Dear Highwood Families,
Here are just a few important items and reminders for the month of April:
- Volunteer Clearance- Sports Day
- Help the Environment!
- Round 3 of Mask Distribution
- Chinese New Year Outfit Donation
- School Development Plan
- Important April Dates
Volunteer Clearance
There are MANY fieldtrips coming up as well as a school-wide Sports Day in June and WE NEED VOLUNTEERS! Volunteer Clearance can take weeks, so please complete this ASAP. We recommend that all parents complete a security clearance.
All parents wishing to volunteer with in-school and off-site events MUST complete and pass a Calgary Police Services security check. To do so:
- Come to the school with ONE piece of picture ID (i.e. driver's licence, Canadian passport, or permanent resident card)
- The school will provide you with a personalized letter with a special code on it that can only be used by you. This letter and code are only good for 90 days.
- With the letter and code, you need to complete the security clearance either in-person at the police station or online by following these instructions. CPS APPLICANT INSTRUCTION MANUAL
- Once this is complete, it can take several weeks to receive the results. Once you receive the results, please share them with the school.
- If you receive clearance, it will be good for 5 years and can be transferred to any CBE school.
- If you have already received clearance from another CBE school, please call us to transfer this to Highwood School.
- If you have received clearance from any other organization, unfortunately it cannot be accepted and you must apply for a CBE clearance.
- Call the office (403-777-6200) if you are unsure if your previous CBE clearance has expired or not.
Help the Environment!
We are proud that Highwood School is one of the most environmentally friendly schools in the CBE. We compost food waste and paper towels, use GOOS paper (Good On One Side), and recycle dried up markers, paper, and snack wrappers. We even have solar panels to power up our school. But we still need your help!
- We have quite a few students who forget to bring a fork, spoon or water bottle to school and the school provides them with plastic disposable utensils and cup. These single use plastics are not environmentally friendly, so we encourage you to please ensure that your child has a fork, spoon, and water bottle in their lunch bag every day.
- If you or your work place have any GOOS paper that can be donated to the school, we'd love to have it and use the other side that's blank! Please ensure that what you are donating is flat (not crinkled) and does not contain confidential information on the other side. 8.5" x 11" sized paper would be best.
- Wednesdays during the month of April will be doing Waste Free Wednesdays. This means we are challenging all students to have no garbage (or as little as possible) during snack and lunch. This means using reusable containers and items that can be recycled or composted.
Round 3 of Mask Distribution
Before spring break we completed a second round of child mask distribution. Starting April 1, we will do a third round of disposable child mask distribution. If your child would like another 20 disposable masks, please bring a medium/large sized baggie to school.
Chinese New Year Outfit Donation
Has your child outgrown their traditional Chinese outfit? If so, please consider donating it to Highwood School. Every year we loan out traditional Chinese outfits (dresses, jackets, jacket/pants) for students who do not have one to wear during our Lunar New Year concert and on Lunar New Year day.
School Development Plan
Teachers are continuing to work with students to improve oral production of subject-specific vocabulary in Social Studies (related to Indigenous Education in English) and in Math (related to Numeracy in Mandarin). We will soon do our post-test with each child to see how they have progressed. These results are to inform us of next steps and task design and are not used for report cards.
Important April dates:
Friday, April 1: Ms. Chen Room 102 last day of Open Minds Library School; Monday/ Wednesday Kindergarten attends school
Monday, April 4- Friday, April 8: Ms. Yang Room 101 Open Minds Library School
Wednesday, April 6: Grade 3 and 4 National Math Contest
Thursday, April 14: Spirit Day- Color Day (wear your grade's assigned color)!
- Kindergarten- red
- Grade 1- green
- Grade 2- blue
- Grade 3- yellow
- Grade 4- orange
Friday, April 15: NO SCHOOL- Good Friday
Monday, April 18: NO SCHOOL- PD Day
Tuesday, April 19- Monday, April 25: Ms. Yeung Room 201 Open Minds Stampede School
Monday, April 25- Friday, April 29: Ms. Jones Room 103 Open Minds Library School
Sincerely,
Highwood School
