Hello Louis Riel Families  

Although the pace of learning opportunities and experiences throughout the year may feel unrelenting, we are now in what is arguably one of the busiest times of the year for schools. One of the greatest challenges about this time of the year is that most students are looking beyond the finish line that marks the end of the school year despite the amount of learning to do between now and that final school day. These final weeks are often described as intense, busy, productive, and purpose-filled by the grownups but your students may have a few different adjectives in mind. The amount of learning and the pace at which it is delivered in classrooms remains relatively constant but the presence of the end of the school year elephant in the room becomes increasingly difficult to ignore. One way to help your student stay present in their learning is to have ongoing conversations about what they’re up to in their class, their lunch breaks, or their daily bus commute. There may not be much time left in school this year but finding time to reflect on learning with your student and hearing how they are make their way through their day is an excellent opportunity to connect. Although there is no digital platform for tracking peer relationships, you can open MyCBE with them to see what has been completed and go through Google classroom to see what’s in progress.      

We now have just more than a month left to go in the year and a lot of teaching and learning to get through before the summer break begins. Between finishing curriculum, completing projects, hosting our Open House this week, our final council meeting, our final wellness day, Grade 9 Farewell, the annual Track and Field meet, Provincial Achievement Tests, preparing for transitions for next year, and drafting report cards, we can assure you that we’ll all be very busy until the end of June.    

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.

APEGA Science Olympics Results

Congratulations to Louis Riel’s nine teams who competed in this year’s science Olympics on Saturday. Science Olympians use problem solving to develop solutions to a series of challenges that demonstrate how engineering and geoscience impact our everyday lives. Challenges are related to the Alberta school curriculum, and are developed by professional engineers and geoscientists, as well as local teachers.

Our teams spent many hours preparing for this challenging event over the past few months. Every one of our teams scored highly enough to earn medal standings:

  • Division 1 (Grades 1-3): Two bronze awards
  • Division 2 (Grades 4-6): One silver and two gold awards
  • Division 3 (Grades 7-9): One bronze and three gold awards

A special thank you to our School Council for sponsoring our teams in this year’s Olympiad.

Book Drive to Support the Louis Riel Learning Commons and Library!

The Louis Riel School Council and Parent Society is hosting a book drive and sale to enhance the school’s book collection and raise funds to purchase new books for all grades, K-9. Council has been collecting book donations since early March that are gently used and school age appropriate.  

All donated books will be sold at a Loonie/Toonie Book Sale from 5:00–7:00 PM during our school’s open house on May 29 (more below). The Parent Society will match the proceeds from the sale, which will be used to restock books in our newly renovated library.

Open House/Family Night May 29

Our annual spring event is nearly here! This year we’ll have food trucks onsite, open classrooms and instructional spaces, student work on display, and presentations for new kindergarten families and new Science/GATE families. Teachers will be in their classrooms from 5:30 to 6:30 for parents and students to meet and explore in both the Science program and GATE program. Please check out our amazing CTF space, our Foods room, our Art room, and make sure to speak to our gym and music specialists.

Kindergarten will be hosting a “Things to Know Before the First Day of School” presentation at 5:45pm for our New Families in the North Gym.

New Family Welcome in the South Gym at 6:15pm. Information will be shared about bussing, options for grades 7-9, and a day in the life of a Louis Riel student. You will also be introduced to our teaching teams and School Council

Q & A session at 6:45

Long Jump Pit Safety – It's NOT a Sandbox

We hope the title to this heading is clear to our community members who have been making use of our long jump pit to engage in archeological digs. Almost every day our Phys Ed team and students spend far too much time filling in holes excavated in our long jump pit. These holes present a significant risk to our students and having to regularly fill them delays the start of athletics. Please don’t dig in the long jump pit.  

Pie Junkie Fundraiser

The LRPSC is coordinating a Pie Fundraiser through a local Calgary vendor, The Pie Junkie. Pick up will be at the School Open House on May 29. For more information and to place your orders, click through to our Council Website fundraiser page here (https://www.wearelouis.ca/piejunkie)

Louis Riel Parent and School Council(s) 

Our final scheduled Parent Society and School Council Meeting will be held on the evening of May 28 via Zoom. These meeting provide families the opportunity to learn about events, initiatives, and other school related business that the council supports to bring enhancements to learning experiences or the learning environment at Louis Riel School.    

New Fundraiser: Cobs Bread Collaboration

LRPSC is happy to announce our recent collaboration with Cobs Bread in Shawnessy (70 Shawville Blvd SE). With every purchase made at this location with the code #6169, 10% of that purchase will be donated back to Louis Riel Parent Society and School Council for the benefit of our kids. 

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

GATE Parent Association

The GATE Parent Association is comprised of parents whose children attend the Calgary Board of Education’s GATE Program. The GATE Parent Association is unique in that it represents parents and supports the GATE Program in all GATE schools, but it is independent of the Calgary Board of Education and other parent organizations within those schools. If you have a student registered in GATE for this current school year, you are a member of the GPA.

Goals of the GATE Parent Association:

  • To undertake FUNDRAISING to enhance the educational pursuits of the GATE Program.
  • To ADVOCATE for the GATE Program and the students and parents of the Program.
  • To encourage and sponsor EDUCATION for parents and professional staff.
  • To promote COMMUNICATION with the Calgary Board of Education, Alberta Learning and among parents and other stakeholders.

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.

June Dates: Grades 6 – 9: June 11 Grades 1 – 5: June 18

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

Accessing Academic and Assessment Information Online

Even though report cards are only published twice a year, families can always access achievement information through MyCBE 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 MyCBE 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:

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. Our Lost and Found has exceeded our storage capacity. Items will be available to reclaim at the open house this week. Following the open house, we will assume any unclaimed items are abandoned and they will be donated to organizations who get them to others in need.

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.  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 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 returning forms and submitting fees as well as a follow up 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

  • May 26 – Grade 9 Virtual Reality visit
  • May 27 – Grade 7 Outdoor Ed Kayaking Trip
  • May 28 – Grade 6 Provincial Achievement Test ELA
    • Grade 4/5 GATE Class to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump
  • May 29 – Grade 9 Provincial Achievement Test ELA
    • Annual Open House / New to Louis Family Night
  • June 2-5 – Grade 8 YMCA Camp Chief Hector Outdoor School
  • June 3-5 – Grade 9 Outdoor Ed Etherington Creek Trip
  • June 5&6 – Grade 7 Frank Slide Trip
  • June 5 – Grade 4-6 Cyberbullying Presentation