Weekly Update: September 7 to September 11
Greetings, Grizzly Families!
What a great week we had to start the school year off! The positive energy and smiles were everywhere—we had more than one visitor to our school comment on how happy our staff were. We had every reason to be—we were feeling very prepared for our first week, and we were excited about using all of our preparation with our new and returning students.
Our first day for Grade 6 and 7 students went well, and it included a tasty BBQ lunch, provided by our school council’s fundraising efforts. Grizz, our mascot even came by at lunch to say hi, give high fives, and dance up a storm! The second day brought in our Grade 8 and 9 students. Everyone had a chance to take part in a mini timetable on Tuesday in preparation for the first full day of regular classes on Wednesday. Returning students are still getting used to the changes at Annie Gale, which have resulted from modernization changes. Read under the modernization update for a list of many of them.
We are still working to confirm student numbers, so classroom changes are a possibility to maintain an appropriate balance of learning needs and class sizes. Admittedly, we are also experiencing a few “growing” pains as the reality of working out of two buildings is upon us. Though we planned for many things, living the experience is always a little different than what we planned for. We are grateful to our parents, guardians, students, and staff for their flexibility as we work through some of the challenges of the first year of our modernization. We know that other challenges will arise as situations change with everything from CTF/Fine Arts timelines, staff absences, and changes in the weather. A positive attitude and willingness to be flexible will serve us well this year.
CONNECTING HOME AND SCHOOL: Week Two—Building Routines
By the second week, the excitement of a new school year may be wearing off. This is a great time to help your child establish consistent routines for homework, bedtime, meals, and getting organized for the next day. Encourage them to take increasing responsibility for these routines while reminding them that asking for help is always okay.
All our students are expected to change for PE, and we ask them to take home their PE clothing at the end of each week so it can be laundered. TLC students also need to have their formal uniforms ready for the first learning day of the week, and their other uniform pieces for the rest of the week. Parents and guardians may consider having students launder their own clothes, to help their child meet these expectations and learn other valuable life skills at the same time. Talk with your child about ways to help them remember these expectations, such as a checklist or a reminder on a personal device.
Adapted from an article retrieved on August 31, 2026, from: https://chatgpt.com/c/6a94aeaa-b20c-83e8-8622-c9458ea116fd
DID YOU KNOW?
NEW: The staff parking lots at Annie Gale and CJFS are both closed to parents and guardians, including for student drop off and pick up. Please use the street to drop off and pick up your child but be sure to avoid the bus zone at Annie Gale and the zone in front of CJFS.
NEW: Athletics will be up and running this week, though not all tryouts/practice times are recorded below. Students will need to listen to morning announcements to ensure they are aware of dates and times.
NEW: Administrative Regulations (ARs) are some of the guiding documents that support our work in the Calgary Board of Education, and students, parents, and guardians are expected to follow some of them. Two are included in this message and they are shared here so that you can read them. Click on AR 6031, titled Welcoming, Caring, Respectful, and Safe Learning and Work Environments. Click on AR 6006, titled Progressive Student Discipline.
NEW: Our school uses closed circuit cameras inside and outside the building.
NEW: Thursday, September 24, 2026, is Meet the Teacher Night. Details will be forthcoming.
NEW: Friday, September 25, 2026, is a non-instruction day. There will be no school for students.
NEW: Wednesday, September 30, 2026, is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The school will be closed.
REPEAT: This fall, the CBE has hired hundreds of teachers, education assistants, and other school staff to support student learning. These positions have been funded by the Government of Alberta with the intention of addressing classroom complexity and class sizes. Beyond those hired with funding from the government, we have hired many other teachers this year. Some of the names on the list are not new to us, as we were able to secure several teachers who have already been working with us. Ms. Saini will also be providing in-class numeracy support to math classes.
