Hello Louis Riel Families,  

Perhaps this bulletin should open with an acknowledgement of the arrival of winter? There are four astronomical seasons on Earth, defined by the movement of the sun in the sky. For the northern hemisphere, winter officially starts at the moment when the sun is farthest south. Although this event, known as the winter solstice, isn’t until December 21st at 9:03 am, the amount of snow accumulated on the ground and the drop in temperature are clear indications that winter weather has arrived ahead of solstice. We are fortunate to find ourselves living in a place where we experience four distinct seasons. Although some may not identify with the element of Canadian identity that lays claim to being resilient inhabitants of the true north, please take a moment to assess your student’s choice of layering to get to and from school in relative comfort and safety. It is possible that some students arriving in the morning and leaving at the end of the day have some impressively resilient northern blood running in their veins, but it could also just be the teenage brain choosing form over function.  

The changing of the seasons not only indicates the passing of time, but it also reminds us to note the growth we experience and knowledge we acquire as we change along with the seasons. Our students were undoubtedly excited to return to school in the late summer a few weeks before the autumnal equinox. Consider the changes and growth of your student as you think back to the first day of school this year. As we approach student conferences, reflect on the time your student has spent learning, growing, and changing during the first months of school at Louis Riel. How have they shared their experiences, victories, challenges, and opportunities with you, and what have you noticed in them? Our staff are looking forward to conferencing with our families this week to build a shared understanding of your student’s academic progress so far this year. Please read on for more details about the upcoming conferences in the bulletin below.

Thank you for taking the time to read either the entire Bison Bulletin or simply the bolded points in the bulletin that apply to you and your student; we hope the revised format of the Bison bulletin will help you keep you in the loop on all things Louis Riel.  

Parent-Teacher Conferences Nov. 28 and 29  

School Conferences are this week! Thursday evening will be hosted in person and Friday morning will be online to allow greater access to families unable to attend in person during the day.  

Although there are several ways parents can access information about academic progress, classroom programming, attendance, and school events, these dates provide families with the opportunity to take up conversations about how to work together with their teachers to support positive outcomes for their student.  

The school conferences booking app is now open. Access by logging in to myCBE 

Before your school conference, please take some time to prepare in advance to make the most of your time with the teaching staff.  

Fun Lunch Dates 

https://healthyhunger.ca/  

Wednesday Nov 27 – Junior High 

Standards of Dress at Louis Riel School 

Our community standards of dress: 

  • School appropriateness of dress excludes displaying any messages or images that are racist, discriminatory, encourage hate, profane, or support the use of drugs or alcohol. 
  • Students will learn and understand of how to dress for everyone’s comfort after taking into consideration the CBE value of protecting a welcoming, safe, and caring learning environment for everyone.   
  • Students should plan to dress for the learning activities they engage in throughout the day. This means that some clothing choices may be unfit or unsafe for certain activities in certain classes, but they should not present a barrier to participation. Students should bring a change of attire more appropriate for the activity.   

The intended outcome of this standard is to support all members of our community by maintaining the expectation to demonstrate welcoming, caring, respectful and safe behaviours throughout the school day. As members of this learning community, we recognize there may arise an occasional need to discuss how to maintain choice of dress as an expression of self while still preserving a safe, welcoming, and respectful learning environment for everyone. If required, we will discretely remind an individual of our community standards of dress and ask them to make a more thoughtful choice of clothes. We appreciate your partnership to reinforce our commitment to maintaining a respectful and conducive atmosphere for all students at Louis Riel. 

Parking and Dropoff Zones

Please do not park in front of the school to drop your child in the mornings. This area is a designated bus zone and parking there causes significant challenges for our drivers to safely navigate around parked vehicles. Drop your student to the South of the school or past the second crosswalk to the north. If you park across the street please ensure your student crosses at the crosswalk. We continue to see families make the unsafe choice to jaywalk. A short walk for your student will allow them to arrive safely at a school entrance without disrupting bus traffic or compromising road safety for anyone.

Please do not use staff parking lots as dropoff or pickup locations. These areas are unsafe due to heavy foot traffic at the entry/exit and in the parking lots.   

AMA Crossing Guards

Our volunteer team is at the crosswalk every morning and again at dismissal to ensure students can safely cross the road. We ask that our students please follow instructions at the crosswalk, dismount their bicycle, and proceed to cross only after they’ve been directed to do so by the crossing guards.  

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 Parent and School Council(s)   

Being an engaged part of your student's community helps to ensure we are all informed. Council will meet online Wednesday, November 27th evening. Please log in to the link below to listen in and learn more about how we work with our council to improve the learner experience at Louis Riel school.  

We use Zoom for our meetings Click here to join the meeting: Zoom Meeting ID 7967478647 

Agenda & Minutes: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15qHCKJoJJtY39K_Nh4xUpuFc0vwddRTY

To learn more, please visit our website to see what’s new:  https://www.wearelouis.ca or follow us on Instagram at wearelouisyyc 

Louis Riel’s Growing Smiles Winter Plant Fundraiser has officially launched! 

Explore our festive collection of arrangements and poinsettias: https://louisrielschool.growingsmilesfundraising.com/home 

By purchasing a plant, you will be helping to support our students. The order deadline is November 27, 2024. 

Pick-up has to be in person and will take place at the school on December 12, 2024. We appreciate your support!  

The Purdy's Holiday Chocolate Fundraiser is on now! Place your order to help the Louis Riel Parent Society's efforts to support our students. 

Submit your orders online by November 27, 2024. Please use your name, not your child's, to avoid confusion. 

Orders will be available for pick-up on December 12, 2024.  

https://fundraising.purdys.com/4393-119888  

GPA Parent Association 

Upcoming Parent Session: Executive Functioning: Strength, Struggles and Supports 

GPA Vice President Jodi Staples will discuss Executive Functioning and its role in academic and emotional development. This session will explore the role of Executive Functioning in relation to gifted learners, common struggles experienced by gifted learners, and how families can provide students with strategies and support. Non-GATE parents are welcome to attend.  
Date: Monday December 2, 2024 
Time: 7:00 pm 
Venue: Virtual meeting (Zoom) 
Register here by November 29 

General Meeting 

Immediately following the presentation, we will hold a short GATE Parent Association General Meeting. If you have a student registered in the GATE program for this current school year, you are a member of the GPA.  

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.     

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. Dates of importance can be found below: 

Upcoming Dates of Importance 

  • Nov. 25 – Grade 4 (Ms. Rook) Teacher's Pet 
  • Nov. 27 - Grade 4 (Ms. Campbell) Teacher's Pet  
  • Nov. 27 – Fun Lunch (Jr. High Classes) https://healthyhunger.ca/ 
  • Nov. 28 – Parent-Teacher Conferences 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm IN PERSON 
  • Nov. 29 – Parent-Teacher Conferences 8:00 am to 1:00 pm ONLINE 
  • Nov. 29 – NO SCHOOL