Aug 12
Welcome back!

Welcome Rundle School families, 

My name is Chris Southworth and I am the new Principal of rundle School. I am looking forward to meeting and getting to know all of our amazing Rundle families this year.


I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that school begins for grade 1-6 students on Monday, August 15 at 8:00am. Kindergarten classes also begin this week with staggered entries Monday through Thursday. Please refer to the kindergarten schedule you already received on Wednesday for specific details. 

 

As you get ready for Monday, we have some important information to share with you: 

 

School hours 

Mon-Thurs 8:00 AM - 2:30 PM 

Lunch 11:30 AM - 12:15 PM             

Fridays 8:00A M - 12:00 AM            

 

Office Hours: 

Mon-Thurs 8:00 AM - 3:30 PM     

Fridays: 8:00 AM - 2:30 PM  

 

Ms. Defoe-Hall and Mrs. Fitzpatrick, our secretaries, will be happy to support you with any questions you may have. 

 

Bussing Information 

If you live in Cityscape and registered your child for the yellow bus in June using your MyCBE Account, you will be able to check whether your child is confirmed to be able to ride the school bus. Please check your MyCBE Account to confirm bus transport. 

 

If you have not yet registered your child for the bus, please do so using your MyCBE Account as soon as possible. 

 

Confirmation of bus registration normally takes 4-6 weeks from date of registration to be processed by Southland Transportation. As a result, if you registered your child after the deadline in June or have not yet registered your child for the bus, your child may be able to ride the bus to school, but they will NOT be allowed to ride the school bus home after school. 

 

If your child is not confirmed on the bus, starting Monday, August 15, you will need to pick your children up from school at 2:30pm EVERY day (except Friday) until bussing is confirmed. Please remember, school is done at 12 noon on Friday. We apologize for this in advance; however, this is a Southland Transportation rule and completely out of our control. 

 

If you have any questions, please contact transportation at 403-817-7433 

 

Lunch and Snacks  

Although we do have a few children who go home for lunch, all bussed students and most Rundle community students stay at school for Lunch.  

 

All students require healthy snacks for the morning, and students who stay for lunch must bring their own lunch each day. Please ensure you pack enough healthy food to get your children through the day and encourage them to bring all uneaten food home at the end of the day.  

 

Breakfast Club will begin on Wednesday, August 17 at 7:45am. For security reasons, students coming for breakfast will need to rind the buzzer and come through the front (main) doors. 

 

The First Day of School 

You will have received either an email or phone call from your children’s teachers to welcome you and your children to their classes. On Monday morning, all teachers will be outside by 7:45am at their meeting places to greet students. Each teacher will have a sign that shows their name. Below is a map indicating where each class will meet on Monday morning.  

 

A staff member will greet each bus, take attendance and bring the children around to the back of the school to meet their teachers. Younger children will receive a colored tag that will indicate which bus they ride each day. Please ensure the tag stays on the backpack.  

 

Clothing 

Although we are still at the height of summer and it seems to be hot every day, stormy weather is common during the Alberta summer. Please make sure your child is dressed for the weather, and ready to be both indoors and outdoors.  We only stay inside for recess and lunch when there is lightning, heavy rain, or it is below -20C. Students will be playing outside during light showers, and classes will be learning outside on the land as much as possible. To help keep our school clean and the children comfortable, students require indoor shoes. Please send these items in your children’s backpacks on Monday. 

 

Tips to Make the First Day of School Successful 

During this final weekend of summer, it is important for children to get outside and enjoy our short, yet beautiful Calgary summer. This is a perfect time for families to play together at the park, enjoy a nice picnic, or play your favorite outdoor sport such as soccer, basketball, or cricket.  

 

Please talk with your children about starting school on Monday and remind them how great it will be to both see all their friends and make some new ones. Also, remind them of the importance of kindness and the Seven Sacred Teachings: Respect, Courage, Honesty, Truth, Wisdom, Humility and Love. These Teachings will be a big part of our teaching and learning this year. They are great words to live by.  

