With deep gratitude and respect, we are honoured to be learning and unlearning on the ancestral and unceded lands of the the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam Nation), Sḵwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) & səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation).

Tecumseh Annex first opened in 1959, to teach primary grade students within the catchment of Tecumseh Elementary School. The school is named after Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief, who was the leader of a First Nations confederacy, as well as military leader. He is primarily known for his role in the fight to retain the land and rights for Indigenous people.

Tecumseh Annex is in the Kensington-Cedar-Cottage neighbourhood of Vancouver, which is centrally located in the middle of Vancouver. This neighbourhood consists mostly of single home residences and is the feeder school for Tecumseh Elementary. Most students go on to attend Tecumseh school for their intermediate elementary years of schooling.

There is a total of four divisions comprising of 71 children from Kindergarten to Grade Three. Over half of our students are English language learners (ELL), who also can speak a second language. Our school population consists of many cultures and spoken languages. We have a variety of home languages that are spoken in the school community including Cantonese, Japanese, Mandarin, Punjabi, Filipino, Portuguese, Spanish, Tamil, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

The Tecumseh Annex staff is comprised of 16 people in total, including the site-based administrator, full-time and part-time teaching staff, student support workers, an office administrative assistant and a building engineer. We are a small school, but collectively, as a staff, we share many of the responsibilities to fulfill the duties that are required to effectively operate a school. The student body is respectful, kind and we also have of a close-knit community that helps and support one another.

Tecumseh Annex comprises of very proud and active parent and grandparent community. Student performances and parent-teacher conferences are well attended. We have a strong and active Parent Advisory Council (PAC) which helps provide many opportunities for students including special performances, field trips through fundraising activities as well as providing access to materials and resources to support student learning.

Tecumseh Annex has a school wide focus on leadership. Many students choose to take part in leadership opportunities such as being library monitors, doing the daily morning announcements and lunch club activities, all led by the Grade 3 students.

The entire school has adopted a very successful Positive Behaviour Support model, which we call R.O.C.K. (Respect, Open Mind, Community, Kindness). Students are encouraged to be Tecumseh Annex R.O.C.K. Stars. All divisions have had positive results and good success with this shared language and vision for behaviour.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) has been a long-standing focus of Tecumseh Annex. Our school wide Positive Behaviour Support program, R.O.C.K., began in 2014-15 and continues to be a successful model to this day. We wanted to build on that success and extend our thinking to work on the connections between social emotional learning and academic success.