| Dear DRBS families, WELCOME BACK! We are so excited to see you tomorrow. This afternoon at 2:00 you will receive an email from your child' s teacher giving you lots of info about tomorrow and the year to come. If you do not receive an email by 2:30 please contact the office. Tomorrow there will be chairs on the field with grade level signs on them. Please go to the area of your grade level and wait there for your teacher. We will come out as a staff at 8:30, there will be a short introduction and then teachers will go to their grade area to pick up their students. If you are having issues there will be other staff with star balloons who are there to help you. Please do not park in the staff lot or the bus circle. There is parking in the community available. There will be more information coming Friday about the upcoming year. Have a great last day of holidays! DRBS Staff
|
| Dear DRBS families, Tomorrow is the big day! We get to see your amazing children again after what I hope was a glorious and fun filled summer. Teachers have been working hard all week to prepare and are anxious to meet their new students. We have a great year of learning planned for all and look forward to having parents in the building with us as part of the journey. Families will be receiving a welcome email later this afternoon with details about tomorrow from their child's teacher. Here is some of the information. First day: Grades 1 to 6 will be meeting on the field. Teachers will enter the field at 8:25 to meet their classes. All staff will have a balloon tied to them for easy recognition. Kindergarten is a staggered entry, please meet you teacher at the west doors by the bus drop off. Here are the colors: Kindergarten – Red Grade 1 – Orange Grade 2 – Yellow Grade 3 – Green Grade 4 – Blue Grade 5 – Light Purple Grade 6 - Violet Admin and support staff – Silver. If you can not find your grade please ask anyone with a silver balloon for help. Parking: Please do not park in the bus loop or staff parking lot tomorrow. We need to be able to move the buses in and out as well as ensure the safety of all our students. It will be a beautiful day so walk if you can or street parking is available throughout the neighborhood. We will be closing off the bus loop and lot entrances as well as having monitors in these areas to help with congestion. Class Assignments Staff have spend many intentional hours planning and balancing class lists to provide the best learning experience for all students. Teacher and friend requests were not taken into consideration, however, teachers made sure all students have friends in their class. Lunch Room This year we are going to implement a pack in – pack out practice. Students will be asked to bring home all of the waste from their lunch to recycle at home. We are hoping to collectively do our part to increase awareness and caring for our planet! To help us out it would be great if snacks etc. were sent in reusable containers that can be taken home and washed out. Grades 1 to 3 lunch time: 12:15 to 1:00pm Grade 4 to 6 lunch time: 11:30 am to 12:15 pm Hours: Tomorrow will be a full day. Fridays we dismiss at 12:15. There is no school on Monday September 5, 2022. A message from transportation: “As we begin this school year, our transportation service providers are facing a qualified bus driver shortage. At this time, the route your child is assigned to does not have a regularly assigned driver. This means there is an increased chance of delays in scheduled pick-up or drop-off times. Please make sure your family is prepared if there are delays on the route in the event their bus is delayed or canceled on short notice. Please be assured our transportation service providers are continuing to recruit and train drivers. Thank you for your patience and understanding." A message from the CBE: New Attendance Code Communication: As part of CBE's commitment to “acknowledge and support the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action" (CBE Education Plan, 2021-24), a new attendance code has been introduced for the 2022/2023 school year. The new Cultural-Spiritual-Ceremonial (CSC) attendance code offers an excused absence from school to recognize and support Indigenous cultural revitalization for CBE students who self-identify as Indigenous, and their families. Many Indigenous students and families rely on their Indigenous culture, spirituality, and ceremony to support their health and well-being. This includes the right to traditional hunting and gathering experiences. While the CBE has introduced the CSC code as an act of reconciliation, the code can be accessed for all students and is intended to support participation in cultural, spiritual or ceremonial events. CBE recognizes that these activities may not be considered by many families as a Religious Holiday (RH), and the inclusion of the CSC code will allow for a more inclusive response to reporting these absences. The RH code will remain available when this more appropriately captures the reason for absence. Code | Description | Explanation | CSC | Cultural-Spiritual-Ceremonial | Student is absent to participate in a cultural, spiritual or ceremonial event. |
Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow! DRBS staff
|
| Dear DRBS Families, How fast this year has gone! It's hard to believe today will be our last day with students. We have had some amazing times over the last 10 months and look forward to a great summer and fantastic new school year. As we make our way into summer here are a few reminders and pieces of information. School start up: School starts again for students on September 1, 2022. The office will be open for new registrations and other business on Monday August 29, 2022. On August 31, 2022 all students will receive an email introducing their new teacher and providing information for the first day. Staff will meet with their new class September 1, 2022 on the field at 8:25. Our school hours will remain the same next year as will our lunch breaks. We have a number of staff who will be leaving us as well as several new staff. Congratulations to the following who are moving on to the next adventure: - Robert Coulas – moving to an administrative position at West Ridge School
- Jenna Cunningham – moving to an administrative position at Griffith Woods School
- Elizabeth Comber – retiring!!
