Dear Parents & Guardians:

In this post you will find information for the following:

·         Important Dates

·         Principal’s Message

·         Fundraising Update

·         Lifetouch Pictures are Ready!

·         AHS Community Resources: Parent Engagement & Teens

Important Dates –

·         Oct 7-11 – Elev8 Lacrosse PE Residency (proper outdoor footwear is required)

·         Oct 7 – Celtic Fiddler: Kierah (1:00-2:30) assembly (parents welcome)

·         Oct 11 – IPPs go home for parent signature

·         Oct 14 – Thanksgiving (No School)

Principal’s Message

With one month under our belts and the Autumnal Equinox having passed, we can read the signs from nature that the season and weather is changing. As trees and animals prepare for changes, now is a great time to help your kids transition as well. Can they try and take on some more responsibility at home in decision-making with what they wear or pack for lunch? As the weather cools, have your kids look at the weather app after dinner and make decisions around what to wear in the morning knowing their Physical Education classes will mainly be outside. How can they help get out the door more quickly in the morning? Next week is “International Walk to School Week” - can your family use that as a challenge to try and walk more often? Why is this an international event? There is lots of data out there showing that the number of students who walk to school has decreased dramatically since when you were a child. What steps can your family take to bring these numbers back up? As a school community, parents and children can offer solutions to many obstacles including road safety and stranger danger. Check out the “Family Walk to School Kit” that you can download. This will guide conversations in your family and perhaps offer suggestions.  

One of our school’s goals for our School Development Plan is to help build resilience in our students. This is based on student perception data where our students are self-reporting high levels of anxiety (37% compared to the Canadian norm at 25%) along with anecdotal classroom observations of students giving up when learning gets complex. Our parent presentation by Dr. Buzanko last night discussed practical ways for parents to make adjustments in our parenting to better support our children. Resilience is developed through experiences, not conversations about it. Kids need to experience all emotions and be given time to make decisions in the moment without parental intervention. I would highly recommend all parents watch this presentation and/or review the slides available for download on our School Council webpage. Thank you to Katie, last year’s School Council Chair, for making this presentation happen using provincial funding to help increase parent engagement (we had about 23 in-person and 16 online). Dr. Buzanko also hosts a podcast on resilience and offers “tip-sheets” for parents available here. She is also presenting an AHS session on gaming addictions next Tuesday. Other related sessions by different presenters with AHS are: Parenting with the Whole Family in Mind, and Building Resiliency in Today’s Youth. 

Fundraising Update

Thank you to everyone who has already contributed to our two fundraising campaigns this school year: Birthday Books and the Parent (Society Membership) Fundraiser hosted by EducationMatters. This week we accessed $2268 to begin purchasing “birthday books” for our students to go into our library circulation.

To date we have raised $5600 in our “Parent Fundraiser” campaign and these funds will help cover the costs of some of our first semester experiences like Elev8 Lacrosse, Celtic Fiddler: Kierah and part of the author writing residency coming in December.

Please visit our Fundraisers & Donations webpage for more information.

LifeTouch Pictures are Ready!

School pictures are ready!

To order, log in to your account on mylifetouch.ca or create an account using your student's student ID number. Paper proofs will also be sent to your home in the near future.

All families can also log on and order a FREE digital Pictures2Protect Card.

More about the Pictures2Protect program here.

Alberta Health (AHS) Resources

October parent newsletters (available for download as a PDF as well if needed).

Children:  The perks of parent engagement

Teens:  Engaging with your teen's school experience