Newsletter #9 – April 21, 2025
Dear Highland Park Huskies,
It’s hard to believe that three weeks have passed since Spring Break. I sure hope that each of you had a restful and enjoyable spring break (and Easter long weekend) with time to recharge for the final term of the school year. It has been wonderful to be back into the routine of school. It’s an exciting time observing students as they deepen their learning and prepare for the upcoming informal student learning update on Wednesday, April 30. For this third and final term of the 2024- 2025 school year, let’s encourage our students to stay focused, give their best effort and take pride in all they’ve accomplished so far. There’s still so much to look forward to – field trips, swimming, performances, cross country, track and field, our HPE triathlon, and year-end events that highlight the spirit of our school community. Please have a close look over the upcoming events at the end of this newsletter and record those pertinent to you in your family calendar. If you have a child in grade 4 (and 7, 10, 11, or 12) and haven’t yet, please complete the Ministry of Education and Child Care’s Student Learning Survey online. Details were emailed home to families with children in grade 4 on February 6 with a reminder email on April 10.
Warmest Regards,
Mrs. Cull 😊
Earth Day on April 22: On Tuesday, April 22, we are encouraging students to come to school with a litter-less lunch. CLICK HERE for more information about Earth Day at HPE. Also, in light of Earth Day, many classrooms participated in the Trees for Hope initiative, which means participating students will come home with a Douglas Fir seedling to plant and care for at home.
Physical Literacy Sessions – We are excited to welcome SD83 Physical Literacy Helping Teacher, Carla Kurtz, to Highland Park Elementary to support classes with physical literacy learning. Ms. Kurtz will be at our school on the following days: Tuesday, April 22, Thursday, April 24, Friday, April 25, Monday, April 28, Tuesday, April 29, Thursday, May 1 and Friday, May 2. Each class at HPE is scheduled to have 3 sessions with Ms. Kurtz.
Cross Country Running: CLICK HERE to access the information shared on our website about Cross Country Running at HPE. Our first race is the Little Mountain Stomp on Wednesday, April 30 in Salmon Arm. Our second race is at AES on Wednesday, May 7 in the afternoon. If your child is attending practices regularly, they should be coming home with a permission form to participate in the upcoming races from our Cross Country Coach, Mr. Benge.
Informal Learning Updates: We have 13/14 classrooms participating in Student Led Conferences for the Informal Learning Updates. Student Led Conferences will take place on Wednesday, April 30 from 2:30 – 4:30 and will be an open house format. For more information, please look for an email sent on Monday, March 31st. The event provides an opportunity for your child to share some of their learning with you and showcase some work samples. While the teacher will be present for this event, if you have concerns about your child’s progress please connect with your child’s teacher at another time to ensure a productive conversation can occur in private.
Child Minding at Student Led Conference: As indicated in the email regarding Student Led Conferences, in order to ensure your child has your undivided attention, we encourage families to arrange childcare for their non-school aged children, if at all possible. Child minding will be available during conferences for HPE (school aged) students while their siblings participate in student led conferences. Student led conferences should take approximately 20 – 30 minutes per child. Parents are expected to sign their school aged children into child minding and out when their conference time is finsihed. There will be familiar adults from our school supervising children while in child minding. We are hopeful to have a couple of options available for our students, including a designated space outside, depending on weather. Here is a list of questions you may consider asking your child during their student led conference:
- Tell me about your learning in this work sample.
- How does your work show you have improved?
- What might you add to your work to show even greater growth?
- Which task was the most challenging and why?
- Which selection are you most proud of and why?
- How can I help you at home to achieve your learning goals?
Next Year Planning and Parental Input: Believe it or not, we are already thinking about our enrollment for next year and how to best configure our school. This means we are working towards confirming the number of divisions assigned to our school and the grade levels of these divisions based on our enrolment. It is imperative that we know as much as possible about your plans next year. If you are not planning on attending Highland Park Elementary for the 2025- 2026 school year, or know of someone with school aged children moving into our catchment, please let us know as soon as possible. You can email our office at hpe@sd83.bc.ca. The more information we have from our school community, the more secure we can be with our enrolment numbers. The more secure we can be, the better planned we can be and the faster we can get students into their assigned class in the new school year.
