Good afternoon, Colonel Irvine School Community,
下午好! 学文学校社区,
Welcome to the 25-26 school year! We hope you are enjoying your summer. We were excited to welcome staff back earlier this week and students next week.
We’ve had a very busy two days with teachers. We’re excited to have some new teachers join us and, in some cases, re-join us. You’ll find staffing updates below. We’ve all been collaborating in preparation for another fantastic school year.
For families new to our school community, this is the first of the regular weekly messages you will receive from us. We will send home a message at the end of each week that provides you with a quick summary of the week and a glimpse of upcoming activities.
You can expect an email from teachers regarding homeroom placement. Teachers will reach out by email before 4pm today. We will have extra staff on hand to provide support and direction, especially for students new to our school. Please make sure your child knows what homeroom they are in when they come to school on Tuesday. They should know homeroom class and homeroom teacher (Example – 9C – Mr. Bester Rm 15).
Please be aware that we may still make minor changes to Homeroom classes throughout September, especially at the grade 7 level as we learn more about the new students starting at the school. If you are looking in PowerSchool, please be aware that classes and teachers are only tentative. We continue to finalize class lists as new students register. Option classes will still see a lot of movement over the next week as we balance class sizes after the computer loads. We will print official timetables for students when they are ready. This will likely be on Thursday, September 2nd.
All students in the Regular and Mandarin Program will start on Tuesday, September 2nd. Students in our Bridges program will have a staggered entry, emails regarding this have been sent. Grade 5 students will meet in the main gym. Grade 6–9 students will go directly to their homerooms. We will have staff on hand to help students find their homerooms.
Our cafeteria will be operational starting on Tuesday, September 2nd. Grade 5/6 students must remain on campus as they are supervised at lunch. Grade 7-9 students can leave campus and are expected to return on time for afternoon classes. We encourage all students to remain on school property during lunchtime. We want students to form good habits by making sure they are on time for all classes. Please discuss with your students your expectations during lunchtime. All students have 20 minutes to eat lunch indoors and then are expected to be outside for the other 20 minutes of lunch.
Staffing Updates
- Warren Ferguson – Assistant Principal
- Nahanni Giuricich – Art CTF: 7-9
- Simone Homeniuk – Humanities: 7-9
- Lyndsey Kormann – Humanities: 7-9
- Kaytlyn Vibert – Humanities: 7-9
- Hadley Wilmott – Humanities: 7-9
School Supplies
Please visit the Back to School page on the website for more information.
Personal Mobile Device (PMD): Any personal electronic device that can be used to communicate with or access the internet, such as a cellphone, tablet, laptop, gaming device or smartwatch. This also may include devices capable of communicating with a PMD (e.g. Bluetooth devices) such as headphones, earbuds, or smart speakers.
Students will not be permitted to use personal mobile devices during the school day. Student devices brought to school must be out of sight and either powered off or set to silent. They should be left in backpacks, lockers or areas designated by teachers or better yet - simply left at home.
Students will be asked to bring their PMD to the office if they are caught using it. PMD will be returned to the student at the end of the day. If it happens the 2nd time, parents/guardians will be contacted to pick up the PMD.
Dress code
Please be aware that students are not allowed to wear hats/toques or have hoods up while at school. We also expect students' mid-sections to be covered and that undergarments are not visible.
Bell times (same as last year) - Doors will be open at 8:05am for students to enter. Prior to 8:05am there is not any supervision.
Monday-Thursdays:
Warning Bell at 8:15am, classes start at 8:20am and dismissal is at 3:06pm.
Fridays:
Warning Bell at 8:15am, classes start at 8:20am and early dismissal at 11:55am.
Entry Doors
This year we are expecting around 800 students and to help with the flow of students entering the building at the start of the day we will always have several doors open in the morning.
- Option 1: through the main school doors (doors facing onto Northmount Dr)
- Option 2: the North side doors by the cafeteria (doors face onto Holmwood Ave, going toward Highwood School) -recommended for 5’s and 6’s
- Option 3: Learning commons doors at the Southwest corner of the school (doors face onto Northmount Dr)
We ask that parents do not use the staff parking lot or the plaza to the north as a pick/drop off location. Please respect the businesses that operate in our school community. We would also ask if/when you are picking up students at the end of the day that you pre-arrange this with your student(s). The office may not always be able to get messages out to students, and we would prefer as little interruption to classes as possible.
Attendance
If your student(s) will be away from school, please call (403-777-7280) or email the school (colonelirvine@cbe.ab.ca) to let us know. If you need to pick up your child early, please give us advance notice as the office gets very busy from near the end of the day.
If you have moved and will no longer be attending the school, please call or email us to let us know as soon as possible, thank you.
Athletic Teams
The Phys Ed team will share try-out information with students once it is available. We will also share it in our message next Friday. There are no try-outs next week, but these will begin the following week. Watch these messages for details.
Meet the Teacher – Save the Date
We look forward to meeting parents and guardians on Wednesday, September 10 from 6-7:30pm.
Bussing
If you have not signed up for bussing and qualify for it, you need to apply for bussing through your myCBE account.
Student Health Plans
If your student has health specific concerns that we need to be aware of please print and send a copy of the Student Health Plan and Student Health Emergency Response Plan in with them on the first day. For many students we do store medication in the office (pills, epi-pens), for example if a student takes seizure medications at home every morning and may forget, you could leave 2-3 pills here in the office and call and ask us to provide them with the medication that morning. We must have a health plan in place to do this. Fill out this form only if there are health concerns we need to know about. Please return ASAP to the office or homeroom teacher.
Class Changes
Every year we have requests for class changes. Class lists are built by our teachers and with input from previous schools. In building class lists, we must consider many factors when building class lists and account for balancing all students' learning needs. At Colonel Irvine, students are part of a homeroom cohort for English, Social and Science, they are in mixed groupings the other 4 classes (Phys. Ed, Math and two option classes). Students will have an opportunity to engage with many other students in their day. Our ability to change classes is limited due to the school enrollment and the diverse needs of our students. If you wish to speak to us about this, please set up a meeting with Mr. Ferguson (wbferguson@cbe.ab.ca).
Cafeteria Menu
The cafeteria is unable to make change for bills larger than $20 and prefers exact change. We only accept cash for payment.
Cutlery is provided for students purchasing food from the cafeteria. If they are not purchasing food from the cafeteria, you need to pack cutlery for your student, if they forget they can purchase a utensil for 10 cents.
Monday – Closed Labour Day
Tuesday – Beef Chili in a bowl with bun $5
Wednesday – Spaghetti w/Meat Sauce $5
Thursday – Chicken Strips w/Hashbrowns $5
We appreciate you taking your time to read this message and look forward to working with you throughout the coming year.
Thank you,
Ms. Ko (Principal) and Mr. Ferguson (Assistant Principal)