 

On Sunday night, please ensure your children get to bed early and have a good breakfast on Monday morning. The first few days are very long for our young children. This will help them get through these first days of learning successfully. 

 

Thank you all for being a part of our wonderful Rundle School Community. We are so excited to meet you all! 

 

Sincerely,  

 

Chris Southworth       

Principal


Sep 06
Welcome back to another wonderful year at Rundle!

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome back to another wonderful year at Rundle! We hope you had an enjoyable summer despite our cool and wet weather. We are looking forward to an excellent year of learning and growing with our students. We have had many new families join us this year and we continue to accept new registrations. This increase in enrollment may require some changes in our classrooms to accommodate our higher numbers. Those decisions will be communicated directly to the parents in the classes impacted. As always, our focus is on providing the very best learning environment for all students with the resources available.

We have had some other changes here at Rundle as well. If you have been in to the office recently you will have seen some new faces. Our wonderful team of Mrs. VanOosten and Ms. Diane have both moved on from Rundle. Although we are still in close touch with them, we will really miss them at Rundle and we know that they were very important people to all of the students, families and staff at Rundle. We do have two new staff members in the office. Mrs. Linda Coulter will be the smiling face at the front counter and Mrs. Maysa Abdel Bar will be stepping into the administrative secretary role. They have both started with us and we know they will do a wonderful job. Please introduce yourself when you are in next!

We also have some new faces in the rest of the school this fall. At the end of the school year, Mrs. Galbraith accepted another position in another area and Ms. Hall has stepped into the role of Resource teacher. Ms. Chui has taken over in room 15 teaching grades 3 and 4 and is doing a wonderful job. We also have Mrs. Wagemakers who is providing excellent teaching in room 12 during Mrs. Nisbett’s absence this fall. We have also welcomed Mrs. Zeena Karmali as an educational assistant supporting our students. We are so pleased with everyone who has joined our exceptionally strong and caring staff.

This year we are planning to continue our work on increasing student achievement in all areas, with a particular focus on math and reading. We started our year with a focused professional session for staff on teaching non-fiction reading. The session was shared with 5 other schools and teachers came away with very concrete ideas to consider as well as a great review of theoretical underpinnings. We will be continuing to work with other schools over the course of the year in order to make the best use of our professional learning time.

Thank you to all the families who came out and joined us last night for a wonderful Family Fitness Fun Fair! It was a great opportunity to meet families and for the students to have some fun with new classmates. We look forward to meeting with parents again at our upcoming Parent Teacher conferences on September 19 and 20. If you haven’t yet signed up for your MyCBE / Powerschool account, this will be how you book an appointment when the system opens on September 14. If you need help setting up your account, we are happy to help you with it in the office. If possible, we ask that you try to avoid the beginning and end of the day as we are very busy with student arrival and dismissal and may not be available to help you.

If you have any concerns or questions about issues at school or in the classroom, we encourage you to connect with your child’s teacher as soon as the concern arises. We are very happy to help with any issues and can best help when we know early about a concern or question.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new school year!

Sue Rutherford

Apr 29
Newsletter | May 2019

With the weather changing so quickly these days I never know if I should be pulling out my sunscreen or winter boots! Hopefully the forecast cooperates a bit more and we can start to have some more spring-like weather soon. 

Thank you to the many parents who were able to attend our recent grade 1/2 literacy morning. It was a wonderful event focusing on the literacy skills and activities that will most benefit our grade one and two students. The teachers and staff put a lot of time and work into the morning so it was especially appreciated that we had so many parents who were able to attend. If you were unable to attend, and didn’t receive a handout in your child's backpack please feel free to connect with your child’s teacher to get one. It offers many ideas for supporting literacy at home.

