Hello Louis Riel Families,

The first two days of the 2023-24 school year have already come and gone. Students were thrilled to be reunited with old friends and have already begun to make new ones. Staff and students alike were excited to get to work reacquainting themselves with “how to do school” at Louis Riel as they got to know each other. Jumping right back into school is a busy time for all of us and I know your students came home with lots to talk about even though they may have been too tired to share all of the details. New students, new teachers, new homeroom groups, new classrooms, new friends, new hanging spots or lockers, a new outdoor basketball court (a huge thank you to our Council’s efforts and generosity) and new options classes all played a part in these first two days for our students. If your child was not able to attend the opening days, can you please email their homeroom teacher to confirm they’ll be joining us shortly?

We are looking forward to welcoming our community to our annual “Meet the Teacher” night on the evening of Thursday, September 21st. Our families will be invited to meet our staff, tour the school and instructional spaces, and get to learn more about student life at Louis Riel. More details about the event will be sent to families in the coming weeks.

Parking and Drop-off

Getting back into the usual morning routine can be challenging for anyone who has a student who enjoyed a long summer of sleeping in. Occasionally you may run a little late and try to save time on the commute to do a school drop-off and then hurry off to work. Please be mindful of a few things when dropping off or picking up your student:

Playground zones have a speed limit of 30 km/hr. Please slow down.

Playground zones close to school are filled with children on bikes, skateboards and scooters making their way across the road in and around crosswalks. Please be alert and drive with caution.

Please be patient with children crossing in crosswalks.

Please do not drop your student off in the corner of an intersection; it’s unsafe and backs up traffic and our buses.

If you drop your child across from the school, please insist they use the crosswalk.

The bus zone in front of the school is a no stopping zone. Please drive a few more meters to drop your student off in a safe location.

The school is surrounded by our neighbor’s homes and most of them have driveways. Please do not block driveways.

Field Experience Fees and Forms at Louis Riel

Louis Riel Science students get to enjoy a number of field experiences throughout the year. In the past, a $200/student fee was charged to cover the cost of multiple experiences rather than making frequent charges to student accounts. This year, the field experience fee of $200/student will not be charged as a student fee. Any activities or field experiences with an accompanying fee will be charged to student accounts on a case-by-case basis. Fees must be paid prior to the experience unless alternative arrangements have been made.

Field experiences often include a series of forms to inform families about educational outcomes, logistics, itineraries, potential risks, and measures taken to mitigate them. These forms also include forms to allow families to acknowledge any risks, provide emergency contact information, and share important medical details about their student. Due to the challenges of form collection and the frequent need to confirm participants with transportation or service providers, all forms for a field experience must be submitted to the teacher in charge one (1) week prior to departure unless alternative arrangements have been made.

Walking Distance Field Trips Notice

Volunteers are often required to meet supervision ratio requirements for off-campus field experiences. Without parent volunteers to help meet the required supervision ratio, off-campus activities and field experiences cannot proceed. Please volunteer for some off campus activities and field experiences this year to support your student and their class. Please read through the linked annual walking field trip notice: See letter under Resources.

Class Lists and Option Classes

Our staff invest a significant amount of time and energy drafting, editing, and revising class lists every year. Considerations include the academic, social, and emotional needs of every child as an individual and every class as a learning community. Our option classes for our grade 7-9 students are still being refined due to the recent need to re-survey and re-enroll all our jr. High students following a surprisingly low completion rate of our student option request surveys at the end of June.

Fire Drills and Emergency Drills

Every year we practice fire drills and lockdown drills to ensure student safety in the unlikely event of such emergencies. We are required to complete a number of fire drills and lockdown drills between September and June. Students will be notified of practice lockdown drills in advance to avoid unnecessary discomfort or anxiety.

Athletics Start-Up begins on Tuesday, September 5

Please arrange a pickup strategy in advence with your student for any and all tryouts, practices and events

Cross-Country practice Tuesday, September 5th: Girls and Boys Grades 6 to 9 Meet on the stage ready to run! (3:00pm – 3:45pm)

Everybody is welcome to run. Everybody who comes out is on the team. There are no tryouts/cuts ????

Basketball Tryouts Start in 2 weeks (Week of September 11)

Monday and Tuesday: Sr Girls and Boys Basketball Tryouts 3:00pm – 4:30pm

Wednesday and Thursday: Jr Girls and Boys Basketball Tryouts 3:00pm – 4:30pm

Digital Citizenship at Louis Riel

We are an Away for the Day school. Student brains need a break from mobile devices, and they all benefit from opportunities to engage in other ways of communicating, creating and exploring. Part of our work is to promote safety, lessen cyberbullying, and to foster and sustain focus on learning. How our Away for the Day policy supports this is simple:

• Cell phones/personal electronic devices are powered off and go into lockers as you enter
• Cell phones/devices do not come out until you’re exiting after the final bell at 2:50 pm
• Cell phones may only* be used for learning tasks during the school day with teacher permission

*the only time phones are permitted is if a medical monitoring device (such as a Continuous Blood Glucose Monitor, Blood Pressure or Heart Monitor) is in use

Having your phone with you when you should not during the school day will be addressed by following progressive student discipline principles. Depending on the circumstances, the following may apply:

• The “I forgot it was in my pocket” scenario: phone immediately returned to locker
• The second infraction: phone returned by teacher or office staff at day’s end
• Repeated infractions: incident logged on our phone tracking sheet, phone held in the office safe and returned by admin at day’s end. School will notify family of cell phone concern as required.
• Still not getting it? Admin connects with family to seek support and phone returned only to parent

Upcoming Events

9/4/2023 Labour Day
9/14/2023 Grade 6 Vaccinations
9/21/2023 Meet the Teacher Night
9/22/2023 No School
9/27/2023 LifeTouch School Fall Photos
9/29/2023 No School: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Day-in-Lieu