October 16, 2020
Hello UA Parents,
Having the holiday on Monday this week allowed me a chance to relax with my family, and it also meant I had some time to watch Netflix. I recommend Netflix subscribers to check out the documentary titled “My Octopus Teacher”. It is a fabulous story of a man who befriends an octopus off the coast of South Africa and the stories that go with it. The underwater video footage is very impressive. It is a story that reminded me of the interconnectedness of all living things, and all the beauty that exists in the world.
I am very pleased to update the community about our ‘Hear Us Roar’ Annual Appeal. We have started strong with a total of almost $30,000 raised toward our $90,000 goal! That’s one-third of our way to raising funds that will help us record and share student work and add additional resources needed as we navigate this pandemic. If you have not yet contributed, we are asking for our community to come on board and contribute at whatever level you can as we seek 100% parent participation, so if you would like further information on how to give, please visit our Annual Appeal page.
Yesterday, all UA students and staff participated in The Great BC Shakeout. This is a province-wide event to bring awareness to earthquake preparedness both at school and at home. Please click on the link to see some of the information you might consider for your home. It is also an excellent opportunity to discuss emergency preparedness at home with the entire family. Do you have a plan that everyone knows? After the Shakeout was completed we conducted a fire drill (with the very loud fire alarm) and practiced our first full school evacuation of the year. Overall staff and students did an excellent job in exiting the building safely and efficiently. The drills also allow the office staff to assess and improve our internal systems of tracking attendance of students and staff during evacuations, and ensuring that we have all of the necessary information with us outside. I was pleased with how the first evacuation went overall.
Next Thursday, October 22, Interim Reports will be posted on MySchool for students in Grades 6-11. Parents of all grade levels will have the opportunity to sign up for Zoom interviews which will take place on October 28 and 29; sign-up begins at 6:00pm on Thursday, October 22 in MySchool. We are in the process of creating instructions on how to book Zoom appointments for parent-teacher interviews and we will be sending these out to parents next week. In order to make sure you are set up to access the Interim Reports or to book interviews, please make sure you know your login information for your MySchool account. If you have lost or cannot find your password, simply visit MySchool and click “Having Troubles Logging In.” The system will ask for your email, and send you a new login and password.
I wish everyone a wonderful weekend. The rain looks like it will be coming down but that shouldn’t stop us from getting outside. Just dress for the conditions and get some fresh air. I am looking forward to a hike with my daughter tomorrow, it should be fun.
Yours in education,
Mr. Slinger
