When John Paul II Collegiate decided to get "lean," its focus wasn't on paper clips or paperwork, it was on student achievement.
Principal Carlo Hansen says when school staff attended a Lean event organized by the Light of Christ Catholic School Division last year, their goal was to use the four-day workshop facilitated by a Vancouver consulting firm to find ways to improve student success. While the Lean philosophy is generally thought of in terms of making business practices more efficient, they decided to think outside the box, and apply the philosophy to improving student achievement.
The result was to implement the homeroom model for this year's five Grade 8 classes, moving away from the "high school" model of students moving from classroom to classroom and teacher to teacher to spending their entire mornings in the same room with one teacher.
Hansen says the move has been a success and they plan to extend the homeroom model to Grade 9 in the next school year.
It's about building relationships, says Hansen; the student body comes from many different backgrounds, and building a sense of community is important.
"That's when we do the best," he says.
Hansen points out several key positives to the homeroom model. For one thing, it has improved attendance, and while some of the school's 143 Grade 8 students have said they preferred the old way of doing things, the closer relationship with their homeroom teacher and staying in the same room for several classes does make them more accountable. That's a positive thing for their achievement, says Hansen.
The closer relationship with their homeroom teacher also opens up more opportunities for students who need extra help, as well as more challenges for gifted students, he said. When the teacher is working with the same 25 individuals, instead of 75, those relationships become more effective.
It's also made teacher planning and collaboration more effective.
One of the reasons behind the move to the homeroom model was a message that came through from a Tell Them From Me student survey, an online evaluation system that provides data to support school improvement planning.
Hansen said the survey indicated students often didn't feel they had an advocate, either at home or at school. The homeroom model provides an opportunity for students to develop a relationship with their teacher that helps fill that gap.
Hansen is looking for more good results as they expand the homeroom model to Grade 9 next year. They expect to have six Grade 9 homerooms.
"Grades 8 and 9 are important grades for kids," says Hansen.
Meeting needs at that point and addressing challenges in Grades 8 and 9 will lead to successes in the higher grades as the school division works toward improving outcomes in numeracy and literacy, says Hansen.
While it has proven to be successful, implementing the homeroom model has also proven to be affordable.
From a staffing perspective there is no extra cost, says Tom Hawboldt, manager of business and instructional technology for the Light of Christ Catholic School Division. "It did create some initial challenges in scheduling but no extra staff were required," he says.
"We did spend some on initial in-service and team building time, but we are now at the point where that team building is a natural part of the day."
He points out the cost was not a factor in the decision-making process.
"Even if there had been extra staffing cost, we would have gone this direction because it was the right thing for our students," says Hawboldt.
