Principals’ Update – January 2020
Happy New Year and welcome back to school!
For many of us, the New Year is the opportunity to make resolutions for
the upcoming year. We make them with sincerity and yet, hardly a day
elapses, our good intentions go by the wayside. Fortunately, in a school
setting, we avoid that by being very much focused on the goals of our
School Development Plan, not on resolutions. We use the New Year as
an opportunity to reflect on what we have accomplished over the past 4
months and centre our attention on what we need to do to ensure we
are moving forward with meeting our goals.
In November, we posted our School Development Plan on our website
and discussed it with parents at School Council. Based on data from
last year’s report cards, observations of student learning, Provincial
Achievement Tests, and our Accountability Pillar Survey, we determined
three areas of focus:
Literacy – students will improve functional writing skills to
communicate ideas in an effective and organized manner.
Mathematics - students will develop their skills in communicating
their mathematical understanding.
Well-Being - students will demonstrate acts of empathy and
kindness throughout the year both formally and informally.
For more information, please see our website
http://school.cbe.ab.ca/School/Repository/SBAttachments/c2d4ea23-
48c6-4989-ae2c-51a8f26bd22e_SchoolDevelopmentPlan2019-20.pdf
Just before the Winter Break, we were in the process of working with
students in understanding themselves as learners and the importance of
setting authentic and relevant goals for learning. In some cases, the
students have set multiple goals. In almost every case, the students
have set manageable goals and the strategies they have articulated
demonstrate they understand what they need to do to achieve those
goals. Our students have clearly been an integral part of their own
learning. Their daily assignments/projects, their own reflections, and
their teacher’s feedback make it abundantly clear students are being
successful. In so many cases, the students have connected their goals
to what they already know about themselves. They are achieving their
goals and know where they need to go next for continuous
improvement. Setting the goals for success for students’ right at the
beginning and making them part of the process is critical.
The report cards will be issued on January 30, 2020 and June 26,
2020. You will notice some changes to the report cards this year.
Report card stems are categories used to organize Program of Studies
outcomes and assessment information for communication to students
and families. The mathematics report card stems have changed in order
to make the report card clearer to students and families, and to connect
report card information directly to the content of the program of studies.
All K-9 schools will use a common numerical indicator scale, which has
distinct levels to provide the most accurate way to communicate student
achievement.
K-9 Common Indicator Scale:
4 - Excellent – The student demonstrates a mastery level of
understanding.
■ The quality of work within the body of evidence may be
perceptive and/or insightful.
■ The student consistently demonstrates this level of
achievement.
■ Students achieving at this level have excellent
demonstration of grade level outcomes and can be
confident of being prepared for further learning in this area
3 - Good - The student demonstrates a well-developed level of
understanding.
■ The quality of work within the body of evidence may be
clear and/or well reasoned.
■ The student consistently demonstrates this level of
achievement.
■ Students achieving at this level can be confident of being
prepared for further learning in this area.
2 – Basic - The student demonstrates a developing level of
understanding.
■ The quality of work within the body of evidence may be
adequate and/or concrete.
■ The student consistently demonstrates this level of
achievement.
■ Adjustments to planning and instruction may be
necessary for further learning in this area.
1 – Not Meeting -The student demonstrates a beginning level of
understanding.
■ The quality of work within the body of evidence may be
vague and/or undeveloped.
■ The student consistently demonstrates this level of
achievement.
■ Targeted adjustments to planning and instruction will be
necessary for further learning in this area.
For more information on Assessment and Reporting, please see the
CBE website. https://www.cbe.ab.ca/programs/curriculum/assessment-andreporting/Pages/default.aspx
We greatly appreciate all the students who arrive for school on time.
It is critically important for them to start their day on a positive note as
the teachers give them information about the day’s expectations and
help them to organize their day for learning. When a child is 15 minutes
late, every day, they are missing 2,745 minutes or 45.75 hours of
instruction. Even missing 5 minutes of instructional time every day adds
up to a loss of 915 minutes or 15.25 hours over the course of the year.
That is a significant loss of learning time! Alberta Education mandates
all elementary students receive 950 hours of instruction and
unfortunately, children are disadvantaged when they miss large
amounts of time. Please help your children to ready themselves and get
to school on time. We hope with your support, we can significantly
decrease the number of students arriving late each morning.
We have to love Calgary weather and the fact we live in a climate
notorious for unpredictable changes! We would like to remind you to
ensure your child is prepared for the sudden changes in weather by
having a warm coat, hat, mitts, and boots with them when they come to
school. When temperatures reach -20 Celsius or colder including the
wind-chill factor, students will be kept inside for recess or lunch breaks.
The -20 Celsius guideline is comparable to other school jurisdictions in
Alberta and across Canada. However, we will run the “Polar Bear Club”
for students who would like to brave the colder weather (max. -25
Celsius). This is voluntary, however they must be dressed for the cold
with a warm jacket, snow pants, scarves, mitts, boots etc. We will go out
for a short while (15 minutes), and at any time the students are cold,
they will be able to come back into the school. Thank you to the
Leadership Team and other staff members who are willing to supervise
and join The Polar Bear Club! During the winter, roads may also be
congested and slippery resulting in possible bus delays.
Parents/guardians whose children take a yellow school bus can view the
status of their bus on www.myschoolbusmonitor.com.
From January to the end of February, Alberta Education will be
conducting the annual Accountability Pillar Survey. In January,
parents of students in grades 4, 7, and 10 will receive a survey from
Alberta Education. In February, students in grades 4, 7, and 10, and all
teachers will be completing their surveys online at school.
All surveys are anonymous and ask questions about experiences with
the school. All parents/guardians receive the English version of the
survey in the mail, but Alberta Education also provides it in Arabic,
Blackfoot, Chinese, Cree, French, Korean, Punjabi, Spanish, Tagalog
and Urdu. If you would prefer to respond to the survey in one of these
languages, please let us know and a copy will be sent to you.
It is very important that parents/guardians complete the survey and
return it to Alberta Education. Alberta Education and the public use the
results of the Accountability Pillar Survey to assess satisfaction with the
quality of education in our schools. In addition, the Calgary Board of
Education uses the information to improve teaching and learning for
your children.
If you “Don’t Know” the answer to a particular question, please skip that
question and go to the next one, otherwise want your response will
unintentionally count as a negative one.
Your voice matters. Your participation in the survey helps provide
important information on the quality of education your child is receiving.
Alberta Education and the Calgary Board of Education thank you for
returning the parent Accountability Pillar Survey promptly. If you have
questions, please contact us at the school.
The Accountability Pillar uses a set of 16 indicators consisting of
surveys of students, parents and teachers on various aspects of quality;
student outcomes such as dropout and high school completion rates;
and provincial assessments of student learning. Interested in the
results? Look for them in school and the CBE 3-Year Education Plans
and Annual Education Results Reports, posted on the website.
We are looking forward to seeing you soon in and around the school, at
School Council, or during school events.
Laine Mulholland, Principal
Kim Howden, Assistant Principal
