Greetings Banting Families,

What a busy couple of first months at Banting. Swimming and cross country running are finished, we are halfway through volleyball season and basketball, and wrestling and ski and snowboard club are right around the corner. This year, having the French and English teams mixed and in the same explorations classes has been a refreshing change. We are seeing more and more connections between the two groups. As you can see, the new Banting Middle School is quickly taking shape. I am told that if we get a ton of sunshine over winter and through spring, there is a chance, a small chance, we could enter the new school in September. I can’t remember a lot of sunny winter days, so I am going out on a limb and predicting we will move into the new Banting in late December 2018 or early 2019.

Our teachers are feverishly implementing and increasing their knowledge of the new curriculum. With the new curriculum comes a new way of communicating student learning as you will see in the Interim Reports sent home October 26 and in the upcoming first report card which goes home on December 15. Last year, we piloted three-way conferencing and focused on meeting with the classroom teacher and receiving authentic and understandable information about your child’s progress. It also gave parents the opportunity to see their child’s work and talk directly with teachers and ask clarifying questions. This year, the district has introduced a new reporting template (I e-mailed it out in early October), and with that comes some changes in how we will communicate student learning. We very much value the conversations we have with parents, so we are continuing our three-way conferences, with a twist. Report cards will come home on Friday December 15. We have set aside three days the following week for parents to come in and have their child lead them through their portfolio and then meet with your child’s teacher to discuss any and all things happening in your child’s academic, emotional, and social life at school. Our goal is to have 100% of our parents sign up to attend the three-way conferences.

Here is how it will work, like last year, we will send home an e-mail with a link for you to book a time slot. If the time slots offered do not work, please contact your child’s teacher to arrange another time more suitable for you. The dates:

Friday December 15 – report cards home.

Tuesday, December 19 – regular day at school, students will be participating in curricular workshops. Conferencing time from 9:00 – 4:00.

Wednesday, December 20 – Early dismissal. Students dismissed at 12:05. Conferencing time from 1:00 – 7:00.

Mr. Bill Trask, Principal - Ms. Genevieve McMahon, Vice Principal Phone: 604-939-9247 Fax: 604-937-8041

BANTING MIDDLE CALENDAR

2017-2018

OCTOBER 2017

31 Halloween Dance

NOVEMBER 2017

05 Daylight Savings ENDS, turn clocks back 1 hour

09 Remembrance Day Assembly 10:40 am

10 District Closure Day - School not in session

13 Remembrance Day Observed - School not in session

15 PAC Meeting - 6:30 pm Library

24 Ministry Curriculum Implementation Day

School Not in Session (District-wide)

DECEMBER 2017

14 Christmas Music Concert 6:00 - 7:30 pm

15 First Report Card sent home

19 Curriculum Day 3 Way Conferences 9:00 - 4:00

20 Early Dismissal 12:05

3 Way Conferences from 1:00 - 7:00 pm

21 Early Dismissal 12:05

3 Way Conferences from 1:00 - 5:00 pm

22 Schools Close for Winter Vacation

Christmas Break/Winter Vacation Period

December 23 to January 07

JANUARY 2017

08 School Re-opens (Monday!)

Thursday, December 21 – Early Dismissal. Students dismissed at 12:05. Conferencing time from 1:00 – 5:00.

We hope you will take advantage of these opportunities to meet with your child’s teacher(s).

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. A reminder, please regularly check our announcements to keep abreast of Banting information and our calendar for important dates.

Boo – Happy Halloween!

All the best,

Bill Trask Principal

Banting Middle -Things You Need to Know!

We are a Closed Campus. This means students are expected to stay on the grounds during lunch. Lunch break is quite short from 12:05 to 12:46. Permission is granted only with a note from a parent/guardian or a phone call confirming student can go home for lunch. The first bell of the day is at 8:38 and the school day is over at 3:00. You can find the

bell schedule on our website at www.sd43.bc.ca/banting

We have hot water urns for cup of noodles and microwaves for students to warm their lunch in the cafeteria and some classrooms. Please remember to provide your children with utensils for their lunch as we do not provide chopsticks, forks or spoons at the office.

