Principal's Message
Many thanks to our Student Support team for putting together a wonderful week of learning around Bullying Awareness. We received great feedback from staff and students about the great activities that were run in our health classes. Each day students were challenged to show a different type of kindness, it was so great to see our students actively engaging in these challenges! We hope to continue this positive momentum as we move forward.
School Council Corner
Please join us for our final School Council meeting of 2021 on Tuesday, November 23, 2021 at 6:30 p.m. via Microsoft Teams. We will be talking about student mental health (a standing item on our agenda), the Assurance Review (our top success and challenges) as well as next steps in our community engagement for a replacement school.
You can find a copy of the agenda here.
Paws-ative Referrals Corner
We would like to give a BIG thank you to Lindsay Buhler from HQ Salon for the generous donation of hair and body glitter aas well as nail polish and Lesley Bowman from Max and Maud for the generous donation of many bags of delish candy!
These prizes inspire the kiddos to make great choices and they are very excited about the entire program.
Keep up that Paws-ativity everybody!!
PowerSchool Student Portal Login Credential Update
After early dismissal on the afternoon of November 3, Elk Island Public Schools (EIPS) updated the student log in process for the PowerSchool Student Portal. Now that the updates are complete, students will use their EIPS credentials to login to the PowerSchool Student Portal or the PowerSchool mobile app. Student access to the portal and app may be intermittently unavailable while updates are taking place. Effective November 4, students will use the new EIPS login credentials to access the portal or app. Students who use the mobile app will be required to log out and back in after the updates are complete.
If students are having trouble logging in to PowerSchool after the change, they can contact their teacher or a school office staff member for assistance. This update does not affect the log in process for parents or guardians for the PowerSchool Parent Portal.
D.A.R.E Grade 7
Starting in December the D.A.R.E program will begin in our Grade 7 Health classes. This is a ten-week program which helps to teach our grade 7 students to resist pressures which may influence them to experiment with alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. They will also be introduced to the D.A.R.E. Decision Making Model that will assist them in problem solving, being a good citizen and help them make wise decisions.
Barbara Hoffman has been running this program in SWH for the past five years and we are welcoming her back to continue her good work!
Mask Reminders
EIPS requires that all individuals in all schools wear a mask, unless medically exempt. Students are required to bring their own masks every single day. The school has a small number of disposable masks available for emergency purposes only.
Students that are relying on the school for their mask supply will be considered unprepared for school and will be given a consequence. Make sure your child has spare masks, reusable or disposable, with them at school every day.
Updated COVID Health Checklist
The government has updated the daily health checklist. Please review the new checklist and print a copy for yourself to keep at home.
The main change relates to household contacts of COVID-19 cases.
If you are not fully immunized and are a household contact of a COVID-19 case, you should stay home for 14 days from the last day of exposure and monitor for symptoms.
A household contact is a person who lives in the same residence as the case OR who has been in frequent, long-duration, close-range interaction with a case of COVID-19. For example, someone who is a caregiver or an intimate or sexual partner of a COVID-19 case. For children, it also includes siblings, someone who slept over, or someone who provided direct physical care to the child.
If you have fever, cough, shortness of breath, runny nose, sore throat or loss of sense of taste or smell you are required to isolate for 10 days as per the current CMOH Order OR receive a negative COVID-19 test and feel better before returning to work or activities.
No Child Without: Free MedicAlert for students
In our ongoing effort to provide safe and caring schools for students, Sherwood Heights Junior High is registered in the Canadian MedicAlert Foundation’s No Child Without program. The program is a national initiative that provides no-cost MedicAlert services to children—between the ages of four and 14 years—who have chronic health conditions. The goal is twofold: to help children with severe allergies, medical conditions or special needs and to assist schools with medical-emergency plans for students.
Once a child is registered, the school is provided with advice on a medical-emergency plan for that student and given a list of medications, allergies and medical conditions the student has. If your child has a serious medical condition or allergy and could benefit from MedicAlert services, contact the school office at 780-467-5930. To learn more about the No Child Without program, visit www.nochildwithout.ca.
Visitors in Schools
All visitors, couriers, and contractors must sign in at the front main doors and check-in at the office, complete the COVID-19 Alberta Health Daily Checklist, and be wearing a mask properly.
If any of the answers to the questions are “YES,” DO NOT enter the school or workplace.
Similarly, if feeling unwell or have COVID-19 symptoms—fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat, shortness of breath, loss of smell and taste, aches, pink-eye, nausea —DO NOT enter an EIPS-operated school or workplace.
Upcoming Dates and Events
November 20 - National Child Day
November 23 - Your Future: Post-secondary and Career Fair
November 23 - School Council Meeting via Microsoft Teams at 6:30 p.m.
About Sherwood Heights Junior High School
