| I hope this message finds you all in good health and high spirits as we embark on another exciting school year! It is my privilege to welcome you back to Connaught for what promises to be a year filled with new learning. I'd like to extend a warm welcome to our new students and their families. We are thrilled to have you join our learning community. Our enrollment continues to be through the roof! We look forward to working closely with our overflow schools, Ramsay and Earl Grey. Before school began, teachers from all three schools came together to connect and collaborate. We look forward to working together this year to enrich student learning and build a strong learning community across schools.
We have many exciting things planned for this school year starting with a Welcome Back Family BBQ on September 28. Watch your email for details. We are also excited to be partnering again with Scientists in Schools and Decidedly Jazz Danceworks. Alien Inline Skating will be visiting our school this fall to support students in learning how to inline skate.
Parents and guadians, your involvement is crucial to your child's success. We encourage open communication with teachers and staff. Working together as a team is important to us. To that end, we hope all parents will logon to our first Online School Council Meeting on September 26 at 5:00. This meeting will feature ways for you to volunteer and become involved in your child's education. Microsoft Teams link will be sent out by email.
Welcome Back! Here's to an incredible year ahead! Warm Regards, Nicole Bezugley
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| As we approach the end of another school year, I find myself filled with a sense of pride and gratitude for the remarkable journey we have embarked upon together. This year has been filled with growth, learning and countless moments of achievement that I am excited to share with you. First and foremost, I want to express my heartfelt appreciation to our exceptional staff. Their unwavering dedication, passion and commitment to our student's success has been inspiring. I am grateful for their creativity, adaptability and resilience this year. We began the year with unprecedented growth reaching an all-time high enrollment of 500 students. We built our community in two buildings this year, with our grade 6 students making the trek to Dr. Carl Safran Centre each morning for a day of learning. They met new people and extended their learning in a different environment. In fact, Connaught became so full that we had to send many students to “overflow" at Ramsay School. When we filled up Ramsay School we overflowed students to Earl Grey School! We look forward to working closely with our two partner schools in the upcoming school year. This school year, staff and students embraced the “Principal's Challenge" of visiting as many local parks as possible. Much learning has occurred in our community as classes ventured out on the land, looking at the local architecture, seeking out urban wildlife, playing in new parks and sketching the many local BUMP murals. I am excited to see what new adventures await us in the upcoming school year. This year has been full of rich learning opportunities. Students have used technology, including ozobots, spheros, Lego robots, iPads, Minecraft and countless other applications to further their learning in many curricular areas. Additionally, students have engaged in learning about and through, Indigenous ways of knowing that have increased their understanding of truth and reconciliation. We are very fortunate to have innovative, creative teachers who have capitalized on a myriad on teaching opportunities to provide students with deep learning experiences this year. A strong school community is built on collaboration and support from families and community partners. I want to thank our parents and guardians for their trust, partnership and active involvement throughout the year. Your ongoing support, whether through volunteering, attending school events like student learning conferences, the fall barbeque, the spring pancake breakfast, or engaging in conversation with your children about their school day, has had an impact on our student's growth. I also want to thank the many community partners who supported our school in so many ways this year. Decidedly Jazz Dance Works provided dance instruction for all students in the school. Scientists in Schools provided science workshops for all classes. Telus Spark provided the opportunity for 7 classes to attend a field trip with a follow up family evening event. Heritage Park provided two classes a fully paid field trip. Leighton Arts Centre subsidized a field trip for 4 classes. Brown Bagging for Calgary Kids provided sandwiches for students twice a week, all year. Meals on Wheels provided soup every Tuesday and Thursday. Grocery gift cards were provided throughout the year by “I Can for Kids", Grace Church, a private donor and Rotary Club. Rotary Club of Calgary Centennial supported Connaught by providing volunteers, backpacks, lunch kits, water bottles, diapers, other household items and funding to support families in many ways. Grace Church provided funding and household items for families including food. Additionally, they sponsored families at Christmas. St. Stephen's Church allowed students to visit and tour the building as well as providing funds to support food insecurity. Earl Grey School did a food drive to support families facing food insecurity. The Alex Dental Bus and AHS supported the dental needs of our students. Many community members volunteered to read