- Malcolm Knoll – going back to school to complete a Master Degree
- Lindsay Gregoire – taking a leave of absence to be with her lovely daughter
- Jolynn Bell – moving to another school
Please join us in welcoming: - Tessa Ethier
- Allyson Evans
- Robert Cuculea
- Brenda Labrecque
- Victoria Orton
As well we have a number of temporary teachers returning as we have a number of new babies in the Bondar family! - Devanee Clark
- Britnee Litzenberger
- Cameron MacLellan
- Amanda Payette
Returning teaching staff: - Evelyne Lamontagne
- Kim Howden
- Sandra Roberts
- Deb Hercun
- Rhonda Hoggard
- Esther Bakshi
- Lydia McLeod
- Roni Gorrie
- Anne Nicholls
- Blair Jamieson
- Andrea Dabrensky
- Marcia Goss
- Lisa Talbot
- Lindsay Oliver
- Shawna Davey
- Jodi Prazak
- Wes Vanderlinden
- Grace Postchaman
Front Office Staff: We also have a large number of support staff who will be returning as well. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Thank you to School Council for all your support this year! With your help we did so many great things; SoundKreations Dance, Elder Shirley, Lacrosse, musical instruments, the Christmas store, sports day, grade 6 Farewell, Patrols party and much more. You are always there when we need. The first School Council meeting will be Tuesday September 13. 2022. More info to follow in the fall. Thank you as well to all of you who turned up to our pancake breakfast and performance. We had a great time and hope you did as well! The Calgary Stampede brought a photographer. Here is the link to some of the photos. More will be coming so keep as eye out! https://www.flickr.com/photos/aj_baxter/link A SHOUT OUT to the many parents who were here today to make the sports day such a great success. Lucked out with the weather again! Here are some photos from today. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Nu-y8xYx8zd59ChqKoktZFQhO17DWc-P?usp=sharing And most importantly THANK YOU to all your amazing children who are our reason for being! They make coming to work at Dr Roberta Bondar a joy! Have a safe and fantastic summer. Evelyne Lamontagne Principal DRBS
|
| Dear parents, Hard to believe it is December this week, holidays are fast approaching! I hope you are all safe and looking forward to some time with family. This week: Monday November 30 – Student Learning conference booking opens
Thursday December 3 – Student Learning Conferences 4:30 to 7:00 pm
Friday December 4 – Student Learning Conferences 8:00 am to 1:00 pm
SHOUT IT OUT!!! Thank you to all the staff and students who participate in kindness week! It is amazing to see all the great things we do in our community. COVID update I know many of you are feeling anxious right now about sending your child to school. As you have seen this past week we had students test positive for COVID. When this happens you will receive a Pre-Alert letter from me. As there is a time lag between when the school is notified by the parent and when AHS processes the case. This results in multiple letters for each case. All these notifications can get confusing and it may seem like there are more cases than there actually are. Additionally when there are 2 or more cases it is declared an outbreak; which results in more letters! At this time we have 2 students who have tested positive and all measures that need to have been taken are underway. When a student tests positive the following happens: 1. School is notified either by the parent or CBE/AHS personnel 2. The principal works with CBE and AHS to determine when the periods of contact where, and who are the close contacts. These people are then notified 3. After this, the general school community receives a letter to indicate there is a positive case 4. A few days later, when AHS had reviewed the case, this process repeats – resulting in each family receiving additional letters for the same case. (this is where things can get confusing) 5. If there is more than one student who tests positive potentially an outbreak is declared and another set of letters. Every time we have a positive case the exact same process is followed, even if the 2 cases are from the same household or the same classroom, they are considered 2 separate cases and this process is followed separately for both. After each case is determined, a special cleaning crew is sent to the school for a detailed and deep cleaning of all impacted areas. To date we have not at any in school transmissions at Dr. Roberta Bondar. I am proud of how well our students and staff respect the protocols and the great job they are doing of protecting themselves and each other. We will continue to keep you as informed as possible as we work through these challenges together. Parking update Thank you to all the parents who have taken up the challenge to improve the traffic situation before and afterschool. The past week was much better! Keep it up. HUG and GO is working extremely well also so take advantage of it! December Activities Between school council and our teachers, we have a number of activities planned for the school community in the weeks approaching the holiday. Some are geared towards holiday fun and others are to support our goal of connection and gratitude. There will be more information coming out about these in the coming days. Get out your Santa Hat and Ugly Christmas sweater is that time of year! Online Learning The week after the Winter Break we will be moving to online learning. This will be in place until January 11, 2021. At this time there are a variety of learning platforms and communication systems being used through out the school and district. It is important we develop consistency for all students so we are able to support families, teachers and schools in this transition. To this end all Online Learning will be taking place on the Google Classroom platform from Dr. Roberta Bondar, and all communication to families will be through this format or messenger. It is very confusing for families with multiple children to be expected to know and follow numerous systems. As we get closer to this date we will be working with families to be sure they are able to log in to Google Classroom and have the technology needed to continue learning while we are away from school. More information will be coming as we work out the details. Have a great week. Please reach out should you have any questions or concerns. Evelyne Lamontagne Principal Dr. Roberta Bondar
|
| Principals’ Update – October 16, 2020 As you know, I have decided to retire, and today is my last day at Dr. Roberta Bondar School. Officially, I am principal of this wonderful school until October 23, 2020, and Evelyne Lamontagne will begin as principal on October 26. This was a particularly difficult decision, as I have loved every minute of being a classroom teacher and a school leader. The highlight of my career has been the past 4 years where I have had the honour of opening Dr. Roberta Bondar School and getting to work with this amazing community. Our school motto of “Inquire, Innovate, Inspire and Imagine…" has been the hallmark of the work we do at this school. Our motto invites every child to ask questions, be creative in looking at the world from multiple perspectives, and consider the multitude of possibilities. We continue to personalize learning to embrace the uniqueness of each student and ensure every child is successful.
