Hello all,
It was an emotional, but powerful week full of important learning and discussions following last week's discovery in Kamloops. Teachers and staff did a great job of ensuring that conversations and lessons were age-appropriate, yet honest. The displays (visible around the school or some on the Twitter feed) in honour of the children found buried at the site of the residential school in Kamloops will be up until the end of the day on Tuesday to align with 215 hours of reflection and based on guidance from the province. There was a great deal of caring on display from our learning community this week.
A couple of notes with an eye to the fall:
- This link will take you to an optional parent input form for providing information to be considered in student placement for the coming school year. This survey will close on Friday, June 11th. Please note that most often, it should not be necessary to make a special request. Your child’s previous teacher and our extended team know your child well, and will have good ideas about with whom they learn well. On occasion, there can be special circumstances such as special needs or past history that we may not be aware of or that you feel we may need to be reminded of. Any information shared here, should also be shared directly with your child's classroom teacher as they are instrumental in class building. Due to the complexity of placing 460+ children, input is considered, but cannot always be fulfilled.
- For the coming school year we are requesting $40 for your child’s supplies rather than sending you a required supplies list. In most cases, the only supply that you will need to provide is your child’s (empty) pencil box which may be reused from a previous year if you have one that remains in good condition. This system allows us to charge significantly less than the costs that were formerly associated with supply lists that were sent home. Savings will be found by buying only supplies that will be used in each individual class, buying certain supplies in bulk, and buying fewer supplies where possible (e.g. 10 sets of pastels for a class rather than 1 set per child). Teachers will do all of the purchasing and in some instances will recognize further savings by accessing pricing for educators. This fee will be collected in September. $40 does represent an increase over last year's fee, but brings us closer to being aligned with fees charged at other schools and should reduce the amount needed from the school budget to subsidize the cost of supplies.
I hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable weekend with family.