Whoo hoo, am I ever glad to be back! That was one doozy of an illness, that really took a hold of me. I'm thinking of any of you going through it right now.
This week students worked on recognizing, creating and extending 2 and 3 part patterns. They also learned all about the letter Ee.
Conferences have moved online due to the amount of illness in the school. Please make sure to book your conference. I will be sending home a package Wednesday with items that we will be discussing in our conference :)
See below for this weeks admin message
Dear NBS Families,
This past week our student attendance due to illness has been over 10 percent daily and as a result, our school has been placed into Respiratory Illness Outbreak status by Alberta Health Services. Outbreak status is monitored daily for a minimum of 14 days and after which will either continue for week-long intervals or will come to an end based on our student attendance rates.
Along with this, we have had several staff members off work with illness and as you may have heard there is currently a shortage of substitutes in the Calgary Board of Education. This has resulted in us implementing several strategies to ensure your student(s) have an adult in front of them throughout the day. This means that they may have had a different teacher for part or all of the day, or even been in a different classroom for a day as we had to combine classes with low numbers to free up staff to cover a class without a teacher. An email from the CBE was sent out yesterday outlining the current system information and we ask all families to read it thoroughly as it contains a lot of very important information and answers questions that we are being asked here at the school.
Health Measure Reminders
We continue to use a number of measures to reduce the impact of illnesses in schools such as high touchpoint cleaning and enhanced ventilation.
We would also like to remind everyone of health measures they can take to reduce transmission:
- If your child is feeling unwell, please keep them at home.
- Continue to wash hands frequently and cover coughs and sneezes.
- Students and staff can continue to make their own decision regarding masking. If your student would like a mask, we have several here at the school available.
We continue to follow the guidance and direction provided by Alberta Education and AHS. We are monitoring the issue carefully and will keep you updated as the situation evolves.
Virtual Parent/Teacher Conferences
In effort to create a safe environment, due to our high absentee rate (both staff and student), we have decided to only have virtual meetings for our Parent/Teacher conferences.
If you have not created your myCBE Account, please take the time to go online and create one. This is what you use to sign up for our upcoming Virtual Conferences, as well you will be able to pay fees online and how You only need to create an account once and it carries over from year to year. Click here to create an account.
My CBE Power School Conference Booking System Opens to Parents – Saturday November 19 at 9:00am
Book your Conferences
The conferences are set up for grades 1-5 and kindergarten separately. You will have to select each schedule separately if you have a child in kindergarten and in grades 1- 5. Select the teachers with whom you want to book conferences. You will receive an email confirming your booking with a virtual link.
Important Dates and Times for Booking Conferences online:
Grades 1-5 Conference Times
Thursday, November 24 – Conferences from 4:00pm – 7:30pm
Friday, November 25 – Conferences from 8:00am, – 12:00pm (No School for Students)
Kindergarten Conference Times
Thursday, November 24 – Conferences from 8:00am – 11:45am, 12:45pm – 3:00pm and 4:00pm – 7:30pm (No School for Kindergarten Students)
Friday, November 25 – Conferences from 8:00am– 12:00pm (No School for Students)
*Ms. Lang’s students please, book with Ms. Parker.
Please see this link for assistance
Should you have any questions please feel free to reach out to the office at 403-817-3516
Thank you.
Please Call for Attendance - Attendance Line: 403-817-3516 ext. 1
The School Act states that all students are expected to attend school regularly and to be at school on time. If your child is going to be late or absent please phone the school (number above) to advise of the length of absence and the reason. Students arriving late to school must report to the office where they will pick up a “Happy to See You” slip prior to admittance to their class.
Our Absence Line is checked twice each day. We will attempt to contact you if your child is late or absent and no previous notification was given. Please leave the following information:
· name of student(s)
· grade(s)
· teacher(s)
· reason for absence or lateness
· length of absence if known
School Apparel Store Online
New Brighton School Apparel remains available to order online by clicking here. All orders will be delivered to the school and distributed here once they arrive; however, orders moving forward will not be delivered by Christmas. Also, the early savings of 20% off has expired so we hope that everyone interested got their orders in before last weekend. We are looking forward to seeing our kindergartens joining us with their orange Every Child Matter shirts in the New Year. Thank you once again to our New Brighton School Parent Council who generously covered the cost for our current kindergarten students’ t-shirt!
Utilizing Decodables
Decodable books are a new resource now available in many CBE schools to accompany the provincial curriculum and CBE Literacy Framework.
This exciting addition to literacy programming aims to teach decoding skills which will enable students to practice phonics patterns and high frequency words.
A video, Utilizing Decodables, has been created as an introduction to those who are unfamiliar with Decodable books and how they are being implemented in classrooms.
Link: Utilizing Decodables Video.
Veterans Food Bank
Our collections for the Veterans Food Bank are starting to take off as students are doing their best to fill their class box with items to be donated to our deserving veterans. Just a reminder that this year we decided to up the ante while having a little fun at the same time. Each class will tally the number of items brought in by their class throughout the month. The class that brings in the most will get to see their teacher get a pie in the face at a school-wide assembly. If that wasn’t incentive enough, if as a school we collect a total of 20 boxes our assistant principal Mr. Bennett will also get a pie in the face. If as a school we collect 25 boxes, our music teacher Ms. Lysak will get a pie in her face and if we hit the mark of 30 boxes, our principal Mr. Murphy will get a pie in the face.
Fun Lunches
Our next Fun Lunch will be Coco Brooks on Thursday, Nov. 24th, and the last day to order will be Saturday, Nov. 19th by midnight. If you are interested in having a Fun lunch for your child please make sure to get your order in by these dates. To order any of our Fun Lunches you need to set up an account online at https://healthyhunger.ca/ .
*Unfortunately, fun lunches are not available for kindergarten students
Follow us on Social Media
New Brighton School has a new Instagram account that will be used to share what is happening in and around the school. Be sure to follow us at newbrightonschool_cbe . You can also find us on Twitter at @NewBrightonSch1.
Important Dates:
November 24th – Parent Teacher Conferences, all day kindergarten only – No School
November 24th – Parent Teacher Conferences, 4:30-7:30 grades k to 5
November 25th – Parent Teacher Conferences, all grades k-5 8:00 kindergarten only – No School
Sincerely,
Patrick Murphy
