Cougar Tracks
Friday, June 3, 2022
The 2021-22 EIPS Parent Survey results are now available. In March, the Division conducted the annual survey, which helps EIPS gauge its progress toward meeting the goals and priorities outlined in its Four-Year Education Plan. Families were asked a series of questions about their experiences with EIPS and the school their child attends, the overall performance of the Division, the quality of education being provided to students and areas for improvement.
Thank you to all families who took the time to share their feedback with the Division. Overall, the survey received 3,450 responses from parents and guardians across EIPS. EIPS, and schools, will now review the feedback in detail and use it to develop new strategies to serve students and the wider community better.
The full results are available online:
Congratulations Performing Arts 8 & 9 Staff and Students!
A BIG CONGRATULATIONS to all Performing Arts 8 & 9 students and staff for the success of their performances "Bottle of Joy" and "Goldilocks on Trial"! You all did such an amazing job, and we are so proud of you all!
If you were unable to watch the performances live, please check out the performances below on YouTube!
Bottle of Joy (Cast B – 5:30 p.m.)
Bottle of Joy (Cast A – 7:30 p.m.)
Goldilocks on Trial (Cast A – 5:30 p.m.)
Goldilocks on Trial (Cast B – 7:30 p.m.)
Grade 7 & 8 Final Exam Schedule
June 17: Grade 7 Final Exam - Mathematics Part(ie) A
June 17: Grade 8 Final Exam - Mathematics Part(ie) A
June 22: Grade 7 Final Exam - Français/French Language Arts Partie B
June 22: Grade 8 Final Exam - Français/French Language Arts Partie B
June 23: Grade 7 Final Exam - Science
June 23: Grade 8 Final Exam - Mathematics Part(ie) B
June 24: Grade 7 Final Exam - Social Studies
June 24: Grade 8 Final Exam - Science
June 27: Grade 7 Final Exam - Mathematics Part(ie) B
June 27: Grade 8 Final Exam - English Language Arts Part B
June 28: Grade 7 Final Exam - English Language Arts Part B
June 28: Grade 8 Final Exam - Social Studies
Grade 9 PAT Exam Schedule
June 14: Grade 9 PAT - Mathematics Part(ie) A
June 17: Grade 9 PAT - Français/French Language Arts Partie B
June 20: Grade 9 PAT - Mathematics Part(ie) B
June 22: Grade 9 PAT - Science
June 23: Grade 9 PAT - Social Studies
June 24: Grade 9 PAT - English Language Arts Part B
Upcoming Dates and Events
June 7: Grade 9 Immunizations
June 9: Grade 9 Farewell Ceremony at Sherwood Park Alliance Church - 5:00 to 6:15 p.m.
June 9: Grade 9 Farewell Celebration at Sherwood Heights - 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
June 10-16: Pride Week, Fort Saskatchewan
June 11-16: Pride Week, Strathcona County
June 14: Athletic Awards Night at Sherwood Heights - 5:30 to 6:45 p.m.
June 21: National Indigenous Peoples Day
June 28: Last Instructional Day
June 29: Last Day for Staff
June 30: School Closed for Summer
Grade 9 Farewell Volunteers Needed
The Parent Committee is looking for parent volunteers who would be helping out the grade 9 parents and sign up for the jobs so grade 9 families can enjoy the evening. If you're interested, please sign up at the link below.
Volunteer Sign Up Form
The latest edition of the Career Pathways News is now available: June 2022 Career Pathways News.
Career Pathways is designed to develop skills students can apply in their daily lives when preparing for entry into the workplace or for further learning opportunities. Competencies achieved enable students to make relevant connections with work or post-secondary training. Our mission: To provide authentic, relevant and engaging career opportunities and foster growth and readiness for life after school.
Each month, EIPS Career Pathways distributes relevant planning material, presentation sessions, occupational spotlights and other helpful information meant to support students and families. The hope: For junior high students to begin to understand opportunities available to them and explore and reflect on a variety of experiences to help them plan their next steps; and for senior high students to continue to set goals and further develop the skills, knowledge and attitudes that increase their readiness to successfully transition beyond high school.
If you have any questions, contact EIPS Career Pathways at careerpathways@eips.ca.
Literacy at Home
Here are some helpful tips for your child as they prepare for the Junior High Common Exams and the ELA Provincial Achievement writing portions.
