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​We were happy to welcome Ken Larson to Dalhousie this morning to speak to students about Terry Fox and overcoming challenges in life. Ken is a former international level basketball player for Canada and a friend of Terry Fox. Ken told us stories about his friendship with Terry, but also had fun with students throughout his presentation. We are all pumped to run next Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. in our annual Terry Fox Run. Parents are welcome to run with their children.

Thank You to Melissa

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Melissa for her work as Assistant Principal at Dahousie.  I know that she has absorbed a lot of the extra work that comes along when you have a new person in the job who doesn't really know the environment yet.  Melissa knows the community very well and it's clear to me that your kids have been in excellent hands over the years that she has been at Dalhousie.  The community will miss you, Melissa.  Melissa will be at Dalhousie until October 6.  The new Assistant Principal will be in place by October 10.  I will be in this position until that transition is complete, and the principal is in place, likely towards the end of October. I will hire the new Assistant Principal in conjunction with the Area Office.  

Staffing 

We currently have 21 classes. The breakdown is this:

• Kindergarten: 88 students/4 classes  
• Grade 1: 78 students/4 classes  
• Grade 2: 78 students/4 classes  
• Grade 3: 94 students/4 classes  
• Grade 4: 79 students/3 classes  
• Grade 5: 52 students/2 classes  ​

We have 22 teachers on staff, 2 Education Assistants, 10 Lunch Supervisors, Lori and Karin in the office and Maryam in the Learning Commons. The teaching staff is comprised of 19 classroom teachers, the music teacher, the Assistant Principal and the Principal.

Our teaching staff:

Our support staff:

Change to Lunch Shifts

We are introducing a change to the organization of our lunch hour beginning Tuesday, September 19^th. 

​The change: The outcome we need to achieve is adequate supervision both inside and outside, specifically two supervisors on the playground at all times.  This change will not impact instructional hours.  It will impact the time some students eat.  All Grade 1 – 5 students will go out to play for the first half of lunch, and then eat the second half of lunch.  Kindergarten will eat first, and play second.   Eight of our Lunch Supervisors will supervise the Grade 1 – 5 students, two supervisors will look after our Kindergarten students.  Kindergarten students will eat from 12:30 – 12:54, then play outside until 1:17.  Grade 1 – 5 students will play outside from 12:30 – 12:54, then eat from 12:54 – 1:17.

The rationale: Your noon hour supervision fees allow us to have 10 Lunch Supervisors.  It is currently difficult to supervise the students eating lunch (inside the school) with fewer than six Lunch Supervisors.  This is because of the layout of the school and the classrooms. This leaves only four Lunch Supervisors for outside. If we have two Lunch Supervisors on the playground at all times, it is not possible to supervise adequately the rest of the supervision area with only two Lunch Supervisors.  We will also have more eyes on students during the transition from playing to eating because Lunch Supervisors will not be pulled in different directions for the transition period halfway through lunch. In this scenario, 380 Grade 1 – 5 students would be supervised by 8 Lunch Supervisors.  For Grade 1 – 5, this is an acceptable supervision ratio (47.5:1) in an unstructured setting with good sight lines.  This will also allow us to have two supervisors supervising two classes that are in close proximity during the eating period.  

The impact: The result is that Kindergarten students will eat 24 minutes earlier than they have been up to now.  Grades 3 – 5 will be eating 24 minutes later that they have been up to now.  Grade 1 – 2 students will have access to the playground at lunch on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Grade 3 – 5 will have access to the playground on Tuesday and Thursday.   In addition to this, we will open up the third soccer field so that there is more room for kids to play.   Our supervision area will look like this now:

Chinook Learning Services | Continuing Education | Spanish for Parents - Level 1 | Fall 2023

By helping parents, we help our CBE learners. Chinook Learning Services offers courses specifically designed for parents and caregivers of CBE Spanish Bilingual students. For Fall 2023, Chinook Learning Services is once again offering Spanish for Parents – Level 1 classes. This eight-week course will help parents of bilingual students learn or refresh their Spanish language skills, build their network of bilingual parents and support their children's learning at home. This course would also be beneficial for any Support Staff who are interested in learning along with parents!  

• Chinook Learning Services has successfully offered Spanish-For-Parents-Level-1 in the past.   
• Check out the course reviews at Course-Review-Spanish-For-Parents-Level-1

Dalhousie Happenings and Events

• ​September 15: Conference Manager opens Friday, September 15, 7:00 a.m. for Meet the Teacher. 
• September 15: Terry Fox Presentation in the gym for students
• September 20: Terry Fox Run
• ​Assembly at 1:45
• Parents are welcome to join outside at 2:00.
• ​September 21 – 22: Meet the Teacher. 
• ​Thursday from 5:00 – 7:00 and Friday from 9:00 – 1:00 
• Ten-minute slots
  
• Thanks to your generosity, teachers will eat together at 4:15 on Thursday. 
• September 28: Orange Shirt Day   
  
• ​September ​29: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation - NO SCHOOL

​As always, please call or email if you would like to discuss any of these issues.

Que tengan buen fin de semana! 

Scott Fehr 
Principal 

Melissa Forsyth 
Assistant Principal