Dear HWW Students, Families, and Community members,
It is lovely to reconnect with you after Fall Break!
Today we want to highlight our upcoming School Council meeting on Monday, November 27 at 6:30pm, in person or available online. We will be sharing school updates and hosting guest speakers from both English as an Additional Language (EAL) and our Leadership program. We look forward to seeing you!
The AHS wellbeing sessions are wonderfully informative. Sharing here a video called Hiding in Plain Sight. This prompted us to share in conversations as a school team and we encourage conversations at home as well. The rates of vaping in high school students have skyrocketed across Canada, up 300% since 2014. As a school, we will continue to respond through our progressive discipline policies to students vaping on campus. The larger need is to get resources into the hands of students to help them make good choices and build protective factors. Here are some resources shared in the AHS presentation which we will also be providing through Warrior Connect. Thank you for all of your support and partnership with us in this important work.
In other news, we appreciated an excellent day of professional learning on November 9. System-wide, we focussed on the Heart domain of the Holistic Lifelong Learning Framework, and how to continue to build connection and rich learning opportunities for our self-identifying Indigenous students. We watched a CBE Student panel speaking to this topic and engaged in talking circles to consider how we can continue to create wellbeing and connection for our students and respond within our Programs of Study with equitable and inclusive tasks. November 24 and December 8 NI Days, we will continue our work in Outcomes-based Assessment and our Term 1 student data. We continue to collaborate to build flexible learning structures and multiple ways to gather learning evidence from students. Thank you for your continued support for your students in their studies, and please reach out with any questions or suggestions.
Our third fire drill of the year went very smoothly last week and the weather was outstanding. We wrapped up our food bank drive for the Veteran's Association this week and our Agents for Change student group are hosting their French Bake sale in support of Wise Wood Families in need.
With gratitude for your partnership and support,
Aileen Smyth
Principal
