Briar Hill Update – June 10
Volunteer Tea
The staff of Briar Hill want to sincerely thank our incredible community for all they do for Briar Hill school. There is something so special about a school that works together to create an environment for all students to find success and have access to experiences that create special memories. We loved celebrating those able to attend our tea, and for those who couldn’t join us, please know we so appreciate you!
Sport’s Day
It's that exciting time of year again – Sports Day is just around the corner! We invite you to join us on June 27th at Briar Hill School for a morning of fun-filled outdoor activities.
Our amazing parent community plays a crucial role in making this event possible. If you're interested in volunteering, please ensure you have current and valid police clearance.
Volunteers will be stationed at specific activities, with relief volunteers available for breaks. We ask that volunteers arrive at 8:45 AM for setup and stay until 11:00 AM to assist with takedown and cleanup.
Please use this link to sign-up to volunteer. Should you have any questions, please contact Ms. Gerla at drrosegerla@cbe.ab.ca
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Staffing Update
Please join me in welcoming Erin Retallack to our Briar Hill staff. Erin has been with the Calgary Board of Education for 12 years, and most recently worked as the Open Minds teacher coordinator at City Hall School. Through the Open Minds experience, she has worked with many of our staff members and is very excited to join Briar Hill school. Erin Retallack will be teaching grade 4-5 at Briar Hill next year.
We are also thrilled to share that Mrs. Marianna Makkai has received a continuous contract (job security) with the Calgary Board of Education and will continue on with us at Briar Hill school. Mrs. Makkai will remain teaming with Mrs. LeVesconte, being the teacher in the classroom on Mondays with the grade 2-3 class. We are also excited to share Marianna will be teaming with Mrs. Kobel for the one year, working in her classroom on Tuesdays.
Additionally, I'm very excited to share that Mrs. Eloho and I interviewed this week for Mrs. Gerla’s role and have hired Kristy De Boon from Connaught school. Kristy currently is a learning leader who comes with a depth of classroom experience with English As an Additional Language learners, complex needs and most recently has been supporting grade one intervention work for her school. Her energy is infectious. She has been at Connaught for the past 15 years and is very excited for a new opportunity. In her principal's words, 'you are getting a real gem'.
I recognize it feels like a lot of change is happening for next year, I do believe bringing in new staff brings new energy and ideas. We also have the consistency of many staff continuing their journey with us at Briar Hill. This makes for exciting times for Briar Hill and I am very much looking forward to the 2024-2025 school year. We have a strong vision of enriching experiences for our learners through field trips, residencies and strong rigourous learning experiences, while also ensuring we are building a community where all learners feel supported, thrive as learners and have a sense of belonging to our most wonderful school. If you have any wonders or worries about next year, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Nature Play
With huge thanks for the casino dollars raised from the last casino, we were able to bring in the Nature Play residency to support learning experiences for our students in an outdoor setting. This week our Kindergarten and Grade One students will have the opportunity to work with Devon from Nature play. Please enjoy the summary from the first day of the residency back on May 30th.
Day 1- May 30
We kicked off our Nature Play residency with 4 busy, adventurous, and super creative classes of grade 2-4s. The rain and wind first thing in the morning threw us all for a bit of a loop, but offered up the opportunity to work on some resilience and adapt our play to suit the conditions.
Our theme or focus for Day 1 was to introduce the idea of creating a community. We did this by building homes together with some novel loose parts. Loose parts are items that have more than one use and can be combined and manipulated in multiple ways for multiple purposes. Some of the loose parts we had available were: buckets, sheers, ropes, clips, metal kitchen items, baskets, fake flowers, boards, and milk crates. With these limited items, along with the trees and boulders available in the school yard, the kids were able to create some really incredible structures! Along with the physical acts of designing and building, we saw incredible teamwork, communication, compromise, problem-solving, and negotiation. Figuring out how to share supplies and manage different ideas are key skills to managing any group setting, and through play, these kids had meaningful opportunities to practice those skills.
