Welcome Back to a New Year!

Dear Students and Families,

I hope you have enjoyed a restful and refreshing summer. As we prepare to begin another school year at Next Step, I want to welcome you back. Each year brings new opportunities to grow, learn, and take meaningful steps forward, no matter how small they may feel in the moment. As our motto reminds us: “Small steps are still progress.”

Important Information for High School students: (All Jr High students start on August 28)
From August 20–26, our staff will be contacting high school students by phone or email to confirm course start appointment times for August 28 & 29 and September 2-5. You can also reach out to nextstep@eips.ca or call 7804641899 to confirm appointment times. Please plan to arrive 10 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment so we can complete:

• Your school photo for the current school year ID card
• A smooth start-up process to ensure your year begins successfully

At Next Step all our programming is in-person although students have 24/7 access to materials via Brightspace or Google Classroom. Our students are required to be on campus at least once a week to meet with their teacher and check in on class progress. This may be 5 minutes or an hour. All assessments need to be completed in-person on site. Students can meet more than that if they like as it is very individualized. Students' progress at their own pace so could accelerate and get done early if they wanted. Our students work one on one or in small group with teachers and have a success coach available to support them in their academic journey as needed. Courses can be completed quarterly (Nov) or semesterly (Jan). If a student is upgrading a diploma course, they can choose to write the diploma or not and just upgrade their course mark which is weighted at 70% or just write the diploma or both.

School Highlights to Celebrate:

• 99% of students report being proud to attend Next Step Outreach (83% strongly agree, 16% agree)
• 100% of students would recommend our school to a friend (91% strongly agree, 9% agree)
• 93.1% of students, parents, and staff believe our school has improved or stayed the same over the past three years — well above the provincial average of 76.6%

These outstanding results affirm that our small, personalized approach continues to make a meaningful impact. We are proud to be a school where students are seen, supported, and celebrated. On behalf of our staff, I want to thank you for being part of the Next Step community. We look forward to walking alongside you this year, step by step, as we continue to build confidence, skills, and success together.