That being said, I am ready to pursue new challenges, projects and spend more time with my family. As you may know, I have a son, a daughter, and two beautiful granddaughters whom I adore. I am looking forward to becoming part of my granddaughters' bubble so I can hug them, bake cookies with them, and share every aspect of their lives!
On to other things… Hallowe'en at Dr. Roberta Bondar School
Halloween is always an exciting time for children…the anticipation of dressing up, taking on the persona of another character, and hiding one's identity are all the hallmarks of this spooky celebration! We want to capitalize on the enthusiasm of this day and channel the energy into the curriculum. As always, the staff will engage the children in relevant, meaningful and authentic tasks that make sense to the work being presented in the classroom. This includes their world of seasonal events.
This year, due to COVID protocols, if children would like to wear a costume, we would ask they wear their costumes in the morning for the day, as we are not able to have them change at the lunch hour in the washrooms. If the classes were having a special 'snack time', we would ask you provide a treat for your child. We are not able to have the children share food this year.
Keeping Each Other Safe
Masks are mandatory in our schools for all students from kindergarten to Grade 12 with a few exceptions. CBE mask guidelines should be followed in all schools. It is costly for our schools to provide disposable masks if students forget to bring their own masks and reduces funding available to be used for educational purposes. Schools should encourage families to provide at least one mask per child to bring to school each day. It is also important that students continue to protect each other and the community as a whole both on and off school property. When leaving school students should continue to observe physical distancing where possible and to wear a mask when distancing is not possible. Interior and exterior signage is being created to help remind students to be safe once they leave school grounds.
COVID-19 Updates, Information & Resources
It can be confusing for families to understand when their child must stay home, when they need to isolate, if they need to be tested and when they can come back to school. Check out the new page on the CBE website - If a Student is Sick or has COVID-19 Symptoms, which includes CBE and Alberta Health Resources that clearly explain what to do if their child is sick. https://www.alberta.ca/k-to-12-school-re-entry-2020-21-schoolyear.aspx#toc-3
Provincial Achievement Tests Cancelled
Due to the continued disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the CBE will not be administering Grade 6 and 9 Provincial Achievement Tests in the 2020-21 school year. We believe this is the right decision in a year where direction from Alberta Education and Alberta Health continues to evolve rapidly.
Teachers will remain focused on delivering the programs of study for all courses and will continue to assess student achievement based on the grade level outcomes as determined by the Province of Alberta.
Boomerang Lunch Program
School lunches can generate a lot of waste, meaning an impact on the environment. The new School Re-Entry Plan asks staff and students to pack-in and pack-out all food each day. That is essentially the same as a boomerang lunch! Waste Reduction Week is Oct. 19 - 25.
Laine Mulholland Kim Howden
Principal Assistant Principal
|
| Principals’ Update – September 11, 2020 Welcome back to Dr. Roberta Bondar School! We greatly appreciated everyone’s flexibility and support as we worked
through the start-up of this very unusual year. Our staggered entry process
worked well, as a third of the school arrived each day. Everyone was
excited to be back, students, staff, and of course the parents!
COVID-19 Protocols As you are aware from our Re-Entry plan (posted on our website), we are
doing everything we can to ensure public health measures are followed to
the tee! Parents, we cannot do this without your help. Please follow all
health measures that have forwarded to you, and that are posted on the
Alberta Health Services website. Please use the COVID-19 ALBERTA HEALTH DAILY CHECKLIST
attached. If your child has any symptoms, as outlined by AHS, however
mild, please do not send them to school. This is going to require all
families to have a back-up plan if their child is ill. I know this is going to be
difficult for some families, but it is essential if we are going to keep our
students and staff safe and healthy! All students and staff are required to wear masks when they come to
school. We ask when you accompany your child to school; you also are
wearing a mask. Children will meet their teacher outside (wearing masks, of course) at a
designated spot. For now and until our entry processes are more
established, we will be using all doors around the school to ensure a
smooth entry with no hallway crossovers. The hallways will be taped with
directional arrows. As soon as your child enters the class, they will need to
wash their hands or use hand sanitizer. Students will be asked to sanitize
or wash their hands frequently throughout the day. Each child will have
their own set of materials and will not be sharing items.
“Soft-Start Entry” Bell – 8:25 am This year, we are being asked to have a “soft-start entry” into the school to
offset the loss of instructional time as the students transition into class. The
students will be able to meet their teacher at their designated spot and a
bell will ring at 8:25 to let students know they can start coming into the
school. The instructional bell will ring at 8:30. Students are not late at 8:25;
however, they are late if they arrive at school after the 8:30 bell. Please
2 | 3
plan to arrive at school on time for the soft-start entry bell. The creative
playground will be closed before school starts and after school.
