Spring Creek Communicator - September 8, 2023
Dear Families of Spring Creek Community School,
We have had an excellent start to the year at Spring Creek Community School. It’s wonderful to see familiar faces, new faces, and how much the students have grown and thrived in their activities over the summer. We are grateful for the collaboration in taking care of student needs, with staff and families as a team. As a result, we now have students placed in their classes and we are ready for the growth and learning ahead of us.
This year we welcome the following educators new to our staff at Spring Creek:
- Ms. LaRochelle, principal
- Ms. Oakey, grade 5 French Immersion
- Ms. Branzsen, grade 5-6
- Ms. Babiuk in a grade 3-4 job share with Ms. Penny
- Ms. Kaleigh Stratton, LST
- Ms. Paige Strong, ELL
Some of our new staff members are actually returning to Spring Creek and very happy to be here. We continue to add to our staff, including EA positions and job shares. More information to come.
Class placement
Our class placement process ensures that thoughtful consideration of each child’s social, emotional, and academic needs are aligned with the need to create balanced and effective learning environments. Honoring diversity is based on the principle that if differences are acknowledged and utilized in a positive way, it is a benefit to the quality of the teaching and learning environment for everyone. The creation of safe, purposeful, and powerful learning environments begins with Teacher Learning Teams creating group compositions rich in diversity and sensitive to students’ academic needs and social-emotional well-being.
Students have now been placed and any questions may be directed to the school principal. Once again, we are grateful for the teamwork of parents and staff in the process.
Upcoming events:
We will inform you of protocols and actions we will take throughout the month to honour The National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. At Spring Creek, we are committed to reflecting upon and learning about the Truth of our history and how to move forward in a good way. You will have noticed our Canadian flag has been flying at half-mast until we are able to install the Survivors’ Flag, in honour and support of the local Indigenous communities. We are pleased inform you that the flag poles across the district are now in place and we can continue actions and our show of commitment to Truth and Reconciliation. We are looking forward to raising our Canadian flag, along with our Survivors’ Flag at the same time. Please feel free to familiarize yourself with the background and symbolism of The Survivors’ Flag.
A message from Ms. Smith:
Terry Fox Run
On Thursday, September 21st, Spring Creek students will be running and walking in memory of Terry Fox, as we hold our annual Terry Fox Run. The run will take place at 10:25am. We are looking for parents/ guardians to assist with the run. These volunteers will be marshals on the course or running the route with the students. If you are able to volunteer please email Melissa Smith - [email protected] and she will arrange the volunteers. We will have a donation jar at the front of the school that children/ parents can put money into until September 21st. The money raised will be donated to The Terry Fox Foundation to help fund Cancer Research.
Athletics
We are excited for another awesome year of athletics with our Spring Creek Bears! Next week we will be getting our Cross Country team underway! Ms. Smith will be holding a meeting Wednesday at lunch recess for all Grade 4 through 7 students who are interested. Practice times will be determined based on number of students participating. The tentative dates for the meets this year are September 28th here at Spring Creek (volunteers will be needed), October 5th in Pemberton and October 12th in Squamish. These are tentative but all meets will be on Thursday but the locations may change. Go Bears!
Thank you,
Melissa Smith
School Supplies
For the 2023-24 school year, we are asking families to not buy their own school supplies. Rather, you let the classroom teacher do the purchasing at discounted prices. Families will see a charge in School Cash Online at the beginning of the year for $45.00/student in primary grades and $55.00/student in intermediate grades to cover school supplies for your child for the year.
Bussing:
- All students who seek bus transportation are now required to register annually to receive a bus pass and to have a bus seat allocated to them. We encourage you to review District Policy 806 for more information about your child’s eligibility for school bus transportation. Here is the registration form to register your child(ren) for the bus.
Leaving school early or coming late:
Often times there is need to drop off a student late in the mornings, or leave early prior to the end of the day. If this is the case, please follow the protocol below:
- Late students: if you are dropping a student off after 8:30am, please bring them through the office and do not go to outside classroom doors.
- Picking up early from school: please go through the office - email or call the office ahead of time and we will inform your teacher and have your student ready to go. Please do not go directly to the outside classroom doors.
To ensure the safety of all, the office needs to know the whereabouts of all of our students at all times.
We are looking forward to a great year together. Have a great weekend.
Karen LaRochelle
Principal