"Strength lies in differences, not in similarities."
— Stephen R. Covey
Upcoming Dates
May 17- PLD (no school for students)
May 20 - Victoria Day (no school)
May 23 - Volunteer Tea - 10:00 AM and Fun Lunch
May 31- FEO School Tour- Grade 6's only June 4 - Fun Snack
June 5 - Patrol Picnic
June 6 - School Council
June 13 - Fun Lunch
June 21- National Indigenous Peoples’ Day
June 25 - Grade 6 Farewell
June 26 - Sports Day in afternoon 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
TRS Updates
Dear Terrace Road Families,
This morning we spent time reading the book Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt, but Kate Messner. I felt it was appropriate after our beautiful weekend that I hope you were able to spend outside- we endure a long winter to be able to enjoy our springs and summers in Calgary. Students and staff will be spending more time outside in the coming weeks, including visiting our community Garden, learning about the species in our natural space outside, and learning in the outdoors.
Please know that we will continue to monitor air quality in Calgary as this new fire season is well underway, and that we will follow board policy in terms of safety and air quality. Please do ensure that your child comes to school with water, and if possible, sunscreen, so that we can ensure they stay safe while learning outside.
Volunteer Tea
Our annual volunteer tea will take place on May 23 at 10:00 AM. We are full of gratitude for the volunteers that have become embedded within our learning community. The volunteers that work with our students are dedicated and caring to the overall success of our students, and I can not emphasize enough that the selfless nature of volunteerism is vital learning for students as they embark to make a difference in our world. We are excited to celebrate you all on the 23!
Baseball After School
With the warm weather, kids are much more active after school on our playground. As per the previous notes, we still want ALL students to go check in at home if they do not have an adult with them supervising after school. During that time that students are not in our care, it is important that they are still making safe choices. Baseball bats and hardballs can hurt people quite seriously, and we do not want that to happen. Please do chat with your children about the concept of freedom and responsibility- as they age, these newfound freedoms are amazing, but they also need to be paired with responsible choices. In the end, I love that students are having fun being active outside- we just want to keep it safe!
Creating Safe and Caring Schools - Continuum of Behaviours
When I am talking with students in my office, the halls, or in class, about specific behaviours and choices, I try to frame my conversations around what our priorities are at TRS. Our first job is to make sure that every student feels safe because we can not learn to the best of our abilities if we do not feel safe. We then talk about our second priority, which is learning, and how we can each create specific conditions to ensure that learning is possible for our selves and for our peers. As a staff, we will start this week talking with students about specific language when conflict arises, specifically the above continuum, which extends from conflictrudemean/aggressivebullying. We want each of our learners to be able to differentiate between these behaviours so that they can be specific when describing what happened and what the next steps will be. As a staff, we are committed to working through conflicts with learners, and ensuring that repair can take place once people are regulated in their emotions.
Kindergarten Registration
At TRS, we absolutely love our youngest community members, and the energy they bring to our learning environment, and we are excited to welcome our next youngest learners!! Registration opens on January 15. If you have, or you know families, that have, children that are kindergarten aged for the coming year, please do note this date. Registration is on-going, and there is no deadline in our community school, but it is nice to know numbers as we start to plan for the coming year. Please click HERE for more information, FAQs and other pertinent information on Kindergarten in the Calgary Board of Education.
After School on Terrace Road Playground and Field
We absolutely love having our families hang out after school, chatting and watching over their kiddos. We ask that if students are unsupervised that they head straight home and check in with guardians before returning to school. We provide 15 minutes of supervision after school. We have been getting phone calls from parents asking where their children are, and more often than not, they are caught up in play outside. This presents a vulnerable situation when no one is certain of where a child is. Please remind your children to walk home and then return to play so that everyone is aware of where the child is at any given moment.
Grade 6 PATS Update
Alberta Education announced last week that Grade 6 English language arts and literature (ELAL) and mathematics provincial achievement tests will not be administered in the 2023/2024 school year. Alberta Education will instead offer field testing between April and June 2024. Schools are encouraged to participate in the optional field tests that are available using the Vretta digital platform. This will help inform the development of future PATs for Grade 6 English language arts and literature and mathematics that align with new curriculum in these subjects. Science 6 and Social Studies 6 PATs will still be administered using Vretta for all Grade 6 CBE students in June 2024. FLA 6 PATs will also continue to be administered for those not piloting new curriculum. All Grade 9 PATs will also continue to be administered using Vretta in May/June of 2024.
Take care, everyone!
Have a wonderful week,
Dan Buchanan Principal,
Terrace Road School