Updating Your Contact Information
Have you recently moved or has your contact information changed throughout the past year? Elk Island Public Schools (EIPS) encourages families to review their information the Division has on file to ensure it’s up to date. Using the Correction and Verification Form available through the PowerSchool Parent Portal, families can review their information on file for each student—including addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, parent and guardian information, emergency contacts, medical details and other related information—and submit any updates needed.
Reviewing and updating the form ensures the Division has the most up-to-date information regarding your child. Your review is especially important in case there’s any communication the Division or school needs to send out over the summer months related to classes next year. All EIPS families are asked to review their child’s Correction and Verification Form by June 13 at noon. After this time, EIPS will turn the form off for the remainder of the school year—available again at the start of the 2022-23 school year.
NOTE: Only submit updates for the changes that have already taken place. If you’re moving this summer, you’ll submit the necessary updates to your address through the Correction and Verification Form at the start of next school year after you’ve moved.
If you have questions about the form or the PowerSchool Parent Portal, contact the school at 780-467-5930.
Accessing User Accounts: Students Leaving EIPS
Is your child graduating from or leaving EIPS at the end of the school year? If so, they must ensure any information they want to retain from their school cloud accounts is downloaded onto a personal device before leaving.
· Google account – Students must download any wanted content before August 1—download files either individually or in bulk using Google Takeout.
· Microsoft account – Students must download any wanted content from their OneDrive account before August 1.
After August 1, 2022, EIPS will deactivate the account and delete all remaining files.
For more information, contact the school at 780-467-5930.
REMINDER: 2021-22 School Fees
School fees for the 2021-22 school year are posted on the PowerSchool Parent Portal. All fees are due within 30 days of being posted. Throughout the year, fees are often added to cover the costs for various activities, such as field trips, extracurricular activities, and late, damaged or lost textbooks.
To access your fee information, simply log in to the PowerSchool Parent Portal and go to “Student Fees.” There you can view fees and pay them online using a credit card. Make sure to monitor your child’s account on an ongoing basis.
For more information about school fees, waivers and payment deadlines, visit eips.ca/schools/fees. And, if you have questions, think there is an error or need help creating a PowerSchool Parent Portal account, contact your child’s school directly before the summer break.
NOTE: Pursuant to Board Policy 23: School Fees and Administrative Procedure 505: School and Administrative Fees, EIPS will forward any unpaid 2021-22 fee amounts to a collection agency. To prevent this from happening, remember to pay your fees before August 31, 2022.
Summer Hours at Elk Island Public Schools
Throughout the summer break, Sherwood Heights Junior High school is closed. It reopens on August 22 at 8:00 a.m. If you have any school-related questions or concerns while the school is closed, contact EIPS Central Services—the office is open all summer to complete year-end activities and prepare for the 2022-23 school year. Students return to school on August 30.
EIPS Central Office Summer Hours: June 29 to August 19, 2022
Open: Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Phone: 780-464-3477
Address: 683 Wye Rd., Sherwood Park
Statutory Holidays
Closed - July 1 (Canada Day)
Closed - August 1 (Heritage Day)
NOTE: Student Transportation also remains open during the summer months—operating the same hours as EIPS Central Services.
Planning to use Student Transportation in the 2022-23 school year? If so, make sure your child is registered so Elk Island Public Schools (EIPS) can plan routes and send your child a bus pass before the first day of school.
All students who indicated needing transportation services through the returning student registration process are now registered. Families registered will received tentative route schedules and invoices by the end of the month—fees are due June 30, 2022.
For those students who didn’t indicate needing transportation service through the pre-enrolment process and want to now register, simply contact EIPS Student Transportation at 780-417-8151 or email st@eips.ca.
For more information about EIPS Student Transportation visit www.eips.ca/transportation.
NOTE: Families can pay fees online using the PowerSchool Parent Portal. To pay in-person contact Student Transportation to make an appointment.
Supporting Students Transitioning to Junior High or Senior High
Are you looking to support your students with transitioning from elementary to junior high or from junior high to senior high? Sign up for a free, interactive, virtual session that will address the topics on your students’ minds. Transitions to Junior High will focus on friendships, lockers, class changes and fitting in, along with how to cope with the stress of something new and how to reach out for support. Transitions to Senior High will cover maintaining balance, healthy relationships in high school, coping with change and accessing supports. We’ll focus on mental health awareness and utilizing a growth mindset through this transition.
