Principal's Message for November
(from the newsletter sent to families on November 15)
What a Fall we have had so far! Summer seems to be a distant memory as we have had a full schedule of events since coming back to school. September saw our smiling faces returning to school and celebrations like our Meet the Teacher Ice Cream Party, the Terry Fox Run and our visit from the Cops for Cancer team. Add to that our soccer and cross-country teams and we were busy on a lot of our afternoons! October was equally busy with picture day, World Teachers Day (we thank our generous parents for spoiling our teachers that day!), Parent Teacher conferences, our initial safety drills of the year and a petting zoo and pumpkin patch for our youngest classes. And all of this was topped off with celebrations around Thanksgiving and Hallowe’en! We have a number of events planned for this month as well and you can find more detailed information about them in the sections below
We continue to work on using our ‘helping hands’ to solve conflict on the playground here at Auguston Traditional. Unfortunately, we have seen an increase in rough play and hands on behaviours outside recently.
During our Friday Friends whole school buddy time, we have been talking about using this valuable tool when we have a disagreement. We hold our hand open and work our way through the steps:
- - Say ‘stop, I don’t like it when you ______, because ___________’. It’s everyone’s responsibility to stop when they are asked to stop and we are working on that, too,
- - Ignore the behaviour,
- - Walk away from the situation,
- - Find something else to do or someplace else to be, and
- - Seek help from an adult on duty.
Click here for the Helping Hands Rule.
Not only does this strategy help our students have a voice and advocate for their needs, but it also frees up our duty parents and teachers to deal with any bigger issues that may arise. We have ‘helping hands’ posters up around the school and will continue to work on this throughout the year. We are seeing progress, and a lot of students are finding their voice in this – which is really great to see. We appreciate your support from home in this as well as we try to curb those hands on behaviours.
I have truly enjoyed getting to know our students as our classes have settled into their routines this Fall. Each of our teachers brings a special gift to our school and it is awesome to see them share their passions with their students. I love checking in with classes and wandering through to see what’s happening and what students are learning about. I know that we have a great thing going here at Auguston Traditional and I’m so proud of our staff and students every single day!
Looking forward to a busy but amazing November with them! Here are a few updates and reminders as we settle in for the cold weather.
Kris Sward
Principal
Auguston Traditional Elementary School