Class Confirmations You will be receiving an email on Friday confirming your child’s teacher.
We greatly appreciate your patience as we having been trying to work out
the number of teachers we need to assign to the Hub, and how we are
going to configure the in-school classrooms. Our in-school classes will become “cohorts” or “bubbles” of students,
similar to what you may have established with your family and/or close
friends. Each class will work together, have lunch together, and play
together. This means our teachers will work very hard at building a tight,
supportive sense of community with each of the children, and the class as
a whole. In order to ensure contact with others outside of their bubble is
limited, students will have recesses with their own class. This has taken a
fair amount of thought and organization, and the details of how it will work
will be part of next week’s update. The use of masks in classes for all children will be critical, as physical
distancing in our classrooms with our flip tables will not be possible.
Children will have opportunities to remove their masks when the teachers
take them outside or to an area of the school where there is more space to
distance (i.e. the gym or the Launch Pad).
Students will be having most of their PE classes outside, weather
permitting. Please ensure your child dresses for the weather.
Music will come to their classroom, rather than having students go to the
music room. Our music room is smaller than the other classrooms and has
no window to open for ventilation. All of our other classrooms do have
windows that open. Conferences – September 24th & 25th This year, we will be having “virtual conferences” with families and
teachers. You will need to book a 15-minute conference time through
PowerSchool. The teachers will then send you a Skype Invitation to have a
virtual conference. Our conference bookings will be:
Grade 1-6 Thursday, September 24th
- 4:30 – 7:30 Friday, September 25th – 8:00 – 1:00 Kindergarten Thursday, September 24th
- 8:30 – 11:30 AM Classes Thursday, September 24th – 12:30 – 3:30 PM Classes Thursday, September 24th – 4:30 – 7:30 AM & PM Classes
Friday, September 25th – 8:00 – 1:00 AM & PM Classes
Conference Booking Conference booking will open on Thursday, September 17th at 6:00 am
and will close on Tuesday, September 22nd at 11:59 pm. This will give our
teachers a day to set up the Skype meetings. School Council – Tuesday, September 22 - 6:45pm Our first School Council meeting of the year will be on September 22 at
6:45 PM using the Microsoft Teams platform. If you would like to attend the
meeting, please RSVP by September 20th using this Google Form: Link to Google Form The agenda for the meeting and the School Council newsletter will be
forwarded to you in another SchoolMessenger email. Please ensure you
have signed up to receive SchoolMessenger emails (opting to receive
‘commercial’ emails as well in order to be a part of all of their emails that
refer to fundraising.) Information as to how to set this up was in your
Opening Package sent home earlier this week. If you are a parent of a Hub
class, you may pick your package up at the school. We look forward to a great year with your children! Laine Mulholland
Principal
Kim Howden Assistant Principal
|
| Principals’ Update – June 22, 2020
What an incredible year this has been. We have appreciated everything you
have done to support your child(ren)’s learning in school and learning
remotely. Your understanding, flexibility and willingness to embrace ambiguity
as we adapt to a new way of being has served your children well.
Report Cards On-Line
It is that time of year to report student achievement through a report card. The
report cards will be available digitally on June 26th
. We are asking you to view
the report card through MyCBE/PowerSchool. Once logged in, you will see an
additional tab titled “Report Card”. Select this tab to view the report card.
Should you wish to have a printed report card, please contact the school to
arrange a time for you to safely collect it from the school on June 29th or 30th.
Re-entry Planning for 2020-21
On June 10, Education Minister, Adriana LaGrange and Chief Medical Officer
of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced the preferred and likely scenario is
that students will return to daily in-school classes in September. The
government will share its final decision by August 1
st regarding which scenario
will be in place at the beginning of the school year. The government has also
provided public health guidance for schools and the measures that would be
required or suggested to reduce risks.
The CBE has a task force responsible for making plans for re-entry. This task
force is preparing for the three different scenarios (normal operations, inschool classes with additional health measures and at-home learning). The
team will consider these new government guidelines and how they will be
implemented in our schools and workplaces. We expect that we may have to
move between scenarios at different points in the year based on government
direction as the COVID-19 situation evolves.
Class Assignments for 2020-21
We are continuing to refine the class lists for 2020-21 with our staff. As you
can imagine, the process for creating these lists is complex. There are a
number of things we need to consider and balance, such as gender, language,
learning complexities and styles, academic achievement, social and emotional
needs, and relationships. We are making plans for re-entry and preparing for
the three different scenarios that will classroom assignments as well.
Prior to school opening on September 1st
, you will receive an email from the
classroom teacher welcoming your child to their class. They will also be giving
you information as to what the re-entry process will look like.
Staffing
At this point in time, we are continuing to staff our school. We are in a position
to hire a part-time Physical Education teacher, a part-time Education Assistant,
and a new Lunchroom Supervisor.
Mrs. Gregoire will be starting her maternity leave shortly. We wish her well as
she welcomes the new addition to her family. She will be on leave for the
2020-21 school year. Sadly, we need to say goodbye to Ms. Brandt and Ms.
