Oct 2 - 6, 2023

Weekly Gazette Oct 2-6

We had a fabulous end to the month of September with our Grizzlies. It was wonderful to see all the Orange Shirts in our building on Friday.

This week is Read-In Week are we have many fabulous activities planned throughout the week to encourage and celebrate literacy with our students.

Please note that Friday, October 6th is a Professional Development Day for staff and as such there is no school for students.

Please follow this link to watch our announcements: le 2 oct

What's happening this week at École Parc:

Sep 30-National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Oct 2-5: Read in Week

Oct 4-Early Dismissal

Oct 4-Dress up like a character in a book

Oct 5-Monthly Assembly 10:30 am-11:00 am

Oct 5-World Teachers' Day

Oct 6-Professional Learning Day: No school for students

Upcoming Dates to be aware of:

Oct 9-Thanks Giving Day: No school for students

Oct 11-School Council and Fundraising Meeting 7:00

Oct 19-Fire Drill

Oct 18-Picture Retakes

Oct 31-Halloween

School fee information for the 2023-24 school year will be posted on the PowerSchool Parent Portal in late September. All fees are due within 30 days of being posted. To access your fee information, simply log in to the PowerSchool Parent Portal and go to “Student Fees.” There you can view your fees and pay online using a credit card.

Don’t forget to log in to the PowerSchool Parent Portal regularly throughout the year. Fees are often added to your child’s account to cover the cost of certain school activities such as field trips, class projects, athletic-team fees and more. Additionally, junior high and senior high fees can change as courses are added and deleted.

If you’re unable to pay your school fees, you can apply to have certain fees waived by submitting an Application for a Waiver of Fees. The application deadline is Dec. 15, 2023.

For more information about school fees, waivers and payment deadlines visit eips.ca. Alternatively, contact Sherri Prince, Business Manager at Ecole Parc at 780-998-3741.

To view your student's photos please log in to www.mylifetouch.ca and use your student's ALBERTA STUDENT NUMBER as the password(this is the password your child uses to log in at school). If you do not know the ASN, it is listed in Powerschool when you click on Student Fees.

If your student is absent, being picked up early or will be arriving late, we ask that you please email our attendance email at EPEAttendance@eips.ca or call the school at 780-998-3741. Please send any DQ permissions to this email as well.

If your child requires any medication, please go online to ecoleparc.ca to access the form. Please do not send medication with your child. Please let us know if your child has any medical alert so that we may have the appropriate forms filled out.

Read-In week is October 2-5!

In addition to the guest readers who are coming in to read with our students we have many reading activities planned for the week. Students will be reading with other students; dropping everything and reading; 'reimagining' (the theme for this year) book covers and endings; and creating their own bookmarks. In addition to this, the spirit day in October is dress like a book character. These can be very simple (think red ribbon in your hair and carry around a book and you are Matilda) so hopefully we'll see lots of book characters around the school!

Meet your School Counselor!

October 5 is World Teachers’ Day! Launched in 1994 by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Teachers’ Day is celebrated annually around the world as a way to recognize teachers and the integral role they play in providing quality education to students. On October 5, Elk Island Public Schools (EIPS) encourages all of its students, parents, caregivers and community members to show their appreciation for their teachers and the positive impact they make on our lives.

EIPS extends its heartfelt thank you to all Division teachers for their dedication, hard work and commitment in guiding and educating students through their kindergarten to Grade 12 years.

The PowerSchool Parent Portal is an interactive web-based platform where parents and guardians can access attendance, grades and fee information for all students registered in the Division, as well as provide updates to family contact information as needed. One account provides access to the information about all students in your family, and the account remains active for as long as you have students registered in EIPS—there’s no need to create a new account each year. All new EIPS students are automatically connected to the applicable parent or guardian account.

For new EIPS families:

1. Go to https://powerschool.eips.ca/public.

2. In the ‘Username’ field, input the email address you provided on your child’s registration form.

3. Select ‘Forgot Password.’ You’ll receive an email with a link to create a new password.

4. Return to the main PowerSchool Parent Portal page and log in with your email address and new password.

Ecole Parc and the Division use the SchoolMessenger platform for communicating with families—through both phone and email. Be sure to add communications@eips.ca to your safe sender list to avoid having important messages funneled into your junk mail folder.

You can directly manage your phone and email subscription preferences through SchoolMessenger. Simply log in to your account—or create one if you don’t already have one—and select the message types you’d like to receive to each phone number and email address on file.

The easiest way to stay connected is to download the SchoolMessenger app. Get the latest updates direct to your mobile device and enable push notifications to never miss a message. Families can also check back on past messages—for up to 30 days—directly in the app rather than searching to find an old message buried in your inbox. Download the SchoolMessenger app from the App Store or Google Play today.

EIPS uses the online Permission Click platform for many school and Division forms. The system makes the form submission process for families simple and straightforward. Forms are also easily accessible and fillable from your mobile device. Families will generally receive forms in one of two ways—sent as a link within a SchoolMessenger email or in a direct email from Permission Click sent to the first parent or guardian on record in PowerSchool. Be sure to add notifications@permissionclick.com to your safe sender list to ensure required forms aren’t mistakenly directed to your junk mail folder.

The health and safety of staff, students and visitors is a top priority. Continue to reinforce the following hygiene habits to protect staff and students from spreading respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19.

