As January gives way to February, that is a certain sign that we are half way through the school year. The other obvious sign of that milestone is the delivery of the first semester report card.
This Tuesday, students and their parents/guardians will be able to review first semester achievement as measured by report card 1. The purpose of this report card is to provide you with a summary of assessment data in relation to how your child is achieving in each of the major curricular outcomes associated with their subjects. Teacher comments are intended to give insight as to your child's current learning strengths and identify areas for continual growth. There will be one more report card at the end of June. Report Cards will be accessed by logging into your My CBE/PowerSchool account. Please visit our webpage for further detailed information on accessing report cards at https://school.cbe.ab.ca/school/McKenzieHighlands/Pages/default.aspx.
Our final round of Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences are scheduled for February 9 and 10. Again, these conferences will be held via Microsoft Teams Meet. Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences are an excellent means to helping teachers and parents to better support students as “action plans" can be developed between school and home to help further set conditions for success. Also, through these conversations, students come to better understand what is expected of them and the support that is available to help them to realize further success. These conferences are by appointment only and scheduled through Conference Manager. Should you experience any difficulty booking appointments, please contact the school's main office. Please bear in mind that should you ever have any questions or concerns, you are encouraged to contact teachers throughout the remainder of the school year. Their email address can be found on our website under the tab “About Us." Additionally, teachers will continue to reach out to you should there be particular concerns. Further information about booking your conferences can again be found by visiting our website.
In addition to report cards, students and parents are encouraged to regularly visit Brightspace D2L to monitor student progress and to also be aware of homework, assignments, and test dates. There is a direct link to D2L Brightspace contained on our website. Additionally, I encourage you to also visit Iris, which can also be accessed by visiting our website. In Iris, you will find your child's self-authored Student Learning Plan, in which they have set forth specific learning goals for themselves and developed strategies to realize those goals. You may also find artefacts of their work posted there.
This year a focus of our School Development Plan is around literacy, specifically in relation to writing skills. In order to support students in developing effective writing skills, our staff have committed to implementing specific writing strategies across all curricular areas. As well, another focus of our School Development Plan pertains to promoting student well-being in learning. We are specifically focusing on implementing specific strategies to promote students' resiliency. Part of this process involved having students complete a self-reflection survey. As a staff, we are reviewing that survey to ensure that we can meaningfully reflect student voice through individual responses and implement both school-wide structural and cultural initiatives to better support our students. I invite you to visit our School Development Plan which can be accessed by visiting our website and can be found by first clicking on the “About Us" tab at the top of our homepage and then clicking on the “Our School" tab.
Again, I would like to thank students, parents, and staff for their continual vigilance in adhering to health and safety protocols to ensure that we all remain safe during COVID-19. Please continue to refer to health screening protocols and remind your children to regularly bring masks to school.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to call me or email me at kjconnelly@cbe.ab.ca
Best regards,
Kel Connelly, Principal
