Dear Hawks Families,
Our School council typically meets once per month and at those meetings a different group of teachers offers a presentation highlighting their work with students. These presentations highlight the learning tasks and projects for that grade, including a focus on our School Development Plan work. This week our grade two teachers, Mrs. Patrick and Ms. Mottershead, as well as our Music Teacher, Mrs. Smith, presented highlights from their programs.
Our School Development plan is like a business plan in which we focus on specific areas of learning. This year our School Development Plan focusses on:
- Using graphic organizers and visual thinking routines to help students organize thoughts, information and ideas
- Teach positive social skills
Mr. Nyrerod, our Assistant Principal, presented some exciting work we've been doing around Indigenous Education with our students. He talked about how we have been working closely with Sa'akokoto, a local Blackfoot Elder, to help us understand Indigenous ways of knowing.
Our next meeting is April 13 and our grade 1 and our Hub teachers (grade 2, 3, and 6) will be presenting. We hope to see you there.
We are grateful for all the fundraising that School Council has been able to offer this year. At a time in which our activities are so impacted by COVID19 safety protocols, Wendy Karl and Nichola Smith have found creative ways to host fund raising events. Our fundraising this year hopes to raise enough money to pay for an outdoor Gaga ball court and also to pay for Virtual Residency experiences for each class.
For more information about Fundraising and other School Council activities, please visit their website at https://bpschoolcouncil.ca/
We are trying to be very safe and cautious with our lost and found items this year. We encourage you to label your child's clothing items they bring to school to help minimize items that stay in the Lost and Found. Mabel's Labels is another fundraiser we are doing this year. If you buy labels for your child's clothing, a portion of the proceeds goes back to our School Council!
I've recently engaged support from Calgary Police Services and Calgary Parking Authority to help us with some challenges with traffic around our school. We ask that parents help keep our students safer by:
- slowing down to 30km/hr
- using our cross walk (in front of the Mini building)
- parking only in designated areas (please don't park in the bus zone or in front of our neighbor's driveways. Consider parking in the Community Center lot).
- no U-turns
Remember we have lots of little people at our school. They need you to be extra cautious for their safety.
One of the changes we have implemented this year is our staggered start. This means that children can arrive in the morning anytime between 8:35-8:55. Please consider coming closer to 8:35-8:40 as this helps to reduce traffic around our school.
February 24 is Pink Shirt Day. This special day originated when two Nova Scotia high school students inspired Pink Shirt Day by organizing their fellow students to wear pink in support of a Grade 9 boy who was being bullied for wearing a pink shirt. Bullying can happen to anyone, anywhere. On Feb. 24, Pink Shirt Day is a time to encourage Albertans to stand up to bullying when they see it in schools, communities, workplaces, at home and online. Please encourage your child to wear a pink shirt to stand up against bullying!
Our continued thanks for your support. From helping your child learn on-line to keeping them home when they are sick to showing kindness and appreciation to our staff … you have contributed to your child’s education this year in many ways. Thanks for making our school community stronger and more caring.
Sincerely,
Jeff Campbell
Proud Principal
