HARRY BALFOUR SCHOOL, 10815-104 ST, GRANDE PRAIRIE, AB

Issue4

Harry Balfour School Newsletter

November 23rd, 2016 HOME OF THE BENGALS!

Dear Parents: As the end of the first trimester approaches, we are reminded about just how quickly the school-year passes by. With so much participation by teachers, students and parent volunteers, we can easily measure the past three months in moments and not minutes. We are looking forward to the Christmas concerts this year, held at the Alliance Church auditorium. As all grand events go, personnel are required to handle the volume of parking lot traffic and security. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer during the Christmas concerts, please contact the school directly as we are currently seeking three (3) parking lot attendants and two (2) people to help with security. This years’ concerts promise to showcase the hard work and passion of both our students and music instructors. As part of our commitment to providing a quality education to all students at Harry Balfour, each year we participate in planning for the years to come. Our commitments are established and documented in the school improvement plan, and this year we aim to strengthen previously recognized elements while adding items that we’ve identified this year. Through professional development and intentional practice, we continue to address anxiety in our population as we

CONTACT US: (780) 532-9276

aim to develop a toolkit for staff to use in classrooms. In our search to improve teaching practice, we have seen our elementary school teachers take part in a week-long intensive math professional development session with both the district consultant and our district learning coaches. Additionally, Jr. High staff have continued to improve reporting and assessment practice through structured professional development by our district coordinator and internal personnel. Our final initiative will see the entire teaching staff improving the efficiency of collaborative response meetings through the documentation of proactive strategies and interventions with students. The growth of positive structures to support students and the willingness of our staff to adapt to the ever changing educational landscape have been encouraging and bode well for our future. I look forward to spending time with parents, grandparents, and guardians during interviews on November 30th and December 1st. Sincerely, Christan Gee Principal

Dates to remember Nov. 24 Nov. 25 Nov. 30 Dec. 1

Report Cards K-8 District PD Day (No Classes) Parent Teacher Interviews Grades K-8 5-7:30pm Parent Teacher Interviews Grades K-8 5-7:30pm Early dismissal at 2:46pm Pizza Envelopes home with

Dec. 5 Dec. 5 students. Dec. 6 Christmas Concert-Alliance Church Dec. 7 Participarent Meeting 6:30pm Staffroom Dec. 7 Pre-Order and Pre-Pay Pizza $5.00 (please note the price change) Dec. 9 Pizza Day Dec. 23 Day in lieu of Parent Teacher Interviews Dec 24-Jan. 8, 2017 Christmas Holidays. Jan. 9 Welcome back!

HARRY BALFOUR SCHOOL NEWSLETTER | Issue 4

PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS Report Cards will be sent home with your child on Friday, November 24, 2016. Parent Teacher interviews will be held on Wednesday, November 30th from 5:00pm to 7:30pm and Thursday December 1st from 5:00pm to 7:30pm. Some classes will be doing scheduled interviews and you will be contacted by your student’s teacher to arrange a time to meet. If your child’s teacher is not scheduling interviews, they will be done on a “drop in” basis. Please note that interviews for Junior High will be held in the Large Gym. Interviews for all other grades will be in the student’s home room.  If you have been unable to update your child’s demographic information, you can bring your letter with your child’s Infosnap code (found in the report card envelope) to Parent Teacher Interviews and we will be to assist you in the office. We will also be able to accept school fees at that time.

The Scholastic Book Fair is Coming!

We are excited to announce that the school library will once again be hosting the Scholastic Book Fair November 30th-December 1st ! Scholastic always sends a wide variety of books and treasures that are sure to be a hit with parents and students alike. Funds raised from this sale go towards library collection development. If you are available to help with book fair setup on the morning of Monday November 28 starting at about 9:00 a.m., we would really appreciate the help. We will also need help with packing up the bookfair on Friday December 2nd starting at 9:00am. If you can help us out with setup or takedown, please contact us at [email protected] or 780-532-9276. Book Fair Hours Monday November 28th: Noon – 3:00 p.m. Tuesday November 29: 9:00 a.m.3:00 p.m. Wednesday November 30th 9:00 a.m. -3:00 p.m. and 5:00-7:30 p.m. (in conjunction with parent/teacher interviews) Thursday, December 1st 9:00am3:00pm and 5:00-7:30 p.m. (in conjunction with parent/teacher interviews) PLEASE NOTE: Students coming to the book fair in the evening hours must be accompanied by a parent. Donna Sieben Librarian, Harry Balfour School

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THANK YOU! 

