be referred are but not limited to:

• Self Regulation
• Friendship
• Conflict Resolution
• Worry and Anxiety
• Focus and Attention
• Organization
• Time Management
• Perfectionism

Welcome to Westmount is just one of the programs supported by our Student Services team and it kicks off once your child(ren) have been accepted to our school. Building community is at the forefront of this program and we want to ensure that families feel supported in their transition to WCS. In May, our staff hosts a Welcome to Westmount Evening where parents and children are invited to attend an evening of information and games. Come and mingle with other families from your community and start to build relationships with your child’s future classmates!

Once the school year begins, Student Services contacts families throughout the year to ensure you have all your questions answered and that your experience at Westmount is a positive one. Our department provides you with information about a specific programming and facilitates pointing you in the right direction should you require further support.

Character Counts is made up of six pillars of character.

The pillars are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. Each of the six pillars of character has a colour to go with it. These colours match our school house colours.

• Trustworthiness is blue
• Responsibility is green
• Respect is yellow
• Fairness is orange
• Caring is red and
• Citizenship is purple

The Character Counts colours are the same as the school house colours. Teachers at Westmount teach lessons on each of the six pillars.

The Zones of Regulation is a program geared towards students identifying and recognizing their emotions, and their emotional impact on others. Learning about these zones, students will gain insights into four targeted areas and will learn different tools to help them in various situations and settings. This program is vital to the success of our students as we work to build resiliency and learn about achieving a growth mindset.

In addition to the Zones of Regulation program, the Superflex curriculum and it’s Unthinkables will be showing up in our hallways with strategy recommendations for all students in order to help build resiliency. While there will be no direct teaching of the Superflex Program in classrooms, teachers are asked to talk about them and their suggested strategies for regulation throughout the day.  Resources and books recommendations are shared frequently with our school community throughout the year to support parents in facilitating these conversations at home.

Parents may find the following apps helpful.  If you wish to try out one of these apps, simply do an Internet search for the name.

Social/Emotional Apps

• CALM – Mindfulness and meditation
• Stop, Think and Breathe – Brings awareness to your emotions
• Breathing Bubbles – Helps kids practice releasing worries and focusing on good feelings
• Headspace – Guided Meditation – Promotes development and mindfulness of breathe, sleep, relaxation and focus
  Zones – Helps kids understand and manage their emotions based on our social thinking curriculum

Academic Apps

• Snap Type – Allows for completion of worksheets using the camera on an iPad to create an image. Students can type answers on it
• Dyslexia Aid – helps with spelling and literacy with the aid of the 'OpenDyslexic' font and color overlays
• CLAROPDF - allows you annotate PDF files and have them read back to you with highlighting