August 25 BUZZ
Welcome Back to a New School Year!
I hope this message finds you well and refreshed after a wonderful summer break. As we approach the start of a brand-new school year, I want to extend a warm welcome to all our returning students, families, and staff, and an equally enthusiastic welcome to those joining our Glen Allan school community for the first time.
The start of a new school year is a time of excitement, anticipation, and the promise of new beginnings. Our dedicated teachers and staff have been hard at work preparing for a year filled with engaging learning experiences, positive relationships, and personal growth for each and every student.
At Glen Allan we are committed to providing students with a safe and caring learning environment centered on positive relationships. This year, we will continue to focus on literacy, numeracy and citizenship as outlined in our School Education Plan. Our school goals focus on building literacy and numeracy skills as well as fostering a safe and inclusive environment that models, and has high expectations for student citizenship, and conduct. We aim to engage, motivate, and inspire by focusing on individual strengths, interests, real-world activities and building partnerships with families. I am confident that with the combined efforts of our dedicated educators, supportive families, and engaged students, we will achieve great things.
As we embark on this journey together, I encourage you to actively engage in your child's education. Join us for parent-teacher conferences, school events, and other opportunities to connect with our wonderful Glen Allan community. Your partnership is invaluable in creating a thriving learning environment. Various opportunities to be involved can be found in the blog post articles below.
Please stay tuned for important updates, event announcements, and resources via our school BUZZ published weekly on our website. Our team is here to support you, answer any questions you may have, and ensure a smooth transition into the new school year.
We look forward to seeing our students and families for Meet the Teacher on Wednesday, August 30 from 5:00 - 6:00 pm. We look forward to welcoming students back for their first day of school on Thursday, August 31.
Thank you for entrusting us with the privilege of educating and nurturing your children.
It's a great year to have a great year!
Upcoming Events and Important Dates
Action
Opportunity
- We're Hiring! Noon Hour Supervisors 2023-2024
- Volunteer Opportunities
- School Council and Playground Committee
Information
WEEK AT A GLANCE - August 28 - September 1
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Upcoming Events and Important Dates
- August 30: Meet the Teacher 5:00-6:00pm
- August 31: First day of classes for Grades 1-6 Students
- September 1: Kindergarten Staggered Entry Group 1
- September 4: Labour Day (schools and Central Services closed)
- September 6: Early dismissal (2:08pm)
- September 6: Kindergarten Staggered Entry Group 2
- September 20: Kindergarten A Picture Day
- September 21: New Student Snack and Chat with Admin
- September 21: Glen Allan School Council (GASC) Meeting 6:30-8:00pm
- September 22: Grades 1-6 Picture Day
- September 22: Terry Fox School Run Day
- September 28: Parent Information Session - Saffron Cyberworld 5:30pm
- September 29: Orange Shirt Day observed at GLN
- September 30: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
- September 30: Orange Shirt Day
- October 4: Early dismissal (2:08pm)
- October 5: World Teachers’ Day
- October 6: Professional Learning Day (schools closed to students)
ACTION
Class Assignments 2023-24
As was shared last year in the May 15 and May 23 BUZZ blog posts, our teachers collaborate with the administration and counsellor to develop balanced class lists as a team which consider several factors such as academic needs, behavioural needs, friendship/social groupings, access to support staff, matching personalities between teacher/student and a balance of genders. Teachers submit a checklist with each draft class list that addresses these considerations, including ensuring at least one friend for each student. As you can imagine, creating class lists is a complicated task.
It is our goal to create balanced classes that provide an excellent educational experience for each child. We appreciate your trust in our professionalism and our desire to do right by all students while balancing the various needs of each family.
Families will receive an email from their new teacher on Tuesday, August 29 welcoming students to their class.
Meet the Teacher
The 2023-24 Meet the Teacher evening will be held the day before school starts on Wednesday, August 30 from 5:00 - 6:00 pm. All students and their families are invited to come and meet their teacher and see their classrooms at that time.
Ms. Ference, Mrs. Appleby, and Mrs. Marks, along with members of the Glen Allan School Council are excited to welcome you at the front doors and will help to direct you to the right classroom.
More information about who your child's teacher is, and our Meet the Teacher event will be included in the teacher welcome email that will be sent on Tuesday, August 29.
Agenda Order Forms - Grades 1-6
The agenda is an extremely important classroom tool in elementary school as it helps with communication between the school and home, and aids students with organization and preparation.
All students in grades 1-6 are required to have an agenda for the 2023-24 school year.
Glen Allan has agendas for families to purchase for the cost of $4.25.
