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April 2019 Shawna Petersen, Principal | Donna Pinning, Acting Vice Principal | Tel 604.795.3553 | http://robertson.sd33.bc.ca

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE: I hope everyone enjoyed a fabulous sunny spring break with an opportunity to enjoy time with family and friends. We are very happy with the success we saw with the Literacy Passport just before Spring Break. We had over ____ students participate! Making reading a part of your child’s bedtime routine will have a dramatic impact on your child’s reading success. In this final term, students will continue to build upon and refine their skills from Terms 1 & 2. You can support learning at home by ensuring your child(ren) gets adequate sleep, limit their screen time and enjoy a nightly read. As partners in learning, parents are strongly encouraged to keep in contact with their child’s classroom teacher in order to support learning in this final term. As you can see with just some of our calendar dates, third term is a very busy time. Springtime is a time to celebrate new growth. At Robertson, we are excited and proud of our student accomplishments as we continue to inspire our students to demonstrate strong character and powerful thinking. Mrs. S. Petersen

VOLUNTEER TEA If you have helped in a classroom, in the library, on a fieldtrip, in our sports department or in any other capacity at our school, then you are invited to Robertson’s Volunteer Tea! Please join us on April 18th at 9:30 in the gym for a short program, followed by refreshments in the library. Please RSVP to school office by April 8th by phone or by emailing amber_wodtke@sd33.bc.ca

KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION 2018/2019 Full Day Kindergarten registration for the 2018-2019 school year is now underway. If your child will be five (5) years of age by December 31, 2019 please register online. You will need to upload your child’s birth certificate and proof of residence when registering. We are strongly encouraging all families who are planning to register at Robertson Elementary to do so as soon as possible as our two classes are filling up quickly and we want to ensure availability.

If you require assistance with online registration, please contact the E-Registration Desk by email.

READY-SET-LEARN & KINDERFAIR FOR 2019/2020 STUDENTS

A Ready-Set-Learn/Kinderfair will be held on Friday, May 31st. In the beginning of May, registered Kindergarten students for 2019/2020 will be emailed a blocked time to attend the Kinderfair on May 30th. This will provide participants with a wonderful opportunity to meet the Kindergarten teachers. Please ensure to RSVP at the office or email Mrs.Wodtke.

ARE YOU MOVING? We are currently planning for the 2019/2020 school year. In order to determine our staffing allocations, it is very important that we have accurate enrollment numbers. If you are intending on moving and know that your child(ren) will not be attending Robertson next year, we would really appreciate this information and would love to hear from you. Likewise, if your

UPCOMING DATES TO REMEMBER: April 4 PAC Meeting 9:30am April 5 PALS 12:00-2:00pm in the Gym April 10 Super Reader Assembly April 11 Hot Dog Day April 18 Volunteer Tea (please remember to RSVP) April 19 Good Friday – School Closed April 22 Easter Monday – School Closed May 2 PAC Meeting 6:30pm May 3 Pro D Day – Schools Closed May 9 Hot Dog Day

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Robertson Elementary School Newsletter – April 2018

child(ren) will be attending another school in the district, they too would appreciate this valuable information. Please contact our office as soon as possible by telephone or by email Mrs. Wodtke. Thank you.

STUDENT PLACEMENT AND CLASS ASSIGNMENTS FOR SEPTEMBER 2019

In May and June, we begin working on student placement for the 2019-2020 school year. Please review the following information outlining our student placement process and how you can provide input. The process of assigning students to classes is a complex one, which begins with the district allocation of staffing based on projections of numbers of students for September. In creating classes, we must balance the student needs in each class, and also work within the limits of the Ministry of Education guidelines concerning class size and composition. The placement of each child is carefully discussed by a group comprised of the child’s present teacher, other teachers who have been involved in the student’s learning, next year’s possible teacher, the Learning Resource Teacher and the Principal. The resulting placement will take into account the whole child. The following factors are considered when grouping students and are not in any particular order:

The learning style of the student and the teaching style of the teacher

The child’s physical and social maturity

The balance of student needs, behaviour, skills and talents in each class

The child’s interactions/friendships with other students

The child’s intellectual development level

Maximizing the use of Educational Assistants in particular classes

Promoting leadership potential in students

Student level of independence The current teacher will have a substantial amount of information to provide about your child’s learning and social/emotional needs and will make

recommendations. There are many considerations taken into effect when considering the best classroom placement for each child, other than friendships, which understandably are important to your child, but part of the process of growth involves getting to know others and working with them. We will not know the exact grade assignments for the staff until September, however, as in past years, based on our current student numbers, we do anticipate a number of split classes for next year.

HOW CAN PARENTS PROVIDE INPUT IN STUDENT PLACEMENT?