Amerongen as their contracts have ended. Both will be joining the substitute
roster and we hope to see them back at Dr. Roberta Bondar School. Don
Lukinuk, our Facility Operator was on leave and has now been detached from
our school. His temporary replacement, Louis Santos has been returned to the
Absence Relief roster. We are pleased to welcome Alex Lee as our new
Facility Operator.
Transportation
Due to the impact of COVID-19 on our system and families, CBE has extended
the transportation pre-registration deadline to June 30, 2020. Register online
using your MyCBE / PowerSchool account.
Reasons to Pre-Register
If you do not pre-register for transportation service prior to the
end of June, we will not include your address as bus routes are
planned. This year, routes will not be posted on our website.
Only registered students will receive stop information for their
primary address. If you do not register, you will not be able to
view a stop location for your child(ren). It may take several
weeks to add a student to a route in the fall, and congregated
stop locations are only reviewed once per year. As a result, your
stop location may be much further away from your home, as
your address was not included in the route planning.
The use of a ZPass ridership card is mandatory to assist in
contact tracing, and only registered riders are provided a ZPass
ridership card. Families may request a replacement card
through their PowerSchool Parent Account.
There is no requirement to pay at the time of registration, and
there is no financial penalty if you register for bus service and
cancel before the cancellation deadline of September 30, 2020.
Radon Testing
Earlier this year, a radon gas study was conducted in 27 CBE schools. This
work was initiated as part of a change in the building code when our new
schools were designed and constructed and included several older schools.
Detectors were placed throughout the school by a certified Radon Professional
and left for about three months between October and March of this school
year. The devices were then sent for analysis.
The CBE Indoor Environmental Quality team received the reports.The results
confirm that the levels in our school are well within the Health Canada
guideline for radon (below 200 Bq/m3) and no further action is required at this
time.
We would like to wish all of our Grade 6 students well as they move on to
Junior High School. If you are moving schools or communities, we hope you
have a good year in your new location.
To all of our families, have a wonderful summer break, and we will see you
back on Tuesday, September 1st!
Laine Mulholland, Principal
Kim Howden, Assistant Principal |
| Principals’ Update – June 1, 2020
Kudos, Again!
This is such a remarkable School Community! You have been so supportive of
everything we are doing, and I cannot tell you what it means to receive all of
your encouragement. We know it has been difficult for you as you juggle all of
the moving parts of your family’s life, and if there is anything we can do to help,
please let us know.
The Calgary Board of Education and Dr. Roberta Bondar School are looking
for your feedback with Re-Entry to School and the School Budget and School
Fees.
Re-Entry Survey
“With less than a month left in the current school year, planning is well
underway for what the 2020-21 school year will look like for our students, staff
and families.
Earlier this month, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange announced that the
provincial government is considering three different scenarios when classes
start again in the fall:
A return to normal operations and routines in schools.
Schools are partially re-opened, with some level of restrictions.
Schools remain closed and students continue learning from home.
To help the CBE consider how we would respond to these three possible
scenarios, we have launched surveys for families, students and staff. We
encourage you to go online and provide your feedback by June 11, 2020. A
summary of results will be shared by June 30, 2020.
Parent Re-Entry Survey - https://engage.cbedialogue.com/en/projects/2020-
21-re-entry-surveys/engagements/2020-21-re-entry-survey-for-
parents/sections/1
The CBE has created an internal task force with representatives from every
service unit to lead the planning. All of our decisions will be guided by the
advice of the province’s chief medical officer of health and Alberta Education
guidelines. The safety and well-being of our students and staff will come first in
any decisions we make.
We will provide more information in the coming weeks and over the summer to
ensure all of our students are ready to return to learning as we begin the new
school year on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020.”
School Budget and School Fees
“The purpose of this online engagement opportunity is to gather feedback from
parents on school budgets and school fees to help inform the decisions we make, and in compliance with legislated and operational expectations. When
students, staff and parents work closely together, students experience greater
success in achieving their learning goals.
As you participate in this opportunity, please remember this is not a vote and it
will not be possible to accomplish everything. We will thoughtfully consider all
of the feedback we receive from you and other participants along with
feedback from staff, student results and our school development plan, and our
budget.
The decisions we make will support learning for all students.”
https://drrobertabondar.cbedialogue.com/en/projects/budget-and-fees-
survey/engagements/copy-of-copy-of-2020-21-school-budget-and-school-fees
This survey will be open from June 1 -15. A summary of the results will be
shared on our website by June 30th.
Kindness Rock Project for Dr. Roberta Bondar School
As we look for ways to keep connected with the community, and honour the
AHS protocols for the safety of all our community members, the “Kindness
Rocks ProjectTM” inspired us.
Dr. Roberta Bondar School is excited to introduce its very own “Kindness
Rocks” project. As a way to share messages of hope and kindness, we invite
Dr. Roberta Bondar School students to find a special rock, paint it with a kind
and uplifting message, and leave it somewhere in the community for someone
to find. Our hope is these rocks will spread joy around our community and
brighten people’s spirits during these challenging times.
