Important Dates

April 14-17, 2025 - Spanish Immersion Weeks

April 18, 2025 - Good Friday, No School

April 21, 2025 - Non-Instruction Day - No school for students

April 24, 2025 - School Council & Enrichment Society Meetings (Teams)

May 1, 2025 - Hot Lunch -Taco Time

May 6, 2025 - ¡Qué Pasa! at the Jubilee Auditorium – Grade 3

May 12-15, 2025 - Camp Chief Hector Grade 5

May 21, 2025 - Saucy Bread Co

Estimadas familias, 

¡Que bello fue el Mercado!

On Thursday April 10, our grade 4 and grade 5 students hosted their Mercado event. “Mercado” is an interdisciplinary Spanish project which has been planned by teachers across both grade levels. Learning and preparation for this even began months ago!

Students worked collaboratively to develop business plans and create products that were sold in our Mercado. As part of the business planning process, students needed to rent tables and materials from their teachers as well as consider profit margins when pricing their items. Students offered hand-made fidgets, jewellery, bookmarks, decorative items, key chains as well as services such as snacks, drinks, games and face painting!

Parents were invited to shop at the Mercado during a 1-hour window and were provided with prompts to engage with students in Spanish. Parent attendees paid cash for tickets worth $0.25 each. Amazingly, in one hour, our Mercado event raised over $2100 that will be donated to a charity that will be decided upon by students through debate and persuasive writing. Last year Eugene Coste students donated to the Kidney Foundation. Let’s see who they support this year!

Thank you once again to our grade 4 and grade 5 parent community for providing support and encouragement for your students to engage in this complex and layered project. Meaningful, authentic learning can be challenging and very rewarding. Seeing the students demonstrate pride and independence in running their businesses was amazing to witness! 

CASLT | Language Without Borders Conference (Montreal April 2-5)

Sra. Jackie and I enjoyed the immense privilege of attending and presenting at the 2025 CASLT conference last week. We are thankful to Acting Principal Rolf Haensel and our entire team at Escuela Eugene Coste for leading our learning community during our absence. Our presentation titled “Fostering Supportive Language Learning Environments through Land-Based and Place-Based Practices” was well received by attendees from across Canada. It was rewarding to know that the routines for land and place-based learning that we have embedded in our programming and the relationships that the CBE continues to build with our indigenous community is something to aspire to for our colleagues in other parts of Canada. We have much to celebrate!

Reminder | Intent to Return

Thank you, families for your quick response to our Intent to Return for the 2025-2026 school year survey. If you have not already done so, you can share your plans with us here: https://forms.office.com/r/xA3xkfAvya 

Office staff will reach out to families individually if we have not yet captured your data. Student population directly impacts staff decisions and school organization for the following year. Your feedback is important!

School Council and Enrichment Society Updates  

School Council and EC Enrichment Society Meetings for 2024-2025 will continue to take place online through TEAMS.

Our next meeting will take place Thursday, April 24, 2025. School Council: 6:15pm – 7:30pm

EC Enrichment Society: 7:30pm – 8:30pm

Future Meeting Dates 

April 24, 2025

May 22, 2025 

Reminder | Volunteers are still needed! 

We are specifically looking for volunteers for:

Memory Book Committee Co-Chair: co-lead a team of volunteers to take photos and create the memory book for the 2024-2025 school year. We would like someone to be able to take over for future years and co-chair with another individual as our current lead has only a short time left with kids in the school. 

Please don't hesitate to reach out as we continue to engage volunteers and contribute to positive experiences for the students and staff at Eugene Coste.

Eugene Coste Merchandise

Order at www.flav-our.com/eugenecoste

Fun Lunches

Fun lunches are offered throughout the year to students who wish to participate. We receive our lunches through Healthy Hunger, an online platform that delivers pre-ordered lunches to the school in which a portion of the proceeds goes to the school.

On the day of the event, lunches are sorted and delivered to your child’s classroom by parent volunteers. If you would like to participate, please register your child at www.healthyhunger.ca . Lunches must be ordered prior to midnight, 5 days before the fun lunch event. 

We kindly ask that if your child is absent the day of the fun lunch, please contact the school prior to 10:30am, if you wish to pick it up the same day, after 1:30pm. If not specified, your food will be donated to someone in need of lunch. No refunds will be issued if your child is absent on the day of a Fun Lunch. 

If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to parent support at www.healthyhunger.ca or email ecsfunlunch@gmail.com .

What date is that again? How do I find that information? WhatsApp Parent Chat Groups 

Did you know that School Council has organized Parent-Led, School Council-supported WhatsApp Chat Groups for each grade? These groups are intended to foster connections between families and the school community, share school events and fundraising activities, and remind each other about important school dates. 

The chats are not an official school communication channel and teachers and staff will not review the content. Please continue to connect with teachers directly about student-specific concerns. If you are interested in joining, please send your School Council team an e-mail to ecsschoolcouncil@gmail.com and you will be added to the correct group. 

Subject line – WhatsApp Chat E-mail – your name and phone number, your student’s first name and grade.

Please note if your chat group is starting to flood with questions or doubts about anything, that the most direct way to confirm information is by reaching out directly to the school. This can be through checking our website for posted calendars or resources, reviewing our weekly newsletter, e-mailing your child’s teacher or calling the office. We are always available to help and reaffirm communication that has been provided as well as address concerns should the need arise.

My Child Takes the Bus

Please continue to remind your child of expected bus behaviour to support a safe ride home (stay in your assigned seat, stay seated at all times, appropriate volume of voice, be kind). 

As we have done in previous years, if your child normally takes the bus home but you will be picking them up, please meet us at the bus zone so that we can check in with you to confirm attendance. If you are picking up early or if there is a regular pick-up schedule at the bus, please call our office before 2:30pm so that we can add that information to our bus lists and avoid after school confusion.

What if I still have questions? 

We thank you for reviewing our information and know that questions may remain. Please do not hesitate to reach out to our team if you need support. Please visit Our Staff page. Please visit our Classes page for Instagram links.

Sincerely,

Sra. Andrea Riquelme, Principal Escuela Eugene Coste International Spanish Academy