Welcome 2024! ¡Felíz año nuevo!

¡Espero que este año les brinde salud y felicidad!

Winter breaks are wonderful time to slow down (if possible) and enjoy time with family and friends. For many, it is a time for gathering in celebration and looking forward to a new year of hope and potentially, change. On staff, some of our team was able to travel near or far to spend time with family or go on vacations to warmer places. Many of our team (including myself) stayed closer to home. With older children and a relatively small local family, I enjoyed a slower pace and not having many plans outside of taking walks, tidying the house, catching up on some Netflix series and taking perhaps too many photos of my cats. Whatever you were able to do, I hope you found it enjoyable and restorative.

Report Cards- January 30, 2024

As we enter into the new year, we are coming up on a very busy seaso n. Teachers, with the support of Sra. Jackie and myself, are currently working to finalize report cards for students. These will be available for digital viewing through your MyCBE account starting January 30. Student achievement up to this time is assessed against our 1-4 proficiency indicator scale. From September until now, teachers have been designing learning and gathering a body of evidence of student performance and achievement, using outcomes (skills and knowledge) identified by the new Alberta Curriculum (Mathematics, English Language Arts and Literature, Science, Physical Education & Wellness) as well as the Program of Studies (Social Studies, Spanish Language Arts). At this point in time, they have gathered enough data to share a summative or overall assessment of student learning across all subject areas taught. Teachers reference the following proficiency scale in their reporting:

1 - Not Meeting

The student demonstrates a beginning level of understanding.

- The quality of work within the body of evidence may be vague and/or undeveloped.

- The student consistently demonstrates this level of achievement.

- Targeted adjustments to planning and instruction will be necessary for further learning in this area.

2- Basic

The student demonstrates a developing level of understanding.

- The quality of work within the body of evidence may be adequate and/or concrete.

- The student consistently demonstrates this level of achievement.

- Adjustments to planning and instruction may be necessary for further learning in this area.

3 - Good

The student demonstrates a well-developed level of understanding.

- The quality of work within the body of evidence may be clear and/or well-reasoned.

- The student consistently demonstrates this level of achievement.

- Students achieving at this level can be confident of being prepared for further learning in this area.

4 - Excellent

The student demonstrates a mastery level of understanding.

- The quality of work within the body of evidence may be preceptive and/or insightful.

- The student consistently demonstrates this level of achievement.

- Students achieving at this level have an excellent demonstration of grade-level outcomes and can be confident of being prepared for further learning in this area.

Teachers strive to provide you with ongoing communication. It is important to us that you are informed during the course of the school year. If you have any questions about your child’s learning and achievement, you can connect with your child’s teacher at any time throughout the year.

Staff Changes and Funding Announcement

The start of the new year also brings about some significant change for Escuela Eugene Coste. After 8 years as a dedicated member of our teaching staff, Grade 4 Teacher and Learning Leader Monica Zarco is moving on to a new role as a system Learning Leader within the Languages team. We are fortunate that we will still be able to connect with Srta. Monica as she will be taking over the coordination of ongoing Spanish Reading Benchmarking (a collaborative project across all Spanish bilingual schools), Spanish resource development in response to changes to our curriculum and promotion of our Spanish Bilingual programming, among many other duties. Please join me in wishing Srta. Monica buena suerte in her new position.

We are happy to welcome Srta. Sofia Cesar Fernandez to our grade 4 team. She has already spent this week working alongside Srta. Monica to transition leadership of the classroom to her care. As well, we wish to congratulate Sra. Jodi who will now return to the role of Learning Leader, alongside Srta. Jenn and Srta. Van Eerden.

Prior to Winter Break, we were also able to work with lunch supervisor Kim Sutter to take on an acting Educational Assistant role, in support of our kindergarten classes. Many of our lunch supervisors have extra superpowers (AKA formal training) that allow them to grow into additional critical support staff positions within the school. Sra. Kim has already made herself at home as part of our amazing team of Educational Assistants (Sra. Monica and Sra. Angie).

Finally, I am pleased to report that our school has received additional provincial funding in support of enrollment growth and learning intervention/disruption. These additional dollars are allowing us to “top up” Sra. Holly Gray’s 0.5 FTE (M/W Kindergarten) to move into an additional learning support role. She will work with grade 4 classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, a cohort of students that bore the brunt of learning interruption in Kindergarten and Grade 1, when she is not busy teaching her own M/W Kindergarten class. Extra provincial funds are a welcome addition to how we plan for enhanced supports to learning at Escuela Eugene Coste.

Sra. Jackie and I have also met with our grade 3 team to allocate some of our administrative time to their classrooms. We will provide a combination of targeted intervention and in-class instructional support daily to each grade 3 teacher.

It is and has always been our goal to maximize resources (human and material) within our limited annual budget. We often discuss these topics with our parent community at our monthly School Council meetings. Sra. Jackie and I are also available outside of our formal School Council meetings to talk about our instructional and financial planning in service of optimal learning conditions at Escuela Eugene Coste.