News and Notes

Dear GLA Families,

It’s hard to believe that we are already into the month of October! September brought about many highlights while students settled into their new classes.

We kicked off the year with an incredible All-Star Assembly with NBA Half-Time Entertainer, Q-Mack, and students are now “getting caught” demonstrating ALLSTAR qualities and behaviours, receiving Golden Tickets here and there! Tickets are stored at the office for random draws for prizes. The ultimate prize at the end of October is an NBA Basketball signed by QMack himself!

Here’s a ticket example:

 

Our Meet the Staff night was incredibly well attended, and it was nice to begin engaging with families right away. The Book Fair proceeds will support classrooms with new high interest books, flexible seating options, and additional library books. Thank you Ms. Wong for organizing the Book Fair – there will be another one in the spring. We also hope you got a chance to see the beautiful Lego Wall that our School Council brought to our Learning Commons – it’s been well used so far!

Safety Awareness Month: “Prepared Together, Safe Together”

This initiative helps us gently practice important safety procedures, including fire evacuation, lockdown, hold and secure, shelter in place, and bomb threat response. We understand that drills may bring up different feelings or memories for some students, especially those with past experiences of conflict or emergencies. Our staff will approach each practice with care and reassurance. You may hear your child talking about drills or safety activities. Please encourage open conversations and let them know it’s okay to have feelings or questions about these practices. Together, we can support students in feeling safe, prepared, and cared for at school. We’ve already conducted two very successful fire drills!

Bus Safety presentations will also take place this week.

Terry Fox Run

On Friday September 26th, our students did an amazing job by showing their support for Terry Fox. Students ran/walked around our school playground and field COUNTLESS times. Thank you to everyone who donated for such a great cause! Our goal was $1000, and together we raised over $1200 for the Terry Fox Foundation! Thank you to Mr. Forman for organizing this amazing event!

Orange Shirt Day and National Day for Truth & Reconciliation

At GLA, we are committed to upholding the truth. This learning is not reserved to a day or a week, but rather it will be business as usual as we move together, learn together, and respect and take care of one another.

 

Each morning, students read a Land Acknowledgment on the announcements. We are excited about classes having discussions about the importance of acknowledging the land, and many classes have begun the process of writing their own. Here is one written by students in Ms. Wardle’s class:

Sports Update

Congratulations to our Senior Girls and Boys 3-Pitch teams for demonstrating excellence in both athleticism and sportsmanship. Both teams played strong and took the lead in several games during their tournaments!

Our swim team is in full lengths! We look forward to their swim meet – dates TBD.

Our cross country competitors are all set for their meet on Thursday at Christie Conservation and we look forward to hearing about all their great efforts!

Sr Girls Volleyball is spiking up, and games will be announced in the coming days.

Personal Devices Reminder

Students must not use their personal electronic devices (e.g., cell phones, laptops and tablets) during the instructional day, unless directed to do so by an educator. All students have their devices stored out of view and powered off (or on silent mode) throughout the full instructional day (school day), including nutrition breaks unless permitted by the educator. Students are responsible for their personal mobile devices and how they use them. If an educator sees a personal mobile device not stored out of view and powered off, the student must hand it in for the instructional day. It will be placed by the student in a storage area in a location designated by the educator. For more information, please see: Personal Device Use

Responding to acts of Bias, Prejudice, or Hate

At GLA, we hold people accountable for the language they use. Everyone has the right to safe and inclusive spaces that are free from discrimination and harassment motivated by bias, prejudice and hate. It is our collective responsibility and obligation to interrupt, address and support when acts of bias, hate or prejudice occur. Behaviours or actions in school that intentionally or unintentionally harm others based on the person’s ancestry, national or ethnic origin, race, language, colour, religion, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression must be addressed. Below is a graphic that we use to address these issues.

Many students have been spending time engaging in important lessons around understanding their Human Rights, understanding how to uphold the Human Rights of others, and on co-creating classroom agreements about how to treat each other and take care of the environment.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Fundraising

We are excited about our Pumpkin Patch Fundraiser, and we are well on our way to selling 200 pumpkins! Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to support the school while bringing home a pumpkin (or two or three).

Fun fact: One of Mrs. Dunford’s FAVOURITE snacks is roasted pumpkin seeds. If you have a roasted seed recipe, she would be more than happy to be an official taste-tester!

Community Partnership

We’ve ordered new signs that will be posted in a variety of entries to our playground, parking lot, and front of school. These signs will remind the community that there is no smoking within 20 metres of school property. Dogs are not permitted on school property during the school day (including drop off and pick up). Finally, the public is not permitted to cross the playground during the school day (they can use the far park entrances and exits instead). Together, we will keep our students safe.

We also need to remind parents/caregivers to refrain from walking children to their classrooms in the morning if they come in late for school. Safe Schools Policy requires these stipulations. Please go directly to the office to sign in, and someone will walk our youngest students to their classrooms.

School Council

We look forward to our next School Council Meeting on October 21st 6pm-7pm in the Learning Commons. All are welcome!

We look forward to a beautiful month of October!

In partnership,

K. Dunford

Principal