Principal's Message - January 19, 2024
Dear Banff Trail School Families,
Last week, our school hosted prospective Kindergarten and Grade 1 families to an Open House, who came to Banff Trail School to learn about what our school offers, as well as what French Immersion programming looks like. This is always an exciting time for these families, since for many, it is the beginning of a long and hopefully joyous journey though the school system. If you are interested in seeing the PowerPoint that I shared that evening, it can be found on our website, here.
One point that we mention yearly at this event is the importance of maintaining a strong literacy focus in the home. Literacy takes many forms, but can be seen as having skill at understanding, evaluating, using, and engaging with texts. Contemporary definitions broaden beyond written texts as well. There are many social, emotional, employment, and academic benefits to a strong literacy foundation. I recently read that a mother’s reading skill is the greatest factor to affect her children’s future academic success, outweighing other factors, like neighborhood and family income (National Institutes of Health, 2010). Though the study looked specifically at mothers, I am certain the same would be true for any parent or guardian, many of whom spend countless hours engaging in the promotion of literacy with their children. To this effect, it has also been found that children whose parents are involved with them in family literacy activities score 10 points higher on standardized reading tests (National Institute for Literacy, 2006). All this to say, please keep reading and exploring texts with your children at home, regardless of which language you use. The positive impacts are numerous, and long-lasting!
Related to this, January 21-28 is Family Literacy Week in Canada, and January 27th is marked as Family Literacy Day. I encourage you to find a few favourite books to share together, visit a local library (or plan an exploration of our amazing downtown library!), examine some articles, play a board game…anything to keep the love for reading and literacy alive in the home. Additionally, the CBE also has a K-12 Literacy Framework that guides educators in creating environments conducive to literacy learning, which you can read here.
For Your Consideration:
Clubs: A big thank you to all of our teachers, who are again excited to offer a selection of lunch-time clubs during these colder months. Signup forms were sent home today, and students are placed into clubs on a first-come, first-served basis. Each club is limited in their enrollment…so please return these forms ASAP, beginning Monday! Digital submissions will not be accepted. A copy of the forms can also be found attached to this message.
Theme Day: Our next Theme/Spirit Day will take place on the last day of the month, Wednesday, January 31st. This month’s theme will be, “Class Colours and Shapes”. For this day, classes will choose a particular colour as the theme...some classes will also include a SHAPE as a theme—triangles, rectangular prisms, etc.—to use in addition to the colour.
Residencies: Our FitSet Ninja residency begins on Monday; we are looking forward to a week of fun in our gym, as students explore this mobile obstacle course. Each class will have the opportunity to visit it twice. A big thank you to our School Council, who, through their fundraising efforts, are fully funding this opportunity.
Website New Look: In the coming weeks, all CBE school websites will be undergoing some changes; we look forward to seeing how the CBE’s new service provider modernizes Banff Trail School’s website! We have been assured that all information will remain there for your ongoing referral, and we will continue to post pertinent information for you there as well.
Upcoming Dates:
January 22-29: FitSet Ninja Residency (in our gymnasium)
January 31: Theme/Spirit Day: “Class Colours and Shapes”
January 31: School Council Meeting, 6:30pm
February 12-14: Banff Trail School’s Carnaval Event
February 15,16: No school for students (Teacher’s Convention)
February 19: School Closed (Family Day)
Have a wonderful weekend,
Ryan Turner
Principal, Banff Trail School