PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
Welcome to November everyone. The school has been an active and positive place with the Monster Mash and Halloween parade in late October. Special thank yous to all our PAC organizers and sponsors for an excellent Monster Mash dance Oct.28th. We are currently focusing on reducing our school-wide number of lates each morning. The grade 7 leaders have a “It’s divine to be on time” challenge to all students from Nov.7-18th. The class with the least number of late students will earn a class prize. Please support your child(ren) and our school by having them arrive at school by 8:25 a.m. daily. The good news is that this Monday and Tuesday we have had only 12 lates, which is down from a range of 40-60 lates daily in the past months. Great work!
We held two well-attended parent presentations in October on the new Reporting guidelines in our district, and also the redesigned curriculum. The response has been very positive about the direction that we will be teaching and how our students will be learning. Significant changes include student self-assessment and the core competencies in the main curricular areas. Another big change is the way in which we will now be communicating student learning with parents/guardians on an ongoing basis. Rather than three written summative reports during the year reporting will provide multiple opportunities throughout the school year for parents to see their child’s learning as it occurs. The first elementary Progress Reports (Snapshots) will be sent home on February 10, 2017. We are all experiencing an adaptive change this year with redesigned curriculum, how we teach, learn, and share student progress. Our staff is collaborating during our PLC days and working hard to accommodate these changes with students’ best interest at heart. I am confident that McGirr staff and families will embrace these positive changes to our provincial public education system. Please discuss any questions about student reporting and/or ongoing communication with your child’s teacher, myself or Mrs. Collins at any time.
Parent-Teacher conferences took place from October 17-20: Thank you to parents and guardians for your interest and support as you actively participated in our fall parent-teacher conferences in October. Many teachers held a format in which students led the sessions by presenting and describing their learning samples since the start of the school year. This student-led format will become the norm over time as we explore the Learning Standards and Core Competencies of the redesigned curriculum together.
Sports and activities have also been going strong with touch football and cross-country meets recently. Multiple Field trips that are now occurring are excellent co-curricular ways for students to learn while enjoying an off-school site experience. Thank you to parents for assisting with driving and supervision for many of these. Our PAC is actively involved at McGirr with events such as the Scholastic Book Fair, which was a huge success, Fun Lunches on Wednesdays and Fridays, and a fall used book fair coming on Saturday November 19th. Most importantly, many thanks to Twyla Spoke for her efforts in mobilizing the McGirr community with the online voting for the Aviva Contest- McGirr is a finalist and has also been awarded $5000.00 for our Primary Playground Project. Gratitude goes out to all parents, staff and community members who took the time to vote for our school playground improvement project.
I am pleased to report that I have just had my one-year anniversary here at McGirr Elementary School! It is both a privilege and also very rewarding to be the principal at McGirr. The staff, parents and students work cohesively to create a focused place of proactive learning with an emphasis on inclusion, respect and safety. I view my role as being a steward for the school community in which I serve and support all educators, parents and students with the goal of improving student learning and achievement.
Thank you,
Gregg Halfyard
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DATES TO REMEMBER
November 2016
Thursday Nov. 10- Remembrance Day Assembly 10:30 a.m., Purdy’s paper orders due
Friday Nov. 11- Remembrance Day, Schools Closed
Wednesday, Nov. 16- Chapters Shopping Night, Sushi Day
Thursday, Nov.17- Artist in the School
Friday, Nov. 18- Purdy’s Order Deadline; Gr.3s Swim to Survive at NAC 11:45; Fun Lunch
Saturday, Nov. 19- Fall Used Book Sale in gym 10am-3pm
Monday, Nov. 21- PAC meeting in the library 6:30 (Free child-minding); Volleyball season starts; Mrs. Radcliffe’s class- Curling 9:15-10:15
Wednesday, Nov. 23- Div. 7 & 8 Skating Lessons; Fun Lunch
Friday, Nov. 25- Gr.3s- Swim to Survive at NAC 11:45
Tuesday, Nov. 29- Artist in the School
Wednesday, Nov. 30- Div. 7 & 8 Skating lessons at Beban, 9:30; Fun Lunch
December 2016
Friday, Dec.2- Artist in the School; Gr.3s Swim to Survive at NAC 11:45, Fun Lunch
Tuesday, Dec. 6- Div. 5 & 6 to NAC
Wednesday, Dec.7- Div. 7 & 8 to Beban for Skating lessons 9:30; Fun Lunch
Friday, Dec. 9- Mrs. Whiting & Radcliffe to VIU Theatre 9:15
Monday, Dec.19- PAC meeting 6:30
Wednesday, Dec. 21- Fun Lunch
Thursday, Dec. 22- Christmas Concert – Afternoon and Evening
Friday, Dec.23- Last day of Classes before Winter Break; Div. 1,2, & 3 to NAC 11:00
Monday, January 9, 2017- Schools Reopen
From the Library
We would like to thank the PAC for their generous donation of Time to run and manage the latest Scholastic book fair which was held a few weeks ago. Students were so excited with the new book additions to the McGirr Library.
