Colts Connection - Parents Edition

Thank you to everyone who was able to take the time to fill out our PES parent survey. We had an amazing 140+ responses and we really appreciate this feedback. I know you are all wondering if you won a prize, so here are the prize winners:

Pangestu L - Movie Passes (2 adult 2 children)

Joseph B - Bowling for 4 (game and shoe rental included)

Melissa A - $10 Tim’s Gift Card

Elizabeth B- $10 Tim’s Gift Card

Danielle G - $10 Timber Gift Card

Britney K- $10 Timber Card

Congratulations to the winners! Thank you all again for filling out the survey. Your feedback is a valued and an important aspect of planning and developing our school.

All Grade 4 parents/guardians should have received information on accessing the Alberta Education AERR survey. So far we have only had 2 responses to this survey. Due to some delays in getting the information out to parents from Alberta Education, the survey questionnaire deadline has been extended until March 17th.

If you have not received your survey information and random access code via the mail and you are a parent/guardian of a Grade 4 student, please contact the Systems Assurance Branch and let them know you are a parent of a Grade 4 student at Ponoka Elementary and you have not received your code/access information.

email: edc.systemassurance@gov.ab.ca

Our School Resource Officer, Cst. Wells, will be doing a couple of presentations on vaping and its impact on students to our Grade 5 and 6 classes. His presentation was developed with Alberta Health Services and the Wolf Creek Public Schools District Social Worker. The decision to move forward with the presentation is in response to an increase of vapes and vaping occurring at the school over the past few months. The presentations are to help students understand the health implications of vaping and give them the knowledge to make the right decisions if/when they come across a situation where they are asked, encouraged, or exposed to vaping.

We wrapped up our floor hockey intramurals before the February break and had over 70 students participating! The “season” wrapped up with the Grade 4 and Grade 5/6 champions being crowned to which the winners then took on a teacher team. Fortunately, the teachers won in a very spirited affair! 3 vs 3 Basketball is next up for our intramural sport.

March 6 -9.

Each class will have a viewing period either Monday or Tuesday as well as a purchasing period on either Wednesday or Thursday. The book fair will also be open for families during interviews on March 9th (and March 8th for Kindergarten interviews).

There is a "Virtual Book Fair" where families can make purchases throughout the dates of our Fair. Click on the link below to access the Virtual Book Fair.

March Book Madness is happening again this year. Mrs. Doucette and Miss Harvey have been hard at work getting everything organized. March Book Madness is where each class listens to different books read by PES “celebrities”. The students vote on their favourite book in a head to head match up. The book that receives the most vote moves on to the next round until ultimately one book is crowned the March Book Madness Champion.

Our Spring Concert is happening on March 23rd at 1:00 pm. We are looking forward to having everyone in the building and I know Mrs. Sherwin and Mrs. Stevenson have been working hard at getting the students prepared to put on a great show!

Parent Teacher Interviews are Thursday March 9th (March 8th and 9th for Kindergarten). A reminder that an updated Growth as a Learner progress as well as up to date marks for all students are in Parent Portal. All parents/guardians are encouraged to check out their child’s progress in Parent Portal prior to attending Parent Teacher Interviews. Our Grade 6s will be selling chili again to help raise funds to reduce the cost of Grade 6 camp.

A friendly reminder that the Calendar page (click here to get to it directly) on our school website is up to date with events and important dates like hot lunches, after school sports, field trips, etc.

The next School Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 20th, at 6:30 pm at the school. All parents/guardians are welcome to attend.

Keep your eyes peeled for School Council's Spring Bobtail Nursery Fundraiser. Information will be sent out early next week.

March 1 - Subway Lunch

March 2 - Grade 5 Skiing

March 3 - Grade 6 Skiing

March 6-9 - Book Fair

March 9 - Cosmic Pizza Lunch orders due

March 9 - Parent Teacher Interviews

March 10 - PD Day No School for Students

March 14 - Grade 6 Basketball Tournament (after school)

March 17 - St Patrick's Day - Wear Green

March 24 - No School for Students (Professional Development Day)

March 24-April 2 - Spring Break - No School