AREAS of FOCUS

The Crescent Centre for Boys’ Education Discovering How Boys Learn Best

CCBE CCBE The Crescent Centre for Boys’ Education Discovering How Boys Learn Best AREAS OF FOCUS

CHARACTER

40 in 9

Outreach is one of our Character-in-Action signature programs. 40 in 9 is an incentive program that encourages Grade 9 students to earn their 40 mandatory community service hours in their Grade 9 year.

The program is designed to: • Encourage and support our Grade 9 students in achieving and completing the mandatory 40 community service hours required for graduation as outlined by the Ministry of Education. • Create a more rounded individual whose actions depict and clearly demonstrate the School’s core values. • Provide global and life experiences that allow each boy to find his passion and commit to a life of continued service. • Expose the boys to life beyond what they currently know and experience. • Help our boys understand that giving back is a civic responsibility, and that many corporations

and universities look upon a willingness to serve in a favourable light. • Generate an interest in service that will lead to community contributions in excess of the required 40 hours.

Program Details: • Students may earn hours immediately upon their

Grade 8 graduation, ie. the summer before Grade 9. • Students must complete their service hours and submit them to Ms. Murray or their Guidance

Counsellor by the end of April of their Grade 9 year. • Every student who earns 40 hours or more will be invited to a breakfast celebration to recognize their contribution to our community.

During the 2021-22 school year, 57 students (from a class size of 106) earned the 40 in 9 award. These boys worked in a variety of areas —creatively navigating pandemic restrictions — giving back to the less fortunate in their community and beyond.

The Crescent Centre for Boys’ Education Discovering How Boys Learn Best

CCBE CCBE

The Crescent Centre for Boys’ Education Discovering How Boys Learn Best

DIVERSITY, INCLUSION AND BELONGING

Moral Courage

Irshad Manji All members of the Crescent School faculty completed the Diversity without Division faculty professional development online course. Our teachers engaged with cutting-edge content, thought-provoking activities, case studies, and play to learn about and encourage important skills pertaining to moral courage. The course is designed to motivate a new generation to “appreciate their individuality as much as group membership, recognize that empathy is a much smarter, more productive emotion than feeling offended, become confident, but not arrogant, in expressing sincere beliefs, create brave spaces for asking questions of themselves and each other, grow into innovative, collaborative problem-solvers.” Armed with a common language and approach, it is our intention that we move forward to tackle challenging topics and perspectives within our community.

The Crescent Centre for Boys’ Education Discovering How Boys Learn Best

CCBE CCBE

The Crescent Centre for Boys’ Education Discovering How Boys Learn Best

RELATIONAL LEARNING

IBSC Relational Teaching Special Interest Group with Dr. Peter Coutis, Scotch College, Australia

Dr. Sandra Boyes

Background Two global studies of successful practices in teaching boys were conducted between 2008 and 2012 by Richard Hawley and Michael Reichert, in partnership with the International Boys’ Schools Coalition. Narratives were collected from over 2,000 teachers and 2,500 adolescent boys across approximately 40 schools in six countries, identifying successful teaching strategies with boys. Both groups agreed on the central feature in lessons deemed successful: “Relationship is the very medium through which successful teaching and learning is performed with boys”. As the results of these studies were presented at schools and conferences around the world, a common question arose: “How can we enhance the relational skills of our faculty?” To help answer this question, Michael Reichert, in partnership with Scotch College in Melbourne, Australia and Crescent School in Toronto, Canada, formed a team in 2015 to develop a Relational Judgment Test for educators of boys. The test provides reliable and valid feedback to teachers and coaches about their relational teaching skills. The workshop presented by Dr. Boyes and Dr. Coutis in Dallas (June 2022) provided participants with an overview of the activities of the IBSC’s Special Interest Group (SIG) on Relational Teaching and Learning. The SIG now comprises 29 member schools across eight countries. SIG activities include virtual meetings of the full group, smaller cluster meetings where topics of mutual interest are discussed and professional networks developed, presentations from expert speakers, and the sharing of ideas, practice and resources via an online platform. The primary aim of the SIG is to support member schools in building a relational practice that is visible, practical and sustainable. During the workshop, best practices in relational learning from the SIG meetings were shared. Three questions pertaining to how these might be applied in a range of school contexts were discussed:

• What does a good relational teaching and learning practice look like in IBSC member schools? What are the benefits of such practice? • How can schools embed and sustain a relational teaching and learning culture? • What are the merits of the special interest group concept? What are the practicalities involved in coordinating a SIG? The workshop was well received and the materials prepared and presented by Dr. Coutis and Dr. Boyes are supporting the work of relational learning in other IBSC schools.

The Crescent Centre for Boys’ Education Discovering How Boys Learn Best

CCBE CCBE

The Crescent Centre for Boys’ Education Discovering How Boys Learn Best

SPARC (Student Participatory Action Research Collaborative): Student/Teacher Relationship

This was the CCBE’s second year participating in SPARC. Fifteen Grade 10 boys committed to weekly meetings and four research retreats throughout the year. They used these occasions to brainstorm, develop, research and report on two separate projects in service of amplifying student voice with the intent of improving overall school culture.

In the first research project, students explored how boys can develop positive relationships with their teachers in order to foster their growth as learners. Their findings included: 1) adding more extra help sessions allowing students to not only ask more questions, but also build more opportunities for connection, 2) integrating more diverse learning environments such as labs and hands-on activities to stoke the passion and interests of students and build better student-teacher relationships through actual communication and discovery, and 3) foster a better feedback system in order to create a positive feedback loop between students and teachers.

View the Research Brief | View the Research Poster

The second SPARC research project explored how the school culture can address loneliness amongst boys in order to develop a sense of belonging, particularly as the school emerged from the lingering impact of the pandemic. The recommendations emerging from their research included more Mentor Group time, where Upper School students of different ages can interact with each other and their Mentor, an increased emphasis on club participation including a “Club Day” at the beginning of the year to showcase some of the clubs that are available at Crescent, and the revival of a Brotherhood program, which matches new Crescent students with those who have been at the school for many years.

WELLBEING

SPARC: Loneliness and Belonging in High School Boys

View the Research Brief | View the Research Poster

Watch the SPARC Presentations | Access Passcode: 6J.#^u2a