Dear Banff Trail School Families,
Next week, we will be hosting the first set of Learning Conferences for 2024-25. This serves as an important moment for students, parents and teachers to connect with each other in a personal, one-on-one way. It is often used as an opportunity to share student progress and growth based on observations, conversations and products, but it also serves as venue for parents to share about strengths, needs, learning styles, and other supports that have been successful in their child’s learning. Either party may also have some issues that they are noticing, such as things that seem to be interfering with students’ learning path or successes worth celebrating. Regardless of the information exchange that occurs during conferences, these discussions should always be a caring, welcoming space for all; we all share a common goal of providing an engaging, safe, caring, and effective learning environment for our students.
This first set of conferences differs somewhat from the conferences in November and March. For this September set of interviews, teachers are looking to gather as much information as possible about your child, to set them up for a great school year. This could include hearing about social, academic, emotional and extra-curricular aspects of their life, which help inform how to approach interactions with your child, the design of lessons and tasks, allows for the leveraging of successes from the past that have worked with your child, and proactively being aware of which areas could use extra support. Though some schools prefer to have more of an ‘open house’-style presentation for families in September, our staff continues to feel that this personalized conference time, focused explicitly on your child, is a very effective and critically-important conversation format; based on informal conversations I’ve had with parents, it seems to be appreciated by families as well.
Finally, we often have questions about whether children should attend these conferences; we would encourage you to have them present, since, ultimately, the conversation is about their learning journey, but this decision remains in your hands. Over the years, we gradually want students to take on more and more ownership of their learning, as they become more aware of their own areas for growth, passions and strengths. Though these conferences are a small component of their school experience, it can allow them to hear from trusted adults about their winding academic path, and the supports they have along the way.
For your consideration:
Virtue Leaf Draw: We continue to recognize students who show good character around our school by offering them Virtue Leaves (les feuilles de vertus). Although we cannot notice and/or personally acknowledge all of the great things that our students do here each day, we certainly do appreciate these acts, both large and small, seen and unseen, and look forward to having our Virtue Tree display grow over the course of the year. There were about 250 leaves in this latest draw; congratulations to our first two lucky draw winners of 2024-25, Eva and Felix!
Mme. Sophie Receives National Award: At Banff Trail School, we are fortunate to have a wonderful group of teachers dedicated to French Immersion programming. We were recently informed that Mme. Sophie will be receiving a very prestigious award from the Association canadienne des professionnels de l’immersion (ACPI; Canadian Association of Immersion Professionals), called le Prix d’excellence en immersion française (The French Immersion Excellence Award). ACPI gives this award annually to a Canadian who has demonstrated great passion and positive impact in French Immersion programming in Canada. Though it is in French, information about the association and award can be found here. Congratulations, Mme. Sophie, what a great accomplishment!
Terry Fox Run: Our Terry Fox Run was held on Thursday, September 19th. Thank you to the many families who generously gave to this important charity; we will announce total funds raised once we have the final tally.
Learning Circle: You may have noticed some construction happening recently south of our baseball diamond; we are very pleased to see the completion of the first phase of our new Learning Circle. Though we were limited in where the Learning Circle was able to be placed, we look forward to enhancements in that space in future phases, including the addition of some trees and bushes.
Spirit Day & Truth and Reconciliation Week: A reminder that our first Spirit Day of the year will take place on Thursday, September 26th, in recognition of Orange Shirt Day. We encourage all staff, students and families to wear orange on that day. Connected to this, next week is Truth and Reconciliation Week 2024, and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation is hosting a series of free English and French online sessions for a range of ages. For example, on September 27th, Phyllis Webstad reads her book, The Orange Shirt Day, targeted to a grade 1-12 audience. More information and a list of programming can be found here.
Upcoming Dates:
Friday, Sep 20: Conference bookings open at 4:00pm
Wed Sep 25: School Council, 6:30pm
Thurs Sep 26: Theme Day--Orange Shirt Day
Sep 26, 27: Learning Conferences
Mon Sep 30: National Day of Truth & Reconciliation (School Closed)
Mon Oct 14: School Closed, Thanksgiving.
Wed Oct 23: School Council, 6:30pm
Fri Oct 25: School Closed, Non-Instructional Day
Many other community Dates of Significance for this month and beyond can be found here.
Wishing you and your family a wonderful weekend,
Ryan Turner
Principal, Banff Trail School