JSS Newsletter

Happy New Year! We hope you had a restful Christmas break.

Just a quick reminder that student attendance has the greatest impact on student learning and success. Please help us out and ensure your child is regularly attending school. Certainly, if they are ill or have an appointment, they will be marked excusably absent. In any case, a student is responsible to complete the work he/she missed, no matter the reason for the absence (i.e. ill, appointment, trip, etc.).

True winter weather has arrived this month. Thank you for sending your child with the necessary clothing to walk to and from school, and for outside breaks.

JSS is going skating at the arena. Our pre-Kindergarten and T/Th Kindergarten classes will be skating on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, and the M/W Kindergarten and grade 1 to 5 classes will be skating on Wednesday, January 24, 2024. Please mark your calendars.

We continue to recognize students who say and do the right thing, especially when no one is looking. Each week, we randomly pick two student Jaguar Cards (submitted into the “Caught in the Matrix” Jaguar Card Bin in the school office) to enjoy a free lunch (made possible by our local eatery/restaurant supporters). Those students have their picture taken and uploaded to the electronic bulletin board in our north entrance lobby. Each Jaguar Card remains in the bin for the entire month, then we start over with an empty bin the next month. 139 JSS students received Jaguar Cards in September, 107 in October, another 224 in November and 120 in December, for a total of 590 Jaguar Cards so far. We are very proud of all our students living the school pledge each day. Stay tuned for our January totals and beyond.

Thank you to …

• All the students and staff for the amazing holiday concerts on Tuesday, December 19, 2023.

• The parents/guardians that continue to help out with our School (Parent) Council Hot Lunch program.

• Parents/Guardians who have helped supervise field trips and assist in our classrooms already this year.

All the best in 2024!

Follow us …

Website: http://jstuart.brsd.ab.ca

Twitter: @jstuartschool

Instagram: jackstuartschoolbrsd

Facebook: Jack Stuart School

by Terra Manion, President: jackstuartparentadvisory@gmail.com

Thank you to everyone that donated money, purchased poinsettias, popcorn and water from JSS Parents’ Society. Thank you to the volunteers that helped during the Christmas concerts.

We need volunteers for Wed., Jan 24 to help with the hot chocolate and cookies for each group returning from skating. This is also a hot lunch day (Subway) if anyone can help with that as well. If you are able to help text Terra at (780)975-6533.

We are still constantly applying for grants for our All Abilities Playground addition and have received $33,000 worth to date. We are also looking into getting “in kind” donations of construction/ground work, etc for the build. If you have any connections please let us know! We would like to make JSS families aware that we are still very actively working on this project.

Our next fundraiser will be Rolling Hills Coffee. Order forms will go home at the beginning of February.

Friendly reminder to all that if you shop at Save-On-Foods, please tell the cashier you would like to donate your receipt to Jack Stuart School and we will receive 5% cash back. Thank you to everyone already doing this, we regularly get between $100-$200 cash back each month!

Please join us at our next Parent Council meeting followed immediately by our Parent Society Meeting in on Wednesday, Jan. 17 at 7 pm.

Jack Stuart School Physical Education

Inter-school Basketball for Grade 4 and 5 students is attached below.

It is the responsibility of the parent or guardian to make arrangements for their son or daughter to travel to and from away games. For more information email: jnelson@brsd.ab.ca

January Art Club will run on January 16. This class will be opened to Grades 3-5. Permission forms can be picked up in the office.

The history of Family Literacy Day, held annually on January 27, was created in 1999 to celebrate adults and children reading and learning together, and to encourage Canadian families to spend at least 15 minutes a day enjoying a learning activity together.

What is family literacy? Family literacy focuses on parents as the means to improve the reading and writing skills of all family members. By reading to children and engaging in fun literacy activities, parents are actively keeping their own skills sharp, while at the same time strengthening the relationship between the family. This, in turn, encourages lifelong learning. There are many activities that help strengthen literacy skills, and all it takes is 15 minutes of practice every day.

JSS will participate in an assembly on Fri., Jan. 26 celebrating this annual reading event. Students will receive a snack and have a special time to read today. This will also be a pajama day for students & staff.

It's a new year at JSS and we are looking for any suggestions of feedback for our monthly school newsletters.

Do you have an idea for a submission? Is there a suggestion for what you would like to see included each month? Is there something that can be improved upon?

Please email Mrs. Biletski at sbiletski@brsd.ab.ca if you have any suggestions for our upcoming monthly newsletters. We welcome any/all ideas, and will consider implementing some of these new ideas into our 2024 newsletters.

Donations of both new and gently used children's books to our school are welcome.

Donations can be dropped off at any time during front office hours.

Donated books should be for children aged 4 - 12 years old.
Books should not be overly aged, dirty, damaged or missing their covers or pages, etc.

Jan. 10 - Hot Lunch - Boston Pizza

Jan. 11 - Early Dismissal @ 11:52 am/Staff Meeting

Jan. 16 - January Art Club - 3 pm

Jan. 17 - School Council/Parent Society Meeting 7 pm

Jan. 23 - Kindergarten Skating trip (KTT only)

Jan. 24 - KMW - Gr 5. Skating trips

Jan. 24 - Hot Lunch - Subway

Jan. 26 - Family Literacy Day activity/Pajama Day.

Jan. 31 - No School - Staff Collaboration Day

COMING SOON NEXT MONTH

Feb. 2 - Kindergarten Report Cards go home

Feb. 8 - Early Dismissal @ 11:52 am/Staff Meeting

Feb. 15-18 - February Break - No School

Feb. 19 - Family Day - No School

Treaty 6 Acknowledgement - We acknowledge that Battle River School Division is located on Treaty 6 territory, and we respect the histories, languages, and cultures of First Nations, Inuit and all First Peoples of Canada, whose presence continues to enrich our vibrant community.

Email: jackstuart@brsd.ab.ca
Website: https://jstuart.brsd.ab.ca
Location: 200 Mount Pleasant Drive, Camrose, AB, Canada
Phone: 780-672-0880
Facebook: facebook.com/JackStuartSchool
Twitter: @jstuartschool