Also, thank you to our McGirr parents for supporting the book fair!!!
If any Parents are available for volunteering in the library, please stop by and chat with me. I need parents to shelve books and oversee the general tidiness of the shelves. All help is welcome so come and choose a relaxing time to work for your McGirr students. Thank you
Donna McDaniel
Teacher-Librarian
McGirr PAC News
Thank you to all members of the McGirr Community for your support. We have made the finals and we have been awarded $5000 towards the playground upgrade. We are still fundraising in hopes of breaking ground this year! Don't forget to join us for the used book sale November 19th 10am-3pm in our school gym.
Our McGirr School PAC is fundraising with Purdy's Chocolatier! Please read the attached document for ordering timelines and procedures. A small thank you for Aviva contest would be great under PAC news saying that we made it into the finals and have been awarded $5000 for making it this far. A thank you to families for coming out to the Monster Mash and having a great time:)
Don’t forget the dates for the Purdy's deadlineNov 18, and the Chapters Shopping Night Nov 16.
Sports Updates
Touch football playoffs are underway with our bantam girls playing well in losing a close quarter final game 4-3, and our boys narrowly losing to Coal Tyee 4-2. Both teams play this week for 3rd or 4th place. The bantam girls play Mountain View on Thursday. Our bantam boys played a strong offensive game in defeating Park Avenue 5-4 November 9th to finish 3rd in the district. Special thanks to Mrs. Peace and Mrs. Whiting for volunteering to coach our girls team. Finally, the peewee boys gained confidence and showed excellent team and individual skills in winning their final game against Aspengrove 2-1. Congratulations to all players and teams for representing your school with pride. Thank you parent drivers and supporters!
Cross Country Success! Congratulations to every McGirr student-athlete for representing our school community so well at both the north zone large schools and the district meets held in late October and November 2nd respectively. Some North Zone results include: Bantam boys (Team 2nd)- William Merrill 1st, Brayden Boehm 2nd, Ethan Matsui 6th, Colton Welgen 11th; Bantam girls- (Team 1st) Alexa Berg 2nd, Noelle Davies 4th, Emma Rogers 5th, Nadia Nargona-Kryvonas 6th, Sonya Urbanowicz, 8th, Yulia Bobkova 9th, Chloe Zhou 10th. Peewee boys (Team 1st)- Gabe Webb 1st, Ryan Faa 7th, Noah Jayawickreme 8th, Callum Walker 18th. Peewee girls (Team 2nd)- Samantha Jones 1st, Caitlyn Moore 2nd, Avery Morrison 7th, Katelyn Myint 19th. Tyke boys- Kyle Williamson 9th, Shanoor Virami 25th. Tyke girls- Lucy Merrill 1st, and Norah Figueira 12th.
Among the outstanding individual District Meet results were: William Merrill- 4th bantam boys, Alexa Berg- 3rd & Noelle Davies 10th bantam girls, Gabe Webb 9th peewee boys, Samantha Jones 2nd, peewee girls, Lucy Merrill-1st tyke girls. Team results included McGirr teams finishing 4th in bantam boys, 1st in bantam girls, 5th in Peewee boys, and 2nd in Peewee girls! A huge note of appreciation to the coaches and sponsors who organized the school teams, practiced with the students, and supervised them in the meets- Mrs. Dyce, Mrs. Paziuk, Ms. Knight, Mrs. Peace, Mrs. Whiting and Mrs. Collins.
Volleyball/Triple Ball is the next NETPEA sport and we will have teams in all divisions- Boys and girls bantam and peewees. Practices start next week and permission notices and schedules will be forthcoming soon. The season is November 22- January 30 with playoffs in early February.
NS3 LEGO Robotics. A huge thank you to PAC member Eden Wood for organizing and overseeing this excellent science-creative program. The 6- week session began Wednesday October 19th with K-3 from 2:45-3:45 and grades 4-7 from 4:00-5:00 p.m. LEGO robotics takes place in room 140. There will be another session in January 2017 for interested students.
Inclement Weather
We live in a temperate west coast climate with rainfall expected on most days from October to March. Students require much-needed movement and physical play during recesses. Parents and guardians are reminded to ensure that their child(ren) arrive at school wearing appropriate clothing to match the season (e.g., raingear). While we have had a few “inside days” thus far, students and parents should not expect this to be a regular occurrence. Criteria for deciding on students not going outside is around safety- only if the winds are strong and the rain is heavy & steady will there be an inside day. Thank you for your understanding and support.
Remembrance Day Assembly Thursday November 10th at 10:30 a.m.
Parents and guardians are welcome to attend our annual Remembrance Day assembly Thursday morning. The occasion will be hosted by four wonderful grade 7 student leaders with presentations by various classes, Mr. Bamford leading our outstanding choir, and some important presentations by special veteran guests from the Legion.