Thank you to Andrea Hlewka and her Participarent crew for hosting another successful Family Movie night. The movie, Finding Dory, was enjoyed by 189 students and their parents!

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In November, the Participarent group donated money to support the following: $330 to Curling Club $3000 for new Basketball Jerseys $2000 towards funding Sport Groups - (ei: extra funds to pay for tournaments) $3055 towards the purchase of 21 Hokki Stools. This is a form of alternative seating for children who need those extra movement breaks.

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We would like to send a HUGE thank you to Jessica, Melanie, Krista, Deborah, Kirsten, Nancy, Brandie, Derek, Jackie, Heather, Kim, Ellen, Zach, Muranne, Niki, Andrea, Dianna, Arlene, Kristine, Rhonda, Neil, Sherri, Jennifer, Sharlene who volunteered time to help at the Harry Balfour Participarent Casino nights on November 8 & 9. We couldn't have done it without you! Casino Chair, Shellene

HARRY BALFOUR SCHOOL NEWSLETTER | Issue 4

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News and Events VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH Congratulations to Lynette Kilba, October’s volunteer of the month. Lynette received a Starbuck’s gift card! If you are volunteering in our school, please sign the Volunteer book in the office.

Whispering Ridge Community School Update: Whispering Ridge Participarent Society is now on Facebook! Check us out for upcoming events to help with fundraising for our playgrounds and to get involved.

We will also be available at the Harry Balfour School Parent Teacher Interview nights with information on upcoming events!

Session 2 Grade 4-6 Curling Jan. 12 – Feb. 23, 2017

Our Grade 6 classes delivered “Canada Remembers Times” newspapers, which were donated by the Canadian Legion, to about 400 houses surrounding Harry Balfour School. Each grade 6 student also wrote a paragraph of “What Remembrance Day means to me” and included this writing with the Remembrance Day newspaper. With the help of three parent supervisors, plus Mrs. Stilwell and Mrs. Cote, we delivered the “Canada Remembers Times” on a beautiful afternoon, Thursday November 3rd. The students were happy to promote the importance of Remembrance Day around our neighborhood. Ceremonies: A big thank you to Mrs. Pfefferle and her helpers for organizing another beautiful school Remembrance Day Ceremony!

Legion Contest Winners! Congratulations to the following Harry Balfour students who participated in the Remembrance Day contest. Here are the results: Colour Poster (French) 1st-Alexandra Isaac 2nd-Thomas Leishman 3rd-Wyatt Disher Black and White Poster English 1st-Kayla Polacik 3rd-Katelyn Wales

3:40pm – 5pm Meeting for all interested students on Wednesday Dec. 7th in the Science Lab at lunch recess. Thanks Mrs. Fisher

CUTLERY! If your child brings a lunch that requires cutlery, please insure that the proper cutlery is packed with the lunch. Thank You!

RUN CLUB The students who participated in the first session of the Run Club would like to thank Miss Lappenbush, Miss Basarab, Mrs. Greenslade, Miss Horrigan, Miss Furstenwerth, Mr. Dommer, and Mrs. Simpson who took the time to coach and make the Run Club fun! There will probably be a spring run club starting after Easter break.

Gr 8 Maritmes Trip A reminder to parents of grade 8 students wishing to travel to The Maritimes in May 2017, you can enroll at any time. Contact Mrs. Stilwell if you have any questions.

Harry Balfour Christmas Concerts 2016 K-4 Christmas Concert Alliance Church - 15502 102 Street Grande Prairie Tuesday, December 6 @ 5:30 pm. Please have your child to the church at 5:00 pm. Grade 5-8 Christmas Concert Alliance Church - 15502 102 Street Grande Prairie Tuesday, December 6 @ 7:30 pm. Please have your child to the church at 7:00 pm. * Please note that these are two separate concerts, with approximately one hour in between to make time for the K4 concert attendees to depart and the Grade 5-8 concert attendees to arrive. * For families with children in both concerts who will be staying all evening, you are welcome to go to the gymnasium in the church between 6:30 and 7:30 where there will be tables and chairs set up and refreshments available.

