École Quarterway
Principal: Mike Lundine
Vice-Principal: Shannon Apland
Secretary: Barb Hickson
Telephone: (250) 754-6845 Fax: (250) 754-6871
Website: www.quarterway.ca
January 2015
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
Happy New Year and welcome back! Hopefully, you all had a chance to relax and spend some
quality family time together over the past two weeks. It is great to see all the kids back with
refreshed looks on their faces. The next few months will prove to be very busy ones so it will serve
the children (and parents) well to have recharged their batteries just that little bit. All the best to
you and your family in the New Year.
SCHOOL-WIDE ASSESSMENT
Over the past few months, our students have taken part in French reading assessments. We do
these assessments for our own purposes here at school so that we have immediate data on what
our kids are able to do and where they may require support. The assessments provide us with
data for our school goal of improving school-wide French fluency and literacy and we hope to raise
reading levels as well in the near future so we are setting a baseline with our French reading
assessment tool.
FSA ASSESSMENTS
Are you curious about the content of the
Foundation Skills Assessment or FSAs given
to all elementary students in British Columbia
in grades 4 and 7? If yes, take a look at the
sample questions at the following web
address:
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/assessment/fsa/sa
mple_tests.htm
The Ministry of Education requires that FSA
Assessments be completed by all students in
grades 4 and 7 between January 12 and
February 20. Students who have a mental or
physical handicap or do not comprehend or
speak English well enough to be able to
meaningfully complete the assessment may be
excused. In addition, the Ministry allows
principals to excuse students in “extenuating
circumstances” (those circumstances which
are unforeseen, unexpected, and significantly
disruptive and beyond a student’s control).
This Foundation Skills Assessment provides a
province-wide snapshot of how well students
are learning the prescribed learning outcomes
for reading, writing and numeracy across
British Columbia. While there is debate about
how the results are used by the Fraser Institute
to compare schools, at present, this is the only
province-wide assessment we have to review
how well our students are mastering the
expectations set out in our provincial
curriculum guidelines.
Parents of students in grades 4 and 7 will be
receiving from the school, more specific
information about these assessments.
FRENCH IMMERSION REGISTRATION
French immersion Kindergarten and Grade 1
registration is on NOW until January 16th at
4PM. Parents can pick up a lottery application
from here at school or at the board office.
Application forms are also available at
www.sd68.bc.ca . Please be sure to inform
any friends and family interested in French
Immersion of the details regarding registration.
There is, of course, no guarantee they will
have a spot at Quarterway but you can
certainly help them find a space in Frimm.
LATE FRENCH IMMERSION OPEN HOUSE
Please tell your friends and family who have a
child entering grade six in September that
space still remains in our Late French
A Great Place to Learn
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Immersion program. There will be an open
house Thursday, January 15th in our library at
6:30 if anyone is looking for more information.
2015 SIBLINGS ENTERING
KINDERGARTEN
Please let the office know if you have another
child coming to Quarterway. We need this
information ASAP!
Please note that if you currently have a child or
children enrolled here in grades K-6, your
Kindergarten
or
grade
1
sibling
is
grandfathered past the lottery system.
However, you will still need to fill out the
application form and hand it in to the board
office before January 16. Otherwise, the sibling
will be placed in the February 2nd lottery for a
district space in French Immersion.
iPODS, MP3 PLAYERS, AND CELL PHONES
A reminder that students are asked to leave
music players and/or phones in backpacks
until the end of the day. Students are not
permitted to listen to iPods during breaks or at
recess. It is becoming a safety concern as
students cannot always hear duties who are
trying to get their attention. Please be aware
also that the school does not accept any
responsibility for lost or stolen items.
GUIDELINES FOR SICK KIDS – “WHEN DO I
KEEP MY CHILD AT HOME?”
Please keep your child at home if he or she…
 Is vomiting (2 or more times in the past
24 hours)
 Has a body rash especially with a fever
or itching
 Has diarrhea (3 or more watery stools
in 24 hours)
 Has an eye infection (thick mucus or
pus draining from the eye)
 Has a sore throat with a fever or
swollen glands
 Has a fever of 100 degrees F. or higher
AND sore throat, rash, vomiting,
diarrhea, earache or is just not feeling
well
 Is just not feeling well (unusually tired,
pale, lack of appetite, confused and
cranky)
Please be sure to have back-up childcare if
your child is ill. We would also ask you to
remember to phone the school office
(250-754-6845) if your child won’t be attending.
CHANGES
Please remember to let the office know if you
have new phone numbers, addresses,
changes of contacts, etc. It is important that
we keep our information current. Thank you.
