October 31, 2019
Dear Urban Academy Families,Thank you for a great week. Students always enjoy Hallowe’en celebrations at school and this year we had the opportunity to do some activities with younger and older buddies, including some pumpkin carving and a very large costume parade. The older ones enjoyed a Haunted House led by senior students. Enjoy trick or treating tonight with your little goblins!
Congratulations to our girls’ volleyball team. The growth in their skills over one short season has been amazing and they have played extremely well against tough opponents who have more experience. Their performance against St. John’s School yesterday was excellent.
Our November Professional Day is a school-based one, where staff work on priorities specific to UA. The October provincial day is an opportunity to attend provincial professional development at a fraction of what the cost would be during the school year. The November and May days are focused at school for UA specific work and the February Day is one on which all ISABC schools come together to learn. Tomorrow we will be pursuing our work of bringing our school together, STEM initiatives, balanced assessment, and the core competencies in our new curriculum as well as providing training for our Teacher Assistants.
Please note that our Community Annual General Meeting is coming up on November 20. This is an opportunity to hear from your Board of Directors on the work of the last year, the Annual Report to the community, and a review of the financial outcome last year for the school. This year, a special invitation to hear an update on the process for the selection of the new Head of School will also be part of the evening. Thank you to all who participated in the survey that went out, your responses are appreciated. In preparation for the evening, the electronic information on the financials and Annual Report will be emailed to you approximately a week before the meeting.
As you will have noted, the soil and bed preparation for our landscaping on Rousseau Street and the laneway are complete. We just need the planting to begin. The City does the planting and selection of the landscaping and we are in the queue to have our plants arrive and go in. We need to wait our turn with other projects on the go, but this should move ahead soon.
Please stop in to the school this Saturday, November 2, between 11am and 3pm to enjoy the Holiday Pop-Up Market for some early Christmas shopping. Our PAX is trying a few new activities in response to suggestions our community has made, and we want to support them. Thank you to both PAX and staff for the preparation on these events, it is appreciated.
Report cards are coming up in approximately a month. Marks cutoff for this term is November 22. Checking and confirming your login will be necessary for all grades for parent-teacher conferences (please follow directions below).
Have an enjoyable weekend with your family and a safe Hallowe’en, and we look forward to seeing everyone on Monday morning.
Mrs. Cheryle Beaumont
Head of School