We have 2 vending machines: a beverage machine with 100% juice and water and a “healthier” snack machine offering granola bars, baked chips, nuts, among other items. Students can access these before school, nutrition break and after school.

Honour Roll, Super-G and BSA (Banting Service Award)

Every term, we publish the names of students who receive the above awards. Our apologies, we missed Alin Totan, Grade 7 Green Team Honour roll, for term three last year. Honour roll recipients must have a “B” average, Super G award recipients must get all “G’s” in their work habits and BSA award winners must complete six hours of volunteer time at the school

for that term. NOTE: When you see the new report template you will notice there are no longer work habits (N,S,G), meaning there will no longer be any Super G award going forward in this school year.

FROM THE DESK OF MS. GENEVIEVE McMAHON, VICE PRINCIPAL

Please take a moment to read the information provided by Children of the Streets regarding Halloween Costumes for this upcoming October 31st. There will likely be events happening over the weekend as well, and the message is an important reminder concerning your children. We want everyone to have a Happy Halloween!

We would also like to remind you that SD43 has a ‘Scent Aware’ advisory for all our district buildings and would ask you to be considerate in remembering there are many of us who have strong allergies to a variety of substances. We thank you for your help in keeping us all healthy!

Silver Sky Mr. Veltri, Ms. Sidhu, Mme Fenrick, Mme Riccardi, mme Ro-milly

Silver Team has been hard at work since the beginning of Sep-

tember. This year our team consists of two grade 6/7 English

classes and two grade 6 Late French Immersion classes. The

students have had the opportunity to get to know one another

better through participating in Team PE on Friday’s and

through Explorations classes. The team also came together

during the Terry Fox Assembly and presented our Team Cheer.

All the students did an amazing job and showed school spirit

and enthusiasm through the assembly and into the Terry Fox

run. Congratulations to all the students who contributed to

the Terry Fox Fundraiser; our school reached the goal of

$2000.

Academically, students have been hard at work. In Humani-

ties classes have been reading and working through Andy Mul-

ligan's captivating and thrilling novel, Trash. We have been

discussing the themes of friendship, poverty, and corruption,

the role of politics and society in relation to these themes, and

the importance and role of one's identity. Our French classes,

after going over numbers, letters, and calendar vocabulary,

have been looking at colours and body parts and the construc-

tion of sentences relating to creatures and monsters. In math,

students have focused on writing and identifying place value

with large numbers. Students have also worked on addition

and subtraction of decimal numbers. In Science, students are

learning about the human body and specifically focused on the

respiratory and circulatory systems, and in the coming weeks

will continue to learn about different systems of the body. In

PE, we are fully involved in our volleyball unit and developing

their bumping and volleying skills. The grade 6 FI classes have

also focused on Mapping and continuing to work on Vocab

and verb acquisition. Teachers are encouraging students to

come to school dressed up on Halloween and participate in

the afternoon school dance.

Terra Vert M Blizzard, M Hashmi, Mme Lepine, Ms. Knowles, Ms. Ruhr

Who are Terra Vert? We’re 109 Banting students learning in Grades 6 & 7 English and Grade 7 Late French Immersion, aided by our able stable of teachers: M. Blizzard (Div 1), M. Hashmi & Mme Lépine (Div 2), Ms. Knowles (Div 3), Ms. Ruhr (Div 4) and our Student Support staff. We spent our first week together getting to know each other and taking on fun challenges to use and reflect on our budding Core Competencies. Since then we have been together every day in Explorations classes plus team PE on Fridays. While most of our school day is spent learning in different languages, we’re all on the same team and we will continue making connections throughout the year.What have we been up to in our core

classes? Much too much to list here, but here’s a taste:

In LFI 7, we have been studying songs from francophone artists and using the systematic correction of our written reflections to improve our writing. In Math, besides review and new units, we are charting daily our two-month math fact fluency challenge using ReflexMath. In English, we are writing creative pieces about coming home inspired by The Secret Path. In Sciences humaines, we are studying government, and in Sciences we’re researching and teaching each other how body systems function, interact, and malfunction.

