Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Winter Celebration of Learning

Hello Cappy Smart Families,

As many of you know, each of our grades host an event (such as Remembrance Day) or a “celebration of learning” assembly at some time throughout the year. December will be a sharing event around some of the work being done in our music classes. While this is NOT a formal concert, parents are welcome to join us to hear what the students have been working on.

To make sure that we are able to include all of our Kindergarten students, we are having two assemblies, the music will be the same at both.

Wednesday Dec 18 - 8:30-9:20 

Thursday Dec 19 - 1:00-1:50

If you will be joining us, please let your child’s teacher know so that we can have enough chairs available.

Schedule for the coming days:

Wed., Dec. 18 - Fun Lunch; concert 8:30 - 9:20

Thurs., Dec. 19 - Last day of school for students; report cards go home; concert 1:00-1:50

Thurs., Jan. 9 - classes resume

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Parent teacher conferences are happening this week. Times are as follows =  Thursday: 4:00 – 7:30pm & Friday: 8:00 – 1:00pm. 

There will be no school for students on Friday.

The following links will be useful for parents logging in to book conferences online:

https://portal.cbe.ab.ca/staffinsite/system_tools/student_supports/SIRS/Documents/PowerSchool_Parent_Account_Creation_and_Navigation.pdf - To create an account

https://sis.cbe.ab.ca/ - Parent Login Page

School Conferences Parent Guide – Parent Guide (How to book a conference)

Looking forward to seeing you!

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Students did an excellent job today during our lockdown practice. They following instructions and remained totally quiet for the duration of the lockdown. Constable Hoard visited the classroom afterwards to commend the students for a job well done, as well as to remind them to use the crosswalks when crossing the street in front of the school.

Due to the weather, students will do their Terry Fox Run tomorrow during the Phys Ed time in the gym. If parents wish to contribute to the cause, they can send in money tomorrow.

Thursday is Orange Shirt day when we    honour the Indegenous children who were sent away to residential schools in Candad and learn more about the history of those schools.

Also on Thursday, children will be able to preview the Scholastic book fair and may purchase books in the evening during the Potluck Supper. See you there!

Friday, September 27, 2019

Orange Shirt Day

We will be recognizing Orange Shirt Day on Thursday October 3, 2019. This will be an opportunity for students and staff to learn about the legacy of the residential schools, as well as indigenous ways of knowing. Staff will lead students through a variety of learning activities that will engage students in conversations about belonging, community, and inclusion. A powerful way to do this is through the indigenous pedagogy of circle. Circle defines inclusion, In the circle we are all equal. No one is above, no one is below. No one is in front, no one is behind. The Sacred Circle is designed to create unity. As a way to recognize this very important day, staff and students are encouraged to wear orange. This represents our continued commitment to the Truth and Reconciliation Act as well as honoring the survivors of residential schools. If you have any questions please let us know.

Terry Fox Run

Our Terry Fox run will take place on Wednesday October 2 from 2:00pm-2:45pm. Students will gather for a short assembly, followed by a 20min Terry Fox run on the path close to the Marlborough Park Community Center. On the day of the run, students are encouraged to bring a Toonie for Terry to show their support and help raise money for cancer research. If you have any questions please let us know.

We have been receiving some RSVPs for our School Potluck coming up on Thursday, October 3 from 6:00-7:30. If your child has misplaced their invitation, please ask for another. This is to give us an idea of how many people to expect. We look forward to seeing many of our Cappy Smart families there.
This Friday is our Terry Fox run at the school. Students are learning about the life and legacy of Terry Fox in preparation for this event.
Grade 1/2 students are busy working on their community quilts. They are creating patches to represent the various communities to which they belong - family, home, school, neighborhood, city, province, country and Earth. We are writing about these topics as well as connecting them to our Social Studies. Ask your child to tell you all about it.
We are very excitied to be starting our Music program this week. Our class will have Music with Ms. Woodward every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Monday, September 9, 2019

Hello Cappy Smart families,

It’s been a great first few weeks and we have all been very pleased to reconnect with our returning families as well as the many new families who have joined us over the past few weeks. I want to share some important information with you regarding our current class sizes as well as how we are going to ensure that we are providing the best opportunities for all of our students to be successful.

In June, we shared our projections for the 2019-2020 School Year. Our numbers have changed as we have had a few families move in and out of the community/city. The net result of these changes has created some unbalanced class sizes. Please see the chart below regarding our anticipated and current class sizes.

Class Anticipated Class Size – June 2019 

Grade 1/2 18 

Grade 1/2 18 

Grade 1/2 18 

Grade 3/4 25 

Grade 3/4 25 

Grade 4/5 26 

Kindergarten AM/PM 13/13

Current Class Size – September 2019

Grade 1/2 14

Grade 1/2 14

Grade 1/2 17

Grade 3/4 29

Grade 3/4 29

Grade 4/5 28

Kindergarten AM/PM 15/14

In an effort to ensure that all students are receiving the best possible opportunity to have a successful year, we will be redeploying some of our staff. This will create class sizes that are more typical for the grade levels and will allow us to provide new learning opportunities to all students. I have itemized the changes below:

Kindergarten: Ms. Blake will continue to teach the afternoon class. Ms. Woodward will be taking over the morning class after a one-week transition with Ms. Blake.

Grade 1/2: Ms. Woodward will be moving to half time kindergarten and half-time music (all grades). Her students will be divided between Ms. Christensen and Ms. Cheveldeoff’s classes with the same priorities that we used to create the original classes (learning needs come first). We will do our best to ensure that students are placed in the class where they will most likely learn best with their teacher and their classmates. Our Division 1 Education Assistant Ms. Mutual will now spend her time working with 2 grade 1/2 classes instead of 3 which will increase the amount of time that she can support students in the classrooms. Class sizes will be approximately 22 students per class.

Grade 3/4 and 4/5: Classes will now receive support from Ms. Blake in the morning Monday-Thursday. This will allow her to work collaboratively with these grades and provide greater opportunities for students to understand and revisit curriculum. Children will be regrouped based on current needs and the work that the students are engaged in so this number will go up and down. We are not creating a new class. Students will remain assigned to their current homeroom teacher and will regroup as needed.

SKILL 1 and SKILL 2: These classes are maintained by the system and will receive the same staffing and support as they did before.

Reorganizing our school is something that we take very seriously and I would like to assure you that we have considered many options before arriving at the conclusion that we needed to rebalance classes. Based on the number of students in each grade, it makes the most sense to retain the current grade format so that we can welcome any new students we may receive after September without overloading one class or grade.

Mr. Nyrerod and I will be available for questions after school on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and would be happy to discuss this with you in greater detail if you are interested. Please call Ms. Amanda in the office to let us know that you are coming so that we can schedule our time accordingly.

We anticipate putting these changes into effect on Monday, September 16, 2019. Thank you in advance for your support and understanding as we work to support the needs of all of our students from Kindergarten to Grade 5 and in our SKILL classes.

Sincerely,

Erin Bennett

Principal, Cappy Smart School

t | 403-777-8110

ecbennett@cbe.ab.ca

Ryan Nyrerod

Assistant Principal

Cappy Smart School

Calgary Board of Education

Twitter - @MrNrod

t | 403.777.8110 ext 2223