Book your session today, and someone from the Mental Health Capacity Building team will be in contact with you.
June 2, 3, 9 or 10, 2022
Register
Exploring the Arts
This webinar is for all the talented and creative youth that are interested in a career in the arts. In this dynamic talk, we’ll explore the wide world of art, including performance art, film, music, writing, and design. With the help of Canadian artists, youth will explore different pathways to securing a career in the arts, including post-secondary education and apprenticeships.
Select the date and time below to register on zoom:
Experiences Canada Career Choices
As youth prepare for life after high school, it can be overwhelming to search for career information and navigate between the many resources that are available to support youth. Our Career choices program aims to create online resources to support youth in planning for post-secondary – whether that is continuing in school, or venturing out to the workplace. The virtual series will cover a broad range of possibilities, both traditional and non-traditional, reflecting the diversity of opportunities in the marketplace. The goal of this program is to help high school students navigate the many possibilities that are available to them after high school, help them sort through online resources, and to build youth’s awareness and confidence in the skills that they already possess.
Experiences Canada Career Choices
Experiences Canada’s This! Is Canada: Virtual Gallery provides a space for youth to express themselves through art and share their talents with the rest of the country. The gallery highlights the incredible talent, resilience, leadership and diversity of our country’s young people from coast-to-coast-to-coast. We’re excited to announce a new online gallery.
This year’s theme is “Feels Like Home” where we invite youth to submit art—in any medium: painting, sculpting, drawing, printmaking, photography, beading, poetry and more—that represents what makes them feel like home. Whether it be friendships, family, culture or a specific place or community that makes you feel at home, we want to see it. Gallery submissions are open to youth ages 12-25 and will be accepted until June 12, 2022.
Gallery awards will be awarded to three youth—one winner and two runners up—in each age group: 12-15 years, 16-19 years and 20-25 years. A team of volunteer judges will assist Experiences Canada in reviewing all submissions over the last two weeks of June. The final selection will be determined based on three factors:
- The quality of the submission
- The artist’s personal bio and their representation of the theme ‘Feels like home’
- Ensuring a representative balance of Canada’s geographic, cultural and linguistic diversity
Indigenous News
Upcoming Events and Important Dates
Virtual Family Gatherings
Many thanks to the families who joined us for our virtual gatherings this winter. It was a pleasure to reconnect with those who were part of the gatherings last year and to welcome new families to our virtual circle. We’re grateful for the conversation, the ideas shared and the feedback on work that’s happening throughout the Division. We look forward to seeing you all again next school year—hopefully in person at some point!
If there’s anything stemming from the gatherings you wish to discuss, please reach out to the lead teacher at your child’s school or someone from the First Nations, Métis and Inuit Education team directly:
Treaty 6 and Métis Nation Flag Raising | June 13
If you’ve driven by EIPS Central Services recently, you may have noticed the addition of two new flag poles. As a further commitment on the path of truth telling toward reconciliation, and as an affirmation as Treaty partners, EIPS will be raising the Treaty 6 and Métis Nation flag on June 13. Each school in the Division will also display the two flags and are busy planning staff professional development and student learning experiences to understand the significance of each flag. More information on the Central Services ceremony and the specific events at each school will be shared in the near future.
Opening of Central Services Land-based Learning Space | June 21
EIPS has been working closely with Elder WIlson Bearhead to design and build a land-based learning space at EIPS Central Services. With spring on its way, construction will resume on the space. As part of Indigenous Peoples’ Day on June 21, EIPS will officially open the space, honour our ongoing relationship with Elder Wilson and affirm our commitment to deepen our relationship with the land that sustains us. We’ll share details of the opening event as the date draws closer.
New Online Cougar Wear Store
We are excited to be able to offer a year-round online store!
Enjoy browsing a wide selection of products from a variety of brands that you can then customize with the approved logos and graphics found on the site. Display your pride in fantastic apparel customized entirely by you. Our site lets students, parents, fans, & staff choose from approved merchandise to fit their needs 24/7 with no minimum order quantities. All orders are shipped directly to your own home!
2021-2022 Online Cougar Wear Store
About Sherwood Heights Junior High School
