October 25, 2019

Principal’s Message

Since arriving, I have been asking a lot of questions and getting to know this vibrant community.  I have found the Langley Meadows community to be kind, respectful, team oriented, welcoming, and committed to each other.  I have asked staff and PAC what they see our Core Values to be, so that we can create for our community a clear statement of who we are.  It was really fun to put the staff responses into a word cloud, with the words used most often showing up the largest.  When I asked PAC to do the same, they added some new words and echoed many of the words our staff used.  Here is the word cloud of the core values that were given to me.

Staff and I are now working to move these values into a statement about our school.  Stay tuned to see when we come up with.

Thinking about our own core values is a great exercise for you and your children.  What values drive our decisions, our actions and our perspective of others.

I wish you a wonderful weekend and look forward to a fun and spooky week next week

Week at a Glance

Learning This Week

Our intermediate classes enjoyed a very special afternoon carving pumpkins and making memories together on Thursday.

Hallowe’en Costumes – Guidelines

We are really excited about the PAC Halloween carnival and many of our students will want to come to school in costume on October 31.  Wearing a costume and celebrating Hallowe’en together is great fun and we want to keep everyone physically and emotionally safe.  School is a busy place, also, with many activities, some of which are active or artsy.  Please support our learning environment by following these costume guidelines for the school costume.

1. School costumes should be easy to move in and present  no tripping hazard.  Your little one needs to be able to easily get in and out of the costume on his or her own, for washroom use.
2. For safety reasons, please no masks or face paint.  We need to be able to recognize all our little faces at any given time and masks can impede vision in a crowded area.
3. Please no weapons. Props often show off the costume well but can get lost or broken before the big night out.  Please use your best judgement around these.
4. Inflatable costumes are great fun but are not practical during a school day with all the activities that take place.  They can easily get punctured.  Please consider keeping these for trick or treating.
5. We head out for recess, even when it is wet.  Please be mindful that what your child wears may get wet or muddy.
6. We have a diverse school and some of us are younger or scare easily.  Please think of our five year olds when you get dressed in your costume and keep it tame.
7. If your child is not wanting to wear a costume per se, black and orange is always a fun choice.

Ultimately, we want the day to be fun, safe and comfortable for all.  We cannot take responsibility for props or costumes so parental judgement is always a good rule of thumb.  We want the day to be happy for everyone.

Conflict at School

When children come to school, they bring their emergent social skills, their worries and their full range of emotions.  When conflict arises, as it will, we work in a restorative manner to support our students.  We teach them strategies to manage their feelings and make good choices.

If your child is having a conflict with a peer at school, we want to help.  Please speak to your classroom teacher so that we can set in motion a plan to support your child and solve problems.  Please note that approaching another parent to solve this on the schoolyard is not usually productive.  School problems are usually best handled by school personnel and we are here to help.

Conferences are coming!

We are so excited to be welcoming parents to the school next week for our fall conferences.  We know that when parents and teachers partner together, student success soars.  There are few tips to make the conferences go well.

1. Review the interim that was sent home with your child and discuss together what is going well and what a goal may be as he or she moves forward.
2. Think about the questions you may have for your classroom teacher.  Conferences are 15 minutes long so decide what is most important to you to discuss with the teacher.
3. Discuss communication.  What is working well for you so that you feel connected to your student’s classroom and learning?
4. Please be timely. Our teachers have tight schedules and if you are late, your conference will need to be shortened.  If you feel you need more time, suggest a follow up meeting or email.

If you haven’t yet booked your conference, do so today.  Bookings can be made at:

http://lmcs.schoolappointments.com

Lunch Time Opportunities

We are excited with the growing opportunities for students to learn and connect at our lunch times.  We currently have a grades 3-5 choir, a garden club with representatives from each classroom, and soon, open gym for different grade levels.  We hope that these opportunities allow for new friendships, shared interests and most of all, fun.

Stay tuned for more!

From our PAC Executive

Fun Lunch and Fun Snacks: 

Join us on Facebook for reminders and updates and a place to connect with Langley Meadows School Families: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LangleyMeadowsPAC/  **Make sure you go to the notifications tab and choose “All Posts” to be sure you see what we are posting.

Langley Meadows Community Association

We are so fortunate to have such an active and caring community association.  Here are some upcoming family events that you will not want to miss!