Weekly Update: October 10, 2014

Hello Robina Baker Families,​

I am excited to finally have a few extra minutes to establish a weekly communication page for you on our website. So much has happened since the start of the school year that it is hard to believe that September has come and gone and we are headed into Thanksgiving weekend. First of all I would like to thank everyone for their patience as we worked through our growing pains as a new team and through new pilots and initiatives. It was a lot of change for everyone and our staff has worked many long hours to ensure that the school days are seamless for the students. Increased enrolment, an added ECS class, new timetables, learning new online field trip forms, hiring an assistant principal and 3 new support staff, new students arriving daily, a shortage of desks, training and learning new Black Gold emergency protocol along with several other challenges has had us all on our toes for awhile. Our daily routines are now established, the new timetables are finalized and all new staff will be in place by next Wednesday, so it finally feels like we are settling in.

I realize my communication has been limited to some direct emails for specific grade groups as well as face book postings, but now you should see a distinct change in communication from the office. There will be a weekly posting on the website, along with reminders and emergent items on face book. Our calendar is updated daily, so please check regularly for upcoming events.

I am super excited to be working with Mrs. Mullen and soon Mr. Henderson on our weekly character education assemblies. There is a theme for each month that we will work on with all of the students. They will have a chance to do many different activities for each theme and each class will have the opportunity to perform at one of the monthly assemblies. We are currently finalizing that schedule and it will be posted on the calendar and reminders will be sent home prior to those mini performances. We are also doing a student of the week program. Each class from K-4 will choose one student from their class to be the student of the week. Students will be presented with a certificate and acknowledged at each weekly assembly. Teachers will notify parents earlier in the week if your child is receiving the student of the week certificate. At the end of each month there will be a draw for all the student of the week children for that month and four lucky students will win pizza with the principal the following week. Miss Betty, our head custodian, has also started a golden garbage can award. The students help to tidy their desk area before they leave at the end of each day and the class who is the cleanest or shows the most improvement will win the golden garbage can award for that month. Miss Betty bakes cupcakes for the students and they receive those after the assembly. Parents are welcome at all assemblies. The first 15 minutes of each assembly is where announcements and student of the week celebrations happen and then we move on to our monthly theme. You are welcome to stay for part or the whole assembly. Last month we worked on the theme of RESPECT which will carry on throughout the whole year and this month we are working on the theme of being THANKFUL.. Once again, please check our calendar for updates on the assemblies.  NEXT WEEK, Friday, October, 17 there will be NO morning assembly as we have a special assembly presentation in the afternoon. The NED show is coming to RBES.

NED is a character building presentation that incorporates yo yo tricks. The students will learn some great ways to build their character and the week following the NED show they will have the chance to buy a yo yo to try some of the tricks that NED teaches them how to do. For more information, please check out this link:

 http://www.thenedshow.com/parents.html

All parents are welcome to attend as well as younger siblings.

Our staff spent the time together yesterday after school to do some training and learn the new emergency response protocols that Black Gold is establishing in all schools across the district. A couple of us have had extensive training and the rest of the team had the opportunity to be trained, ask questions and give feedback on the new system. We will have our first fire drill next week and I will update you very soon on some terms that your children may come home with. If you are interested in checking out the emergency protocol that we are using, you can find more information at:
http://www.hour-zero.com/ 

I would like to end with a reminder to all that next week is a short week. Monday is a holiday and Tuesday is a PD day. Our staff will be doing some positive behavior support training in the morning and working on reading strategies in the afternoon.

Best wishes to you and your families for a Happy Thanksgiving Weekend. I look forward to getting to know everyone this year and working with you and your children.

Warmest Regards,