• Stay home if you’re feeling sick.
• Wash or sanitize your hands often.
• Cover your coughs and sneezes.
• Avoid touching your face.
• Clean and disinfect high touch surfaces regularly.
• Wear a mask if you get sick or develop symptoms while at school or work.

As per Alberta Health guidelines, staff, students, contractors and visitors who have symptoms of respiratory Illness or test positive for COVID, should stay home until:

• symptoms have improved,
• they feel well enough to resume normal activities, and
• they have been fever-free for 24 hours without using fever-reducing medications.

For anyone who has a respiratory illness or has tested positive for COVID, it is recommended that they wear a mask for a total of 10 days from the onset of symptoms—even if the symptoms have resolved or improved—when in indoor settings with other individuals.

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Event Details:

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Time: 10:30 a.m. to 11:15 p.m.

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Schools throughout Elk Island Public Schools (EIPS) are celebrating School Bus Safety Week October 15-21. The theme: ‘Stand Back From Yellow and Black,’ which focuses on proper school bus safety behaviour.

As part of School Bus Safety Week, Ecole Parc reminds students and families all Division school buses are equipped with a Tyler Drive tablet, bus-pass scanner, GPS technology, the Child Check-Mate system and surveillance equipment, which allows Student Transportation to better monitor and manage its more than 175 buses . Families and students also have access to the Traversa Ride 360 app , a mobile tool to help determine the location of a bus, projected arrival times and when a child is scanned onto a bus.

For more information, visit EIPS Student Transportation or contact 780-417-8151.

Alberta Health Services hosts a variety of virtual caregiver information sessions throughout the year focused on ways to support students’ mental health. The sessions are free and geared toward parents, caregivers, teachers and community members who want to learn more about challenges impacting children and adolescents. Session topics include anxiety, ADHD, depression, self-harm, technology, teens and teaching leadership skills, communication, resiliency and more. Visit Caregiver Education to see the monthly caregiver sessions.

As part of Elk Island Public Schools’ (EIPS) ongoing efforts to enhance the literacy and numeracy of students in all grade levels, the Division is once again administering the Star Early Literacy, Star Reading and Star Math assessment tools in the 2023-24 school year. These tools focus on literacy and numeracy, are digitally based and offer an opportunity for students to demonstrate their learning. The goal: To provide timely information to teachers, help enhance classroom instruction and identify student learning needs.

Three times a year, EIPS students in Grade 1 complete the Star Early Literacy assessment and students in grades 2-12 complete the Star Reading assessment. Both assessments are administered electronically and take about 20 minutes. Students in grades 2 through 10 also complete the Star Math, a mathematic screening tool. It, too, is administered electronically and takes about 30 minutes for students to complete. The results offer teachers a clearer picture of a student’s learning needs and help determine if subsequent instructional planning is required. NOTE: Semester students complete the Star Math twice, at the start and end of the course.

In addition to the Star assessments, Alberta Education now mandates all students in grades 1-3 complete additional literacy and numeracy assessments. Students in Grade 2 and Grade 3 complete these provincial assessments in September. Grade 1 students will complete the assessments in January 2023.

The scores of the assessments aren’t used toward a student’s grade, and there is no need to study ahead of time. The tools simply provide the teacher with information to better understand where each student is in terms of reading comprehension and mathematic ability. If, after analyzing the results, it’s determined a student can benefit from extra support, the teacher will contact the family to discuss possible support strategies.

For more information about the Division’s Star and MIPI assessment tools, contact EIPS Supports for Students at 780-464-3477.

Hello EPE families,

I would like to introduce myself as the new chair for both the school council and fundraising society. My name is Amanda. I have been acting as vice chair for the past 4 years. My family and I have been Grizzlies since our eldest was in kindergarten (he is now in grade 5!)

We held our annual AGM last Wednesday and have an amazing new executive board joining me for this school year. I would like to welcome, Michelle Poitras as our new vice chair, and Danielle Rusk as our new secretary. Jasmyne Garbe will resume her position as treasurer, while Rebecca Milburn will join us as our hot lunch coordinator.

I would also like to extend immense gratitude to our outgoing executive members and coordinator Jennifer Dechaine (Chair), Amy Archibald (secretary), and Leanna Bechtel (hot lunch coordinator).

For those who are not aware, the role of our school council and fundraising society is to support the exceptional team and students who make EPE so special. This is done with many initiatives like purchasing supplemental learning and recreational materials for students and staff and supporting cultural experiences like Carnivale. We strive to be both community and environmentally minded and are always looking for suggestions and volunteers to help us keep improving. We’ll be busy planning for this year in the next few weeks so stay tuned to the gazette for details of what we are doing.

Meetings are open to all EPE families not just the executive so please come and join us at our next meeting on October 11, 2023 @7pm.

Hope to see you there!

Amanda Shand

During the 2022/23 school year staff identified that the playground structures were not meeting the needs of all the students, both in type of structure, and space available for students to play. When the playground structure was first built in 2013 there were 180 students in the school. We now have 326. The population has doubled and we have a larger group of students in the PALS and Division 1 (K-3) age group. The existing play structure is designed for ages 5-12. We need an additional play area that meets the needs of students aged 4-8. The goal is to have the project completed within 3 years.

We are excited to hit the ground running with this and officially kick things off this year. We are always looking for more volunteers to join the committee. We meet once a month, time commitment is flexible and there is always lots to do and input needed.

If you are interested in joining the committee or would like more information please feel free to email us at ecoleparcplaygroundexpansion@gmail.com.