| As we craft this newsletter the snow is falling and it is only October 1st, 2018.
Winter has come early and although September was not truly a fall month, the
students here at John G. Diefenbaker still made it a fabulous and exciting month!
We would like to take this opportunity to welcome our new Grade 10 families as
well as other new families to the “Home of the Chiefs”!
Our Community Building started off strong this September. We began with our
welcome to Dief BBQ for our Grade 10 students on September 4th. On our Dief
Pride Spirit Day, September 13, Orlando Bowen gave a highly motivational speech
to our student body about empowerment, resilience and teamwork! After the
assembly, students were invited to do a Mall Walk that showcased all our amazing
Clubs and upcoming major events, such as our upcoming theatre production
auditions of Sherlock Holmes and the West End Horror. We hosted a whole school
Welcome Back Dief Chief’s BBQ on September 19th and built points for our TAs.
Then last Friday, September 28, we all met in the gym during FLEX for a
motivational presentation after which we all completed the school based Terry Fox
Run!
We are always happy to welcome our families to our first gathering of Parents as
Partners Evening! Thank you all for your attendance and for taking the opportunity
to familiarize yourself with your child’s classes and teachers. We believe in open
and receptive conversations with our parents and are glad to have many new faces
on our Parent Council this year. If this is something of interest, please join us on
the first Tuesday of most months for our School Council Meeting at 6:30 p.m.in our
Learning Commons.
We are very appreciative of your cooperation as we work towards making JGD a
safe environment for all our students and staff! One new process to help with this
goal is to keep the north door locked at all times, which means students now need
to come into the school either through the front doors or the doors in the students’
parking lot. We ask all drivers to slow down in the school parking lots and be aware
of how and where they are dropping off their student. This helps us move 1500
students / staff in and out safely during the start and end of the school day. Other
safety procedures were to hold our first fire drill and one practice lockdown as per
CBE protocol and both were very successful. The students showed how astute
and cooperative, they are when responding to emergency situations!
Congratulations to all of our students who are participating in clubs and/or athletic
teams this fall. Let’s have a great October of learning! Go Chiefs Go!
Mike Bester
Principal
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