Last spring, staff, students and parents in the Delta School District worked together through the process of developing an inclusive and inspiring vision of the future. The process involved Delta schools in key conversations about learning. Starting with an appreciative inquiry, we celebrated past successes with an eye towards building upon our very best. The Delta School District Vision 2020 – A Leading District for Innovative Teaching and Learner Success was born out of this engaging series of exercises.Our collective work, represented by the graphic (below) reveals the answers to three important questions:
Why do we exist? What truly matters in all that we do? In the future, what do hope to become?
Click here to visit an interactive graphic on our vision.
Why do we exist? (Our Purpose and Mission)
To enable all learners to succeed and contribute their full potential to the future.
• Past successes point to the importance of our collective effort. Our stories reveal that student success results from the contributions of many, no matter how big or how seemingly small the contribution. The stories also reminded us that the results of our efforts are not always apparent until later... sometimes years later!
What truly matters in everything we do? (Our Core Values)
Caring, Respect, Responsibility, Community, and Excellence
• At all times we must remain true to our core values. Our values act as a guide to our decisions, how we act, and how we work with each other. They’re our “big rocks”, our priorities, and keys to our sense of worth and contribution. Stick to them and we’ll all be better for it.
In our boldest vision and most fantastic dream of the future, what do we want to do and be? (Our Dream Vision)
A leading district for innovative teaching and learner success.
• Pretty bold, eh? Our vision challenges all of us to be innovative, creative, and engaged as learners. Think about it, we are currently preparing students for jobs and technologies that do not yet exist and to solve problems that we don’t recognize as problems yet. Preparing students for a future that will require new skills means that we, too, must change.
Our vision will act a compass for decision making in the all areas of our organization: individual classrooms, schools, and broader district initiatives. As we begin a new school year, the Delta Secondary School community is already taking action to achieve our collective goal. We will continue to work towards creating vibrant learning opportunities for our learners where students are engaged through stimulating, relevant, and inspiring experiences that ignite a lifelong passion for learning. Working together, our students will be prepared to succeed and contribute their full potential to the future. And moving ahead, we will continue to place an emphasis on fostering caring relationships and connections to our local and global communities.
I encourage you to take a few minutes to view two videos that will give you sense of the visioning process and the vision itself:
Delta Visioning Process January - April 2011 from Doug Sheppard on Vimeo.
• Vision 2020: Transformation in Delta Schools is a video produced last spring by the Ministry of Education featuring some of our students and programs at DSS.
