This is always a busy time of year. Term one is coming rapidly to an end with report cards set to be up on PowerSchool on January 31st at 9:00 am, which is also a day off for students for the semester turnaround. Term two will begin February 1 and this will also be an early dismissal day. After a great deal of change forms, students are now eagerly waiting to experience their new options.

Parent-teacher interviews will be taking place February 15 and 23 and the sign up will be open on February 1st at 3:00 PM. The 15th will be by phone or virtually, and the 23rd will be in person. We look forward to the conversations we have with parents, and if there are things that come up outside of interview times, please contact us. These will be the last formal interviews we have this year, but we do want to ensure the lines of communication are always open.

Registration is opening March 1st for next year including returning student registration. Hockey Academy is hosting the parent information night Wednesday, February 1st at 7:00 PM; registration for the academy will open at that time. The WDC Open House will take place Tuesday, March 9. Registration for the Rec Academy and Pursuit will open the next morning. Get your registration in early to ensure your spot in these programs. Links to these forms will be posted on the WD Cuts website. Our open house will provide some more information on Hockey, Rec, and Pursuit, as well as the option courses we will be offering next year.

Our extra curricular activities are busy as well with basketball, clubs and activities, Crusader Challenge, winter carnival, and a host of other school events. Make sure to check your emails and the school website for updates and reminders for all the important dates.

Cory & Matt

Wednesday, Jan 25 - Rabbit Hill Ski Club

Tuesday, Jan 31 - No School - PD Day

Wednesday, Feb 1 - Early Dissmissal 12:00pm - staff meeting, Hockey Academy Info Night, 1st day of semester 2 and School Dance

Thursday & Friday, Feb 9 - 10 - Teacher Convention - No school

Wednesday, Feb 15 - Rabbit Hill Ski Club & Parent Teacher Interviews & Gr. 9 Immunizations

Thursday, Feb 16 - On The Spot Improv at cuts 4:30pm

Monday, Feb 20 - Family Day - No School

Tuesday, Feb 21 - Jr. Improv at Wildfire

Wednesday, Feb 22 - Rabbit Hill Ski Club

Thursday, Feb 23 - Parent Teacher Interviews

Friday, Feb 24 - Jr. Improv at Wildfire

The website for booking parent teacher interviews School Appointments On-Line

TO PARTICIPATE IN FUN LUNCH, we ask that you agree to these points below prior to ordering for your child. HealthHunger

1. When you know your child will be away, and have adequate notice, we ask that parents cancel their fun lunch through the Healthy Hunger website directly. This includes instances such as planned out of school field trips, medical or dental appointments, or families choosing to keep their child home for other circumstances. If you know your child is going to be away, please cancel your fun lunch order. Healthy Hunger has a 5 day cut off window where you can cancel your order without issue and receive reimbursement in your original form of payment. For, the cut off is the previous Friday evening.

** As hot lunch starts on Wednesday October 26th the last day to order for that lunch will be Friday Oct 21st

2. We also know there are many instances where students may be unable to attend school unexpectedly and with very little notice. Should your child be away due to illness or any other unexpected circumstance, parents will need to notify our hot lunch coordinator by email to wdcutsparents@gmail.com or telephone the school to make alternate arrangements. This MUST happen before 11 AM on the day of hot lunch. Any other requests, sent in other ways (e.g. to your child’s teacher) or after the deadline, cannot be considered so please plan accordingly.

Please provide specific instructions about what should be done with your child's lunch.

• If you wish to pick up at the school, you may do so only after 12:30 PM on the hot lunch day. Items must be picked up the same day for food safety reasons.

• If you would like the lunch to be sent with another student, please clearly indicate the name of that student and their class number (or teacher).

• We are unable to hold lunches overnight or provide any other arrangements.

**If you do not provide instructions for your child(ren)'s fun lunch prior to 11 AM as outlined above, the volunteers will use their discretion to determine next steps. This may include donating the lunch or discarding it.

of volunteers. We ask that you treat our volunteers with kindness and respect at all times. We could not do this without them!

Thank you for your ongoing support of our fun lunch program. It provides valuable fundraising dollars to our school.

-The WD CUTS FUN Lunch Team wdcutsparents@gmail.com

HealthyHunger

As we near the mid-way mark of the semester, we want to remind parents about the responsibilities students have when using social media platforms, especially those that are video-based:

• Obtain appropriate consent from individuals - peers AND teachers - who appear in video, audio recording and images before forwarding them to other people or posting them to online spaces.
  
  

• Before recording, be transparent about the purpose of the video, audio recording or images. Recording things with underlying motives and posting them out of context is not appropriate.
  
  

• Respect others and communicate in a supportive way. Never participate in harmful, inappropriate or hurtful online behaviours.

We encourage you to have conversations with your children about social media regularly. Supporting them as they transition through adolescence and into adulthood will only help them become the best version of themselves.

For more information about our division policy about Acceptable Use of Technology, please visit the division website.

SAM and Hillgrove Schools are honored to host our division’s Academic Challenge programs. The Academic Challenge program is designed to enhance learner competencies and provide students opportunities to study curricular outcomes at a deeper, more comprehensive level of understanding. In this program, students build confidence in managing their own learning in a supportive, inquiry-based environment with others who exhibit characteristics of a gifted learner.

This program does require an application process that includes:

• a recommendation from the current school administrator and teacher, AND

• a FSIQ standard score of 120 or higher on a psychoeducational assessment.

If you feel this program might be a good fit for your child, please consider attending our Academic Challenge Information Evening Session on Wednesday, February 15th from 6-7pm in the SAM Library.

Also, if you have questions about this program, please do not hesitate to reach out to either:

• Charlotte Kirchner at Division Office, charlotte.kirchner@spschools.org

• Dawn Rothwell at SAM, dawn.rothwell@spschools.org (grades 4-6)

• Randy Roszell at Hillgrove, randy.roszell@spschools.org (grades 7-9)