Sep 06
Welcome or Welcome Back to Nellie

​September is a time for planning, looking forward to possibilities and creating a foundation for another excellent school year.  I want to welcome all of the Citizens of Nellie to their best school year ever.  This year we will play together, laugh together, grow together and learn together.  We will take risks, learn lots and ensure that all students feel welcome and connected.  Thank you for all that you do to make Nellie such a Great Place to Learn!!!

Jun 29
June 2022 Year End Message

Thank you for all that you do to create such a wonderful learning community for our students and families.  This has been a very different year but it has also been a wonderful year filled with hopes, dreams and big beliefs.  I hope you all have a wonderful summer.  Hold those around you close, find places and spaces to enjoy the great people around you, find ways to celebrate, relax and recharge and time to build and create.  

The staff at Nellie McClung want to wish you a happy, healthy and joy-filled summer.  We look forward to September and all of the possibilities that will exist for our wonderful learning community.

Take Care,

Darren Dyck​​


Jan 05
Happy New Year

​Welcome back to Nellie...the most amazing school ever.  I hope you all had a wonderful vacation, stayed warm, spent time with loved ones, rested, played and enjoyed all that life has to offer.  As you all know the next variant of Covid is causing many challenges for our society.  As we prepare to welcome your children back to in-person learning please know that the incredible team at Nellie are prepared to offer the Citizens of Nellie a safe, caring, supportive, engaged, enriched, demanding learning environment that will focus on student safety and learning.  The staff at Nellie are eagerly awaiting the return to in-person learning.  I wish you all a wonderful January and a very Happy New Year!!!

Dec 06
Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and Season's Greetings

​I am so grateful to be able to work at this great school.  I am wowed each day by the giving spirit and thoughtfulness of the Citizens of Nellie.  During this special time of year it is even more apparent what an incredibly caring learning community Nellie McClung is.  Thank you all for leaning in, working together and finding ways to support our students and our families.  This month you are helping each other through our Giving Tree, Food Bank, Caring Hands and Share the Warmth initiatives.  You are volunteering for our field trips, in the classrooms and for the fundraising initiatives.  You are being generous with your time and your resources and because of your generosity those in the Nellie Family are thriving.  Thank you for all that you do.

Nov 16
November at Nellie

​We are in November already.  Last week we honoured our Canadian Vete​rans as we held an outdoor service to remember the sacrifices of so many soldiers and their families over the years.  This week we take a look at our Metis students and celebrate all that they bring to our school.  Metis week reminds us of our commitment to Truth and Reconciliation and how we might do our part to move healing and sharing forward.  This month we also look at our Giving Tree.  We look at who in our community is in need of support and we find ways to bring some joy and hope into their lives.  Wow...November...full of so much emotion, pride and understanding.

Oct 12
Happy Thanksgiving

The students and staff are so grateful for the many blessings in our lives. This week we spent a great deal of time thinking and working outdoors and connecting to the earth.  We are thankful for living in such a great country.  We are thankful for our parents, families, friends and elders who help support us each day. We are grateful for the exceptional weather we have enjoyed in September and October.  We are thankful that we are connected to this exceptional learning community at Nellie.  Happy Thanksgiving Friends and Family of Nellie.​


Sep 07
September 2021 - Welcome Back To Nellie

​I would like this opportunity to welcome you or welcome you back to your amazing school.  As "Citizens of Nellie" our students, parents and staff work hard each day to ensure that great learning is happening in a safe and caring environment.  Everyone at Nellie deserves to reach their full potential, be honoured and celebrated, develop strength and character and be able to thrive in our learning community.  Our community will do amazing things this year despite the pandemic.  We will focus on student well-being, math, writing and Indigenous learning.  We will be engaged, proud, supportive and insightful.  We will work together and we will be successful.  Thank you all for making Nellie such a wonderful place to learn!!!​

Jun 28
Principal's Message June 2021

Hello Friends and Family of Nellie,

 

I want to thank all of you for working so hard during this very challenging year to ensure that our students came first and support and connection was the foundation of all that we do.  This year has challenged us in so many ways.  From on-line learning to in-person learning, from quarantining to cohorting, and through it all the Citizens of Nellie have held strong and stayed united.  Nellie is a great school because of the connectedness of our students, families and staff.  All year you have worked together, overcoming the challenges and ensuring that excellent learning opportunities were available for all Nellie students.  Thank you for your strength and compassion during this trying school year.  I want to wish you all a wonderful summer and I look forward to starting the new school year with a renewed sense of optimism and a renewed sense of opportunity.

 

See you all in September.


Darren​


Mar 25
Happy Spring Break citizens of Nellie


Happy Spring Break citizens of Nellie.  It is hard to believe that it has been a full year since our world changed and the way we organize, structure and work in our school has shifted so dramatically.  I feel so blessed to have walked this journey with the incredible learning community that we call the Nellie Family. Through this past year you have come together over and over again to support each other and provide exceptional learning opportunities for our students.  Through your love, care, sharing and giving you have consistently put student learning and family support first.  You have shared your time, talents and resources to ensure that your children/students have had the best opportunities despite all of the challenges and road blocks they have faced.  Over the spring break please find times and spaces to celebrate with your families and take joy and comfort in the knowledge that you have not only survived this past year but you have been able to thrive as a community.  Over this next week play with your children, walk your dogs, go outside on adventures and look for the many things we can be grateful for.  I am grateful for a learning community who cares so much, who works so hard and who knows how very precious and important our young people are.  I am grateful for all of you, for who you are and for what you have brought to improve the lives of our students at Nellie.  Thank you all so much.

 

Please take some time to review the many exciting news stories and the grade team pages on this site.  You will be amazed at all of the incredible work happening at your great school.​


Feb 12
Nellie McClung School is truly a remarkable learning community.

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   


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RT @EdMattersYYC: Applications close next Friday for our Investing in the Future Student Award. This is the golden ticket for @yyCBEdu students to a post-secondary future that may have seemed out of reach. We have six $80,000 scholarships to disburse! Learn more & apply: https://t.co/xQXkGofi7x https://t.co/UWrOVKWByy

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