We are halfway through September and the business of school is well underway. It has been a joy to welcome our students back into our school and resume learning. We thank you for your patience and support as we continue to balance the health and safety protocols as they pertain to our learning environment.
Safe and Caring School
At the beginning of every school year we, as a staff set goals and targets for our school. This year we have prioritized our continued work of creating a safe and caring school. Pandemic notwithstanding, we understand that the adolescent years can be very challenging for students to navigate. We want to work to create a culture of caring that is accepting of all students. Further, we believe that how we treat each other matters and will continue to work with our students to see the positive and negative ways they may contribute to a safe and caring school. Mistakes will be made, conflicts will occur, but ultimately our goal is to have all of our students grow and foster empathy and kindness. On-going work to be sure, but worthwhile as we want all our students to feel that they matter at SWS.
Volleyball
We are excited about the opportunities to provide extra-curricular activities this year. The athletics season starts off with volleyball and we have a full complement of participants for tryouts for our teams. These tryouts began on Monday and continue through Thursday, Sept 23rd. Good luck to all our participants. Unfortunately, due to public health restrictions, only members of the volleyball teams are permitted during volleyball games meaning no student or adult spectators.
Meet the Teacher/Conferences
Meet the Teacher is approaching, September 23rd 5:00-8:00pm and September 24th 9:00am-1:00pm. We had hoped to have conferences, in person, however here we are planning for virtual meetings, once again. While not ideal, we have decided that for this round of conferences to have 10-minute individual bookings for parents with their homeroom teacher for grades 5-9. We have prioritized our Friday conferences for IPP conversations. Conferences will be available to book through PowerSchool on Friday morning. Directions on how to book will be sent to families tomorrow.
TikTok Challenge
It has come to our attention that there is a school bathroom challenge on TikTok. The challenge involves stealing and damaging bathrooms at school and then posting photos on TikTok. Events at our school would suggest that the challenge is happening at Sam Shaw as we have had several our bathroom soap dispensers go missing. Obviously, beyond the theft and vandalism we are concerned that these behaviours will impact the health and safety of our students as soap has been at times unavailable for use. Further it is very disappointing and discouraging to our facilities staff who work diligently to keep our spaces safe and clean for our students. We need your help, if these items make their way home, please schedule an appointment with the office to return the items.
Thank you for your support and partnership as we work to make this a great year for learning.
Jason & Mary-Elizabeth
