September 8, 2019

Welcome Back!

What a great first week of school we had this week! The students were very excited to get started in their new classrooms and although there were a few hiccups, things went really well. THANK YOU to all of our parents who shared Back to School pics on our FaceBook page. We always love to see those! If you haven't found our FaceBook page yet, you can click on this link: RBES FACEBOOK PAGE to like our page and see those updates.

Our first assembly this past Friday was the best "First Assembly" of the year I have ever had in my career. The students were all so engaged, were great listeners when they needed to be and were showing just how amazing they can all be. It was so great to see and feel their enthusiasm. As always, parents are invited to come join us for any Friday assembly.

For our new families: we do a Student of the Week from each class every Friday that there is school. This is for our K-4 students as our PreK (PK) kiddos don't have classes on Fridays. Our Student of the Week celebrations will begin on the last Friday in September. Classroom teachers will let you know when your child is Student of the Week so you have the opportunity to attend that assembly and see them receive their certificate. I also include photos each week of the Students of the Week, so if you miss out, you are still able to see your child's picture.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Garth Prince on the First Day of School!

Our students and staff were treated to a fantastic performance by Garth Prince. Garth is from Namibia and his music had the staff and students clapping, singing and dancing in their seats!

School & Teacher Blogs & Website

This blog is our main communication from the office and replaces a monthly newsletter. The link will be emailed out to you every week (generally on Sunday) so that you can stay up to date with what is happening in our school. Our teachers also blog regularly and will post curricular updates on their classroom blogs so that you can stay informed about your child's learning and other classroom activities. It is really important to keep your contact information current with the office as we email out all of our information using Power School. If you have an email, phone or address change, please let us know as soon as possible in order for us to stay current and on top of things.

Our website: http://rbes.blackgold.ca/ is another fabulous place to get information and is updated regularly. Here you can find links to all teacher blogs, links to directly email staff, calendars, news and other important information.

Google Calendar

Another great way to stay up to date with school happenings is to subscribe to our GOOGLE CALENDAR. This of course works with a gmail account. We recommend that all families have at least one gmail email address to communicate with the school. They are free and easy to create if you don't have one. Many people use this for school items only and then you have much less to search through when you are looking back for information. Your child will have a black gold gmail email address for their school career and this allows families to have one platform to operate from. If all of this is GREEK to you, because you have been meaning to catch up and become tech savvy, but that hasn't happened yet - - - that is ok! We are happy to help you. We have a parent computer station in our office for all parents to use when you are in the school. We can also help you set up a gmail app and calendar app on your mobile device so that all the data automatically feeds to your phone. Just give us a call in the office or pop by. WE are more than happy to help!

HOW TO CONNECT TO OUR GOOGLE CALENDAR:

Click on OUR CALENDAR or click on the tab near the top of our blog that says CALENDAR.

Once you are there you will see the "Add Google Calendar" icon at the bottom of the calendar:

Just click on it and follow the instructions to merge it with your own google calendar. EASY PEASY! Again . . . if you would like help with this, please let us know.

Our Google Calendar is updated daily or as soon as something needs to be added or changed. We do not recommend printing the calendar and posting it on your fridge as we don't send out notifications for daily input. However, if you are a subscriber to the calendar, you will receive a change notification if you like. This is something you can control in your settings. We also post the next week or so of important dates at the end of this blog post every week, so you will also have a quick weekly view that way.

Calendar Magnet

You should have received a school calendar magnet this week! On it you will see our big events for each month as well as a reminder that early dismissal starts in October. On the first Wednesday of the month students are dismissed at 2:21 p.m. If you did not recieve a magnet yet, please let us know and we will send one out to you!

STUDENT ABSENCES

Our school (like all BGRS schools) is on an automated call out system. By 9:00 am and 1:00 pm every day the system will email, text and/or call parents of absent students. To prevent these sometimes annoying messages, please contact our school and let us know in advance of a student absence. You can call: 780-987-3705 and leave a voice mail after hours or you can email: maureen.horrocks@blackgold.ca and leave a quick message. You can also let your child's teacher know of an absence as they appreciate being in the information loop as well. Either method is fine and we will enter it in the system so that you are not bothered during the day. Of course the call outs are important so that we can keep all of our children safe. Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter! It is much appreciated!

School Council & Fundraising Committee

Our RBES School Council (RBES-SC) and Parent Fundraising Committee (RBES-PFC) have regular monthly meetings and we are always looking for parents to join us and have a voice. You don't have to sign up for anything to come to the meetings to have a voice! We would love to see more parents coming out to participate.

For details check out our School Council & Fundraising page on our website

In order for our Fundraising Group to contact you independently, there is a membership form that you need to fill out. You can find a copy of that here: https://goo.gl/EBGRCt Please download it and send a copy to the school and we will forward that to our RBES-PFC chair. You can also pick up a copy in the office and the form will be available at all meetings as well as being sent home once just before our first meeting.

Next Meeting Date: Wednesday, September 18

The meeting will start at 5:30 and will be in the staff room!

ADMAZING FUNDRAISER INFORMATION FROM RBES FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE

FallFunraiserLetter_2019_20.pdf

SCHOOL FEES

All parents in grade 1 - 4 were emailed this letter during the week. If you did not receive it by email, there is a copy here for you to read regarding a new BGRS technology fee. The fee has been added to all PowerSchool accounts.

NEW TECH FEE 2019.pdf