Based on the positive feedback from staff and students about our school shared experiences, it was clear to us that the next step was to include families and the community in our shared experiences to extend and deepen that sense of belonging for a larger group of stakeholders. This was also one of the themes that arose earlier in the year for us; the importance of home and school working together. We remembered that we said that to do this authentically and efficiently, it was extremely important to us that staff and families felt this same sense of belonging - safety and comfort - so that collaborative decisions can be made that are in the best interest of the students and their learning.

Thanks to joint efforts between our Gilmore Staff and Our Gilmore PAC we were able to bring back our Gilmore Movie Nights as well as a new event called Picnic in the Park.

Thanks to joint efforts between our Gilmore Staff and Rotary Richmond - Sunrise Branch - we were able to host a Community Breakfast on the first Tuesday of every month.

These events were very well attended and helped to build connections and a sense of belonging for our families and community members. A takeaway for us was remembering that it had been a very long time, if ever, that some of our families had ever been in the building and met with staff other than the ones that directly supported their children.

An exciting year for our community to create and deepen relationships and connections. As we continue to build this sense of belonging we began to notice that students were more settled at school and therefore were spending more time engaged and interested in their learning in the academic, social, and emotional areas of their learning journey. We are excited to continue to deepen our understanding about how a graeter sense of belonging for our students, families, and community members at Gilmore has a positive impact on student learning.