All Saints Blog Week of January 9th, 2017

Happy New Year!

I would like to wish our entire All Saints Community a happy start to 2017, and all the best in the new year.  January will be a busy month with our later start back.  Grade 9-12 students will continue to work on summative tasks in classes, with exams running from January 24th to 27th (All Saints Exam Schedule - Semester 1). To assist with exam preparation, we have some opportunities for students listed below.  Term one report cards for our 7&8 students will be distributed in mid-February.  Finally, a reminder that our School Council meeting for January is on the 16th at 7:00.  Please join us!  Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the blog to check out the school calendar with additional dates.

Student Exam Preparation

To assist our grade 9-12 students with their mindfulness preparation ahead of exams, we are running two support programs:

Mindfulness preparation - Our Mindfulness room will be opened each day during exams beginning at 7:30 am.  This is a chance to take some quiet time to reflect/regroup ahead of, or after exams.

Study Skills Session - Grade 9-12 students are invited to join our school Psychologist Dr. Richard Bolduc for a study skills session ahead of exams on January 18th.  Students need to sign up for the session in student services.

All Saints Class of the Week Award

Congratulations to Ms. Miron-Holoka’s grade 7-05 class who were recipients of the “All Saints Class of the Week” award ahead of the Christmas holiday.  I have encouraged teachers to recognize classes for their involvement with a new academic approach, enthusiasm around a fundraising initiative or engagement with a direction in the classroom.  Ms. Miron-Holoka nominated her class for their great work supporting our Christmas Hamper initiative at the school.  We will continue to recognize classes at All Saints for outstanding achievement.

Best Buy Technology Specials for All Saints Parents and Students

At our “Meet the Staff” afternoon earlier in the year, I explained that All Saints was developing a partnership with Best Buy to provide technological devices (chromebooks, laptops, and other devices) at a discount to our school community.  To be most effective in today’s learning environments, students benefit significantly from access to technology at school and home, as technology is a vital tool for their learning and productivity. The school board invests heavily to support access to technology for students and staff across our schools. Devices are made available to students in our school; however, we have received many requests from students and parents asking for advice on what device they should purchase if they wish to bring their own device to school.

We have established an optional purchase program with Best Buy for those who are interested in purchasing their own device.  Parents and students may purchase any brand of device from any company as all devices will work on school network. Some of these devices are exclusive to our Best Buy partnership and not available to others through Best Buy.

The technologies listed on the Best Buy portal are only recommendations. Best Buy is offering discounts on protection plans and other supplies and peripherals but parents may choose to purchase from any vendor.  As you will see on the Portal, we are recommending Chromebooks as a simple, safe, efficient and cost effective device. We also help equip these with Board purchased software through the student Google accounts and the use of the student portal.  You can access the letter home describing the program in greater detail here.

Please contact the school if you have any questions.

Communications:

Check out our blog – allsaintschs.blogspot.ca and our twitter @AllSaintsCHS (Mr. Kelly’s - @seankellyottawa) as well as our website ash.ocsb.ca for all that is happening at All Saints!

Coming Up:

January 16th: School Council Meeting