Dear Parents & Guardians,
It is my hope, that you had a wonderful summer despite the many fires in B.C., Alberta and the world. I spent 10 days playing with my granddaughter, and a week with my younger son and his wife in Kelowna. Almost 4 years old, she is just too much fun to be around. WHY being her favourite word now.
I have stopped by the school a couple of times to see the progress Ms. Daisy was making with the floor, and I have to say: Wow! Way to go Ms. Daisy! The floors look amazing. The library looks like it has brand-new flooring, she cleaned it so well. No round corners, either!
Thank you to the parents who watered the school garden. The radishes are ready to be pulled and the potatoes look like they should be harvested, too.
Thursday, August 31, our exciting new 2023-24 school year begins. Your school council, BPAC, is organizing a muffin mixer & coffee/tea on this special day to allow families and friends to reconnect after a summer apart. Please join them in our outdoor learning space after saying Good Bye to your child. Our first school council meeting is on September 11, 2023 at 6:30pm at the school.
Your homeroom teacher will send you their welcome letter by Tuesday afternoon. They will mention the door number at which to meet them. This is the door that your child will always be dismissed at. If you have more than one student attending, please ask your older children to come to the door of the youngest sibling. Please check in with the teacher, introduce yourself. When the bell rings, your child will enter the school with the teacher and you will wave them good-bye. Especially for kindergarten students, it is important that you don’t linger. It makes it so much easier for your child.
- The bell to line up rings 5 minutes earlier this year at 8:55am
- If you should arrive late, please kiss your child good bye outside of our main door and send them in alone. They have to pick up a late slip before heading to class.
- Make sure your child is healthy when you bring them to school
- If your child should fall sick while in school, it is your responsibility to pick them up within 1 hour of us contacting you. Please ensure you have an emergency contact set up who can pick them up, if you are unable to. We appreciate your support in this.
- If your child could bring a full, labelled, water bottle to school, that would be great as it will decrease the initial rush to the water fountains in the morning.
- Please be punctual for pick up time.
- School Council meetings happen on the first Monday of the month at 6:30 pm, typically in person, unless we have terrible winter weather, which will make us go online and have a TEAMS meeting instead. Our first meeting is on September 11, 2023.
- Bowcroft’s new Learning Leader is Ms. Amy Tetz. Her passion revolves around math, sciences and robotics.
- Students need indoor shoes that they can change on their own. The shoes will remain at the school and should be labelled as well.
- Peanut free snack and peanut free lunch (if they are staying at the school for lunch).
- Backpack (labelled) that can easily hold their lunch bags, water bottles, agenda. If your student is prone to accidents please include a change of clothes.
- Supervision begins at 8:45 am. There is no supervision prior to this time, and there is no supervision after school.
- Register for lunch supervision, if your child stays for lunch, through your MyCBE parent account. You child needs to bring their own lunch. Microwaves are NOT available for heating up food.
- You also need your MyCBE account to access your child’s report cards. They are not send home any longer. If you wish to have a paper copy, you need to print them off within 30 days.
- Volunteering: If you would like to help with field trips etc, you will need a police clearance. Please see Ms. Corey with your driver’s licence or passport to get the process going. It can take a couple of weeks. When you receive your electronic letter from the police, please download it asap and bring it to the school. They used to be free, but cost now $21.25.
School Hours
Start of the day
Supervision starts at 8:45am.
8:55am bell to line up at their doors for all classes.
Students only use the front doors when they arrive late.
End of day
Kindergarten: Monday – Thursday 11:35am, Friday: 12:45pm
Grade 1-6: Monday – Thursday 3:40pm; Friday 12:45pm
Early Pick-up
If you need to pick up your child during the day, please let the teacher and front office know. Once you arrive at the school, ring the buzzer and come into the office to sign out your child. Your child will either be there waiting for you or the office will call the child down once you are in the office.
A reminder that there is no parking in the staff parking lot. A parent backed right into a teacher car last year! Please park on the road or side street and walk to the school.
Please, when crossing the road with your children, we strongly encourage you to teach them to do so safely aka using the cross-walks. Each year, we see very scary situations. Teaching the children to cross roads safely, as they get older, they will cross the road safely alone. Thank you!
Calling the Office at the End of the Day
If you need to communicate with your child that they are going home with someone else or any other information that needs to be communicated to the child before the day it out, we ask that you do so PRIOR to 3:00pm. The last 40 minutes of the day, the front office is always exceedingly busy with people coming and going, and we may not be able to answer the phone and then get a hold of your child otherwise.
Please check that the people you know are new are also receiving the weekly messages from me and to ask them to come check with the office if they are not. Something needs to be corrected! Thank you.
If you have any wonderments, questions or concerns, please, always come and speak with me sooner than later.
Welcome to Bowcroft! We have a wonderful year ahead of us with Ballroom dancing in November/December, culminating in a winter performance. Mark your calendars! December 20th at 6:00pm for the German bilingual program and December 21 at 6:00pm for the community program!
Warm Regards,
Meike Thomsen, Principal/Schulleiterin