We also had a great turnout of parents to the assembly hosted and presented by the grade 3 and 4 students in rooms 13, 14 and 15 this past Thursday afternoon. The students did an amazing job!  We have many other exciting events coming up over the next several weeks as well. Please check out the calendar on the website to ensure you don’t miss anything!

 

School Council

One important event is the upcoming School Council meeting on May 13th at 6p.m.. School Council is made up of the school leadership team, teachers and parents from the school who meet monthly to discuss issues and priorities at the school. The Council is an essential part of the success of the school and is one way that parents can stay informed and involved. All parents are welcome to attend any and all meetings. Some parents may only be able to attend occasional meetings and even attending one meeting a year is appreciated. There are also key positions that are filled each year by parents who are willing to commit to attend most months. These positions include:

      a chairperson (who organizes and runs the meetings)

      a vice chairperson (who assists with organizing and running the meetings)

      a secretary (who takes notes about what is discussed and decided)

      a treasurer (who balances the financial records).

The meetings themselves are typically fun and informal and are a great chance to meet other parents and provide valuable input to make Rundle the best possible school. Over the past number of years we have had a small but dedicated team of parents who have filled all of these roles and provided great input but their children have gradually been moving out of the school. We currently only have two parents consistently attending the School Council meetings and one of these parents will no longer have children at our school next year. Without new parents coming forward to be involved, we may not have the input we need. As a school, we know how strongly parents and families value education and our school and we would ask that you consider if you can commit one hour a month to help Rundle continue to be the fantastic school we want for our children. If you have any questions about the meetings or what would be required, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

 

Next Year

It is that time of year where we are eagerly anticipating many fun and exciting events for this school year and also starting to look ahead to the next school year. Kindergarten registration opened in January and we are still accepting registrations for students to start in August 2019. If your child will be 5 by March 1, 2020 they are eligible to start kindergarten in August. If you haven’t already registered, please do so as soon as possible. Our welcome to kindergarten event is coming up on May 23rd from 6-7:30p.m. and we wouldn’t want anyone to miss it.

Information about transportation registration for next year will be coming out this week. In order for your address to be taken into account when choosing the locations for the bus stops next year, it is important that you pre-register by the deadline. It is also essential that your correct address is in our system. If you have moved over the course of the year, or know you will be moving before the start of the school year, please contact us in the office to ensure we have your current and correct address on file.

We are starting to make plans for staffing for next year and although we would love for all of our students to be staying with us next year, we know sometimes children will be changing schools due to a variety of reasons. If you know your child will be attending another school next year, due to a move, getting into a program of choice, or any other reason, we would really appreciate it if you could let the office know by June 1. This will ensure we have the transfer process done smoothly so student records are ready to go at the end of June. If you find out after this date, that’s fine too. Just give us a call in the office and let us know. If you have applied for registration at a private or charter school but will not know if you have been accepted until closer to September, we would love to know that too. If you live within the designated boundary for Rundle School, we will always have a place for your children here but it is helpful to know how many students might be attending elsewhere in the fall.

This is also the time of year that we start considering class lists and student placement for next year. We appreciate the trust that parents place in us to choose the class and teacher that will best support their child’s learning needs. We consider the needs of all of our students when we create class lists and we consider many factors when doing so. We strive for a balance of students in each class and try to fit students with classmates that will help them learn. We know that there may be times where parents have a particular wish for a learning environment for their student. If you have a request for next year’s placement (teacher, classmate etc.) that is due to the learning needs of your child, please submit it in writing before June 1. We will consider the requests before creating the class lists but cannot guarantee that we can accommodate them all. Changes in the fall are very difficult to arrange so if you have a request to make, please make sure it is received by June 1.

Mrs. Thibeau and I are always available to provide assistance with any questions or concerns so please don’t hesitate to contact Mrs. Van Oosten to set up a meeting or call us in the office at 403-777-6760.

