BC's Redesigned Curriculum, Core Competencies, & Student Self-Reflections

Parents and Friends of Star of the Sea School,

In 2016 the BC Ministry of Education completely redesigned the Grades K-9 school curriculum.  At that time, Star of the Sea School undertook a comprehensive plan for professional development and curriculum development.  The staff worked intensely to create new plans that reflected the redesigned curriculum.  At that time, efforts were also made to inform parents of some of the changes to the curriculum and how it would impact student learning and reporting progress to parents.

2016 was a long time ago.  I can appreciate that many parents who were present at that time may not recall all the details of the changes.  Even more importantly, many of our families are new since then and have not had the experience of learning about the changes at all.  For that reason, I am re-introducing the “Core Competencies” now so that you can appreciate and fully participate in conversations about your child’s “Core Competency Self-Reflection”. 

Core competencies are sets of skills that students need to develop in order to be competent, thoughtful, compassionate, and life-long learners.  The core competencies are not limited to one or more subjects but are overarching skills that are required for all aspects of life. 

One way to think of it is as a cargo truck.  The “cargo” is the curricular content that we teach to students.  The “competencies” are the truck itself, moving the cargo from place to place and making it usable.  The content itself is good, but without the core competencies, the content is just information.  Core competency development allows the students to think about, communicate, and meaningfully apply the content in their lives.

In BC’s curriculum, the core competencies have been identified and categorized as follows: 

Another important aspect of the core competencies in the redesigned curriculum is that students themselves, not just teachers, are responsible for reporting their progress on them.  Students are required by the Ministry of Education to create their own self-reflection on the core competencies.  Students may illustrate or write their reflections depending on their personal preference and skill set.

You will be receiving your child’s Core Competency Self-Reflection on Friday, December 11th. Below you will see a graphic demonstrating where we are on our Communicating Student Learning schedule for the year.

Sincerely,

Mr. Jason Borkowski

Principal