Here is what you will need to do:
Find a nice, smooth, flat rock. If you cannot find one outside, they are
also available at craft stores. One 3′′ to 6′′ in size will work best.
Paint a base colour with non-toxic paint.
Use paint, markers, or paint pens to create your artwork and write your
message. Be sure to add your first name (no last names please!) and Dr.
Roberta Bondar School to the bottom of your rock so people will know from
whom it is coming!
Add a top coat of non-toxic sealant to help protect your work.
Here are a few examples from the Kindness Rocks ProjectTM:
Once your rock is complete, go for a walk in your community and find a good
place to leave it. Make sure you leave it somewhere where it will be seen! You
can then take many walks around the community over the coming weeks and
see how many other “kindness rocks” you come across!
If you choose to participate, we ask that you have your rock ready and find a
home for it by June 5th.
Return of Student Belongings
Many of you are wondering about your child’s shoes, belongings, previous
assignments, notebooks, as well as other personal items that were in the
classrooms prior to classes being cancelled. We will be putting all of the shoes
and remaining belongings outside the front of the school on tables that are
labelled with the teacher’s name.
We would ask that you “physically distance” when you come to the school, and
only touch your child’s belongings. The shoes and/or belongings should be
easy for you to locate as they are in bags and labelled. We will also have a
rack of shoes from Summit.
As long as the weather holds, we would like to schedule:
-
Monday, June 8 – Kindergarten (9:00 - 2:00)
-
Tuesday, June 9 - Grade 1 (9:00 - 2:00)
-
Wednesday, June 10 - Grade 2 (9:00 - 2:00)
-
Thursday, June 11 – Grade 3 (9:00 - 2:00)
-
Friday, June 12 – Grade 4 (9:00 - 12:00)
-
Monday, June 15 – Grade 5 (9:00 - 2:00)
-
Tuesday, June 16 – Grade 6 (9:00 - 2:00)
If the weather is inclement. We will have the tables of belongings in the school.
Please ring the doorbell and we will get the articles for you.
This would also be a great time to return any library books, home reading
books or Lion King Scripts! Please put them in the bin outside the front door.
School Council
School Council will meeting virtually again this month (June 10th). The agenda
for this month’s meeting will be SchoolMessengered to you and of course, the
minutes will be posted on our website. We hope we will be in a position to
extend an invitation to all Dr. Roberta Bondar School families to join us for
subsequent Virtual School Council Meetings.
Laine Mulholland, Principal
Kim Howden, Assistant Principal
|
| Principals’ Update – May 11, 2020
Thank You!
Here we are on week six of on-line learning. Who, in their wildest dreams,
would have ever thought we would be working in this unbelievable
environment? We have greatly appreciated your willingness to accommodate
this new way of being, and I cannot thank you all enough for everything you
are doing! The encouraging emails you have sent to the teachers and to Kim
and me have been wonderful. Thank you!
Our staff is amazing as they choose to see this incredible challenge as a
learning opportunity and a creative way to work. By now, you and your child
should be comfortable connecting to the teachers through the Google platform.
We are following the Minister of Education’s guidelines of providing an average
five hours a week of learning in the areas of Literacy and Mathematics for K-3
and Literacy, Mathematics, Social Studies and Science for Grades 4-6. Some
teachers have also given you suggestions for other subject areas, such as
Music, Phys. Ed and Art; however, they are not requirements.
We are very cognizant of how stressful this is for you and your family as you
try to balance on-line learning, limited technology and still “work from home”.
The teachers may have given some suggestions for you to schedule your day
to accommodate all of these complexities. Please do what you can and let us
know if we can help in any other way. Hopefully, the seasonal weather will
prevail so the children can be outside in your yard as you schedule frequent
breaks into their day. While they are outside, please remind your child of the
importance of physical distancing for anyone who does not live in your house.
Thank you to all of the children who created a card or letter of caring,
friendship and hope. I will deliver the cards and letters to Amica this week.
Many of you are wondering about your child’s shoes and belongings that
remain in the classrooms. We know you are anxious to have the shoes back
before the children outgrow them! We will be putting all of the shoes and
remaining belongings outside the front of the school on tables that are labelled
with the teacher’s name. Some of the student’s work will need to stay at the
school for the time being, as teachers will use their work as evidence of their
learning from the period of January 31 – March 15.
We would ask that you “physically distance” when you come to the school, and
only touch your child’s belongings. The shoes and/or belongings should be
easy for you to locate as they are labelled. We will also have a rack of shoes
from Summit.
As long as the weather holds, we would like to schedule:
Monday, May 11 – Grade 1 9:00 – 2:00
Tuesday, May 12 - Grade 4 9:00 - 12:00
Wednesday, May 13 - Grade 2 9:00 - 2:00
Thursday, May 14 – Grade 3 9:00 - 2:00
Tuesday, May 19 – Kindergarten 9:00 - 2:00
The Grade 5 and 6 teachers will set up a time in June to return items to you.
Should the weather be inclement, we will SchoolMessenger you and
reschedule a pick-up time.
We will also have a large bin for you to return any library books, home reading
books, Lion King Scripts or any other materials that need to come back to
school.
