This Friday, March 6, 2020, is a scheduled Professional Development Day for GYPSD school-based staff which means no school for students! The GYPSD's Board is pleased to have teaching and leadership excellence as one of their three priorities for the Division and these scheduled PD days offer great opportunities for division-wide learning for staff. The latest event was held at the end of November when GYPSD Learning Services hosted support staff from across the Division for a day of professional development in Hinton and Edson. Presenters from Everactive engaged staff in activities around the five competencies of social-emotional learning and how these skills help to support students in both their academics and relationships. Literacy strategies to support English Language Learners, including a demonstration on how Google tools can help support literacy development for students, rounded out the successful day of learning. Other sessions focused on updates to office procedures and learning new software for support staff. Staff will be strategizing on their individual school's instructional focus of literacy and/or numeracy for the upcoming sessions on March 6.