In English 6/7, Ms. Ruhr's Humanities classes have been reading and working through Andy Mulligan's captivating and thrilling novel, Trash. We have been discussing the themes of friendship, poverty, and corruption, the role of politics and society in relation to these themes, and the importance and role of one's identity. Our French classes, after going over numbers, letters, and calendar vocabulary, have been looking at colours and body parts and the construction of sentences relating to creatures and monsters.

Terra Vert – here we grow, here we go!

Rouge Fire

It has been a fast and furious start to the year! Students on Rouge Fire began their final middle school year full of excitement and apprehension but soon settled into school routines. The blending of French and English programs has been quite seamless and students are very positive about being mixed during their explorations. To kick off the fall, Rouge Fire ventured down to Rocky Point Park where we had a barbeque and had some time to get to know classmates and team-mates. Although it was a long walk back to Banting, students were enthusiastic and even helped each other along the way. At present, students are fully into their studies and most classes have homework sites that can be accessed at home. We would like to remind all students that the Rouge Fire teachers are available for extra help should anyone need it. We are looking forward to the rest of the year with such a great group of kids!

Daylight Saving Time ends officially on

Sunday, November 5th

Remember to set your clocks back 1

hour and enjoy the extra sleep!

L’eau Blue M Kimura, Mme Mazzei, Ms. Davis, Ms. Chiew

L’eau Blue has had an enjoyable first six weeks together as a team at school. After our introductory activities to start the year learning more about the Core Competencies, we’ve enjoyed the time when we were able to come together as a team for Super Blocks, for Team PE, singing our GhostBusters themed cheer, and for our first field trip of the year to Westhill Park. After a postponement due to inclement weather, we were able to walk down to the park the first Friday of October to do a nature scavenger hunt, play some games out in the field and guess the teacher in a L’eau Blue teacher trivia. Back in the classroom, after various team building activities to start the year, we have started jump headfirst into the curriculum. After learning the basics of the scientific method, we have started our first unit of the year in biology looking at various body systems. On the English side, we have started looking a reading strategies in Language Arts and mapping in Social Studies. For our French half, in Français, we have spent much time reviewing the agreement of nouns and adjectives all the while continuing to brush up on our conjugation of the present tense. In Math, we have started the year looking at operations on integers. For PE, we had been blessed with some great weather early in the year so we could play some field games with one class and volleyball with the other. However, after we switched units, the weather has chosen not to be as cooperative which has forced us to revise our plans to playing games with both PE classes indoors. We’re hoping we can get a few sunnier days before the Vancouver rainy season takes over for the next 6 months.

Soleil Gold

Ms. Enga, M Campbell, Mme Nicolson, Mme Zepeski, Mme Ballard

Fall is here! And the rains have come. Nonetheless, our field trips to the SFU General Chemistry Lab for our Chem-istry in Action workshops were a great success. Congratu-lations are due to all the students: they demonstrated ex-emplary behavior on public transit and up on the busy university campus. It was wonderful to see them so en-gaged as they donned lab coats and safety goggles and practiced being scientists, applying what they have been learning so far in Science about Matter and its properties. (A big thank you to our intrepid accompanying parents, as well.) In Math, the fun continues as we build on our basic math skills to explore factors and multiples and how they relate to prime and composite numbers. With our empha-sis on “thinking like a mathematician”, students are work-ing on solving interesting and relevant problems by mixing and applying the different concepts. In Social Studies / Sciences Humaines, we continue to investigate the Big Idea that “Governments vary in their respect for human rights and freedoms”. We have been looking at the idea of ‘good governance’ and are comparing different forms of government around the world (North Korea, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) to Canada’s. In our Literacy work, the fo-cus continues to be on strengthening writing skills both in English and French, by learning and applying next level grammar skills. We are also reading the novel Trash, which fits in with our global theme this year; at the moment, we are focusing on the literary element ‘setting’, working on understanding how it sets the ‘rules’ for the story. Interims are right around the corner and students have been prac-ticing their core competencies self-assessment- we hope you find this helpful in your discussions as we mark the middle of Term 1.