 

Sincerely,
Sue Rutherford​

Aug 09
Welcome Back | Aug. 2018

I hope everyone had a safe and happy summer and is returning refreshed and invigorated. The staff are all excited to be returning to a wonderful year at Rundle and can’t wait for the students to join us on Thursday, August 16. We know this is an exciting time for students and families, as well.

Bussing maps and schedules will be posted online on our website sometime Monday, August 13. Parents are encouraged to visit the website and select the bus route and stop for their child(ren). Please remember the bus route letters may change from year to year, even if the stop location remains the same. This means that your child might have taken Bus A last year and the same stop might be Bus D this year. It is important that you and your child know both the bus route and stop for this year.

Classroom teachers will be contacting all families sometime before the end of the day Wednesday to let you know who your child’s teacher will be and where they are to meet that first morning. Parents are very welcome to come and remain with students until they enter the school with their teacher if you wish but staff will also be meeting each bus and will ensure all students arrive at the correct spot. We know some children are particularly nervous on their first day of school and we have many people available to ensure that every student has a warm and welcoming reception.

There will be a package of information and forms coming home with your child on Monday, August 20th. Please read through the information and return the forms requiring signatures. If you have any questions about the forms, don’t hesitate to contact your child’s teacher for clarification.

If you have moved over the summer, please contact us in the office to give us the new address. We are transitioning to a new student information system and it is very important that we have correct addresses in the new system.

Student picture day is Monday August 27. This will be individual pictures and group class pictures will take place later in the fall.

All families are invited to our welcome back pancake breakfast on Friday, August 31st. Students will come down with their class and parents and siblings are welcome to join us. We will start serving at 8:00am and will keep going until everyone is fed! We would love parent volunteers to help out with setting up, serving and clean up so if you are able to assist, please call us in the office.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s teacher or the office.

Welcome to another great year at Rundle!

Sincerely,
Sue Rutherford

Apr 13
April 2018

Welcome back! I hope that everyone had a safe and relaxing holiday. I hesitate to call it spring break since the weather seems determined to hold onto winter for as long as possible! Hopefully we will have some warmer weather soon. Please remember to continue to have students dress for sudden weather changes even once the warmer weather does arrive. A warm jacket, hat and mitts may be needed on short notice even warmer days as we like to have students get outside for fresh air and exercise. Once the snow does start to thaw, rubber boots or water proof footwear, an extra pair of sock and pants (for those tempting puddles!) are excellent to send with students each day.

A huge thank you to Mrs. Keim (School Council Chair) and the rest of the parents and volunteers who ran a fundraising casino over the break! The money raised through their efforts goes directly towards supporting students through such things as fieldtrip funding, technology purchases, the student agendas, subscriptions to RAZ kids and Mathletics among other things. We had many parents, past parents, neighbours and staff members who came out and volunteered their time to make this happen. The hours may have been long but the company was excellent and I know I had a great time getting to know everyone and having great laughs. Please consider coming out and meeting everyone at our next School Council meeting on April 23 at 6pm.

We are now well into planning for next year and one of the tasks is to designate students to their schools for next year. If you have moved, or are planning to move, and you know that your child will be attending a different school for next year, please let us know in the office. We can help you with the paperwork and process to ensure your child is registered properly and all set up for success in their new school. If you have applied for registration at a private or charter school but will not know if you have been accepted until closer to the fall, we would love to know that too. If you live within the designated boundary for Rundle School, we will always have a place for you here but it is helpful to know how many students might be attending elsewhere in the fall. If you have a child who will be 5 years old by March 1, 2019, they are eligible to register for kindergarten for the 2018/19 school year. We are currently planning our welcome event for new Kindergarten students and if you haven’t yet registered, now would be a great time to do so. Just bring proof of address and the child’s birth certificate to the office and Mrs. Van Oosten and Ms. Diane will be happy to help you.

