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Nellie McClung School is truly a remarkable learning community.  We have students, parents/guardians and staff who work together to ensure individual growth and achievement for each student.  “Sparking Creativity/Growing Together is our school motto.  At Nellie we strive each day to grow and develop by working closely with each other.  We focus on learning opportunities that stem from and grow creative understanding.  Fine arts, problem solving, academic rigor, writing and resiliency are pillars for the way we deliver programing and engage in the learning.

This year we have two School Development Plan Goals that we are focussing on.  We are building strategies and opportunities to help students improve their writing and their ability to be resilient. Ask your children what they are doing in their classrooms to address these goals.

During this pandemic, we are noticing that many of us and our students/children are struggling with resiliency.  A top Canadian researcher, Dr. Michael Ungar lays out a number of strategies that should be in place to help improve resiliency:

1. Structure – Children and adults need defined structure and routines in our lives.
2. Accountability – Goals must be set and we must hold ourselves and our children accountable to meeting the goals.
3. Needed – Everyone needs to be needed.  Children need to hear and know that they are needed at school and at home.
4. Love From Others – We all need loving relationships.
5. Supportive Relationships – In addition to close intimate relationships, we need relationships with others who support positive growth in our lives.
6. Powerful Identity – We need to know what we stand for, what we believe and why.
7. Sense of Control – Children are just like adults in their need to have a voice and a say over certain aspects in their lives.
8. Rights and Responsibilities – We need to know our rights and our responsibilities in our relationships, our work and school places and society. 
9. Basic Needs – We need our basic needs met…food/clothing etc.
10. Physical Well-being – We need to be healthy and know how to take care of our physical health
11. Financial Security – We need a consistent income or understanding that financially we are going to be OK.
12. Positive Thinking – The use of positive self-talk is very important.

This year Nellie is working with your children to improve their ability to be resilient.  By ensuring that the 12 needs above are met at school and at home we will continue to be partners as we work to improve our students ability to manage this ever changing world.  The past year has been challenging for everyone, but we know that our children/students don’t have the same life experiences to draw from to help them situate and understand all the changes.  By regularly addressing these needs we will continue to help our students build their resiliency.

Thank you for walking this journey with us.  We know that students are grieving the loss of field trips, performances, social events, parties, learning celebrations and the like.  Together we will continue to make learning engaging, we will model for our students how to be resilient and we will look forward to days when we can play and learn in less restrictive ways.

Thank you for always supporting this great school.

Sincerely,

Darren Dyck
Principal