Good afternoon Balmoral families,

The weather is changing and we are looking forward to warmer days! A reminder to send proper outdoor clothing to school with your children as they do go outside almost every day, sometimes for physical education and during the lunch break.

Please read the weekly newsletter carefully, as it contains important information that impacts all students.

Upcoming Parent Teacher Conferences

On March 21 and 22, we will be holding our next round of Parent Teacher Conferences to give you and your child(ren) an opportunity to speak with teachers about their progress. The schedule for these conferences will be as follows:

• In-person conferences will be held on Thursday, March 21st from 4:00pm - 8:00pm 
• Online conferences will be held on Friday, March 22nd from 8:00am - 2:00pm

The booking system will open on March 14, at 4:00 pm and will remain open until 11:59pm on March 20. You can access the booking tool through your myCBE account and going into your myCBE Apps. Detailed directions on how to access the conference booking system can be found here.  After you have accessed the booking system, you will be able to select the appropriate teachers and times that work for you. Once you have booked your appointments you will receive confirmation emails, which will also include links to join online meetings if you chose appointments on Friday.

If you are booking to attend in person conferences on March 21, please plan to be at the school 5 minutes before your time to attend your meetings.

If you book online meetings, please use the link that was emailed to you to enter the conference to meet with the teacher at your designated time. When prompted please enter your name as it appears in the student’s information at the school. The teacher will be alerted that you are in the lobby for the online meeting and will admit you when your booking time begins or when they finish their previous meeting.

If you encounter technical issues please reach out to our helpful office staff and they will do their best to work through any difficulties you may encounter.

Upcoming Scholastic Book Fair – March 18 to 22

Our annual scholastic book fair is coming up! The book fair will take place at school at the following times:

• March 18-22 from 7:45am-11:45am
• March 21 from 4:00pm – 8:00pm (during parent teacher conferences)

Parents are welcome to come to school during these times to purchase books as well. If you do come during school hours, please sign in at the office. We take cash, debit, Mastercard, Visa, and ApplePay.

Our goal is to sell $5000 worth of products – this would give the school $2500 back to purchase new books for our school library! Thank you for supporting literacy at Balmoral!

School Council transition planning for next year

Some of our school council members are moving on to high school next year, and as such, there will be some vacant positions needing to be filled. We are hoping for some parents to express interest this year and shadow the current members for the remainder of this school year. This will help new members learn the role and make the transition smoother.

If you are interested in any of the following positions, please email balmoral@cbe.ab.ca and we will forward your interest to school council:

• Vice-Chair
• Treasurer
• Fundraising Coordinator
• Casino Chair

IXL Learning Pilot Program

For the remainder of the school year we will be piloting the use of IXL Learning to support our students in mathematics. Teachers have been and will be setting up student accounts and will be relaying the login information to students and families. IXL allows us to access Real-Time Diagnostic information, which pinpoints students' grade level proficiency in key math strands. We will use it to enhance our programming and to provide extra support at home for the remainder of the school year. After analyzing the use of IXL we will then make an informed decision as to whether we will continue our subscription during the 2024-2025 school year.

School fees are DUE

This is a reminder to please pay your school fees in PowerSchool when the activity occurs. The school has already paid the vendors for many of our past field trips (e.g. skiing, band camp, camp evergreen, etc.), and now we are waiting for families to pay their fees to cover these costs. We request that all families please pay your child’s fees on time so that we can continue offering these valuable learning opportunities to our students.

Parents/guardians are welcome to come to the office to pay fees in person, or pay online. Please call the school office if you need any support with paying fees.

The Pickle Jar Menu for the week of: March 11
 

School Development Planning and School Fees Survey is OPEN

Please answer questions on the 2023-24 School Year Balmoral School Survey to give us guidance on school planning, which includes the school development plan, school budget, and school fees. When students, staff and families work closely together, students experience greater success. The survey will be open until March 14, 2024.

Completing the engagement should take about 13 minutes. Please use the link below to access the survey.

https://balmoral.cbedialogue.com/en/projects/2023-24-school-year/engagements/school-planning-survey-2024-middle-junior

Child and Youth Well-being Family and Caregiver Series

Well-being is a precondition for student achievement. Students need to be well to succeed. Currently, students face ​​a wide range of mental health challenges, including stress, anxiety, and depression. This trend is alarming and requires our attention.​

The Calgary Board of Education invites all parents and guardians to join us in an online series focusing on child and youth well-being. These sessions will be hosted in partnership with experts from Alberta Health Services and will explore topics such as vaping, brain development, mental health, and sexual health.

The next webinars are:

• Mental Health and Anxiety for Grades 7-12 (March 14)
• Healthy Sexual Development (April 11)

The links for each webinar can be found on the page below:

Child and Youth Well-being Series links

Healthy Hunger Fun Lunches

Most of our fun lunch dates are available for ordering on the Healthy Hunger website:

https://healthyhunger.ca/index.php

Please note that you must register your child each year on the website (ensure you know your child’s homeroom and teacher), and then you can place orders. The ordering deadline is always 5 days before the fun lunch date, so order early and don’t miss out!

Important dates:

• March 18 to 22 – Scholastic Book Fair (7:45am-11:45am)
• March 19 – Fun lunch for Grades 5/6 - OPA
• March 20 – Fun lunch for Grades 7/8/9 - OPA
• March 21 – Parent Teacher Conferences (4pm-8pm) – book fair open
• March 22 – Parent Teacher Conferences (8am-1pm) – no school for students
• March 22 – Last day of classes before Spring Break
• April 2 – First day of classes after Spring Break

If you have any questions or concerns, please call the school office.

Regards,

Balmoral Administration