Soon, our staff will begin to have conversations regarding student placement into our assigned divisions. While student placement remains a staff decision, based on many different factors observed at school, your input does matter to us. Student placement in classrooms is a complex process. Please understand that purposeful student placement and class design is a significant undertaking. Our goal as a staff is to create classes that are balanced with each child’s needs being reviewed and discussed prior to class placements. When drafting class lists, teaching teams discuss each child’s social and emotional needs, as well as their academic needs in an effort to create a balanced and effective learning environment for all students in that particular class. We work hard as a staff to consider the best learning environment for all children, one that prioritizes learning for all. Given the contractual constraints of class size and composition requirements, we consider a variety of scenarios to best meet the educational needs of our students, school wide. Due to the amount of effort and thought that goes into the construction of a classroom learning community (including the consideration of parental input), we are unable to accept input after the deadline. Making changes to student placement in the new school year is extremely rare as individual changes made to class lists begin to compromise the educationally sound reasoning originally intended in the classroom design. Please note that when a class contains more than one grade level, learning standards from all grade levels in the class will be taught.
Providing a rich, meaningful educational experience is important in every classroom. Thank you for your trust in our staff and their rationale for student placement. If you have input pertaining to your child for the 2025-2026 school year, parents are encouraged to email Mrs. Cull at scull@sd83.bc.ca by Friday, May 23. It is important the subject line states STUDENT PLACEMENT 2025-2026 so it does not get lost in the many other emails that are received. It is also important that you do not request a specific teacher as teachers and their assignment and/or assigned grade level may change. It is also important that you do not request your child to NOT be with certain children. Children continue to grow and learn more socially acceptable ways to interact with children. If ever you have concerns about your child’s school experience because of other children, it is important that this be brought to the attention of your child’s classroom teacher or the school principal so we have the opportunity to address your concerns. This is the most effective way to bring about change and work towards a more positive experience for your child at school. While friendships are one of the considerations when placing students in classes, it is not the top priority when considering all of the other educational factors.
Update from PAC: Our PAC is an integral part of supporting our school – our staff and our students. Our staff and students are grateful for all the ways our PAC contribute to make our school a great place to learn and grow. Our next PAC meeting is on Wednesday, May 14 at 2:30 pm in the HPE library. The Wednesday, May 14 meeting will be the Annual General Meeting where nominations will be reviewed and a new PAC executive will be voted in. All executive positions are open – President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer. Please refer to a previous email sent Tuesday, April 8 containing a nomination form to complete and a brief description of each of the executive positions. The nomination forms can also be obtained from our office. Please ensure your completed nomination form gets to the office no later than Thursday, May 8. Nominations can also be accepted from the floor at the Wednesday, May 14 meeting.
PAC is looking for a team of volunteers to help with repainting the front playground. If you are interested, please contact Mrs. Cull at scull@sd83.bc.ca.
Please CLICK HERE to access the PAC’s Mother’s Day fundraiser. Online orders are due Monday, April 28.
Please CLICK HERE to access previous Principal Reports and PAC Meeting Minutes.
School Parking Lot: Thank you to those of you who provided input to the parking lot plans as presented at our March PAC meeting and requested in our March Newsletter. In an effort to improve the flow of traffic at pick up and drop off times, there will be some minor changes forthcoming. You can expect some signage and painting to better signal the flow of traffic to the right around the loop, along the “kiss and ride” lane and before pulling out on Wood Avenue. Please take note that our “kiss and ride” lane, used for drop off and pick up, is a NO PARKING ZONE. We also ask that at pick up and drop off, you pull up to the start of the “kiss and ride” lane so it is easier for others to pull in to the “kiss and ride” lane and out again into the through lane. At pick up time, please continue to loop around until you see that your child is at the pick up area before pulling into the “kiss and ride” lane. Children who get picked up have been instructed to wait near the “kiss and ride” line and keep a close watch for their pick up person.