with students, play soccer, lead math games and go on field trips. We couldn't have done it without you! I would also like to thank our exceptional School Council and Fundraising Society which have been steadily growing in membership and impact. Their unwavering support and contributions have made my job easier and are greatly appreciated. I am particularly thankful for their hard work organizing the highly successful casino and for supporting us as we put the funds to good use. On behalf of all staff, I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for the year-end treats, the coffee cards and kinds words throughout the year. Your thoughtful gestures have brought joy and appreciation. I am looking forward to our continued work together. As we bid farewell to the current academic year, we look forward to the opportunities and adventures that lie ahead. The lessons we have learned this year will undoubtedly shape our approach moving forward. Thank you for being part of our incredible school community. Your continued support and engagement are invaluable. May the summer break bring rest, rejuvenation, and memorable moments with loved ones. Wishing you all a safe and joyful summer! Warm Regards, Nicole Bezugley, Principal 
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| Clay Projects with Students
As educators, we are always looking for innovative ways to engage and inspire our students. One medium that never fails to captivate young minds is clay. This year, I have had the opportunity to work with many classes on a variety of clay projects. Clay offers a multitude of benefits such as fostering creativity, developing fine motor skills and self-expression. Some classes designed mobiles around a topic of their choosing. They build the pieces out of clay, glazed them and hung them with beads and embellishments to make a unified art piece. Students then wrote artist statements describing their thought processes and why they chose the colours and embellishments they did. 
Some classes brainstormed a positive message that they wanted to share. They chose a shape and used letter stamps to add their message. They used clay, stamps and underglaze to decorate their signs. Once fired students added a hanger and some beads to finish off their sign. 
One grade 4/5 class used rolled coils and balls which they used to build a plant pot. Once fired, they glazed the pot, carefully combining colours to make a statement. Once fired a second time the pot was ready for them to plant their spider plant seedlings. 
A grade 2/3 class used a pinchpot to create a Diya in relation to their study of India. They glazed their posts in bright colours and added a tea light to them. 
Thank you to Ceramics Canada for their advice and the use of their kiln.
   
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| You might be wondering, what do teachers do on Friday afternoons or when students have the day off? Teachers are engaged in professional learning that helps develop their teaching capacity and enhances the experience your children have in the classroom. So far this fall, teachers have been engaged in professional learning centered around 3 topics: Indigenous education, English Language Learners and the new curriculum. Indigenous Education: There are three distinct areas of focus when it comes to Indigenous education: 1. Expanding our professional knowledge of Truth and Reconciliation and how we can take action towards the 94 Calls to Action. On October 7, we participated in a full day of professional learning focused on Indigenous education. We listened to Dr. James Makokis as he shared his insights on the importance of reconciliation and understanding the truth and considered how we might be allies in this work. 2. Developing our understanding of Indigenous ways of knowing and being and implementing them in the classroom. Teachers are implementing sit spots, circle protocol and land acknowledgements in their classrooms. We are exploring seasonal change from an Indigenous perspective. Additionally, we are delving into the concept of Two-Eyed Seeing. 3. Exploring ways to support our Indigenous students to meet success at school. New Curriculum Alberta Education is taking a phased approach to implementation and piloting of the new Kindergarten to Grade 6 (K-6) curriculum. School districts have been provided flexibility in how they choose to participate in the implementation of additional curriculum which includes Math and English Language Arts and Literature in Grades 4-6. Beginning in Fall 2022, all schools in Alberta began using some new curriculum. Mandatory implementation includes: Kindergarten to Grade 3 Math Kindergarten to Grade 3 English Language Arts and Literature Kindergarten to Grade 6 Physical Education and Wellness At Connaught teachers have been participating in system professional learning related to implementing the new curriculum outcomes as well as exploring effective ways to assess student learning in relation to the new content. You can find information about the new curriculum on Alberta Education's website. English Language Learners Our school is very fortunate to serve students from over 40 different countries, speaking more that 45 languages. We have a diverse community who bring a wealth of knowledge and varying perspectives to the classroom. Teachers have been exploring ways to support the language development of all students at Connaught with a specific focus on student's who have English as their second language. One thing you might see if you visit our school are vocabulary words in multiple languages. Check out the pictures below.
