​I hope everyone had a wonderful Family Day weekend. Our winter break seems so long ago already. We have had a month of many exciting events and transitions. Starting with our feeder school tours for incoming grades 5 and 7 on January 15th. We followed up with an Open House that evening. This was an opportunity for our prospective students and families to visit our school community to meet teachers and see students in action. We had over 300 students and parents in attendance at the open house. If you missed this evening and have questions, please feel free to contact us.
 
We celebrated the Lunar New Year on January 23rd with a dragon and lion dance to bring in the year of the Rat. We had an afternoon of festivities for all students and an evening program to finish off the day of celebration. We had over 450 guests in attendance for our performance. We would like to thank all the parents and Colonel Irvine alumni who volunteered their time to help make the day so successful. We also thank our students for their energy and support. Thank you to our staff members who devoted their time into ensuring another successful Lunar New Year celebration. It was a collective effort from all with special thanks to Ms. Litchfield and Ms. Zhao.
 
Reports cards were distributed at the end of January and all students were asked to complete a Report Card reflection. Students were asked to see what they could do to achieve success at school. Both Mr. Bylsma and I are looking forward to reading their thoughts. We held our second rounds of student/parent interviews on February 6th and 7th. If you were not able to connect with teachers at that time, please call or email. Parents are encouraged to log into PowerSchool on a regular basis to ensure that they stay current on their child’s progress.
 
We are in the midst of helping our grade 9’s register for grade 10 courses for next year. It is a reminder for parents to ensure that high school transfer forms are due March 15 should they wish to transfer out of their designated high school.
 
Our basketball season is also underway with four teams shooting and defending strong. Colonel Irvine students are welcome to come and support our teams during our home games. A parent or adult supervisor must accompany any student wanting to support our teams at other schools. Our coaches are not able to supervise students while coaching at away games.
 
Pink Shirt Day is Feb. 26. Wearing pink demonstrates an understanding of the importance of promoting healthy relationships and actively working toward creating learning and work environments that are safe where bullying behaviours cannot exist. We encourage all students and staff to wear pink to support anti-bullying.
 
I am very pleased to share that Ms. Elkhatib had a baby boy January 22. Both Mom and baby are doing well. In her absence, I would like to welcome Ms. Kim Vo as the newest Roadrunner Staff member to Colonel Irvine School. We are delighted to have her join our school learning community.
 
Bea Ko
Principal​