Hello Louis Riel Families,

Although the Bison Bulletin is intended to provide families with news about current and recent events, the scope and scale of interactions with peers, content, and teachers your student or students may experience during the course of two weeks is impossible to convey in a newsletter that is published every two weeks. Impossible may be too strong a word, but any attempt to capture all of it would be a burdensome task to write and for our families to read. Rather than share all of the observable data that can be collected about all of the interactions, learning and growth that takes place over a two-week interval we must choose select events that can be highlighted for our families. Generally speaking, highlights that are shared in our Bison Bulletin are subjective, whereas your student’s experience of attending Louis Riel is objective. Asking your student once they come home at the end of the day about their objective experience is a great way to hear them describe how they navigated their school day. Reading the Bison Bulletin provides an opportunity to cross-reference your student’s objective experience with subjective highlight data. Speaking with your student’s teachers about some of the objective data your student shares with also you allows you fact check that data and perhaps even generate your own hypotheses or identify areas in need of further research. Isn’t scientific inquiry great?

The week ahead will be a very busy one with report cards being published, Volleyball team play, our annual open house, Science Fair, Owl’s Nest Book Fair, field trips, paretnt/school council meeting on Wednesday, and another round of fun lunch. Thanks for taking the time to read the entire Bison Bulletin, or simply the bolded points in the bulletin that apply to you and your student.

Open House This Thursday January 30

We look forward to opening our doors to current and prospective families between 6:00 and 8:00 pm at our annual open house and Owl’s Nest Book Fair. Although we have two programs to showcase to current families at Louis Riel, our Science program relies on inviting new students to apply to our annual lottery. We will have classrooms and learning spaces open to current and prospective families, leadership students available to shepherd families throughout the building, student learning on display, Science Fair projects on display, student demonstrations, music being played, art to appreciate, teachers available to chat, and even a few samples of student baking to try for our current and future families.

Full Agenda

  • Doors open at 5:50
  • Welcome Assembly for all families at 6:00
  • Prospective families Orientation Assembly 6:15
  • Owl’s Nest Book Fair in the Learning Commons 6:00 - 8:00
  • Whole-school open to all families 6:15 – 8:00
  • Q & A session with Admin at 7:30
  • Closing and Farewell at 8:00

Kindergarten Notice

Due to overwhelming interest, Thursday evening is for future families only. We’ve scheduled a much less crowded opportunity for our current families to visit the classroom on Friday morning between 8am and 10am.  

Science Fair This Week!

This year has the most entries in the fair that we have seen in years and we cannot wait to see them all set up in our North Gym for display, presentation and judging! Thursday will be the final opportunity for all our Science Fair participants to get their projects ready for display and the first opportunity for all our students to see everyone’s projects together. Thursday night will also give our current and prospective families a chance to walk through the projects on display during our open house. We look forward to seeing our students’ hard work and dedication to scientific inquiry on display!

Accessing Academic and Assessment Information Online

Report cards are viewable on January 27. Even though report cards are only published twice a year, families can always access achievement information through Powerschool and are also encouraged to reach out to our teaching team to discuss how we can work together to support our students. If you are looking for current information about how or what your student is doing in class, log in to Powerschool with your student to ask them to help you understand what they’ve been working on or if they need any help to complete overdue or missing assignments.   

Helpful links to current assignments, assessments, and attendance information:

Louis Riel Parent and School Council(s) 

The January Louis Riel Parent Society and School Council meetings will be held back-to-back on Wednesday, January 29 at 6:30 p.m. The meeting is virtual and anyone is welcome to attend, we hope to see you there as we discuss various topics of interest to students and parents alike. Teacher/Learning Leader Presenter: Mr. Meuser will be sharing how our Div. 3 (Grades 6 to 9) Humanities team works together to identify areas for growth among their students and the intervention strategies needed to address those gaps.  

Being an engaged part of your student's community helps to ensure we are all informed. The agenda will be posted the week prior on the Louis Riel website and on the day of, you can access the meeting via this link.

Zoom Meeting Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7967478647

Agenda & Minutes: https://www.wearelouis.ca/agendas-and-minutes-and-budgets

Calling all GATE Parents! Request for Casino Volunteers

The GPA Casino Fundraising Event is taking place on Thursday March 6 and Friday March 7 at Pure Casino (1420 Meridian Rd NE). This is our most important fundraising event, which allows us to support the four GATE schools.

Please help us support the GATE classes by volunteering for a shift. Use the following link to sign up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A084CA5AB29A4FA7-54176840-gpacasino#/. If you have any questions, please contact us at: gatecalgary@gmail.ca.

GATE Parent Association: gatecalgary.ca

Email us: info@gatecalgary.ca

Connect with us: www.gatecalgary.ca    Facebook    Instagram

Fun Lunches

With another calendar year come more Fun Lunches to save you and your student from un-fun ones! You can log into www.HealthyHunger.ca at any time to see the upcoming schedule and order ahead and there is always a link on the Louis Riel School website. Remember, orders always need to be placed by the Wednesday prior. January and February dates are:

Grades 6 – 9:January 29 - Boston Pizza & February 12 - Edo Japan

Grades 1 – 5: February 19 - Edo Japan

Due to health and safety protocols on food storage, the school cannot accommodate storing left-over lunches for the next day if your child is absent. Left-over lunches will be donated.

Lost and Found

Our lost and found collection continues to grow, and grow, and grow. If your student is one of those kiddos who happens to leave their possessions on the playground with regularity, please consider adding tags, labels, or some other visible means of identification in or on their clothing or personal items.   

Dogs on School Property

There have been some concerns shared with the school about the number of dogs outside the school at pickup and drop off times. Although you and your family may see your dog as a part of your family, please be considerate of those who may not experience your four-legged family member the same way. We need to ask that dog owners explore other means to manage their pet that will allow all our families to feel comfortable while waiting for their children. If you cannot leave your pet at home during pickup and drop off times, please provide adequate space for those who may benefit from the added sense of personal comfort.

Field Trips, Forms, Payments and Deadlines

This is a reminder to please pay close attention to the forms that come home with your student for any upcoming field trips, field studies, or special events. We often have hard deadlines for confirming student numbers with service providers and venues that do not allow us to be flexible by accommodating last minute changes or adjustments. Teachers will always communicate the deadlines for forms to be returned and fees to be submitted as well as by following up with a reminder. If you cannot meet a deadline, we may not be able to accommodate a last-minute request to attend. When paperwork comes home, we request your prompt attention to avoid disappointment for your student.  

Louis Riel is a busy and dynamic K-9 school, and it can be challenging to keep up with everything that happens here daily. Providing families with multiple information streams and sources including our website, teacher/classroom emails, paperwork for field trips, and the Bison bulletin should cover everything that families need to know. The challenge for some families may be that the information, timelines, and deadlines for activities can be hard to track. Our school and staff do our best to notify and remind families of upcoming dates and deadlines through the Schoolmessenger app and email. Thanks for reading the bulletin.

Upcoming Dates of Importance

  • January 27 – 30 – Owls Nest Book fair
  • January 27 – Grade 9 GATE Excel Graphs Enrichment
  • January 29 – Grade 1 Confluence trip
  • January 29 – Junior High Fun Lunch
  • January 30 – Open House and Book Fair 6-8pm
  • January 31 – NID – No school
  • February 3 – Grade 3 TELUS Spark Trip
  • February 4 – Calgary Opera School Visit Elementary Classes
  • February 5-7 – Outdoor Ed Mosquito Creek Trip