Here is a list of important dates and upcoming events for your personal calendars: Please continue to check the list of Upcoming Events on our website.
Tuesday, April 22
Earth Day
Physical Literacy Sessions
Fieldtrip: Sandberg/Kalf to Thomas Hayes
Thursday, April 24
Physical Literacy Sessions
Friday, April 25
Physical Literacy Sessions
Fieldtrip: Cooper/Scott and Daughtry to Gratitude Yoga and Fletcher Park (Salmon Arm)
Monday, April 28
Physical Literacy Sessions
Tuesday, April 29
Physical Literacy Sessions
Wednesday, April 30
Second Informal Learning Update – Student Led Conferences 2:30 – 4:30
Little Mountain Stomp Cross Country Run in Salmon Arm 11:00 am
Thursday, May 1
Physical Literacy Sessions
Friday, May 2
Physical Literacy Sessions
Student Learning Survey – last day to complete survey (students in grades 4, 7, 10, 11, 12, THEIR parents and ALL staff
Monday, May 5
Indigenous Day of Learning (PRO D DAY) No school for students
Tuesday, May 6
Whole School Assembly – RESPECT
Wednesday, May 7
Science World at HPE (Whole School Assembly moved to Tuesday, May 6)
Cross Country Running (AES) in the afternoon
ELL Multicultural Gathering 2- 3pm by invite
Thursday, May 8
Fieldtrip: Kalf and Fassbender to Science Center (Vernon)
Fieldtrip: Terrell and Dolinar to Vernon – Lincoln Lanes
PAC Executive Nominations Due to office today
Friday, May 9
Class Pictures – Mountain West
Tuesday, May 13
Fire Drill
Wednesday, May 14
PAC Meeting/AGM 2:30 pm (HPE Library)
School Spirit Day – Biggest Fan Day
Friday, May 16
Fieldtrip: Coombs to Wagner Farm
Deadline to submit input regarding student placement to scull@sd83.bc.ca
Monday, May 19
NO SCHOOL – Holiday
Tuesday, May 20
Fieldtrip: Coombs, Daughtry and Brandoli/Scott to Gardom Lake
Thursday, May 22
Performance: Merry Marching Band 12:30 pm
Friday, May 23
School Spirit Day – Creative Hair/Hat Day
Grade 3 presentation – UXO (Unexploded Explosive Ordnance) Safety Presentation 8:15 – 9:15 am
LWMS mini rock band concert @HPE – grade 3/4/5 1:00pm
Deadline for Student Placement Input from parents – see Newsletter #9 for instructions on how to provide input
Monday, May 26 – Thursday, May 29
Grade 3 Swimming Lessons: Coombs 9:25 – 10:25
Grade 3 Swimming Lessons: Daughtry 10:30 – 11:30
Wednesday, May 28
Kindergarten Orientation – more information coming soon
Thursday, May 29
UBC Science Presentations at HPE
Monday, June 2 – Thursday, June 5
Grade 3 Swimming Lessons: Brandoli/Scott 9:25 – 10:25
Tuesday, June 3
SD83 District Track and Field Event (Field of Dreams – Salmon Arm)
Wednesday, June 4
Whole School Assembly – SHARING
SD83Talks Showcase Finale @ALF Theatre 5:00 (doors open at 4:30 pm) by invitation (Gr. 5 – 8)
Thursday, June 5
Fieldtrip: Coombs to Thomas Hayes
Friday, June 6
HPE Triathlon – Grade 4/5 students (participants bring bikes to school Thursday, June 5)
Wednesday, June 11
School Spirit Day – Tie Dye Day
PAC Meeting 2:30 pm
Wednesday, June 18
Graditude Tour – Former HPE grade 12 graduates tour HPE 1:05 – 1:30 pm
Friday, June 20
National Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration
Monday, June 23
Fun Day K- 5 at Memorial Park
Tuesday, June 24
Fieldtrip: Coombs and Daughtry’s classes to Blackburn Park
Thursday, June 26
End of Year Whole School Assembly 8:30 am
Final Written Summary of Learning available
Friday, June 27
Non-Instruction Day – teachers only