Parents requesting special consideration of significant educational circumstances in the placement of their son/daughter should share this information with the current teacher and are also advised to pick up and complete the Parent Input form available at the office and submit it by Friday, May 31st. The information provided by the parent will certainly be considered along with the other criteria that must be balanced in making educational decisions for effective learning environments in each classroom. We will not be accepting parent requests in September, you must provide input by May 31st.

APRIL NEWS FROM THE LIBRARY

Our school wide Read-a-thon was quite successful! Thank you to everyone who was involved in reading as we promoted literacy during the last week of school before Spring Break with our First Annual Family Literacy Week! We enjoyed a fantastic afternoon of reading on Friday, while many families took part in literacy activities throughout the week. Encouraging your child to read is essential to their success, this doesn’t always have to be in the form of a book, but can be sharing in literacy moments daily! Kiwanis Super Reader Assembly: On Wednesday, April 10th, we will be celebrating all readers who have read 100 nights this year and were not recognized in January’s assembly. Parents are welcome to attend on Wednesday at 12:45 in the Gym. Students will have one more chance to get a 100 nights of reading prize at a Super Reader Assembly in June.

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Robertson Elementary School Newsletter – April 2018

Students may bring in their 200 nights (March 22nd and on) of reading to the Library at any time for their prize.

PEER LEADERS April is a month to celebrate volunteers. Volunteerism can begin at a young age and at Robertson we are proud to have so many Peer Leaders volunteering their time at lunch, recess and throughout the school in different ways. We would like to acknowledge the following Peer Leaders who have consistently provided leadership on the playground and within the school:

Mr. Lodders’ Class: Ayden, Emma, Mila, Ridley, Tazveer, Haley, Nathan, Shya, Eliza, Matthius, Dane, Liam M., Jenny Mrs. White’s Class: James, Ashley, Raeleigh, Declan, Anisa, Dominic, Jordan, Caelyn, Mystery, Julia, Dallas, Kaylynn, Sammy, Kailen, Aish, William, Avery, Devyn Mrs. Denault’s Class: Emma, Myles, Cole, Keegan, Ayana, Keona, Gurveer, Sawyer, Isaac, Elysa, Liam, Riley, Dallas, Kiera, Danica, Rowena, Jackson, Nic Ms. Holliday’s Class: Dylan, Ahbi, Zealand, Adam, Parson, Chanel, Hailey Mrs. Webb’s Class: Ash, Olivia, Luna, Karmyn, Dakyla, Serenity, Kevin Ms. Brouwer’s Class: Shay, Alexa, Jaxon There are even more students who rotate through as lunch monitors in other classes and those who work in the office at lunch. What an outstanding group of Robertson students! Thank you for your efforts to make Robertson a better place!

PAC NEWS Positions need to be filled for next years 2019-2020

PAC Executive. Nominations for Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and DPAC Rep are now open! Do you like our Hot Lunch program or fundraisers like Neufelds and Purdy’s? Without the leadership and support of parents we cannot continue these programs and fundraisers! We invite and welcome all parents to

join us at our Annual General Meeting on Thursday, May 2nd at 6:30pm. Please consider volunteering for one of our Executive Positions or to help our Hot Lunch Coordinator on Hot Lunch Days or organize a fundraiser. You can find the Nominations Sheets on the PAC Board in the Front Foyer of the School. Please feel free to nominate yourself or someone you would like to see on the executive next year! Hot Lunch: Our upcoming Hot Lunch Dates are Thursday, April 18th (Little Caesars), Thursday, May 16th (White Spot) and Thursday, June 6th (Pizza Hut). We are always looking for volunteers to help with Hot Lunch! If you would like to help please send an email or post on our PAC Facebook Group! Grade 5 Fundraising: Robertson Grade 5 Students have voted to go to Camp Stillwood like other graduating classes have before them. But they need your help! Our goal is to fundraise enough money to cover all the costs for each student. We want to ensure that every student is included in the Grade 5 Celebration regardless of circumstance. Parents of Grade 5's, please join our Grade 5 Year End Celebration Facebook Group to be involved in future fundraising ideas and to volunteer to make these fundraisers a success! Bottle Depot: Robertson PAC has TWO Chilliwack Bottle Depot Accounts. One is designated for Operation Playground and one is designated for Fundraising for our Grade 5 Year End Field Trip. To donate, take your empties to the Chilliwack Bottle Depot located at #2 – 45934 Tretheway Avenue. Let staff know you are donating your refund to Account #451 (Robertson PAC - Operation Playground) or Account #617 (Robertson’s Grade 5’s). All contributions are appreciated!! Grade 5’s are going to Camp Stillwood this year and we are trying to raise enough funds for a new playground! Yearbook: Order forms for Yearbook went home on April 1st. Yearbook orders due: April 17th Contact PAC: To keep up to date with the news and happenings at Robertson Elementary School, you can join the PAC’s Facebook group or by doing a search for reach the team by email.

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Robertson Elementary School Newsletter – April 2018

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Robertson Elementary School Newsletter – April 2018