We are pleased to welcome additional new staff to our school for the 2026-27 school year:
Ms. Armstrong (embedded supply teacher); Ms. Belanger (math/science); Mrs. Dhaliwal (humanities/literacy support—currently filling in for Ms. Drefko); Mr. Erickson (humanities); Ms. Fang (math/science); Ms. Lafont (humanities); Mr. Lopez (humanities); Ms. Mackie (French as a Second Language/PE--filling in for Mrs. Elnazali); Mr. Rao (math/science); Ms. Salazar (humanities); and, Ms. Wang (math/science).
We are very pleased to welcome these new staff members to our school community! This additional staff supporting literacy (Mrs. Dhaliwal) and numeracy (Ms. Saini) will help ensure students benefit from:
- Increased teacher attention
- Improved classroom learning environments
- Greater support for diverse learning needs
REPEAT: As a parent or guardian of a student at Annie Gale School, you are automatically a member of our school council. Council meets monthly, for approximately 90 minutes, and they focus on fundraising as well as learning about the school while sharing their voice with school administrators. Our first council meeting is Wednesday, September 9, 2026, starting at 6:15 p.m. This meeting will be a blended format--in person (room TBD) and virtually. Links for the virtual meetings will be sent the afternoon of the meeting.
MODERNIZATION UPDATE
Our school’s modernization has created the need for us to make many changes in our structures and protocols. Here are a some of the changes that will affect all our students and staff this year:
- Access to the south wings on both floors is closed. This means that rooms 1-6 on the main floor and 23-30 on the second floor are closed. The construction room and the first-floor student washrooms are also closed for the year.
- Student services has moved to the main office until further notice.
- We have several temporary classrooms in Annie Gale. New temporary rooms include LC1, LC2 (our temporary computer lab), and room 36B. Our Library Learning Commons is much smaller because rooms LC1 and LC2 have been created from the original Learning Commons.
- Our elevator is not operational.
- Four homerooms (6-1, 6-2, 7-5, and 7-6) will have most of their classes at Colonel J. Fred Scott School, and students and staff will move between both buildings at least once per day.
- All students at Annie Gale will be in a CTF/Fine Art Complementary Course rotation in their homeroom group, which means that students will not be able to choose their complementary classes this year.
- TLC students will have French as a Second Language in a semester, rather than every second day for the full year. Complementary course rotations in TLC classes will be adapted to respond to FSL courses. Complementary courses for TLC students will be presented in the semester without FSL and the length of their complementary courses will vary.
- We are using a two-day schedule instead of a four-day schedule.
- Grades 7-9 students will have Drama, Design, Film, Foods, and Art as their complementary courses. Each rotation for regular program students will be for 32 classes.
- Grades 6 and 7 students will not use hallway lockers; Grade 8s will share hallway lockers; all students will continue to have a PE locker for their athletic clothing in the PE changerooms.
- We will not host any home games for interschool athletics this year; all interschool athletics will be “away” games.
We have been told that we are the only school in the CBE to ever use two campuses with students and staff walking between them daily for a project such as this. We have spent much thought and time planning for a variety of contingencies for our modernization, though we know that there will be some things that we cannot fully plan for. We will have to adjust as we encounter issues. We thank you all in advance for your understanding as we work through the reality of this massive undertaking. We will share information related to the modernization in this portion of our weekly message.
REPEAT: Please click here and scroll to the bottom of the webpage to see a list of school supplies for your child.
REPEAT: Here are our office hours:
- Monday to Thursday : 8:00 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.
- Friday: 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Monday, September 7 – NO SCHOOL – LABOUR DAY
Tuesday, September 8 - TLC students in formal uniforms
- 2:45 – 4:00 | Girls Soccer Tryouts
- 2:45 – 4:00 | Cross Country Practice
Wednesday, September 9
- 2:45 – 4:00 | Girls Soccer Tryouts
- 6:15 | School Council (in-person and virtual—link will be sent in the afternoon)
Thursday, September 10
- 8:00 – 2:35 | Grade Level Assemblies
- 2:45 – 4:00 | Girls Soccer Practice
Friday, September 11 – ODD Day
- 8:00 – 12:00 | Regular school hours
As always, should you have questions or concerns, please call the office.
Sincerely,
Tammy Quiring
(Proud) Principal