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George Bonner Elementary School
April Newsletter
3060 Cobble Hill Road, Mill Bay, B.C. V0R 2P3
Principal: Mr. Chris Clark Phone: (250) 743-5571 [email protected]
Office email: [email protected]
GEORGE BONNER MEMORY BOOK
One of our parents is currently putting together a George Bonner Elementary memory
book which will consist of 40 full color pages containing individual as well as group and
candid photos of all students in the school. This will be a great keepsake for your child’s
school year. The cost of the book will be $25.00. We are currently accepting preorders.
Very few extras will be ordered so please order as soon as possible to avoid
disappointment. The deadline for ordering is April 17th!!!!!!
If you have digital pictures of the children at school during a special event or activity
that you could send in for use in the memory book please contact Pam Day at
[email protected]. Please limit the quantity to 4 or 5 per event. Thank you!
LIGHTS OUT CANADA
Wednesday, April 22nd is Lights out Canada day so staff and students all over Canada will
be shutting off as many lights as possible throughout the day in order to save energy.
PARENT SATISFACTION SURVEY
Every year the Ministry of Education gives parents of children in grades 4 and 7 the
opportunity to complete an online anonymous satisfaction survey. If you are a parent of a
grade 4 or grade 7 child, you should have received a paper copy or a letter with
instructions and a personal password at your parent teacher conference last week. If you
did not get the survey or instructions at your interview and would like to complete a
survey, please contact the office before the April 30th deadline. The survey typically
takes 10 minutes to complete. Results of this survey are used by the Ministry of
Education and the School District to help determine which programs and activities have
been successful. Thank you in advance for taking the time to complete this survey.
SAFE ARRIVAL PROGRAM
The George Bonner Safe Arrival program is run by parent volunteers in order to help
ensure student safety. Should your child not arrive at school, a volunteer will call you to
ensure your child is home. If you call ahead to let the school know you will not receive a
phone call. Should you wish to be added or removed from this program, please call the
school. Thank you to all the parent volunteers that may this program possible!
VISITOR SIGN IN
A reminder that any visitors to the school between the hours of 8:25 am and 2:20 pm
should be signing in at the office and putting on a visitor tag so staff know who is in the
school. Thank you for helping us ensure the safety of your children.
STAFF PARKING LOT
A reminder to parents that the parking lot closest to the atrium of the school is for
STAFF ONLY. The parents and visitor parking area is closest to the outdoor basketball
courts. Parents should not be dropping off or picking up students in the staff lot as it is
an unsupervised area and causes unnecessary extra traffic at the gate of the school.
SPRING PHOTOS
On Monday, April 20th, Lifetouch Photography from Victoria will be visiting the school to
take class, whole school and individual photos. Class photo’s will be provided free of
charge but the whole school photo and individual photo’s have a fee should you wish to
purchase them. Individual photo proofs will be sent home and you can order online or on
the form provided. Individual and whole school photo information will be sent home the
week of April 13th. Please call the school should you have any questions.
STUDENT REGISTRATION
As the end of the school draws nearer we are starting the process of looking at next
years staffing and what our class configurations might look like. Both of these things are
entirely dependent on student enrolment in the school. Should you or someone you know
plan on registering new students at George Bonner next year, please do so as soon as
possible. Thank you for helping us prepare for next year.
SPORTS AND CLUBS
As the weather begins to improve staff are looking to begin teaching and coaching
outdoor sports. Typical sports offered in the spring include cross country, track and
field and girls soccer. Please watch future newsletters for updates on these activities.
Mrs. Van Hell continues to sponsor after school floor hockey on Tuesday afternoons.
TC 10K – GEORGE BONNER BEARS – Mr. G. Launder
The TC10K is fast approaching. This year's TC10K in on Sunday, April 26th starting at
8:00 am at the Legislature in Victoria. We've got a great group of runners this year. It
should be another great event! Our TC10K group runs twice a week on Monday’s at lunch
(3 - 5KM) and Thursday's after school (5 - 10KM). Thursday after school runs will end at
3:15 - 3:30 pm as the runs get longer.
If you haven't signed up, please sign up for the George Bonner Bears group at:
http://www.tc10k.ca. They will accept late registrations up to April 22nd for a cost of
$45.00.
If you would like Mr. Launder to pick up your registration package (t-shirt and bib) in
Victoria, please let me know ASAP ([email protected]). Otherwise you are on your own
for picking up your race packages. I will be going down to Victoria to pick up our team
package on Thursday, April 23rd after school.
It's great to see so many students eager and enthusiastic about running. Good luck to all
participants!
