Signal Hill Circular - September 29th, 2022
September 29th, 2022
Today our school was joined by community members and our friends at école La Vallée to honour Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. We reflected on our learning, our shared history, and our friends, families, and community members that have and continue to be affected by the legacy of residential schools and other atrocities. While this day was important for our community, it is also important to continue learning and healing. We are committed to reconciliation!
More events and resources can be found here and below.
This week we also had our Scholastic Book Fair. It was so exciting to see so much excitement about books! Thank you to all those that visited and supported our sale!
Thank you as well to all of our community that joined us for our open house. It was great to see our school filled with supportive family members and students showing them around!
Our new sandbox in the primary playground opened this week! Thank you so much to the members of the Pemberton Valley Men's Shed for designing and building it and for Home Depot Squamish for donating the materials. Thank you also to our grounds crew for filling it with sand. Based on some of the elaborate and creative designs being constructed, we might have some future architects in our school!
A Few Reminders for Parents and Students:
Parking is at a premium here at drop off and pick up times! Please do not park in the bus lanes, on the sides of the driveways or block other drivers. For safety reasons, do not park in the staff parking lot on the right when you drive onto the school property. Please do not do U turns in the parking lot! We ask that you pick up your child and leave immediately so others have a chance to park. For those who have primary students, you can park in the Tiyata Roundabout too! Thank you for your understanding. 😊
Hot Lunch
We sent home verification forms for parents to look over. Please make any corrections so we have all of your children’s information. If there are not any changes, please sign and send back with your children anyway!
Dogs are permitted on school grounds only with a leash and under the control of their person. Please do not tie up dogs on the school grounds and keep them with you on leash at all times. Please clean up after your dog. 😊 If your dog is nervous around children or crowds we ask that you keep them at home. Thank you for your understanding!
News, Updates, and Reminders:
Community Reading Helpers
Signal Hill is looking for volunteers to read with students for an hour once a week on a regular basis.
If you are interested or know others that may be interested, please contact Katherine Read [email protected]
You will need a criminal record check to volunteer at the school.
TruEarth Fundraiser for Breakfast and Lunch programs
Signal Hill is fundraising for our breakfast and lunch program for our students! Check out the TruEarth products – free shipping, all eco-friendly and all packaging is completely recyclable! TruEarth is a Canadian company and the school receives 20% of all sales. If you are interested, please check out our online campaign at:
CROSS COUNTRY RUNNING
Any grade 3 to 7 students interested in joining the cross country running team, please sign up in front of room 220 where there is a signup sheet posted on the door. The first practice will be on Tuesday, September 27th after school.
SCHOOL SUPPLIES
We encourage you to go online to the link below to purchase your children’s school supplies! We have purchased supplies for all of the students – Grades K to 3 (primary) cost $45 and Grades 4-7 (intermediate) cost $55. This is for the whole school year!
If you do not yet have an account, you can also set up your child’s account through the link below.
Please use the following link: https://sd48seatosky.schoolcashonline.com
Thank you for taking the time to open an account and purchase your children’s supplies. Our district is trying to move to cashless and paperless systems as much possible!
IMPORTANT FORMS TO SIGN ONLINE
You will be receiving emails from our Cash Online Program today to sign forms online that are required by the school district. We apologize if you receive more than one email, you will only need to sign in once to complete all of the forms.
These forms include the Walking Field Trip form (Off-Site Activity Consent for Local Low-Risk Day Trip), Self-Identification of Indigenous Ancestry (First Nations, Metis or Inuit) form, Annual Student Personal Information, Technology and Media in School Consent form, Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation Consent form and the G-Suite Consent form.
Please go to https://sd48seatosky.schoolcashonline.com and sign the forms. If you have not yet set up an account, please open one. You can also take this opportunity to pay for your child’s school supplies if you have not yet.
Thank you for your patience and understanding while we set up our students and families for this school year!
Upcoming Important Dates:
Friday, September 30th - NO School – National Day for Truth & Reconciliation
Truth and Reconciliation
Truth and Reconciliation Month:
A reminder that as we are in Truth and Reconciliation month, leading up to September 30th, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Our staff and students will be learning, listening, and un-packing throughout the month. We will have our "Orange Shirt Day" on September 29th.
· Please take the time to learn about the Survivors Flag, the symbolism and meaning of the art and the teachings represented in the flag here. You can see Signal Hill's Survivors Flag on display in our front foyer.
· emhám: Join Arts Whistler and the Lílwat Nation’s Ts’zil Learning Centre every Thursday evening in September for Indigenous workshops, performances, music, knowledge sharing, and storytelling at the Maury Young Arts Centre. Don’t miss this weekly opportunity to build stronger relationships and share in Indigenous knowledge and foster greater understanding leading up to National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. More information can be found here.
Here is an amazingly beautiful video by Líl’wat Nation about our water and the gratefulness in caring for it as it takes care of us.
Water Celebration 2022 video:
Downie Wenjack Fund, and the Wenjack Walk
Our school is learning about the story of Chanie Wenjack, born Jan. 19/54 in Northwestern Ontario. At 9 years old he was sent to Indian residential school with his sisters. When he was 12, Chanie and 9 other children ran away from the Indian residential school trying to make it back home, 600 km from the school. However the other children were caught and brought back to the school. A week after he escaped, Chanie died near the train tracks. He died of hunger and exposeure on Oct. 22/66. He was 60 km away from the residential school.
Gord Downie (The Tragically Hip) wrote ‘The secret path book and song, in hopes to create a path in making Canada a better country and towards reconciliation."
In 2017, Gord Downie died of cancer, but his story about Wenjack hopes to ignite a passion in each of us to “Do something." The Downie Wenjack Fund Legacy School program helps to bring awareness to schools with some history of Canada’s residential school system . They both joined the spirit world in October, which is the reason for the ‘Walk for Wenjack" in the month of October.
We are hoping to plan our own Wenjack Walk - more information to come.
The Gordi Downie & Chanie Wenjack Youtube channel:
What Parents and Students Need to Know
Did You Know?
Check out this week's Did You Know? for a handy flowchart to help with navigating district concerns.
FamilySmart Monthly Events: Every month, FamilySmart hosts online events for parents & caregivers who are parenting a child or youth with mental health and/or substance use challenge called “in the know.” We watch a video and share experiences and strategies that help in the hard moments and focus on strengthening our understanding and connection with our kids. For more information on this helpful resource, please click here.
Parent Advisory Committee
Health and Safety