September 23, 2021
Dear UA Parents,
Welcome to Fall, everyone. A reminder that we have a Pro-D Day tomorrow so school will not be in session. Our teachers will be on campus all day participating in a full day of professional learning.
Congratulations to our Junior Boys’ Volleyball team who hosted the first games at UA in over a year. I am very excited to see that our teams have the opportunity to play teams from other schools this year. The fall season starts quickly so I would expect that our teams will have significant improvement curves over the course of the fall season. Good luck to all our teams that will be taking to the court or the field in the weeks to come.
Monday marks our first big Outdoor Ed trip of the year. Our upper middle school students (Grades 6-8) will be heading to Timberline Ranch for an extended day. This will be a great day for students as they will be challenged in many ways that are not available in the classroom. I anticipate students will learn new skills, get out of their comfort zones and have a lot of fun all at the same time. Outdoor education is an important component of the UA program and we are looking forward to other classes having experiences throughout the year.
Another first for this year will take place on Tuesday, September 28 when we conduct our first emergency drill of the school year. We will have an earthquake drill, followed immediately by a fire drill and evacuation. I have been incredibly impressed with how our staff and students have conducted themselves in our emergency drills and adapted to our changing conditions and I have no doubt next week’s drill will be the same.
There will be lots of activity next week as we head towards the end of the month. There will be a schoolwide focus in classrooms around First Nations Principles of Learning and helping students to understand the purpose of our new National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Thursday, September 30. On Wednesday, September 29, we will celebrate Orange Shirt Day at UA and encourage everyone in our community to wear orange shirts. On Friday, October 1, we will honour Terry Fox as our entire school takes part in the Terry Fox Run at Hume Park in the afternoon. This event will go rain or shine so please make sure students are prepared for the weather.
Yours in education,
Mr. Slinger
