February 2010

The end of January marks the half way point in the 2009/2010 school year. Our students are learning and growing with each passing month—we are a very busy and
active school!

Our Kindergarten Information Night in January was a HUGE success! We are excited about having full classes in both the AM & PM French Immersion classes and in the PM English class. It is so exciting to watch our numbers grow in both programs.

Our teachers continue to work hard in their Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s) and on January 22nd (our final Professional Development Day) our staff had the
opportunity to meet in grade and subject area groupings to create common assessments between schools. Our collaborative PD Day was held with Major General Griesbach,
Talmud Torah and McKernan Schools. Sessions were divided among the four schools and staff had a chance to meet with colleagues and make connections around the work
happening in their grades and programs. It was a HUGE success! Staff were delighted to have the opportunity to work on assessment tools with colleagues in the district. Many teams are planning future meetings to continue the collaborative process.

The second term report card for elementary and junior high students will be available on School Zone on Friday, March 5th, 2010. We were very pleased with the amount of
positive feedback we received from families about the new format of our report cards. Using the Essential Learning Outcomes (ELO’s) as tools to communicate progress allowed
parents and families to have a very clear picture of the areas of strength and areas of growth for their child. Several e-mails were also received indicating that families were
pleased to see that the report cards have gone “paper-free” to reduce our carbon footprint on the Earth!

We continue to welcome parental input into the decisions we make for your children. Please consider joining us for our monthly PAC meetings, held the first Monday of every
month at either 9:00 AM or 6:30 PM. Our next meeting will be Monday, March 1st at 6:30 PM.

Our school-wide Open House will be held on Thursday, March 18th beginning at 6:30 PM. Please encourage family and friends to consider enrollment for September 2010 at
Laurier Heights for any of our grade 7 programs.

Great things are happening at Laurier!
Thank you for your continued support,

Tanja Caley

Principal

Ecole Laurier Heights School