For students in Kindergarten to Grade 2, please make sure to mark your calendars for our spring concert on May 17. Students will be performing musical selections they have been working on with Mrs. Dobbin. Seating is limited because of fire regulations so tickets are required. Please watch your child’s agenda for the ticket order form coming home at the beginning of May. We usually have many empty seats during the daytime performances so please consider inviting extended family to attend those performances if possible.

Many classes have exciting fieldtrips coming up. These trips are an essential way of helping students experience concepts in the real world and are an effective way to introduce or reinforce concepts that can be abstract when learned from a book or classroom lesson. We know that work schedules can be inflexible but if you might be available to volunteer on a fieldtrip, please consider completing the volunteer clearance process with us which will permit you to volunteer at any CBE school. We need many volunteers to make the fieldtrips happen so please check with your child’s teacher to find out the dates of any upcoming trips.

Thank you to all those families who were able to attend student led conferences just before the break. Students and staff really enjoy sharing the learning with families and know that working together is the best way to support students. We do not have any more scheduled conference times this school year but please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s teacher through email or by phone if you have any questions or concerns. The agenda can also be a great tool to connect about questions or topics that are less confidential in nature.

Students in grade 6 will be completing the provincial achievement tests in May and June. Grade 6 students write tests in math, science, social studies, reading and writing. Students who are absent for a particular test will write it when they return. If your grade 6 child will be absent for a family holiday during this time, please make sure to let the teacher know in advance. Teachers will help students to prepare for the tests by reviewing in class and teaching some test taking skills to help reduce their anxiety. One of the ways that parents can help students is by making sure that they are well rested before a test and have had breakfast (if they are not fasting). Some of the achievement exams do fall during Ramadan this year so please speak to your child’s teacher if your child will be fasting during this time.

The achievement tests are completed once a year and are intended to help determine achievement levels across the province. Although they can provide good information about individual student’s learning, please remember that they measure only certain outcomes and do so in one particular way and on one day. Teachers assess students’ learning on a daily basis using a variety of sources of information that gives a much broader picture of their learning which is reflected in their report card.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to call us in the office. We are always happy to help!

Sincerely,

Sue Rutherford​

Feb 01
Jan./Feb. 2018

Dear Parents and Guardians,

It’s been a great start to 2018 with a fantastic concert for grades 3-6 last week! Thank you so much to all the families who were able to attend. The students did a wonderful job and were so excited to share their performance with their families. The students in kindergarten to grade 2 will be performing later this Spring so please stay tuned for the concert date!

We have lots of exciting fieldtrip opportunities coming up this Spring including swimming lessons for all of our students. Due to the fundraising work of our School Council and our relationship with the Genesis Center YMCA, we are happy to be able to offer the swimming lessons free of charge again this year. This is a great opportunity for students to develop an essential life skill and possibly develop a passion for swimming. In order to make this happen, we do need volunteers for all of the classes. If you haven’t yet completed the police clearance to volunteer, you may have time if you act quickly. Please consider completing the clearance and joining us on a fieldtrip or two. We try to choose trips and activities that provide students with exciting and engaging hands-on experiences to support the information and skills they are learning in class. This helps support their learning and provides memorable experiences! Please check the calendars for the dates for specific classes.

Even though the days are starting to get longer again, we know that winter weather isn’t quite over yet. Please continue to be extra cautious when driving in front of the school or in the areas around our bus stops in the community. Setting a good example for the children by not jay walking and not crossing between parked cars can be life saving for our kids. We know the snowbanks can present real parking challenges but we really appreciate when parents take the extra few minutes to park safely and walk a bit further rather than encouraging students to get in and out of the vehicle in the roadway.

