November 20, 2020
Hello UA Parents,
Welcome to Groundhog Day – the real-life version. I am not sure about you but I have certainly found that my day-to-day routines are looking similar in the last few weeks. I am grateful to have the opportunity to come to work everyday, as here there is a great deal of variety and a wonderful group of colleagues and students to interact with. However, outside of the school the biggest variety I experience daily is dinner, but even that has become stressful trying to figure out what to make for the family. I imagine many of you are experiencing the same frustrations and monotony in your daily routines.
It is important that we all remember that everyone is experiencing this pandemic as an individual. We all handle the stress of the pandemic and the restrictions differently. Some people are able to carry on and go with the flow, while others become quite anxious making regular life difficult to conduct. I hope we can all remember that everyone in the community is doing their best to manage their own current situation. If we can offer support, a smile, and a kind word to our family, friends, co-workers, and neighbours it will go a long way to helping the community get back to normal. Parents, we know you are missing the school community and may feel a sense of disconnect – we miss you too. Teachers, we know that you come to work every day with passion and energy for your students in an effort to make things as normal as possible at school. All of this while not being able to see your own family and friends who would normally be able to support you in trying times.
These next four weeks heading into the winter break are likely going to be challenging for our province and our community as we live with the new restrictions and the uncertainty as the holidays approach. We want nothing more than to be able to flatten the curve so we can have everyone together in 2021 for a celebration of UA. I would personally love to meet you all in person for the first time and not through a keyboard or Zoom. In order for this to happen we all need to work together to keep ourselves healthy. As my mom always tells me, “this too shall pass”.
It was another eventful week at UA. I enjoyed having an hour to speak with the Grade 9 class as well as the Grade 10 & 11 students this week. I thoroughly enjoy hearing from the senior students in an effort to understand how things are going for them both at school and in life in general. I look forward to visits with other classes as the year progresses. Wednesday saw our Grade 9-11 students organize and participate in what might be the first annual UA Model UN conference (please see below for a recap). A big thank you to Mr. Gow for spearheading the event and to Ms. Plourde for supporting the students and the event.
I would also like to thank our community for attending the AGM this week. It was a wonderful recap of the 2019-2020 school year. If you were not able to attend the meeting and want to review the details, please find our Annual Report and Audited Financial details on our website here.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend surrounded by your immediate family.
Yours in education,
Mr. Slinger
