May Newsletter
Ecole James S. McCormick School
Welcome Sunshine!
School Council Update
Aspen Greenhouse - Flower Fundraiser Delivery
- Delivery for flower orders is scheduled for Friday, May 12th
- Flowers will be delivered to the school for parents to pick up
- Pick up will be available from 2pm - 4pm
- If flowers are not picked up, they will be stored in the school until Monday, May 15th
*Please note: School Council is not responsible for flowers/plants that perish or decline due to being stored in the school over the weekend*
Read-A-Thon
- Kindergarten - Jace (Mrs. Pawlak)
- Grade 1 - Jasper (Mme Thomson)
- Grade 2 - Kinley (Ms. Wald)
- Grade 3 - Mianne (Mme Doyon)
Each winner received a $15 Chapters Gift Card sponsored by School Council! Well done to all of the students who participated!
Hot Lunch Helpers
School Council is looking for some more helpers on our hot lunch days. With approximately 200 meals being served, it takes a few hands to help! If you are able to sign up for some hot lunch volunteering - please click the link below. We ask for helpers to arrive at 11:00am on hot lunch days; the meals are typically sorted & delivered to classrooms by 11:30am. Thank you for signing up!
School Council Contacts:
Looking Ahead: 2023-2024
School Supplies
We had positive feedback about offering school supplies instead of asking parents/guardians to do all the back to school shopping. We are considering doing this again, but would like to have a better idea of how many people would like to take us up on the offer.
Please take a minute to fill out the form (one question only!) to let us know if this is a service you’d like to take advantage of.
We anticipate the amount to be $50.00 per student in grades 1, 2, and 3 and $25.00 for Kindergarten students. Most of the supplies are consumables (eg., glue, scribblers). Anything that isn’t a consumable remains at the school (eg., scissors, rulers) for students to use next year. Over time we hope to build up a supply bank, but we don’t have much left over from this year because it was our first time piloting the idea.
Please note that school supplies and school fees are not the same thing at this point. A school fee will still be required in the fall. The school supplies fee is meant to replace the need to go shopping for glue, scribblers, crayons, etc. in the summer.
Staffing & Classroom Placement for 2023-2024
We have some exciting changes at JSM for the 23-24 school year. With four of our staff members on maternity leaves next year, we are welcoming some new staff members into the building. We also have teachers changing grade levels. With this degree of movement in our staffing, some positions have not yet been finalized. We are in the process of advertising and hiring, and will release our staff roster when it is complete.
Teachers tend to know their students very well and are really good at making recommendations for class placements that honour each student’s personality and social well-being. If you have concerns for your child’s social well-being, please consult with his or her teacher.
When assigning students to classes, extensive information is gathered from teachers, the FSLW, and the inclusion coach to ensure classroom dynamics are balanced socially and academically as much as possible. Instead of inviting you to write letters about your children for next year’s class, we borrowed École Lacombe Junior High School’s great idea and have created a JSM parent/guardian input form. We will add the input from parents/guardians to the input from school staff to help create well balanced classes for next year.
The link to the parent/guardian input form is here: Input Form 2023-2024
Around the School
Swimming Lessons - May & June - Grades 1/2/3
The Kinsmen Aquatic Centre and James S. McCormick School is pleased to offer Swimming Lessons for grades 1-3. After running swimming lesson programs in Canada for over 75 years, the Canadian Red Cross is no longer offering Red Cross Swim lessons including Red Cross Swim @ School. Because of this, the City of Lacombe is instead offering Swim for Life which consists of 6 levels. This is the same program that is offered for out of school lessons year-round.
Each level challenges school-aged children 5 years and older to develop safe entries, deep water support, underwater skills, and swimming strokes. Kids learn everlasting healthy habits by getting and staying fit. Swimmer levels include fun, hands-on teaching activities that focus on teaching water safety — lessons that will last a lifetime! Each class will attend five, one hour lessons with certified lifeguards. The cost for this program is $27.00 per student.
Permission & Payment for "Swim For Life" Swimming Lessons are now available for you in your Parent Portal. The swim schedule is posted below.
Extra Clothing, Shoes & Water Bottles
- Please ensure your child has a change of clothes in their backpack or locker.
- We encourage the children to bring water bottles to school if they haven't already to make sure they are hydrated when the weather is warm!
- Also - please dress your child weather appropriately for outdoor play each day; RUNNING SHOES are the most ideal footwear option for recess & outdoor physical education classes. Thank you!
Mothers' Day / Fathers' Day
As an inclusive school, we want to ensure all students feel comfortable, so we are very careful with Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day because not all students have a mother and/or a father, while other students have more than one mother and/or father.
It is not a comfortable feeling for a child to be in a classroom where Fathers’ Day gifts are being made if that child’s father recently passed, for example. To be told to just make the gift for an uncle or grandfather or someone else special just brings more attention (and potentially hurt feelings) to the situation.
Teachers usually know their students and who is in their families, so they can plan accordingly. For example, if a child has a mom and a stepmom, that child can make two Mothers’ Day gifts if she wants.
Feel free to ask your child’s teacher if he/she is making gifts with the class this year, and please understand if the decision is not to. It is up to the teachers to make the decisions they feel are right for their own students.
2022-2023 School Yearbooks
Ask The Principal
What is executive functioning and why does it matter?
Executive functioning skills help us manage everything we do and say. They include the following abilities
to focus attention
to get started on a task
to complete a task
to remember and work with information in the moment
to manage time
to organize
to plan and prioritize
to self-regulate emotions
to flexibly navigate situations
to persist through setbacks and challenges
Having strong executive functioning skills helps children with
School Achievement
Positive Behaviors
Good Health
Successful Work as Adults
How can you help your child develop strong executive functioning skills?
Be a consistent, reliable presence that young children can trust.
Foster social connection and expose your children to positive role models.
Reduce stress in children’s lives, both by addressing its source and helping them learn how to cope with it in the company of competent, calming adults.
Protect them from chaos, violence, and chronic adversity, because toxic stress caused by these environments disrupts the brain circuits required for executive functioning and triggers impulsive, “act-now-think-later” behavior.
Support and encourage your children’s efforts to use the skills. Guide them from complete dependence on adults to gradual independence.
Include repeated practice of skills over time by setting up safe opportunities for children to learn. Increase the complexity of skills step-by-step by finding each child’s “zone” of being challenged but not frustrated.
This information is based on EXECUTIVE FUNCTION : SKILLS FOR LIFE AND LEARNING from Harvard’s Center for Child Development.
If you want to know more about executive functioning and strategies for helping your children develop them, I recommend The EVERYTHING Parent’s Guide to Children With Executive Functioning Disorder by Rebecca Branstetter.
If you have a specific question about EJSMS policies, procedures or plans that you'd like
to learn more about - please let us know!
Contact us at:
Transportation: 23-24 School Year
Community Events & Information
Ecole James S McCormick School
Email: jsm@wolfcreek.ab.ca
Website: ejsm.wolfcreek.ab.ca
Location: 5424 50 Street, Lacombe, AB, Canada
Phone: 403.782.3096
Facebook: facebook.com/EJSMParents
Twitter: @EJSMSchool