Soleil Gold at SFU Chemistry Lab!

News from Explorations Team

The Explorations programs have hit the ground running. We are two months into the school year and the first rotation of classes are ending on October 31st. The following will outline what the students in the various programs have been working on.

We have a fifth exploration this year. Inquiry is taught by the very talented Ms. Allen. In Inquiry, the students are working on investigating an idea of personal interest and creating something that represents the Inquiry. They will be sharing their learning journey with each other.

Ms. Cairns’ Visual Arts students have been exploring techniques and themes in self portraiture and made whistles out of clay. Grade 6/7 classes are now learning perspective and grade 7/8s are doing acrylic painting in the style of Canadian painter Lawren Harris.

Students in Mr. Kantola’s Performing Arts classes have been ex-ploring and composing music in many styles on Mixcraft and working on dramatic scripts and developing skills on guitar.

Ms. Paxton’s Tech Ed students have been busy designing a truss bridge on computer as well as on paper. Then in pairs, students will construct a truss bridge out of popsicle sticks and subject it to a stress test.

Students in Ms. Lee’s Home Arts classes have been using a basic weaving technique to create a small pouch. In the cooking por-tion, students have been making various items including baked apples, bannock and soup.

With the start of the second rotation on November 1st, students will be moving on to a new exploration. Check with your child to see which one it is.

If you have any queries with your child’s progress in Explorations, please do not hesitate to contact the teacher.

Athletics The Banting Blaze have had a strong start to the Fall athletic season. We sent determined teams to the swimming districts on October 2nd and the cross-country districts on October 22nd. All swimmers and runners should be proud of their efforts.

The volleyball teams are approaching the end of their regular season and preparing for district playoffs. The grade 8 volley-ball teams will participate in the first round on November 10th, looking to advance to the finals on November 12th. Our grade 7 teams will begin their playoff bids on November 17th. The grade six volleyball team, which has been focusing on basic skills, will head to Gleneagle on October 30th for the district play night.

A special thanks to parent drivers who are so essential to the continued success of all our teams.

As the Fall season draws to a close, look for information regard-ing basketball and wrestling to come out soon. Information goes out to students through the morning announcements.

PE

Banting Athletics Clothing

Due to popular demand, the annual Banting Athletics Clothing sale has begun. All orders are due to the office by Friday November 13th. They are offered in two different colour selections, grey with blue lettering and black with silver lettering. The following options are available: T-Shirts, sweatshirts, shorts and sweatpants, all marked with “Banting Athletics” logo. Students may view some approximate sample sizes inside of the display case outside of the PE office. We will also arrange to have the option of students trying on the clothing for size prior to making a purchase.

PLEASE NOTE THE BANTING

COTTON TEE IS ONLY $14.00

NOT $38.50 AS PRINTED IN THE

SKYLINE ATHLETICS

INFO.

Student Services Corner:

Ms. Falcone, Ms. Chang, Ms. Wong

This year, our Student Services Department has three main student services teachers: Ms. Ewa Janus, Ms. Nancy Falcone and Ms. Harriette Chang. We work together as a team to support a great variety of student learning needs and this year some of our Explorations teachers will also be a part of our student services team. We will run a student services column each month which will focus on various strategies to help your child with academic, social, and emotional issues. Our email addresses are below. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any concerns regarding your child’s learning.