School Council is working towards meeting virtually for this month. The agenda
for this next month’s meeting will be SchoolMessengered to you and of course,
the minutes will be posted on our website. We hope we will be in a position to
extend an invitation to all Dr. Roberta Bondar School families to join us for
subsequent Virtual School Council Meetings.
Laine Mulholland, Principal
Kim Howden, Assistant Principal
|
| Principals’ Update – January 2020
Happy New Year and welcome back to school!
For many of us, the New Year is the opportunity to make resolutions for
the upcoming year. We make them with sincerity and yet, hardly a day
elapses, our good intentions go by the wayside. Fortunately, in a school
setting, we avoid that by being very much focused on the goals of our
School Development Plan, not on resolutions. We use the New Year as
an opportunity to reflect on what we have accomplished over the past 4
months and centre our attention on what we need to do to ensure we
are moving forward with meeting our goals.
In November, we posted our School Development Plan on our website
and discussed it with parents at School Council. Based on data from
last year’s report cards, observations of student learning, Provincial
Achievement Tests, and our Accountability Pillar Survey, we determined
three areas of focus:
Literacy – students will improve functional writing skills to
communicate ideas in an effective and organized manner.
Mathematics - students will develop their skills in communicating
their mathematical understanding.
Well-Being - students will demonstrate acts of empathy and
kindness throughout the year both formally and informally.
For more information, please see our website
http://school.cbe.ab.ca/School/Repository/SBAttachments/c2d4ea23-
48c6-4989-ae2c-51a8f26bd22e_SchoolDevelopmentPlan2019-20.pdf
Just before the Winter Break, we were in the process of working with
students in understanding themselves as learners and the importance of
setting authentic and relevant goals for learning. In some cases, the
students have set multiple goals. In almost every case, the students
have set manageable goals and the strategies they have articulated
demonstrate they understand what they need to do to achieve those
goals. Our students have clearly been an integral part of their own
learning. Their daily assignments/projects, their own reflections, and
their teacher’s feedback make it abundantly clear students are being
successful. In so many cases, the students have connected their goals
to what they already know about themselves. They are achieving their
goals and know where they need to go next for continuous
improvement. Setting the goals for success for students’ right at the
beginning and making them part of the process is critical.
The report cards will be issued on January 30, 2020 and June 26,
2020. You will notice some changes to the report cards this year.
Report card stems are categories used to organize Program of Studies
outcomes and assessment information for communication to students
and families. The mathematics report card stems have changed in order
to make the report card clearer to students and families, and to connect
report card information directly to the content of the program of studies.
All K-9 schools will use a common numerical indicator scale, which has
distinct levels to provide the most accurate way to communicate student
achievement.
K-9 Common Indicator Scale:
4 - Excellent – The student demonstrates a mastery level of
understanding.
■ The quality of work within the body of evidence may be
perceptive and/or insightful.
■ The student consistently demonstrates this level of
achievement.
■ Students achieving at this level have excellent
demonstration of grade level outcomes and can be
confident of being prepared for further learning in this area
3 - Good - The student demonstrates a well-developed level of
understanding.
■ The quality of work within the body of evidence may be
clear and/or well reasoned.
■ The student consistently demonstrates this level of
achievement.
■ Students achieving at this level can be confident of being
prepared for further learning in this area.
2 – Basic - The student demonstrates a developing level of
understanding.
■ The quality of work within the body of evidence may be
adequate and/or concrete.
■ The student consistently demonstrates this level of
achievement.
■ Adjustments to planning and instruction may be
necessary for further learning in this area.
1 – Not Meeting -The student demonstrates a beginning level of
understanding.
■ The quality of work within the body of evidence may be
vague and/or undeveloped.
■ The student consistently demonstrates this level of
achievement.
■ Targeted adjustments to planning and instruction will be
necessary for further learning in this area.
For more information on Assessment and Reporting, please see the
CBE website. https://www.cbe.ab.ca/programs/curriculum/assessment-andreporting/Pages/default.aspx
We greatly appreciate all the students who arrive for school on time.
It is critically important for them to start their day on a positive note as
the teachers give them information about the day’s expectations and
help them to organize their day for learning. When a child is 15 minutes
late, every day, they are missing 2,745 minutes or 45.75 hours of
instruction. Even missing 5 minutes of instructional time every day adds
up to a loss of 915 minutes or 15.25 hours over the course of the year.
That is a significant loss of learning time! Alberta Education mandates
all elementary students receive 950 hours of instruction and
unfortunately, children are disadvantaged when they miss large
amounts of time. Please help your children to ready themselves and get
to school on time. We hope with your support, we can significantly
decrease the number of students arriving late each morning.
We have to love Calgary weather and the fact we live in a climate
notorious for unpredictable changes! We would like to remind you to
ensure your child is prepared for the sudden changes in weather by
having a warm coat, hat, mitts, and boots with them when they come to
school. When temperatures reach -20 Celsius or colder including the
wind-chill factor, students will be kept inside for recess or lunch breaks.
