Thank you to the many families who attended our March Student-Led
learning conferences. Student-led conferences have many benefits for both the
students and parents. Students benefit by sharing the work they have
produced, demonstrating problem solving strategies, communicating their
understandings, and self-reflecting on their progress. Parents
benefit by seeing their children as enthusiastic learners who are capable
of communicating what they are doing and how well they are doing at
school. Most important, parents have the opportunity to ask their children
questions, provide lots of encouragement and positive feedback for their
learning, hard word and effort. It was clear to see that our students were
very excited to share their learning journey with their families.
With the arrival of April, we head into the final stretch of the school
year. Even as the weather continues to
improve, we remind ourselves that there are still three busy learning-filled months
of school left! Our amazing teaching staff continues to focus on and provide engaging
learning experiences and projects that provide opportunities for our students
to communicate and collaborate, be creative and design, solve problems, and
think critically. We encourage you to visit the teacher blogs and talk to your
child(ren) about school and the things he/she is learning this month.
April is also a month
we begin planning for the coming school year. Citadel Park School staff will be
creating class lists for next year’s grade one and three classrooms. Students currently in grade one and three
will continue to have the same teacher for grades two and four as we continue
the practice of teachers looping with their students. The exception to this is if the teacher is
identified for layoff, transfers to another school, or retires. Class list creation is an involved process
that requires several meetings and thoughtful deliberations about student
placement in classrooms. A variety of
factors are considered so that classes are well balanced to meet the needs of
all of our students. If there is
information about your child that would be useful to us in making the best
placement decision, please communicate with your child’s teacher. We would ask that if you have a classroom
request for the coming school year, that you send it via email to Mr. Faunt at mtfaunt@cbe.ab.ca, no later than June 1, 2019. In the past we have received very few
requests as most parents rely on us to place their child in a classroom. However, we do understand that in some
circumstances, a parent may make a request for a particular teacher. Teacher
requests must have an educational reason stated in the email. Thank you for appreciating the complexities
of creating class groupings. A parent
request may not be honoured if it creates an imbalance of student needs in our
classrooms. Requests for classroom
placements will not be considered after June 1th.
Our School Council
has been busy planning for our upcoming School Spring Family Dance scheduled
for Thursday, April 18, 2018 from 6:00 -7:30. Ticket forms will come home with
students in early April. Tickets will be $10 per family. In conjunction with
our school family dance, we will also be running a Family Photo opportunity
through Lifetouch photo. Proceeds from these photo sessions will go towards our
Learning Commons fundraising. The school will send out further information
through School Messenger with sign-up instructions, as this will all be done
online through Lifetouch Photo.
We would once again
like to remind our Citadel Park families about our concerns about traffic,
parking and street crossing. We realize parking is at a premium and with the
weather warming up, please consider walking or biking to and from school to
help alleviate this issue.
Finally, we would
like to welcome Ms. Orton to Citadel Park.
Ms. Orton will be teaching music to our afternoon kindergarten students
as well as our grade 1 and 2 students.
Ms. Faber, who was teaching music, is now teaching in room 13, replacing
Mrs. Teeple, who is on leave for the remainder of the school year.
Thank you,
Mr. Faunt
& Mrs. Ryskamp