January 23 Update

Hello Robina Baker Families!

It is great to be back. After being sick for 3 weeks, it feels like I have been gone for an eternity. I hope that you all had a fabulous Christmas Break. I am not sure if this past week was a whirlwind because I was catching up or if it was busier than usual. I hope you all caught my email regarding parking, ice and a few other items last Thursday. If not, please check your inbox.

Renovations

As many of you have seen and heard, we had a few renovations over the Christmas break. Our front entrance went under some "beautification" by Black Gold. The ceiling was raised a few inches, the lighting was made flush with the new brighter white ceiling. The walls were also painted and our trophy case was taken down. In the spot where the trophy case was, we will be having a large flat screen installed. This will give us the ability to feature scrolling announcements, photos and events. As well, a class set of frames will put arranged around the screen to feature student art work. Once we are up and running, each class will have a chance to featured. When the wall is finished, the Robina Baker bench will reside against the wall as a waiting spot. There are some other finishing touches that should be done around spring break.

Our down stairs classrooms received an upgrade and had all their bookshelves and counter tops replaced. Next on the list is the reading nook in Mrs. Suter's classroom will have the walls repaired and painted.

Last, but, certainly not least . . . and my personal favourite is the the kitchen renovation. The staff came back to a huge surprise from our PAC. A number of parents gave up to 5 days of their Christmas Break to redo our staff room. Beautiful new cupboards and counter top along with a meeting table were built and donated by Darryl Sawyer of CUBE Kitchens. Danielle Watt designed the new cupboards and along with Angela Bennett both ladies gave countless hours to get the project organized. A special thank you must also go out to Miss Betty who was around to help, open doors and be the go to person while the project was being done.

Thank you to the following families who donated time and/or money:

Houle Family, Bartoshewski Family, Dewar Family, Mirau Family, Watt Family, Dugas Family, Bennett Family, Stewart Family and Sandy Koroll. 

The following businesses also helped out with donations:

Dairy Queen, Home Hardware, A&W, Rona and Perfect Pizza Plus

Thank you BGRS for working with our parents and allowing this amazing project to happen. Without your support, this would not have been possible.

Check out the article and pictures on our news page on the website at this link. There is also a THANK YOU video on the page from our staff!

PAC / SOS meetings

We had a School Council / Fundraising Meeting on Tuesday to create a fundraising plan and to work through a number of items the group had questions about. Our chair, Colleen deVos, has unfortunately had to step down due to too many commitments and we will be holding elections at a general meeting in February. We will be having another meeting on Tuesday, January 27 at 7:00 pm to continue working on a fundraising plan for the remainder of the year. Mrs. Horrocks and Mrs. Chiesa are working hard to get refunds done for those that purchased WEM tickets. All parents are welcome to join us for our meeting on Tuesday!

The Annual Family Dance date has been set. Mark Thursday, March 5th from 6-8 pm in your calendars. The school council will send out more details shortly.

Assembly

Thank you for a wonderful performance from 1N and 3R on the theme of honesty this month. Your song contained a lot of important points.

Our Students of the Week this week are:

Picture coming soon!

Congratulations goes out to Matthew in 4F who won the weekly wrist band challenge draw. Don't forget to send your wrist bands from the LRC in with your child's name on the back to enter the draw. The draw box is located in the office.

Coming this week . . .

Skating is on again this week. Please make sure online permission forms are filled out. This time the permission forms are good for both January and February. Again, if you are able to volunteer to help tie skates or get on the ice with the students, that would be much appreciated. A special thank you goes out to the Merriott Athletic Foundation, who will be providing support out on the ice.

Our after Christmas lice check will be on Monday.

On Tuesday, we will be having the Jump Rope for Heart organizers out at 1:00 to do our kick off assembly. Watch for information packages to come home shortly after. As per all assemblies, all parents are welcome to come join us.

Indoor Soccer Intramurals are on for the grade 1s and 2s at the moment during the lunch hour on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday at lunch is an opportunity for all students to participate in the Merriott Fitness activity.

Report Cards will be handed out this Thursday, January 29. There will be a letter from the office inside the report card envelope explaining how the template works.

Friday is a PD day and NO SCHOOL for the students.

Since there is no school on Friday, there will be no Student of the Week or regular assembly this week.

Reminder about School Calendar

Our calendar is updated daily. Are you having trouble keeping up with our school calendar? Did you know that you can click the Google Plus bottom at the bottom right hand side of the calendar on our website and it will ask you if you want to add it to your own. This will integrate your home calendar with the school calendar. You can change your view options so that you can view all calendars at once or just click on the single calendar you want to view. Here is what the clickable link looks like:

The link is found at the bottom of the school calendar which can be found here.

Looks like a jam packed four days! Have a great week!