SNOW RULES
In order to keep our students safe during
snowy days, we would like to point out the
following:
 Students are not to throw snowballs
under any circumstances, whether at
an object or another student.
 Students are not to participate in
activities that may injure other students
– face washing with snow, kicking
chunks of snow/ice, etc.
 Snow stays on the ground`
 Please leave sleds and crazy carpets at
home. Students can slide down the hill
on their knees, backs, etc. if they have
the appropriate clothing.
 Please ensure that students are always
dressed appropriately for the weather.
We anticipate sending kids outside to
play in the fresh air as often as
possible. Boots, gloves and hats are
so important at this time of year.
Thanks.
SPORTS
The Quarterway floor hockey season will soon
kick off. The QHL is made up of 6 teams; The
Canucks, The Oilers, The Flames, The
Senators, The Leafs, and The Canadiens.
Teams play once a week and the season runs
until April.
Players are responsible for
scorekeeping, reffing, gym set-up, and takedown. Good luck to all players and have fun!
Listen for announcements so you know when
your games are.
Our volleyball teams head into playoffs this
month.
We wish them luck in all their
upcoming games.
A Great Place to Learn
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E.R.A.S.E. BULLYING
Please visit www.erasebullying.ca to learn
more about this amazing resource for kids and
for parents. E.R.A.S.E. Bullying builds on the
Province’s Safe, Caring and Orderly Schools
Strategy (2004), which focused on creating
schools where students are free from harm,
where clear expectations of acceptable
behavior are held for all members of the school
community, and where there is a sense of
connectedness. ERASE Bullying will help
ensure every child feels safe, accepted and
respected, regardless of their gender, race,
culture, religion or sexual orientation.
LEADERSHIP
Thank you to all of our leadership students for
all of their hard work to date. Leadership
students have been charged with many
responsibilities
such as: keeping
the
Quarterway sign out front up to date, reffing
recess hockey, helping with assembly set-up
and take-down, cleaning up our courtyard and
helping with little buddies. Leadership students
prepared boxes for our Fill the Foyer campaign
and helped organize our Coins for Kids drive in
December. Quarterway raised approximately
$500 for the Coins for Kids initiative and filled
approximately 25 boxes of food! Thank you to
everyone who helped support these initiatives.
PAC NEWS
On January 6th the PAC AGM was held and
there were some changes of executive
members. We would like to thank Oona
Barrera and Robyn Dunstan for their excellent
work in their respective positions of secretary
and treasurer. Your effort and dedication has
been greatly appreciated.
The executive positions are now filled as
follows:
Heather Northrup - Director at large/ DPAC
Representative
Robyn Dunstan - Director at large
Nicola McTaggart - Secretary
Christina Pendergast - Treasurer
Cynthia MacLean-Charles - Vice President
Michelle Alvarez - President
Robyn Dunstan, Carly Williams and Becca
Misner will also fill the positions for the School
Planning Committee.
Our next PAC activities will be pizza day on
January 30th and a movie night on February
12th. The next PAC meeting will be on
February 3rd in the morning right after drop
off.
OUR WORLD VISION SPONSOR CHILD
Sujon is in primary school in grade 5 in
Bangladesh and his favorite subject is national
language. Sujon and his family speak Bengali.
He helps his parents at home and carries
water. Sujon's favorite game is local traditional
games. Since August 2013, Sujon has been
participating in children's assembly. Since
August 2009, Sujon's family has been
participating in education sensitization. Sujon
has received support such as a hygiene kit.
Our student leaders raise funds to pay Sujon’s
sponsorship fees.
UPDATE YOUR CALENDAR
Late Immersion Info Meeting
NDSS Band Performance – 9:35
PAC Meeting – 8:45 am – Library
Recognition Assembly – 12:30
Family Day
PAC Movie Night – 5:45
Maple Sugar Festival
Pro-D
Pro-D
Fine Arts Assembly – 10:00
Report Cards
Spring Break
Good Friday
Easter Monday
School Track/Field Meet
Pro-D
Victoria Day
Zone Track/Field Meet
Div 13 Newcastle Campout
Camp Qwanoes
District Track/Field Meet
Jump Rope for Heart
Grade 7 Farewell
Last day for students
Pro D
Administrative Day
A Great Place to Learn
Jan 15
Jan 20
Feb 3
Feb 5
Feb 9
Feb 12
Feb 13
Feb 23
Feb 24
Mar 5
Mar 18
Mar 23-27
Apr 3
Apr 6
May 1
May 4
May 18
May 28
May 29-31
Jun 3/4
Jun 4
Jun 15
Jun 18
Jun 24
Jun 25
Jun 26
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THE HOLIDAYS AND OTHER FUN STUFF AT QUARTERWAY
A Great Place to Learn
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