Windsor House school: Systems, procedures and curriculum that support a democratic educational philosophy

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Couture, Selena

• It is my belief that people learn best in situations where they respect and value the people from whom that are leaning as well as feel respected and valued themselves. For these reasons human relationships in learning environments are very important. Democratic structures help to support respectful relationships between people and when students engage in them they practice the skills related to being a socially responsible person and are therefore an essential piece of an ideal learning environment. Windsor House Parent Participation Non-Coercive School has been a state funded alternative school within the North Vancouver School District for almost 40 years. The school has gone through many changes over those years, evolving as we learn from working in a democratic school environment. An essential part of our school is that we stay flexible enough to respond to the current population of the school and yet we also preserve the main values of the school. We are committed to students becoming self-confident and self-aware as well as able to work within a community. It is our stated aim for all students who attend the school to, “within the context of self discovery, develop and strengthen the skills and attitudes necessary to become self-directed learners. Specific objectives which support this goal are to work on relationships within our community, engage with WH systems and procedures and take advantage of learning opportunities.” (WH document, Individual Education Plan, Long Term Goals) Our systems and procedures have developed with this goal in mind and we continue to refine them in order to become as effective as possible. This article will describe our current school environment, specifically School Governance Systems, Parental Agreements, Curriculum Choice and Assessment.

• Date created

  2010

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Cirriculum
  • Alternative school
  • Curriculum choice
  • School governance systems
  • Curriculum assessment
  • Parental agreements

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3CZ32J8X

• License

  © 2010 Couture, S. This version of this article is open access and can be downloaded and shared. The original author(s) and source must be cited.