South Oaks School
Merry Christmas ~ December 2023
The Gift of Partnership
This goal was written because our PAC reported that parents were feeling quite disconnected from the school. The pandemic was difficult in many ways and it definitely kept parents very separated from school life. So, our hope was to re-establish the connection with parents through the return of some of the regular events such as parent/teacher meetings, student led conferences, assemblies, concerts, etc.
There was no way of knowing, at that time, that there would be an EA strike this year. At the start of the strike, we found ourselves suddenly with much less support than we have ever had. The staff was stressed and concerned about how we could continue teaching in such a context. It was at this point we began to realize that parents could be so much more than "guests" in the school. Parents could take ownership of the day to day responsibilities in the school environment, which is exactly what they did.
So, I want to publicly thank the many parents that have offered their time and energy to do crosswalk duties, recess supervision, lunch supervision, etc. Your consistent commitment over the past weeks have provided the students and staff with a sense of routine, rather than chaos. You provided support so that we could continue educating the students during the duration of the strike.
From the bottom of our hearts, we thank-you for this gift . . . the gift of partnership. It is exactly what we needed this year.
Merry Christmas,
Dale Martens
Dates to Remember:
Dec 5: Gr. 1-4 Report Cards posted on Parent Portal at 4 pm
Dec 5: Community Health Clinic in Hut #1 (until 1 pm)
Dec 12: Community Health Clinic in Hut #1 (8:30 am - 3:30 pm)
Dec 14: Grade 1 and 2 Christmas concert 10:00 am & 6:30 pm
Dec 19: PAC meeting at 4 pm
Dec 22: Last day before winter break
Jan 8: First day back to school after winter break
A Christmas Evening
A new feature this Christmas season is our partnership with GVS. GVS and South Oaks are having their concerts all in one night! We are all busy these days and we thought it might be helpful to have one evening of concerts, instead of two. (Truth be told, this sort of happened by accident, but we think it could be great!) Parents who have children in both schools will be able to attend the South Oaks concert at 6:30 pm (which is about 40 minutes long), then literally walk over to GVS for their concert at 7:30 pm. We hope this works well for our families and provides an evening of Christmas stories and songs to help bring the Christmas season to life.
Hope to see you on Dec. 14!
Dale Martens