Weekly Update: September 15 to September 19
Happy Sunday, Grizzly families!
A key event for all students this week was the grade level assembly they attended on Thursday. Led by Mrs. Hurst (Acting Principal) and Mr. Barisow (Assistant Principal), students had a chance to meet with admin, review important policies and expectations, and discuss ways to be successful in the school year. They reviewed the COURAGE model and had a chance to ask questions of administrators.
Annie Gale was proud to host, for the third consecutive year, a cross country meet on Thursday, with athletes from many CBE schools all over the city. We always get compliments on the beauty of the northeast, and this year was no different. By all accounts, students and staff had a great time!
As you can see in the busy schedule below for this week, athletics at Annie Gale is in full swing. We have students involved in cross country, soccer, and basketball. Following the weekly schedule is important for athletes and their families.
In Grizzly Den on Friday, students focused on the topic of Executive Function, completed a self-assessment, watched a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4YIHrEu-TU), and worked on creating calendars and binder organization systems to support their learning. I suggest that parents and guardians watch this video as it also ties to “Connecting Home and School” below. Remember, Grizzly families, we are a team, and we share the same goal: helping our students to be successful!
CONNECTING HOME AND SCHOOL: To continue with the theme from the last several messages, I’m writing about parenting for the long term. Many parents get caught up in short term success, which may hurt long term goals. As I have stated, we are preparing our students for adult life and giving them life skills to function well. This week, I saw a story on a TV program with a parenting expert, Alyson Shafer, who provided some ideas for parents, noting that long-term parenting allows for our children to stumble and learn—to make mistakes in a safe environment. Those mistakes lead to resilience and better adult skills. Shafer's commentary was about building systems for your children to experience success, while NOT completing tasks for them. Teachers know this as scaffolding, and this parenting expert explained that we are helping children outsource executive functioning to prepare them for success. She cautioned parents against overstepping their roles and asked if they were doing so by checking every assignment, micromanaging all the time, and solving all of their child’s life problems so no mistakes happen. She reiterated that the job of parents is to arm their children to be resilient and said that when we take on the role of micromanager, we send our children the message that we don’t trust them to be able to do the task. Our behaviour then lowers the child’s problem-solving abilities, confidence, ability to self-regulate, and coping skills. These things go against our main goal of preparing our children for the adult world. She closed by asking parents to consider the following questions about micromanaging:
- Whose job is it anyway? Mine (the parent) or theirs (the child)?
- Have I trained my child to have that skill?
- Was I doing this (the task being asked of the child) at their age?
DID YOU KNOW?
UPDATE: Our School Council is excited to announce that they will be hosting Paul Davis at our school on Wednesday, September 17, from 6:00 pm until 7:00 pm. Included in this email is a poster of the event, which describes the topics covered related to online safety.
Due to the nature of the content of the evening presentation, which is tailored to the developmental and emotional maturity of older students and adult audiences, only Grade 8 and 9 students will be permitted to attend with parents.
Childcare will not be provided for the event, so families that bring children under the age of 13 will not be able to attend due to the content shared.
Grade 7, 8, and 9 students will receive a separate student-focused presentation during the day, while Grade 6 students will watch a separate video in their classrooms on a date to be determined.
NEW: A message from School Council is included below.
NEW: Lunch on Wednesday will be earlier than normal, as we will be making a change to support the Paul Davis presentation in the afternoon. See the schedule below.
REPEAT: Grade 7 options students have not been provided with a “pick sheet” for options—the sheet of paper when they choose their options for the school this year. This is because our Grade 7s will be experiencing most of the options we offer to them in a rotation, called a wheel. This concept will give them real experiences to find a hidden passion or to learn what they might not be fond of. They will use this knowledge to choose their options when they are in Grade 8.
REPEAT: School Photo Day is Monday, October 6, 2025.
REPEAT: Fun Lunch is coming your way in October. Stay tuned for updates.
REPEAT: In the next few days and weeks, we may be making some changes to students’ timetables to balance classes and ensure that everyone is enrolled in the correct classes, so we want you and our students to be aware that this may take place. This is one reason why our enrolment numbers are so important. If students are registered in the computer, unless they are present, they won’t be counted in our final numbers. Please contact the school immediately if your child has been absent so that we can confirm if they are, in fact, a Grizzly, for this school year.
REPEAT: Our Grade 7, 8, and 9 students are considered junior high students, and this means that they can leave campus at lunch. The decision to leave the school property at lunch is for families to make. Grade 6 students will be supervised during lunch and must remain on campus. We prefer that students stay at school, or at least, on school property, where they have adults who can support them if needed. This is one reason why we offer so many activities at lunch, such as clubs and athletics. We also have open hallways at lunch so that students can walk around or find a bench to sit down and visit or eat. Our lunchroom and library/learning commons are open to students should they wish a more formal setting to eat.