We recommend these agendas for student use as they are of high quality, formatted for optimal classroom use, and students having the same agenda provides consistency in the elementary classroom. If students have attended Glen Allan in the past, the agendas are similar to what they received in previous years. If families choose not to purchase an agenda from the school, it will be the responsibility of the family to provide an agenda that has space for daily communication.
** Please note: In order for your child to receive their agenda during the first week of school, this form must be completed by the end of the day on August 30, 2023
OPPORTUNITY
Noon Hour Supervisors (We're Hiring!)
We are in need of Substitute Noon Supervisors for the 2023-2024 school year. If you are interested in being a noon supervisor on an on-call basis, please email our assistant principal, Chrissy Appleby chrissy.appleby@eips.ca. This would be a casual position, filling in for our full-time supervisors if they have appointments, illness, etc.
There will be many opportunities available to parents who are interested in volunteering, this year. Teachers will communicate many of these opportunities to you, as the year progresses, including things like field trips, classroom volunteers, etc.
If there are any parents with green thumbs, who would like to help us maintain our beautiful courtyard gardens (which have had a VERY healthy growing season, this summer), that would be greatly appreciated!
In addition, this year we are recruiting volunteers to help in our school library. If you are interested in helping out with checking books in, shelving books after they've been returned, etc. or with supporting our request for gardeners, please email our assistant principal, Chrissy Appleby chrissy.appleby@eips.ca
Save the Date - Glen Allan School Council
The Glen Allan School Council is a wonderful way to be involved in your child's school community. We invite all our parents and caregivers to be involved in our Glen Allan School Council. In addition to the wonderful work school council does each year, over the next two years council will also be working hard on the Glen Allan Playground replacement project. The first year of the project focuses on fundraising and the second year focuses on design.
We would like to welcome and encourage you to join us for our first 2023-24 Glen Allan School Council (GASC) meeting on Thursday, September 21 at 6:30 p.m. Representatives from GASC will also be at our Meet the Teacher evening to connect, provide opportunities to sign up for committees, and share a treat with students.
The link to the meetings will be in the weekly "The Buzz" the week of the meeting, as a blog post on our Glen Allan Elementary Website, and can be found with the link to the meeting agenda.
INFORMATION
Attendance
Please email General.GLN@eips.ca to let the office know of any regular reoccurring appointments, or permission notes if your child is allowed to sign out at the office to go home for lunch.
As well, in addition to communication with the teacher, please let the office know via phone or email if your child has appointments, will be leaving early, or will be away. We can be notified well in advance if you know of those dates early.
There is also an attendance button on our website that allows you to report your child’s absence with one easy click!
Student Drop-Off and Pick Up
Please remember that the north staff parking lot is strictly a drop off loop for parents. There is no parking permitted in this lot or along the center meridian between 8:15 – 8:30am. If you are planning on walking your child up towards their designated door, please park in the visitor parking across Georgian Way and use the crosswalk. Please do not park in designated staff parking. We really appreciate your cooperation for us to keep the traffic flowing and all the students safe! If you would like to see a map, please visit www.glenallanelementary.ca under the Parent Information -> Student Drop-Off Options and Visitor Parking.
Staff will be outside on supervision starting at 8:15am each morning. Please ensure that students are not arriving at school prior to 8:15am as there will be no supervision. Similar to last year, as students arrive at school, they will line up at their designated entrances. Class doors are assigned as follows: Entrance and Exit Door Map (can also be accessed on our school website).
The BUZZ Will Continue
I will continue the practice of sending out “The BUZZ” weekly to Glen Allan families as one way to connect and keep you up to date and informed. “The BUZZ” is comprised of 2 parts:
- A short school messenger notifying families that the BUZZ has been published along with essential announcements or important dates
- A blog post that includes information and details related the items outlined in the school messenger. With the exception of this first BUZZ communication, the BUZZ will be published on the first day of each school week which is most often Mondays.
If you have any questions, concerns or feedback, please contact us anytime. If you would like to reach your child’s teacher or a specific staff member directly, you can email them through PowerSchool.
Download the SchoolMessenger App
Glen Allan Elementary and the Division use the SchoolMessenger platform for communicating with families—through both phone and email. Be sure to add communications@eips.ca and general.gln@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.
Sync the School Calendar to your calendar
Did you know you can sync the school calendar to your own calendar? Simply, visit https://www.glenallanelementary.ca/about/calendar and click on the applicable subscription option:
- Download to iCal
- Add to Google Calendar
- Subscribe to Calendar
NOTE: Options are located above the calendar.
Once you click on the desired subscription option, follow the instructions. Within seconds, your calendar will contain all Glen Allan School’s important dates including holidays, school-closures days, planned activities, events and more.