Hello Louis Families

Since our first Bison Bulletin of the year two weeks ago there has been a lot of learning momentum built in our classrooms. Students have settled into their classroom routines and staff have gotten down to the business of teaching and learning alongside their students. Because we know variability in human development is the norm (not the exception) and that the pace and profile of each child’s development is unique, we invest the first few weeks in school learning about our students rather than jumping into teaching them based on assumptions about how much they learned of what they were exposed to last year. Curriculum is the official set of content, knowledge, understandings, and skills that Alberta Education defines for students in Kindergarten to Grade 12 across all subjects. You may have heard from your student that they’ve been asked to read, write, complete assessments of “stuff we did last year” and they may even report that they haven’t learned much new stuff yet. The first few weeks are our time to complete diagnostic assessments of where each student’s learning is at the beginning of this school year in relation to the end of the last, so all our staff know where to start teaching. The diagnostic testing and assessing we do with our students at the beginning of the year help our teachers understand where they are in relation to learning outcomes established in the curriculum and it sets the start line for our learning together.

Now that our initial diagnostic assessments are nearing completion, we will be working in grade teams and across subjects to map out learning progressions, pathways to skill development and deeper understanding of content as our teachers guide your students through Alberta curriculum. We are all looking forward to the teaching and learning in the months that lie ahead.

Please read through the remainder of the Bison for upcoming events, highlights, reminders, news from our councils and more!

Orange Shirt Day | Friday September 26

Here at CBE, we align our observation of Orange Shirt Day on Friday, September 26 with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation by identifying Sept. 23 to 27 as CBE Truth and Reconciliation Week.  While we plan activities during Truth and Reconciliation Week, staff, students and their families are encouraged to continue their education and show their support on Sept. 30 through the Orange Shirt Day event​ - a collaboration between the City of Calgary, CBE, Calgary Catholic School District, Calgary Police Service and Calgary Fire Department -  or by attending one of the many community events​ that are meaningful to you.  

Meet The Teacher Night

Our annual evening to meet your students’ teachers followed a different format this year based on feedback from our community and our teachers. The event was held earlier to establish connections with our families earlier and to open collaboration by establishing lines of communication between the school, the classroom, and home. Staff feedback around the event, the quality of conversations, and the opportunities to share who they are and how they do what they do was very positive. Thank you to all of those who were able to attend.

Terry Fox Day

The entire herd of Bisons ran for a cure on Friday morning during our annual Terry Fox Run. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and time outside together to bring awareness to such an important cause. Our students have been donating and collecting “Two-nies for Terry” over the past weeks and we will continue to do so next week before we conduct our final tally. Thank you for your donations and if you would still like to donate to cancer research please send your donation with your student next week.

Athletics Updates

Our Cross Country Teams have already been stretching their legs and counting the kilometers as they train and compete this season. Our coaches (and competition) have seen some very impressive results from our running Bisons at the races so far. Keep on running!

Basketball Season is On!

Our tryouts are complete, and all our teams are now looking forward to a season of hoops thanks to the positive community response to our appeal for coaches. We sincerely appreciate the generosity of those parents who are willing and able to volunteer their time to lend a hand with athletics, field trips, school initiatives, classroom support, extracurricular activities, and on our councils.

Speaking of Councils…

LRPAC: https://www.wearelouis.ca/

Our council provides a means for parents and community members to work together with administration, staff and students to promote well-being and overall effectiveness of the school community. The main role is advisory and information exchange. The Parent society is a means for parents and community members to provide additional financial resources and support the school through fundraising. We hope you had a chance to connect with Council members at the Meet the Teacher Night and are planning to attend our first meeting of the year this week.

Meetings are Virtual through Zoom and on the last Wednesday of the month. Wednesday September 25 at 6:30pm will be the first online meeting of the year.

Meeting Link: Zoom Meeting ID 7967478647

The Meeting Link will be re-sent to all families Wednesday evening as a reminder. 

GATE Council: https://gatecalgary.ca/

The GATE Parent Association is a volunteer group committed to supporting the GATE Program within the Calgary Board of Education and you are invited to join the GATE Parent Association Executive / Attend the AGM this week. The GATE Parent Association needs new volunteers to keep going strong! We’re looking for a President, Vice President, Secretary, and Parent Education Chair. Support and training will be provided to help with the transition into each role. It’s a great way to connect with other GATE parents and ensure gifted education continues to have a voice.

Roles will be voted in at the AGM, which will take place at 7:00 pm on September 23.

Transportation

We have a new service provider this year for our bus transportation: Southland Transportation:  https://southland.ca/  and they use a different bus tracking application: https://www.myschoolbusmonitor.ca/Index.aspx

The CBE Busing and Transportation landing page: https://cbe.ab.ca/schools/busing-and-transportation/Pages/default.aspx is an excellent resource to start learning more about how students get to and from school working with our service provider. You can also learn about what to do if things are not working quite as planned.

The ride home at the end of the is still experiencing some challenges with delays caused by inaccurate student attendance at the end of the day. Please remember to notify the office directly by phone 403-777-7650 or email louisriel@cbe.ab.ca if you are picking up your student and they are not taking the bus home.

Dropping off students: Please be mindful of no parking zones, school zones, and crossing the road. Dropoff and pickup times are busy; please be safe!

Lost and Found

Our lost and found continues to collect lost items at a surprising rate. We have relocated the lost and found to the front entrance of the school so more students and families can look through and find lost items. If your child is missing items, please remind them to look through the lost and found or parents can visit the school to look on behalf of their child. The sheer number of items we collect quickly surpasses our ability to store and display them all. In the past we have shared that we must donate unclaimed items to charities since we cannot archive and store items indefinitely. We will continue with this practice again this year on a monthly basis.

If you know of or are associated with a charitable organization or group who would welcome donations of used items, please reach out to our front office to discuss how we can work together.

Upcoming Dates to Know

Sept 23 – Grade 5 (Rushton) OH Ranch Trip

Sept 24 - Grade 5 (Leslie) OH Ranch Trip

Sept 25 – Picture Day; Grade 9 – BGI Trip Parent Meeting (6:00 pm)

Sept 26 – Orange Shirt Day