A school culture of safety, challenge and joy is fundamental to engaged effective learning. Culture and community building at the classroom and school wide level are the foundation for every aspect of quality teaching and learning. Students must feel safe in order to take on new challenging academic tasks that lead to growth and high achievement. At MS we cultivate a culture of safety, challenge and joy by:

 

• ​ Getting to know students as individuals and continually assessing and adjusting practice according to their readiness for certain content or tasks, and trends in their interests and learning profiles

 

• ​Creating and modelling norms that encourage all students to take on challenging tasks and justify their thinking with evidence

 

• ​Modelling collaboration and providing students with opportunities to see the adults in the school community working together, giving feedback, and being open about their questions and mistakes

 

• ​Treating students as partners in the learning process by engaging students in understanding and setting learning goals, classroom rules and norms, project ideas, and other aspects of learning

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• Showing students, the rationale underlying curricula and instruction, and being transparent about academic standards