3S has been working diligently on our monthly Classroom Champion Challenges for our Olympic Athlete, Arianne Jones. She is a rock star Luge competitor. We learned she travels down the chute at speeds greater than 80 miles per hour. She must be fearless! Our first challenge included setting a personal goal and a class goal. We video-taped our personal goals and forwarded them to her. She loved them and she loved our huge teddy bear Classroom Champion mascot, that we named “Jonesey”. As a class we decided to increase our reading levels, up three levels, by the end of June. (Some students are secretly planning to increase by five levels). We will be learning about the reading process all year and hope we meet and surpass this challenge. For our October challenge, we video-taped skits about “Unfair versus Fair Play”. What fun … a little chaotic and noisy … but so much fun! This action was quickly followed by the announcement we will have our first live video chat with Arianne on Thursday, November 24. We have our interview questions lined up and ready to go. Then we received T-Shirts, bracelets, folders and pencils from Classroom Champions headquarters, courtesy of the Alberta Treasury Branch. We send a big shout out to A.T.B. Finally, in conjunction with all grade three classes, we will help organize our second, “Sending LOVE from HEAD to TOE” campaign. We will be collecting hats, mitts, gloves, scarves and long underwear. We hope to collect lots of warm clothing!

BUS CANCELLATIONS Last week was a good reminder of what roads can be like in Northern Alberta. We all know when living in northern Alberta it is only a matter of time before we have to again close some bus routes due to poor road conditions. The purpose of this article is to give our parents some insight into how we reach the decision to cancel a bus route. How do we reach a decision to close down all/or any of our District bus routes? The Director of Transportation is delegated the authority to close down all District buses or just buses within a certain area of the District and will make this decision at about 6 am. Once this decision is made, local radio stations are contacted and the Peace Wapiti webpage is updated. However, the reality is our District is the size of Wales (five times the size of PEI). It is very possible that we will have acceptable roads in one area and unacceptable roads in another area. It is for that reason each bus driver also has the authority to cancel his/her route. Please check our webpage for updates regarding route closures. How does a bus driver reach a decision to close down his/her bus routes? Each bus driver has the authority to close down his/her route. The bus driver will make a reasonable attempt to run their route but if after such an attempt, they feel that road conditions are unsafe, they will cancel their route. In doing so, they will notify the Director of Transportation so that local radio stations are notified and they will also make reasonable at-tempts to contact the parents of the students who ride their bus. It is for this reason that current phone numbers are essential. In the event that our bus drivers are unable to contact the parents of a small child they will take the necessary steps to ensure that the child is not left unsupervised. Our bus drivers are dedicated employees who believe in the value of our schools and the safety of students. If they have chosen to shut down their route, it will be with good reason. Please work with us to sup-port them in a very difficult decision. What if the parent feels the route is unsafe? Peace Wapiti leaves the final say to the parent regarding whether their child rides a bus during times of inclement weather. Should a parent feel that their area of a bus route is unacceptable, then they are free to decide not to place their child on the bus. We would ask that should the parent make such a decision, that they contact the child’s driver or the Bus Shop at 5327734 so that the driver is made aware of the road conditions in your area and the change in the route. In addition to the above process, Peace Wapiti School Division #76 buses will not be stopping to pick up students on primary or secondary highways when weather conditions such as heavy fog have created a situation of limited or no visibility. The decision not to stop will be left to the driver’s discretion. Should the bus driver decide not to stop parents will be notified via phone that the bus will not be picking up students that morning. Parents are encouraged to phone their bus driver or the Transportation Department (532-7734) if they feel weather conditions have made their stop dangerous. For bus cancellations due to inclement weather or temperature, Peace Wapiti School Division is now divided into 6 zones based on High School attendance areas. All buses associated with a High School attendance area would be cancelled at the same time. One or all of the zones could be cancelled at any one time. Parents would need to know which High School their Elementary School is associated with in order to know if the buses in their area are cancelled. Example. Beaverlodge High School attendance area would include Wembley Schools, Elmworth School, and Hythe School. Please check the inclement weather policy on the Peace Wapiti School Division website for a list of High School attendance areas and their associated schools. You can find the weather stations we use by going to our webpage and checking the quicklinks at the top. Cancelations will be announced on the local radio stations and posted on Peace Wapiti’s webpage. Finally, according to the American National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, school buses are nearly eight times safer than passenger vehicles. Our school buses are constructed far stronger than a family passenger vehicle and are driven by professional drivers, often with years of experience. School buses are the safest way to get a child to school; please work with us to keep them that way

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