Volume 10, Issue 4 January 11, 2013
ROCKIES RUMBLINGS M E S S A G E F R O M T H E P R I N C I PA L Happy New Year We all hope you and your families had a restful holiday! I have to admit, it was pretty exciting to see the students return to school after two weeks off. They were energized and excited to see their friends and teachers and get 2013 underway!
“WE MOVE MOUNTAINS”
Midterm and Final Exams
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Message from the Principal
1
Society News Academic Fair
2
Speaker Series
3
Monthly Parent Survey Parent Workshop
4
Lorne Wood Award
5
Drama
6
Drama Cont’d
7
Music Notes
8
Exam Schedule
9
Activities for the Month
10
January is an exciting yet challenging month for teachers and students as it represents a bit of a break from routine. If your child is in Grade 6-12, they will be doing midterms, finals or diploma exams. We hope students feel well prepared by their teachers and with this preparedness will come a higher level of confidence. For our Grade 6 students, this will be the first time they do a midterm exam. The intent of the midterm exam is not to create stress and/or anxiety, but to give our students a chance to rehearse for the eventuality of the Grade 6 Provincial Achievement Test (PAT). In the past, we have found that our Grade 6 students are a little dazzled by the midterm exam, but come time for the PAT the anxiety is much less because they have rehearsed the situation at least once. During the midterm week, Grade 6-9 students are expected to stay at school in the afternoons for school activities and important review time with their teachers. Senior High students are welcome to leave school when they are done their exams. For all our students, we believe that with adequate preparation and some review time, the students will do well on these exams and be ready to move on to the second half of the year.
RUNDLE ACADEMY 4330 16 Street SW Calgary, AB T2T 4H9 Ph: 250-2965 / Fax: 250-2914 www.rundleacademy.ab.ca
On January 30th, there will be no school as the teachers have a Professional Development Day and then classes resume on January 31st. Mark statements for the
midterm exams and for Senior High courses will be e-mailed out in the first week of February. Alberta Accountability Pillar Surveys As an annual check-up on the education system, the Accountability Pillar provides an opportunity for Alberta Education and school authorities to ensure that we’re equipping students for success. The Accountability Pillar uses a set of 16 indicators consisting of surveys of students, parents and teachers on various student outcomes such as dropout and high school completion rates and provincial assessments of student learning. From January to the end of February, Alberta Education will be conducting the annual Accountability Pillar Survey. In January, parents of students in grades 4, 7 and 10 will receive a survey from Alberta Education. In February, students in grades 4, 7 and 10 and all teachers will be completing their surveys online at school. All surveys are anonymous and ask questions about experiences with the school. Your participation in the survey helps provide important information on the quality of education your child is receiving, so we encourage you to return your survey promptly. Survey results will be available to school authorities in May 2013, and will be reported publicly as part of the 3-Year Education Plans and Annual Education Results Reports. We are very pleased with the successes we have seen in the first half of the school year and are eager to get started on all of our academic and extracurricular plans for 2013.