REPEAT: At Annie Gale School, all students change for their physical education (PE) class. Students are asked to wear athletic clothing, usually shorts and a t-shirt, to PE class, with a set of gym shoes other than what they wear to school. We prefer that parents/guardians purchase Annie Gale clothing for PE classes for safety reasons—this way all students look the same in the same clothing and we can easily identify anyone who does not belong. However, it is not mandatory to purchase this clothing, so long as your child has a change of athletic clothing to wear. Students wear one set of clothes for classroom learning and they wear another to exercise and learn about physical education. Your child should bring home their PE clothing at the end of each week so that they can be laundered. Remember to set them aside for the first day of school the following week though!
REPEAT: In order to maintain our focus on teaching and learning, we hold students accountable to our late policy. Each morning and after lunch, attendance is tracked. Should your child be late three times in the morning or after lunch, in one calendar month, they will serve a 20-minute detention at lunch. Should they be late a fourth time, they will serve a 30-minute detention and lunch, and they will call home to inform you. Should they be late a fifth time, we may ask a parent or guardian to come to the school to discuss ways to improve attendance. Lates to individual classes will be monitored by classroom teachers, who each have a late policy. These expectations allow us to maximize learning—the more time students are in class and the fewer interruptions means that we have more chances to be our best academically. Annie Gale is a place of business, and our business is learning!
REPEAT: Annie Gale uses video surveillance technology. We want you to be aware that we use this technology to maintain a safe and secure environment and to help control vandalism and criminal activity on school property. Personal information gathered by video surveillance is collected under the authority of the Education Act and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP) section 33(b). The users of this information are the Principal or designate (the Assistant Principal) and law enforcement personnel in the case of reported incidents that would require an investigation. Only authorized persons will review video surveillance information. This technology is considered a complement to, and not a replacement for, CBE's strategies in supporting a welcoming, caring, safe, and respectful learning and work environment for students and staff. Approval, installation and use of video surveillance technology will comply with Administrative Regulation 1066.
REPEAT: Our first School Council meeting is this week--Thursday, September 18, at 6:00 p.m. Consider joining this group of parents and guardians supporting their children by being involved in decision making and the first to hear about the “why” related to decisions made at the school. Our council meetings are in a blended format—in-person and virtual. The meeting link for the virtual meeting is sent home the same day as the meeting.
WEEKLY EVENTS: SEPTEMBER 15 TO SEPTEMBER 19
Monday, September 15 (Formal Uniforms for TLC students)
- 2:45 – 3:45 | Boys Soccer Practice
- 2:45 – 3:45 | Junior Boys Basketball Tryouts
- 3:45 – 4:45 | Junior Girls Basketball Tryouts
- 4:30 – 6:00 | Girls Soccer Game vs. Ted Harrison (@Ted Harrison School)
Tuesday, September 16
- 11:10 | Fire Drill #1
- 2:45 – 3:45 | Junior Girls Basketball Tryouts
- 2:45 – 3:45 | Girls Soccer Practice
- 3:45 – 4:45 | Junior Boys Basketball Tryouts
- 4:00 – 8:00 | Cross Country Meet (West Confederation Park)
- 4:30 – 6:00 | Boys Soccer Game vs. Ted Harrison (@Annie Gale School)
Wednesday, September 17 - Modified Bells (1, 2, 3, LUNCH, 4, 5, 6)
- 12:30 – 2:30 | Paul Davis student presentations
- 2:45 – 3:45 | Boys Soccer Practice
- 6:00 – 7:00 | Paul Davis Presentation (no one under Grade 8 permitted to attend)
Thursday, September 18
- 2:45 – 3:45 | Junior Girls Basketball Practice
- 2:45 – 3:45 | Girls Soccer Practice
- 3:45 – 4:45 | Junior Boys Basketball Tryouts
- 6:00 – 7:30 | School Council Meeting @ Annie Gale and virtual
Friday, September 19 – YELLOW (EVEN B) DAY
Sincerely,
Tammy Quiring
(proud) Principal
A MESSAGE FROM SCHOOL COUNCIL
Hello Annie Gale Parents,
Welcome back to a new school year. We are delighted to announce our council executive members, who bring with them a wealth of experience and a shared commitment to enhancing our school community for both students and parents of Annie Gale School, which includes regular program and the TLC program. We would like to invite you to attend our next council meeting in person to talk to the executives and to also get the opportunity to voice your opinions and contribute to the decision-making process. Looking forward to meeting you all.
Chair - Rumina Cruz
Vice Chair - Laurel Hatch
Treasurer - Kal Sidhu
Secretary - Yeshi Mohammed
Fundraising Coordinator - Crystal Bassett
Key Communicator – Vacant
We are looking to fill the Key Communicator position on our school council for the current school year from September 2025 to June 2026. The description of the Key Communicator role is provided below, so if that is something that interests you, please send us an email at anniegalepesa@gmail.com or ruminakhan80@yahoo.ca or come join us at our next meeting on Thursday, September 18, 2025.
Key Communicator Role: Key communicators act as a representative of the school council in interactions with the CBE, ensuring information flows effectively in both directions. Some typical duties include attending Community of School Councils (COSC) meetings which are held about every two months either in-person or online and sharing the meeting information with school council executives and parent community in our council meetings. It is a non-executive role and requires a commitment of mostly 90 minutes every 2 months either in-person or online.