Dear Chain Lake families,

As you may remember, we administered the Panorama Survey to our 3rd-5th grade students earlier this fall to better understand their views of the climate and culture in our school. Now that we have the results and have taken time to review them, we want to share them with you and outline our goals for improving our students’ sense of belonging at our school this year.

96% of our students in grades 3rd-5th grade completed the survey during school this fall. You can view our school-specific survey results in their entirety HERE (click on the “11 schools” icon to select our school’s name to view our results).

All schools in the Monroe School District have set goals for improving our students’ sense of belonging at school this year. Sense of belonging is “the extent to which students feel that they are valued members of their school’s community.” Belonging includes feelings related to acceptance, respect, value, and connectedness, which we know impacts engagement, behavior, and academic performance. 

At Chain Lake we also created a short survey for K-2nd graders focusing in on their sense of belonging. 87% of our K-2nd graders completed this survey during school this fall.

At Chain Lake, our “sense of belonging” goal for the 2024-25 school year is that 75% of our 3rd-5th graders (up from 65% last spring) will report a positive sense of belonging on the Spring Panorama survey. 

As we work toward achieving this goal, we are implementing the following strategies at our school:

• High-leverage classroom strategies such as “positive greetings at the door”
• School-wide belonging reminders
• Kindness Week activities
• Identification of students who could benefit from friendship groups, big/little buddies, check ins with a trusted adult
• Showcasing student work and involvement at assemblies
• Morning announcements read by students
• Buddy classes

Our students will take the survey again this spring to help us measure our progress toward our goal. In addition, we will be asking families and staff to take the survey so that we can better understand their views of the climate and culture in our schools - be on the lookout for the survey this spring!

We're dedicated to creating a welcoming environment that helps our students succeed both academically and personally. We look forward to the positive impact our teamwork will have on making everyone at Chain Lake feel that they belong.

Warmly,

Ana Apter
Chain Lake Principal