Important Dates 

December 1 – 7 – Rocks and Rings in PE 

December 14 – Winter Concert (1:30 – all are welcome & 6:30 – immediate family) 

December 18 – 22 - Carols in the gym each morning; 8:30-8:45 

December 18 – 22 – Spirit Week (see schedule below) 

December 18 – Community Day 

 

 

Dear Belfast Families, 

We are officially in one of the busiest months of the school year! There is always a lot of learning taking place in December as we near the end of the first semester of the school year, but there is also a lot of fun! We know this month is very busy for families as well, so we wanted to give you a lot of notice about some school events coming up. Please be sure to mark your calendars!  

We encourage all our families to follow our school’s Instagram account (@BelfastSchoolcbe) and visit our school website to see pictures from the week.   

 

Staffing Updates 

We are pleased to share that we have hired a new Education Assistant and she will begin on Monday. The best part? The students already know her! Laudy Elhajjahmad has been working at Belfast as a lunchroom supervisor this year, and also happens to be a certified EA. Laudy will continue to do lunchroom, but will also be working with students as an EA. We are so lucky to have Laudy join us in this new capacity.   

 

Next Fun Lunch: Mucho Burrito on December 13 

You can order your child’s next Fun Lunch by visiting the Healthy Hunger website here. For the last Fun Lunch we had 75 families order, which was great!  Did you know that the Parent Fundraising Society receives a a percentage back of money spent from Healthy Hunger? Thank you to Alisha, our Fun Lunch coordinator, for organizing these special lunches each month. If your family would like to participate, but finances are a concern, please contact Clancy at cleevans@cbe.ab.ca or call the school.  

 

Spirit Days Coming in December! 

Mrs. Lundgren’s Grade 5/6 Leadership Club have come up with some awesome Spirit Days for December. Leadership students will be going to each class to explain the days, will create advertisements, and will do announcements, but we also wanted to give families a head’s up about what is coming so there is time to prepare:  

 

Monday, December 18 – Ugly sweater day/red and green day 

Tuesday, December 19 – “Anything but a Backpack” day (basically, this day means no backpacks allowed! How will your kids transport their items to school? A bucket? A doll stroller? A rolling suitcase? Be creative! The only rules...no theft (for example, no shopping carts from stores) and no animals (sorry – can't strap your lunch kit to the family dog) 

Wednesday, December 20 – Staff dress as students; students dress as staff (basically, kids dress as grown-ups in general and grown-ups dress as kids. You aren’t dressing up as a specific adult...) 

Thursday, December 21 – Teacher switch day. That morning, we are all in an assembly and teachers will draw names to see which class they will be teaching. Will Ms. Posadas teach kinder? Will Ms. Evans be teaching Grade 6? Will Mr. U be the principal? Who knows! All we know is that our teachers (and admin) will all be switching places for the morning. This day is also festive hat/hair/headband day. Kindergarten students will also have pajama day today since they don’t attend on Fridays. 

Friday, December 22 – Pajama and small stuffie day  

 

We are a Blue Jays Care Foundation School! 

Through our partnership with Ever Active Schools, we are now a Blue Jays Care affiliate school. What does this mean? We will be receiving a FREE, award-winning 8 week baseball and softball club program. The Jays Care Foundation provides all equipment to our school, and some Toronto Blue Jays gear for any students involved in the club. If you want to learn more about this amazing program, check out the website here  

 

Thirty Second Parent Survey 

We would love to know what you think! By clicking here, you can quickly tell us if you feel that you know how your child is doing academically throughout the year. We also want to know HOW you know that! We promise this survey is so fast!  

 

School Development Plan & School Improvement Results Report 

As we shared at our School Council meeting this week, our school’s focus this year is on assessment. We are working towards improving assessment in ELAL, math, and physical education. Our goals are: 

·        Clear learning goals and success criteria 

·        Actionable feedback from the teacher to help determine next steps 

·        Students actively involved in the assessment process (students as co-creators; student self-assessment and peer-assessment) 

·        Ongoing communication with students and families emphasizing how well the student has demonstrated specific knowledge, skills, and/or processes  

You can read our SDP and look at the School Council presentation on our school website here  

 

School Fees are now Posted 

If your child stays for lunch, the lunchroom supervision fee is a mandatory fee and is posted to your myCBE account in the late fall each year. Please note the central fees for 2023-2024 Student Supplies fee and Lunchroom Supervision are now posted on your mycbe account. Fees are to be paid online through your mycbe account and partial payments can be made throughout the school year.   

  

The following links are to CBE’s pages to further explain Lunchroom Supervision & central fee waivers.  If you need further guidance regarding the central fee waiver process please contact Kari Forrest in the office 

 

Multi-faith Dates 

December 7 at nightfall– The Jewish festival of Hanukkah begins 

December 8 – The Buddhist holiday, Bodhi Day 

 

Reminder: Dental Care for your Children 

Belfast School is on the waitlist for next year to have the AHS dental health bus come out to our school to support student dental needs.  If your family  is struggling to provide dental support for your child(ren), you can call the dental bus program directly at 403-615-9052 and they can connect you to the community outreach location that is available so you can access services at any time.  Thank you to the Belfast parent who recommended this service for other families! 

 

Reminder: Digital Decodable Library – Worth a Visit!  

The CBE has created a digital library of decodable reading materials for teachers and families. This is an amazing site for beginning readers to access reading materials at home and at school.  The site will continue to be updated on a regular basis.  You can find these resources here 

 

Reminder:  The Giving Tree – Belfast Families Helping Belfast Families  

Each year, the Belfast School community supports some of our families at Christmas.   We are currently accepting gift cards in the office (please attach a receipt that has the activation information on it) for any store in any denomination.  On December 15, we will distribute the gift cards to families.   

If you would like your family to be considered for the Giving Tree, or would like to bring forward another family to receive the Giving Tree gift cards, please contact the school office.   All family information will be kept confidential.   

 

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out if you have anything you would like to share.   

 

Have a wonderful weekend, 

Meagan Lundgren 

Principal 

Belfast School