April 4th, 2017

Dear families,

Coffee Connections was a great success this morning.  I was able to attend for most of the discussion about supporting students with anxiety.  Great suggestions were offered by the facilitator Erin Young and the parents who attended.  What a great way to start the day!

Movie night is almost here!  This Thursday, we hope many of you will join us for The Secret Life of Pets. Please send your forms back in tomorrow to assist with planning.  Thanks to our school council members for organizing this community building event!

School Council is also preparing for a Stemmler’s Meats Fundraiser – watch for an order form to come home this Thursday.  Your support will be needed to make the fundraiser a success. Funds raised will go to enhance our playground and support school initiative – we ensure that is our kids who benefit.

Thank you for keeping our students safe by not using the parking lot for drop off and pick up.  Overall we have a tremendously supportive group of parents and caregivers.  Remind your children that for safety and to respect the law they must wear a helmet whenever they are riding bikes.  We do ask all students to walk scooters and bikes on school property.

Friday is a PA day for our staff and there is no school for our students.  As a staff we will continue to work on our School Improvement Plan focusing on mathematics and well-being.  I am very proud of our teachers for their efforts to use number strings and math talks to build conceptual fluency in math.  It is a great joy to see the students so engaged, using mathematical vocabulary, selecting from a variety of strategies and explaining their thinking. Teachers will have time to talk about the next steps as we work to implement a comprehensive math program.  We will brainstorm factors that support staff, student and community well-being and also those that interfere with well being. Then we will plan our next steps to continue to foster well-being here at Alpine. We are fortunate to have the support of our LST Virginia Baechler and our Tecnology Support Teacher Heidi Mannhardt  to further our learning.  Alpine staff members are always learning too!

At this time of year we also begin to plan ahead for next year.  The staffing season is upon us which means that class list building is coming soon.  Staff work hard to set children up for success and many factors are considered during this complex process.  Most often parents trust the decisions staff make but there are times when they want to share more information or make requests to support learning and well-being. Remembering that it is not appropriate to request a specific teacher, any parent requests for consideration should be given in writing to Ms Givlin before April 28, 2017.

The calendar on alp.wrdsb.ca has been updated and it is worth taking a look.  Reminders are also sent out on Twitter @alpwrdsb and Instagram alpinepublicschool and SchoolDay.

We are hoping for some drier weather to allow our field to dry up so we can spread out during nutrition breaks.  We miss playing soccer!

That’s all for now!

Ms Givlin – luckiest principal ever!