nfalcone@sd43.bc.ca – Ms. Falcone hchang@sd43.bc.ca – Ms. Chang ejanus@sd43.bc.ca – Ms. Janus Dear Student Services Corner We recently purchased a cell phone for our grade 6 daughter for safety reasons now that she is at middle school. She says that she was the LAST person in the school to get one but she was still thrilled. Lately though, she has been using it to text so many people that we don’t even know. She is also regularly on Snapchat and Instagram. I checked her texts on the weekend and was really surprised and angry at the language being used by her friends as well as HER! My husband and I have taken the phone away from her for now and she is very angry with us. What should we do? Upset Parents

Dear Upset Parents: It is very exciting for kids to finally get a phone of their own. Like many parents, you may feel more secure knowing your child has a cell phone and it certainly may make things easier when finding and picking her up after school. And like other parents you also want to help her to manage her cell phone use responsibly and safely.

Here are some cell phone use tips for young teens:

Make it clear to your child before you give him/her a cell phone that you will be regularly and spontaneously checking the text messages, call log and the number of minutes used. Make it clear as well to your child that s/he is not permitted to erase any of this information before you check it.

Tell your child NOT to give out his/her phone number to anyone s/he doesn’t know or answer any calls or reply to texts unless s/he knows the caller or sender

Encourage your child to turn off his/her cell phone if s/he is busy with his/her family or friends, having dinner or doing homework. Just a reminder that at Banting cell phones must always be turned off during school hours for students unless they have special permission to use them.

Good practice is to have your child leave their phones in a central location, like your kitchen, overnight. Too many children are on their phones at night when they are supposed to be asleep.

The Kitchen could be the night time charging station.

Make it clear to your child to NOT send or forward any unkind or abusive texts to anyone. At Banting we treat rumor spreading very seriously and using a cell phone to do it is a form of cyber bullying. If your child ever receives an embarrassing or rude text or photograph, s/he should not reply, but instead tell an adult whom s/he trusts. Replying may encourage the sender to continue this form of harassment.

Make it clear to your child that if s/he ever finds her/himself in a situation where s/he feels uncomfortable and pressured to respond to constant texts from his/her friends like: “Where r u?” or “Who are you with?” that s/he should tell an adult whom s/he trusts.

Information from Ilona Palko,

Youthworker

Friends of Simon Tutoring Program (FOS)

The Youth Worker oversees Friends of Simon tutoring program. It is a Program for students who are learning to express themselves in written and verbal English. Simon Fraser University tutors come on Monday and Thursday afternoons to involve our students in successful learning. It is rewarding to observe the tutors’ dedication and the connection our students build with them. Way to go Friends of Simon. (FOS).

Lost and Found. Everything that gets left behind end up in the Lost & Found. The Youth Worker cleans it up once a month. Students and parents are notified about the clean-up through Announcements. After a gener-ous period of time has passed, abandoned belongings are sent away for donation.

Game Club is open every day after lunch in the Youth

Worker room. The Club is very popular especially when

the weather is not favorable for outdoor games. Every

student is welcome. Students have access to several

very intriguing games. Game club is an excellent alter-

native to the computer games. The very major benefit

of it in addition to playing is the team involvement.

Board games need teams of 2-4 or more. Building on

friendships through playing is natural and pleasant.

Way to go Banting.

Visit Banting’s Community Portal for valuable information and links

www.sd43.bc.ca/banting

Lates At Banting Middle School we believe it is very important that

students arrive at school on time, ready to work. Being on

time prepares students for work and other activities outside of

school: a life skill necessary to succeed after graduation. Late

arrivals without a legitimate or reasonable excuse have the

duel effect of hindering a student’s academic progress, as well

as disrupting the teacher and the class as a whole, missing

important information and calendar items as well as missing

daily announcements. If a student arrives late to school, he/

she must sign in at the office. A student who is late twice a

month will be excused. The third time late in a month, the

student will be expected to complete a reflection sheet de-

signed to help the student come up with a plan to arrive at

school on time, and to inform parents. On the third, and any

subsequent late arrivals to school in a month, the student will

owe back the time to the office. Students should arrive at the

school by 8:38am to allow them time to

go to their locker before the first bell.