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| Welcome to the 2022-2023 school year! Connaught is pleased to welcome over 200 new students from all over the world. Our families speak over 45 different languages. Our enrollment has reached 500! This means that we are running short of space,consequently any new students may need to attend our overflow school of Ramsay. Additionally, our grade 6 students have the incredible opportunity to participate in their classroom learning at Dr. Carl Safran Centre, 1 block East of Connaught. Our grade 6 students start their day at Connaught with physical education, library and music. They spend the rest of the day engaged in rich learning tasks at Dr. Carl Safran Centre.
Our staff has also grown this year! We are excited to welcome 11 new teachers for a total of 22 teachers. We have 2 new lunchroom staff and 1 new breakfast assistant for a total of 7 food service staff.
Student learning is our central purpose. Classrooms have been buzzing with intellectually engaging learning tasks. Watch our news stories for more information about what's happening in classrooms. Ask you child what they learned about today!
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| It has been an incredible year at Connaught School. We have battled several more waves of Covid-19 and have begun to return to some of our pre-covid activities including buddies and sports day. We are looking forward to engaging in more community building activities in the fall. We hatched chickens and butterflies this year and learned all about life cycles and needs of plants and animals. We have worked with Sustainable Calgary to create an Open Street Park. Please stop by for a visit. The Forever Block party will be occuring on Wednesday afternoons throughout the summer.
Thank you to our community partners, Rotary Club of Calgary Centennial, for their ongoing support. This year they purchased bike locks for us, donated many needed items to families and paid for busses for our students to visit Fish Creek Park. Thank you also to the Grace Church for their ongoing support of our families. They provide food, gift cards and other needed items. They are also funding some new books for our classrooms.
We hope everyone has a wonderful summer. See you September 1st.
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| It is so wonderful to have staff and students back in the building. We are off to a great start this school year. Our staff are working hard to build a strong learning community with a focus on our Indigenous Framework. The 4 C's: Commitment, Connection, Community and Connaught.
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| This has been quite the year! We want to thank our school community, staff, students and families for your compassion, flexibility, positvity, and support during these unprecedented times. We hope you all enjoy a safe and fun summer with your family. We look forward to seeing everyone back in the fall.
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| Virtual Readers Rotary Club Centennial members supported our students this year with a virtual reading club. Every Friday, four Rotarian volunteers joined us virtually to read with a student from grade 3/4. The Rotarians met with a different student each week and listened to them read. Thank you Rotarian Readers!
 
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| Many of you may have heard your children talk about “Jimmy", the magpie chick that hatched in one of the Evergreen trees on the West field. Jimmy would sit in the tree and chirp at the students and listen to them sing or talk to him. About a week and a half ago, Jimmy learned to fly. He spent much of his time on the South side of the school, on the grass, the playground and in the yards across the street. Unfortunately, Jimmy was hit by a car on Friday while scavenging for food. Today, we were very fortunate to have Ryan First Diver, a Blackfoot knowledge keeper share his stories and knowledge of magpies with many of our classes in a Microsoft Teams presentation. Students watched and listened to his pet magpie, Derek. They learned many things about the magpie, including stories about the historical relationship the magpie and the crow had with the Blackfoot people. Ask your child to tell you more.
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