Dear Banff Trail School Families,
I’m so excited to get another year started here at Banff Trail School. Amongst my absolute favourite days every year is the first day of school, as I see so many smiling faces of students and their families. It is another milestone in your child’s life to cherish, whether they are starting their K-12 journey in Kindergarten, or ascending the grades and developing into more mature, caring, intelligent citizens. Much work was put into starting the year on a positive note, and though there will certainly be ups and downs in your child’s educational experience, we will do our very best to provide for quality learning experiences in a caring environment.
I encourage you to take note on how your child’s French Language ability progresses both over the school year, and over their time at Banff Trail School. In working through the various new curricula, our Teachers are using this as an opportunity to learn more about how to provide optimal French-Language teaching and learning practices. Mme Sophie (a Teacher and Learning Leader at our school) will continue to share her expertise with students and staff about French Language Learning; she has presented at numerous conferences, and to Teachers across the CBE, on the Neuro-Linguistic Approach to language learning, and will apply these skills while working with students weekly at our school. Teacher Mme. Elizabeth, who will run a weekly Physical Education class with each class in French, will also work with Mme. Sophie in providing targeted French Literacy Support across all grades. We will also be working closely with both King George School and Varsity Acres School in calibrating assessment practices that serve to advance student French-Language learning and achievement. Overall, I feel we have very robust structures in place that will serve our students very well in their development.
I wish everyone a great school year; as always, if ever you have any questions about your child’s educational experience, I encourage you to connect with your child’s teacher. A strong school-home partnership goes a long way in setting everyone up for a positive, productive school year.
For your consideration:
Student Personal Mobile Devices: By now, you would have received some messaging from the CBE about Student Personal Mobile Devices in schools. Though this is more of a hot topic in Junior and Senior High School environments, it does occasionally surface in K-5 as well. Generally, K-9 schools have adopted the ‘Away for the Day’ policy for these devices, which include personal cell phones/tablets/laptops, gaming devices, and smartwatches. Such personal devices are not to be used during the day without teacher permission from school start to end. If you have any questions, please connect with your child’s teacher.
Student Valuables/Treasures: We ask that students do not bring any of their valuables (or items that they treasure) to school. This would include Pokemon cards, toys, stuffies, etc. Each year, we have some disappointed students who lose or break items that they value, and we simply cannot ensure that these items remain safe and in their possession during their time at school.
Allergy Awareness: At Banff Trail School, we have some students who are highly allergic/anaphylactic to certain foods, including various nuts (tree nuts, walnuts, peanuts), eggs and dairy. We ask all families to avoid sending foods with these allergens, especially the various ‘nuts’, as well as reminding your children to never share their food with others. Know that we also have the availability of an allergen-free table, where students with severe allergies and their friends can sit, as appropriate.
Parking, Pickup and Drop-off: Thank you to the vast majority of families who are abiding by the traffic signage and rules. A reminder that for the safety of all families and to maintain proper traffic flow, please avoid even momentarily stopping in the bus zone, do not park in or within 5 metres of our crosswalk, and do not leave your car unattended in the Passenger Loading Zone in front of the school (ie the Student Drop-Off stretch along Cochrane Road). Note that Passenger Loading Zones are different than Loading Zones; cars cannot be left unattended in Passenger Loading Zones, and are meant for a quick pickup or drop-off (with accompanying hugs, of course :) ).
Morning Supervision: We have Teachers on supervision beginning at 7:43 am each morning; please do not drop children off before that time, since we would not want them to be unattended! Also note that we are not able to provide supervision on the playground structure in the morning, and thus we ask students to not use it before school. Thank you!
Help from office: Our office is here to help you however they can, and is open from 7:45am to 3:15pm. We ask that when possible and except in emergency situations, please avoid contacting the office during our peak times, which are the 10 minutes before and after both school entry and exit, since those are exceptionally busy times around here; our focus during those time frames are getting students where they need to be, safely and quickly! Thank you for this consideration.
Conferences: Our first set of Learning Conferences will be on Thursday, September 26th (3pm-7pm) and Friday, September 27th (8am-1pm). This first set of conferences is intended to be time for you to share information with Teachers about your child, to help set everyone up for a successful year. More details to come about when conference bookings will open.
Wasps: You may have heard that wasp populations are very high in Calgary right now. We have already had one large nest removed from the school grounds, but we can see that wasps continue to be problematic during outside time, with stings still reported daily. We encourage you to reinforce some tips around wasps with your child, such as staying still and not swatting, and eating sweeter foods indoors, to reduce the likelihood of stings. Though we love hosting outdoor lunches, we simply cannot arrange for them at this time, due to the wasp situation.
Upcoming School Dates:
Sep 10,11: School Photo Days
Sep 26: Theme Day--Orange Shirt Day
Sep 26, 27: Learning Conferences
Sep 30: National Day of Truth & Reconciliation (School Closed)
Many other Dates of Significance for this month and beyond can be found here.