Our AMI team visited three schools in Western Quebec, Eastern Shores & Lester B. Pearson school boards.

We were interested in uncovering:

• the changes educators have made to their beliefs or practices as they implemented a new initiative
• the student needs that have been addressed through the new initiative
• and the impact of the educators’ actions, so far

Our AMI team visited three schools in Western Quebec, Eastern Shores & Lester B. Pearson school boards. We wanted to document new school improvement initiatives to support student mental health & wellbeing, a foundation for student success.

In this video, the staff and students at Birchwood (LBPSB) share how having pets at school has helped build strong, positive relationships, offer comfort during difficult times, and promote empathy among students.The staff at Birchwood explain the process they followed to enable this vision to become a reality.

In this video, the staff and students at Hadley Philemon Wright school (WQSB) share how setting up a nurturing support centre in their school has helped meet the social-emotional needs of students who need additional support beyond their regular classroom.

In this video, the staff at Flemming (ESSB) share how they are aiming to become trauma transformed by shifting the culture in their school and responding to students’ emotional needs rather than reacting to their challenging behaviours. The students share how Flemming is a place where teachers try to solve their problems, where everyone is kind and respectful and where they feel they belong.

We’ve seen three examples of how educators across our province are implementing changes to their beliefs and practices in order to create environments where all students can succeed. Any change implemented will inevitably face challenges. The question is, what can be done for initiatives like these to have an increasingly positive and lasting impact over time?