Here are some of the other highlights and observations from our day:
-tons of fine motor skills work as kids used clips, manual egg beaters and other kitchen utensils, and tied knots
-gross motor skill building as they hauled boards and buckets, sprinted between 'homes', created group 'sculptures' with their bodies, figured out spatial relationships as they built houses, and hoisted buckets on pulley systems.
-rich sensory experiences as the kids experienced the changing weather throughout the day, played with water, mud, foaming soap, pinecones, dirt, heavy/light items
-creativity and problem-solving- I did not give the kids many instructions, and they were free to create their own experience within the rules/guidelines I presented them with. They were able to come up with their own ideas and execute them, and adjust things as needed. These are some of the key parts of executive functioning (the ability to plan, focus attention, and juggle multiple tasks- https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/executive-function/).
We can't wait to see what the kids come up with next - we hope they have been dreaming up how they want their shops to be!
Exciting things booked for next year
With thanks to the all the volunteer hours at the casino, we were able to secure a plan for spending focused on student enrichment and additional resources for our school. As items or experiences happen, we will make sure to share with families.
A few to look forward to for next year are:
We have booked a dance residency through Sound Creations. They have been actively engaged in CBE schools and have lots of energy to lift the experience for students. We have decided to do a Dance Combo of integrating Hip-Hop, CubaNYC (Latin) and Afro-Beat. They will be in our school, December 9 to 13, 2024.
We also have booked Green Fools, which is a circus/acrobatics residency with the following program goals:
- To develop fundamental movement skills and physical abilities in students.
- To foster a positive attitude towards physical activity and promote lifelong participation.
- To enhance students' confidence, self-esteem, and competence in engaging in various physical activities.
- To provide social interactions for connection, camaraderie, and support. Building social relationships through physical activity can reduce the feeling of loneliness and isolation while also fostering a sense of belonging and community.
- To increase the mental and emotional well-being of the students, and provide an effective coping strategy for managing stress with "play"
Green Fools has been booked for January 20 to 24th, 2025.
Hours for Next year
Every year Alberta Education requires schools to account for our instructional minutes and number of days in school. In thinking about our school hours, I have heard from many families how much they enjoy the 8:40 am start time. I hope that continues to be true, as we will remain an 8:40 start time next year, with a 3:30 dismissal Monday to Thursday. One area I have tightened up the time for is our lunch schedule. We will condense the time by 8 minutes to have a 45-minute lunch hour. Often it is in the last 5-10 minutes of their lunch time when incidents seem to occur. I recognize the shortened lunch will impact those who head home for lunch, and I will reach out to these families over the next few weeks to discuss possible solutions for the loss of time. The benefit of the condensed lunch is it means we will dismiss at 12:10 on Fridays. We are currently finding many families pull their children early on Fridays as they have to travel on the weekends to various events. Hopefully this will ease families on Fridays.
This plan has been submitted and I am waiting approval. I will send an update once it has been officially approved. If you have any wonders or worries, please do reach out to me.
Upcoming Dates
June 12 Grade 2-3 classes – Jane’s Walk Field Trip
June 12 Grade 5-6 classes – In school experience
June 14 Library Books due
June 14 Last Connect Day
June 17 Ms. Gerla’s Grade 1s to Public Library – PM
June 18 New Kindergarten Orientation
June 19 PAT – Social Studies 9 am
June 19 Grade 2-3 classes to Ann & Sandy Cross
June 20 PAT – Science 9 am
June 20 Pizza Lunch
June 20 Summer Solstice
June 21 National Indigenous Day
June 24 Grade 4-5 classes to Ralph Klein Park
June 26 Grade 6 Farewell – 2 pm
June 26 Wagon Stage Theatre – 9:15 and 10:30 show
June 27 Last Day – Early Dismissal at 12:30
June 27 Sport’s Day 9 to 11 am