SUESSICAL THE MUSICAL – Mrs. N. Baxendale
Rehearsals are going well. We have now rehearsed the entire musical so we will now be
going back and fixing sections that need work. All cast should know their lines and songs
by next week so please practice this long weekend. Thanks to several parents we have
most of the costumes, sets and props finished. Whoville characters need white tights or
leggings (to be brought from home) and we are on the lookout for corduroy (or similar
material) vests for the Wickershams. Thanks again to the parents who have been helping
out!
As Monday is a holiday, I have changed the after school rehearsal to Thursday, April 9th
from 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm. All the other rehearsals will remain the same. The performance
dates are April 29th and April 30th. The evening show will be on Thursday, April 30th and
afternoon shows starting at 12:45 pm the other two days.
MUSIC NOTES – Mrs. N. Baxendale
The Grade 6/7 classes have started to play band instruments as our final unit this year.
This is just a short introduction to band so the students can try out an instrument and
learn a few simple songs. Luckily, George Bonner School has a large inventory of band
instruments so we have enough for almost every student. If anyone has a band
instrument you are not using from now until June, we would like to borrow it as we are
still short about 3 instruments per class. The school band instruments can be taken
home for practice but must be brought back to school on days the students have music.
We have a ukulele group coming to perform at our school on Thursday, April 9th at
10:30 am. Parents are more than welcome to come and watch this amazing group of
children perform. Some of our Grade 4 and Grade 5 students might join them for a song
or two.
DISTRICT CROSS COUNTRY RUN – Mrs. N. Baxendale
The District Cross Country Run will be held at Evans Park on Thursday, May 7th. This is a
fun event open to any students from Grades 4 to 7. Sign up will be held next week for
those students who are interested. I am in charge of organizing the event and need
about 6 or 7 parent volunteers to help for the day. If you are available to help, please
contact Mrs. Baxendale at nbaxendale@sd79 .bc.ca.
E-MAIL ADDRESSES
A reminder that we hope to eventually get e-mail addresses for all families so that we
can reduce the number of paper notices we send home, therefore saving paper, hydro and
trees. If you have not given us your e-mail address and would like to receive electronic
notices, please email the office at [email protected].
NEXT PAC MEETING
Yes, the PAC does a lot of Fundraising, but we do more than that. If you would like to be
involved in supporting, encouraging and improving the quality of education and the wellbeing and safety of the students in our school, you are invited to attend the next PAC
meeting, which will be held on Tuesday, April 21st at 8:45 am in the PAC room.
GRADE 6 IMMUNIZATION PROGRAM REMINDER
Public Health Nurses will be attending the elementary schools within the next 1-2 months
to complete the Grade 6 immunization series. The students receiving vaccines have
already signed a consent form and received the first doses in the fall. This is a reminder
that if parents consented for these vaccines to be done at school, the following
boosters will be provided to the students that started the 2 dose series in grade 6:
Hepatitis B
Varicella (chickenpox)
Human Papillomavirus (HPV) for girls only
If parents have any questions about the school immunizations, please contact the Public
Health School Team Nurses:
Health Unit:
Margaret Moss Health Centre
675 Canada Avenue, Duncan, V9L 1T9
Phone: 250-709-3050
Fax: 250-709-3055
COMMUNITY NOTICES
South Cowichan Recreation is pleased to offer the following programs this spring:
Home Alone + First Aid
Kerry Park Mini-Rugby
Ball Hockey
Junior Mountain Biking
Babysitters Training
Pro D Day Camp (Playzone)
Ages 10+
Grades 1 – 6
Ages 5 – 12
Ages 9 – 15
Ages 11+
Ages 6 – 12
Friday, April 10
Mondays, Apr 20 – June 15
Tuesdays, Apr 21 – June 9
Thursday, Apr 23 – May 14
Fri/Sat, April 24/25
Friday, May 1
Please call 250-743-5922 for more information or to register.
George Bonner Elementary Monthly Calendar – April 2015
MON
TUES
WED
1
THUR
2
Newsletter
FRI
3
No School
SAT
4
SUN
5
6
No School
7
8
Assembly @
9:00 am
9
Ukulele
performance
Gr. 3-5
10:30
10
French
PerformanceAM
Golf-all day
11
12
Budget
consult
meeting
here
13
14
15
PLC day-2
hour early
dismissal
16
17
Golf-all day
Memory Book
Deadline
18
19
20
Class
Photos
21
PAC
8:45pm
22
Lights Out
Canada
23
24
Spring Sprint
25
26
TC
10K
27
28
29
FKSS
Parent night
6:30-7:30
Suessical
30
Div. 11-14
to Bright
Angel Park
Suessical