We have had a very successful first couple of weeks back to school. I am still seeing smiling faces and students having fun at our school.

I trust that you child let you know about our school priorities regarding student safety and learning. We feel it is important to share these with as many people as we can. Our focus and goals centre on providing the best possible learning and instruction. We want to set high goals that all of our students will learn. If we all work together, we can best help our students feel safe at school and learn at the highest possible level.

Our second focus area is around student safety. It is very important to our staff that students feel safe at school. We believe that if students feel safe and comfortable, they will learn at a much higher level. Please make sure you communicate if this is not the case.

I would also like to take this time to welcome our new families to our school and to our community! We look forward to meeting with you and discussing your child’s education. Please do not wait until Student Led Conferences to come to our school. Everyone is always welcome at Wagner Elementary. We hope all parents will feel welcome to contact our school. Should ever you have a question or concern, please do not hesitate to call us at the school. We would prefer to address problems or questions immediately, rather than waiting until the concern becomes larger.

In the past, our students have commented on how much they enjoy our behavior rewards. We will again have our rewards for students that have not received behavior referrals. Each day, we teach and stress to our students, the “Wagner Way”. We feel that this is a very important part of learning social skills at school and in the community. As stated above, if students feel safe and the environment is safe and encourages learning, we feel that our students will learn at a higher level. We also believe that if our students are acting and doing as they should (no behavior referrals) we should recognize this, give this positive attention, and thank them for a job well done. This is how the behavior rewards came to be.

We also understand that as students are growing and learning, sometimes make mistakes, and may get a behavior referral. We treat this as a learning opportunity and a chance to learn more appropriate ways to deal with difficulties. Students may not get the monthly reward but they are able to start clean, the next month, and again work towards earning the behavior reward.

We have seen an increase in student conflict, to start the school year. I believe that much of it is because our students are out of practice on how to be respectful to others that are their age. We continue to work with our students and make sure we are teaching and expecting that are students are respectful of each other. You may be asking how you can help? Please remind your child that they have the skills to deal with conflict in an appropriate way. They have learned the skills and may have just forgotten them. Please make sure they are checking in with a trusted adult for help, rather than responding with mean words of their own. If you have reached out to your child’s teacher and it is continuing, please make sure you are calling the teacher back. My biggest fear is the conflict is still happening, but because I do not hear back, I think that the trouble has been solved! Please keep calling until the problem is corrected!

Attendance

More and more research has come out regarding the importance of school attendance. Research says that the more students attend, the better they do in school.

With the many changes in our school curriculums and with the COVID pandemic, it has become more and more important that students attend every day. In the past, students were able to take work sheets home and complete much of the missed work. Now, much of the class time is in discussion, student inquiry, and hands-on activities that students must participate in, to learn the concepts and outcomes.

If your child is not well or does not want to come to school, this may be an indication of a couple of things. Firstly, they may have a medical condition that needs to be checked out. Secondly, it may mean that something has happened at the school, they are not getting along with someone, or they do not understand, and are becoming frustrated. If any of these things are happening, we would want to know about this right away so that we can make every effort to correct the trouble. Home and school can work together to help your child enjoy coming to school!

Mr. Norum

The North East School Division is using the EDSBY App for communication, report cards and attendance. If you haven’t already done so, I would encourage you to download the app and get signed up. We can help support parents in doing this. It may just take a few minutes by phone.

We will be set up in the computer lab during Student Led Conferences. We can help parents get started in EDSBY.

School Community Council
Elected Positions
Chair Mike Peifer (Parent)
Vice-Chair Lisa Vavra (Parent)
Secretary Amanda Ritthaler(Parent)
Treasurer Jessica Griffin (Parent)

Representative Members

Jan Boughen (Parent)

Jessica Griffin (Parent)

Shelinda Hill (Parent)

Mike Peifer (Parent) (Parent)

Amanda Ritthaler (Parent)

Trevor Salisbury (Parent)

Lisa Vavra (Parent)

Appointed Members
Trevor Norum (School)
Carnie Carr (School)