Hello Jennie Elliott families,
From November 18-22, the Calgary Board of Education recognizes National Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week. During this week and throughout the school year, CBE staff and students collaborate to learn about, promote and implement bullying prevention strategies to maintain school spaces that are safe, inclusive and where students feel as though they belong. Together, staff, students, parents, caregivers and the community all have a role to play in ensuring our schools are safe.
At the beginning of the year, I met with each grade group to have conversations about the important part we each play in developing other people’s sense of belonging at Jennie Elliott. Our ongoing message with our students is that it is important to be inclusive, accepting, supportive and respectful with our actions and words, particularly during recesses when disagreements can often occur between students. Transferring their social-emotional learning to these more unstructured play periods is a challenge many children face, so we will continue to help them identify peaceful ways to resolve their disagreements, recognizing that hurt feelings are a natural part of the process, and working to repair those hurt feelings goes a long way towards restoring someone’s sense of safety and wellbeing.
Annually in October, our CBE students engage in student perception surveys that help us understand their needs and thoughts that contribute to their overall wellbeing and sense of belonging at school. A notable result told us that 84% of our students responded that they feel accepted and valued at school, while the Canadian norm is 72%. Our goal is to continue to strengthen this measure of our students’ sense of belonging.
Next week, our conversations with each grade group will continue with a focus on helping students recognize when they are in a disagreement, and to identify a strategy or an action they want to use to restore peace before the disagreement escalates. Learning from Indigenous ways of being, belonging, doing and knowing messaged in the medicine wheel teachings, students will be reflecting on the following questions:
spirit - to be - What are your beliefs that you want to share with others about how students should treat each other at Jennie Elliott?
heart - to belong How will you help make others feel safe and cared for at Jennie Elliott?
body - to do What will you do to make Jennie Elliott a safe and positive place for students and staff to come to?
mind - to know What do you want to learn more about to help build a safe, caring and respectful school for yourself and others?
We invite you to see some of our students’ reflections that will be posted on our medicine wheel at the end of the front hallway when you come for School Conferences next week, and to add your own reflections to any of the questions if you choose.
Assessment & Reporting
During the school day, students engage in learning tasks, activities, and discussions connected to the Alberta Curriculum.
In any given unit of study teachers use a variety of methods such as conversations, observations and products, to gather a body of evidence that informs what each student knows, understands and can do in relation to the curriculum outcomes. There are also three types of assessment that teachers regularly employ:
Diagnostic: a way of helping identify a student’s current level of understanding at the beginning of a learning cycle. These results are used to design tasks for instruction and are not used to determine report card grades.
Formative: a way of checking student learning throughout a learning cycle. Teachers and students use this type of ongoing assessment to inform, adjust and set goals to improve student learning.
Summative: a comparison at a moment in time between the individual student achievement and the intended outcomes of the curriculum, usually at the end of a learning cycle. Teachers utilize PowerSchool to house this body of evidence, and at reporting periods, apply their professional judgement to identify the overall level of understanding a student demonstrates in relation to the intended learning goal(s) which is then reported on through the Report Card.
Ongoing communication between school and home helps parents understand their child’s progress. Report cards, School Conferences, and ongoing dialogue with teachers are some of the ways in which our school already communicates this information.
We will now also be using PowerSchool for ongoing assessment communication with families. This means that families will have regular viewing of summative assessment through the MyCBE/PowerSchool portal, giving parents the opportunity to be more fully informed of their child’s progress and achievement throughout the term.
Due to differences in curricular expectations, program planning and developmental assessment practices across grades K-6, the information contained in PowerSchool will look different from one grade to another. Your child’s teacher will provide additional information during School Conferences next week, including when and how they will be opening assessment information in PowerSchool.
For more information, please see this MyCBE/PowerSchool portal video, that shares how to log in and navigate around the portal.
Reminder | School Conferences
Our School Conferences will be held during the week of November 24th-29th. As we have done in past years, each grade team has scheduled their in-person conferences at various times throughout the week. Conference bookings will be available starting November 18th at 8:00am. As messaged earlier this week, please disregard the online option when booking your Conference.
To book, please follow these steps:
- Log in to your myCBE parent account.
- Choose your child’s grade in the “Conference” drop-down menu.
- Book the time with your teacher based on your availability.
Ms. Ling, our Music Teacher, will be the only teacher available for both in-person or online conferences on Friday. Her bookings will be available through the Conference Manager system starting on Tuesday, November 19th at 8:00.
Reminder | Parent Engagement Form
What a fantastic response we have had to our parent information sessions! If you are interested, please complete the Parent Engagement Form at your earliest convenience. You can choose to reply without your contact information if you wish, to keep your response anonymous. We will begin to organize the feedback in December so we can schedule the sessions starting in the new year.
Reminder | Volunteering at Jennie Elliott
There are many ways for families to get involved at Jennie Elliott. We have an active and connected school community that our School and School Council are always looking to engage in ways that benefit our students. No amount of volunteering or support is too small! Options for volunteering are offered in the Volunteer Opportunities at Jennie Elliott Form with some of the ongoing needs that we have for parent participation. If any of these areas are of interest to you, or if you would like more information about what the volunteering entails, check them off in the form and our School Council Volunteer Coordinator or a school representative will be in touch.
Upcoming Dates
Nov 18-27 Lacrosse residency
Nov 25 Fun Lunch
Nov 25-29 School Conferences
Nov 28 Kindergarten only non-instructional day (no Kindergarten students)
Nov 29 Non-instructional Day (no students)
Dec 3. School Council
Dec 16. Fun Lunch
Dec 20 Last day of classes before Winter Break
Stay warm and safe on the roads this weekend everyone!