The -20 Celsius guideline is comparable to other school jurisdictions in
Alberta and across Canada. However, we will run the “Polar Bear Club”
for students who would like to brave the colder weather (max. -25
Celsius). This is voluntary, however they must be dressed for the cold
with a warm jacket, snow pants, scarves, mitts, boots etc. We will go out
for a short while (15 minutes), and at any time the students are cold,
they will be able to come back into the school. Thank you to the
Leadership Team and other staff members who are willing to supervise
and join The Polar Bear Club! During the winter, roads may also be
congested and slippery resulting in possible bus delays.
Parents/guardians whose children take a yellow school bus can view the
status of their bus on www.myschoolbusmonitor.com.
From January to the end of February, Alberta Education will be
conducting the annual Accountability Pillar Survey. In January,
parents of students in grades 4, 7, and 10 will receive a survey from
Alberta Education. In February, students in grades 4, 7, and 10, and all
teachers will be completing their surveys online at school.
All surveys are anonymous and ask questions about experiences with
the school. All parents/guardians receive the English version of the
survey in the mail, but Alberta Education also provides it in Arabic,
Blackfoot, Chinese, Cree, French, Korean, Punjabi, Spanish, Tagalog
and Urdu. If you would prefer to respond to the survey in one of these
languages, please let us know and a copy will be sent to you.
It is very important that parents/guardians complete the survey and
return it to Alberta Education. Alberta Education and the public use the
results of the Accountability Pillar Survey to assess satisfaction with the
quality of education in our schools. In addition, the Calgary Board of
Education uses the information to improve teaching and learning for
your children.
If you “Don’t Know” the answer to a particular question, please skip that
question and go to the next one, otherwise want your response will
unintentionally count as a negative one.
Your voice matters. Your participation in the survey helps provide
important information on the quality of education your child is receiving.
Alberta Education and the Calgary Board of Education thank you for
returning the parent Accountability Pillar Survey promptly. If you have
questions, please contact us at the school.
The Accountability Pillar uses a set of 16 indicators consisting of
surveys of students, parents and teachers on various aspects of quality;
student outcomes such as dropout and high school completion rates;
and provincial assessments of student learning. Interested in the
results? Look for them in school and the CBE 3-Year Education Plans
and Annual Education Results Reports, posted on the website.
We are looking forward to seeing you soon in and around the school, at
School Council, or during school events.
Laine Mulholland, Principal
Kim Howden, Assistant Principal
|
Follow javascript: SP.SOD.executeFunc('followingcommon.js', 'FollowDoc', function() { FollowDoc('{ListId}', {ItemId}); }); 0x0 0x0 ContentType 0x01 1100 Compliance Details javascript:if (typeof CalloutManager !== 'undefined' && Boolean(CalloutManager) && Boolean(CalloutManager.closeAll)) CalloutManager.closeAll(); commonShowModalDialog('{SiteUrl}'+
'/_layouts/15/itemexpiration.aspx'
+'?ID={ItemId}&List={ListId}', 'center:1;dialogHeight:500px;dialogWidth:500px;resizable:yes;status:no;location:no;menubar:no;help:no', function GotoPageAfterClose(pageid){if(pageid == 'hold') {STSNavigate(unescape(decodeURI('{SiteUrl}'))+
'/_layouts/15/hold.aspx'
+'?ID={ItemId}&List={ListId}'); return false;} if(pageid == 'audit') {STSNavigate(unescape(decodeURI('{SiteUrl}'))+
'/_layouts/15/Reporting.aspx'
+'?Category=Auditing&backtype=item&ID={ItemId}&List={ListId}'); return false;} if(pageid == 'config') {STSNavigate(unescape(decodeURI('{SiteUrl}'))+
'/_layouts/15/expirationconfig.aspx'
+'?ID={ItemId}&List={ListId}'); return false;}}, null); 0x0 0x1 ContentType 0x01 898
|
Follow javascript: SP.SOD.executeFunc('followingcommon.js', 'FollowDoc', function() { FollowDoc('{ListId}', {ItemId}); }); 0x0 0x0 ContentType 0x01 1100 Compliance Details javascript:if (typeof CalloutManager !== 'undefined' && Boolean(CalloutManager) && Boolean(CalloutManager.closeAll)) CalloutManager.closeAll(); commonShowModalDialog('{SiteUrl}'+
'/_layouts/15/itemexpiration.aspx'
+'?ID={ItemId}&List={ListId}', 'center:1;dialogHeight:500px;dialogWidth:500px;resizable:yes;status:no;location:no;menubar:no;help:no', function GotoPageAfterClose(pageid){if(pageid == 'hold') {STSNavigate(unescape(decodeURI('{SiteUrl}'))+
'/_layouts/15/hold.aspx'
+'?ID={ItemId}&List={ListId}'); return false;} if(pageid == 'audit') {STSNavigate(unescape(decodeURI('{SiteUrl}'))+
'/_layouts/15/Reporting.aspx'
+'?Category=Auditing&backtype=item&ID={ItemId}&List={ListId}'); return false;} if(pageid == 'config') {STSNavigate(unescape(decodeURI('{SiteUrl}'))+
'/_layouts/15/expirationconfig.aspx'
+'?ID={ItemId}&List={ListId}'); return false;}}, null); 0x0 0x1 ContentType 0x01 898
|