PEDS (Personal Electronic Devices – cell phones, iPods, iPads, MP3’s, computers, electronic games)

PED’s at Banting, we understand are a part of everyday life, but it is important that they do not disrupt the learning envi-ronment. PED’s will be permitted throughout the school (inside and outside) before and after school, but must be in lockers during school hours. PED’s should not be out between 8:35 – 2:55. This means no PED’s out at nutrition break or lunch break. Classroom teachers may permit PED’s in the classroom during classroom time or during breaks, under their supervision. This is the decision of each individual teacher and this must be respected. This means some classrooms or some areas may not permit PED’s during certain times or at all.

PEDs should be used respectfully and responsibly. The content

on a PED must be appropriate and any staff member can re-

quest to see or hear a PED at any time. For safety purposes,

the volume level of the PED must be at a level that the individ-

ual using it can hear others around him/her in case of an

emergency. PED’s that are not connected to earphones or ear

buds must be at a volume level that is quiet and does not dis-

rupt others. PICTURES OR RECORDINGS ARE NEVER TO BE

TAKEN AT SCHOOL. THIS MEANS BEFORE AND AFTER SCHOOL

ALSO. There are exceptions to this rule on a case by case

basis for example, students may be asked to do some video

work or take pictures for a class or school project. This will be

approved and supervised by a staff member. PED’s are NEV-

ER to be present in washrooms or change rooms for ANY rea-

son. Using a PED at Banting is a privilege. If it is abused, you

may lose the privilege to have a PED at Banting. If PED use

compromises the privacy or safety of a person at Banting, con-

sequences can range from confiscation of the PED to suspen-

sion - or both. THE SCHOOL IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SE-

CURITY OF PED’s AT ANY TIME.

Personal Electronic Devices, Lates & Cameras

Cameras

Cameras of any type are not to be used at school with-out teacher supervision. Any use of cameras for photos or video will be for educational purposes only. This is a large privacy/confidentiality issue.

Safe storage place for your scooter or skateboards!! This room will be locked at 9:00 am until 3:00 pm. It is located to the left of the office.

FIRE DRILLS, EARTHQUAKE DRILLS, AND LOCKDOWN DRILLS

Every year, we have three earthquake drills, three fire drills and at least two lockdown drills. Many of you are familiar with fire drills and earthquake drills, but some of you may not be familiar with lockdown drills. A lockdown is when we close and lock all exterior doors to the school, close and lock all classroom doors and have students sit down in the classroom as a group silently. The windows in each classroom also get covered so nobody can peer in. Essentially, anyone who could enter the school would find the school locked up and silent with no evidence of any adults or students being present. The purpose of such a drill is to be prepared for any number of potential emergencies that may arise where we need students to be in a safe, secure area where they cannot be seen, heard or found. Being prepared for a potential emergent situation is prudent planning, however, this may cause some anxiety for some students. I recommend you sit down with your child and discuss the rationale behind a lockdown drill. At the school level, we discuss the rationale, answer any of the students’ questions and have a debrief to clarify or answer any further questions before and after the lockdown. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Mr. Trask or Ms. McMahon.

ONLINE PAYMENTS

School Cash Online provides you with the convenience of paying online for school items such as trips, clubs and sports, etc. Save time when it comes to pay for school expenses. School Cash Online is a great way to pay without the need for cash or cheques!

Please go to our website and click on the button “On Line Payment”

(it takes less than 5 minutes!). Once you have registered your child, (please do not use Google chrome!!) you will be able to see when they have a new item posted online for purchase. You will also be notified whenever your child has a new school expense due, so you don’t have to worry about missing the deadline. It can be paid for by cheque, credit card or transfer funds into “My Wallet”.

****When adding students name—must use full LEGAL NAME and/or your child’s student ID number***

https://sd43.schoolcashonline.com

REMINDER: If you have NOT paid your child’s STUDENT ACTIVITY FEE yet, please do so online. $35.00 covers the cost of student planners, the use of a lock for your child’s locker,

school-wide events, such as celebrations and spirit assemblies, and