Kindergarten registration for the 2018-19 school year opened on January 22. If your child will be 5 by March 1, 2019, they are eligible to start kindergarten next year. Please stop by the office to register. This is also the time that alternative programs begin accepting registration applications for next year. In addition to the regular community school program offered at Rundle, the Calgary Board of Education also offers alternative programs based on Language (French, Mandarin, Spanish), teaching methodology (Traditional Learning Center, Montessori) and focus (Science, Fine Arts). There are also gender specific programs. Many of these alternative programs use a lottery system to accept new registrants and there are application deadlines in order to be considered. If you are considering one of these programs, please check the timelines on the CBE website in order to ensure you don’t miss out. There is a form that needs to be signed by the current principal and while I am happy to sign, I cannot always do it immediately when you come into the office. It is really helpful if you leave yourself a couple of days before the deadline in order to ensure you have time to complete the process.

Our next School Council meeting will take place tonight at the school at 6p.m. This is a great way to be involved with the school and stay informed about what is happening. If you haven’t come before, please consider joining this great group of parents and find out what it’s all about!

Sincerely,
Sue Rutherford​

Dec 01
November/December Update

We have had a busy few weeks since returning from Fall break and even with this winter weather upon us, it’s hard to believe it is already November! We have a busy couple of months leading up to Winter break and lots to celebrate and share with you! 

We are looking forward to recognizing Remembrance Day with an assembly this Friday at 10:45am. Students who are part of an organization like Cadets, Scouts, Guides etc. are welcome to wear their uniforms and will enter with the flag bearers. Parents and guests are very welcome to attend. 

Classes have been hard at work and students are eager to share their learning with you at Parent Teacher Conferences on Nov. 16 and 17. This is an important chance to meet with the teacher and have your child share with you their work and their goals in advance of report cards. This year, report cards will come home before the winter break on Dec. 21. The Thursday evening spots book up especially quickly so please mark your calendars as the booking system will open Friday, Nov. 10 at 7 pm. 

Students in Grades 3-6 will be performing in our Winter concert on Dec. 7. There will be two performances: one at 1pm and one at 6:30 pm. Because of fire regulations, seating is limited and we will be sending home the ticket request forms at the end of November. Please make sure you send them back promptly to ensure you get a seat for the evening concert. We do not issue tickets for the afternoon performance, instead using first come first served for available seats. We typically have lots of room for the afternoon so please consider attending or inviting extended family to the afternoon show if possible. Students in Kindergarten to grade 2 will perform in the Spring concert. 

As this winter weather settles in, we want to remind parents of the importance of setting an example for our students when negotiating traffic, both at the school and at our bus stops. With morning getting darker and roads getting slippery, it is especially important that we all take extra time and attention helping students crossing the streets. Please set the example by using the marked crosswalks at school and using the corners and crosswalks near the bus stops. If you choose to drive to the bus stop to drop off or pick up your children, please make sure you park safely and legally, rather than double parking or encouraging children to cross between parked cars. The safety of all our kids is worth the extra couple of minutes it might take. 

We have some students setting a wonderful example for the whole school through their work with the Rundle Youth Leaders. This leadership group takes on many projects for our school and community and along the way, they develop tremendous leadership skills. They practice public speaking in their announcements and presentations. 

They develop their organizational skills and their time management when they plan their work and perhaps most importantly, they develop a passion for contributing to the community. Mrs. Dekoning and Ms. Kuiper were pleased to be able to take 15 of these leaders to the city WE day celebration on Nov. 1. We were so proud of our students and the great work they’ve already done with the We Scare Hunger food bank drive. 

Our next School Council​ meeting will be on Nov. 20 at 6 pm. We will be sharing our school development plan for this year and discussing priorities for this year. All parents are welcome, whether you have been to every meeting or never attended before. Please join us! We are excited to welcome Mrs. Ireland to our team at Rundle. Mrs. Ireland is filling in as our Resource teacher while Ms. Derdall is temporarily filling another position. Ms. Derdall is planning to be back with us after winter break but in the meantime, we are thrilled to have Mrs. Ireland continuing the work! 

As always, if you have any questions, celebrations or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me

Sincerely,
Sue Rutherford

See more in our November/December Newsletter​.

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