Bel Ayr Elementary School

Dear families,

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks for your support at last week's Family BINGO Night. Your participation played a key role in helping our Home and School raise $1,400 for our school supply initiative this fall. A special congratulations goes to our grand prize winner, H.T., a Grade One student, who completed his entire BINGO card and won the title of "Principal for a Day." On Monday, Principal T. took the reins at Bel Ayr, making some exciting changes. He rearranged our outdoor play areas, conducted classroom walkthroughs to offer feedback to teachers, and declared Thursday, March 6th, as Pajama Day for everyone. Well done, Principal T.!

Thank you to our Home and School for organizing this event and our SAC for supporting their fundraising.

Sincerely,

Shawn Marsh

Principal

Please be reminded that we have students who have life threatening allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, sesame seeds, latex, and eggs (ingestion only). We would ask that you do not send food items in lunch bags containing peanuts, tree nuts and sesame seeds as these can contaminate surfaces.

MARCH - Nutrition Month

Feb 28 -Mar 29 - Ramadan

6: Pajama Day and School Assembly

7: Assessment & Evaluation Day - no classes

8: International Women's Day

10-14: Spring Break

17: St. Patrick's Day

21: World Down Syndrome Day

21: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

25: Maritime Centre for African Dance - Workshops

26: 2nd Term Report Cards Emailed to Families

28: Adaptations emailed to families with updates/reviews

28: Eid al-Fitr

31: International Transgender Day of Visibility

APRIL - Autism Awareness Month

1: First Day to Submit Out of Area Requests for the 2025-26 School Year (HRCE Website)

2: Evening Student Progress Conferences (Parent/Guardian -Teacher Meetings) 6-8 PM

3: Morning Teacher Professional Learning & Afternoon Student Progress Conferences 1-3 PM - no classes

16: SAC/Home and School (Wed)

18: Good Friday - no classes all schools

21: Easter Monday - no classes all schools

22: Earth Day

30: Teacher Professional Learning Day - no classes

To ensure we have adequate staffing support in place for September 2025, it is important that we have families register as soon as possible. Our numbers are currently lower than in previous years with only 8 pre-primaries and 19 primaries registered for the fall. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development will extract enrollment data twice in March and once in April before schools are allocated teachers, ECEs, and EPAs for the 2025-26 school year. Late registrations, beyond the month of March, often lead to schools not being properly staffed until mid-October. You can help us by contacting families in our area who haven't registered online yet. Please share that registrations are completed online and are submitted on the HRCE website.

Please ensure that your children have water bottles with their names written on them. We can no longer support the costs of purchasing paper cups as it has led to a greater number of students choosing not to use water bottles. Thank you for helping us save costs and the environment!

We have an opening for a volunteer who does not need to have volunteer checks completed. This task involves bagging up multigrain Cheerios from the cereal boxes we buy in bulk. If you would like to help us feed our students and organize our Breakfast Program, please contact Mr. Marsh (smarsh@hrce.ca). This year, the number of students accessing breakfast at school each morning has more than tripled as compared to other years.

There is an ordering window posted in School Cash Online for a new Kenny's Pizza order. This ordering window will close at noon on March 24th. Families who normally order from the School Lunch Program are reminded not to order pizzas on the same days if they sign up. Funds raised will continue to support our school supply initiative.

We have three Artists in Residence currently working in our school.

Jill Robinson continues to make waves teaching students about Mi'kmaw culture through the Seven Sacred Teachings. She finished up acrylic painting with all P-6 classes and has moved on to giant "Turtle Island" mosaics in each class.

Mwape Benaya is a Dalhousie Law student with a background and experience in Theatre Arts. She is currently working on drama and small productions in the upper elementary.

Elsa Ruck recently joined our team to establish a lunch hour song writing club. She held her first meeting in our upper elementary last week.

We are excited and honoured to have these three talented artists in our school. Our students are creating some amazing artwork as they continue to learn from individuals who are models for Indigenous and Black excellence in our school.

Thank you to Ms. Greenough and Ms. Landry for joining this important support. We have more openings if you are a registered volunteer (both checks submitted and up to date) and would like to volunteer with our grade 1 students. Please contact Mr. Marsh (smarsh@hrce.ca).

More than 33,000 HRCE students take the school bus. Making sure they have a safe and happy trip to and from school is very important to us. Please talk with your child about school bus safety on a regular basis. Students should tell their bus driver and/or school principal if they have any problems.

Here are some important safety tips:

Bus Stop Safety

• Be on time for the bus. Don't run to or from the bus.

• Stand back when the bus arrives and give everyone space. Get on or off the bus one at a time.

• Always cross the road in front of the bus. Walk to a spot where you can see the driver. When they signal it’s safe, walk to the middle of the road. STOP, LOOK, and LISTEN, then cross when it’s safe.

• Never crawl under the bus or cross the road from behind it.

School Bus Safety

• Respect and listen to the driver. Their job is to focus on the road, so avoid distracting them.

• Respect others and your space.

• Keep noise levels down.

• Stay seated while the bus is moving.

• Keep your arms, legs, and head inside the bus.

• Do not throw anything inside or outside the bus.

• Keep the aisle clear.

Did you know: It's illegal for drivers to pass a school bus when it has stopped with its red lights flashing. Bus drivers will activate their amber lights 150m before they stop as a warning to motorists.

More information about HRCE student transportation and school bus safety can be found here.

Did you know? March is Nutrition Month! This year’s theme, Nourish to Flourish, highlights the important role that food has on our physical, mental and emotional health and well-being.

Whether it’s planting an indoor or outdoor garden, cooking together with family, or enjoying a meal with friends, food provides opportunities for building social connections that can support improved feelings of belonging and overall well-being. This is a great time to explore and learn about food. An important part of this is food literacy, which includes having the knowledge and skills to grow, choose, prepare, and talk about food.

Extra Clothing

With the cold, wet, and snowy weather approaching, please send extra clothes to school with your child. Pants, socks, underwear, and t-shirts are always good to have on hand! Winter hats, mittens, snow pants, boots, and warm jackets are a necessity this time of year. All students are reminded to have indoor sneakers and outdoor boots to change into this time of year.

School Closures

Sometimes schools are closed when storms or conditions become severe. The HRCE has three types of emergency closure procedures; all or some schools closed, early dismissals, and 2 hour delayed openings. There may also be occasions when buses are cancelled but schools remain open. Please read about this in greater detail in the link below. It is written in HRCE policy that teachers have to make contact with all families of elementary aged students before dismissing during an early closure.

https://www.hrce.ca/families/cancellations

How will I find out?

• By email to the addresses in PowerSchool
• By text message, if you have opted-in. If you aren’t sure if you have opted-in, text Y to the following number: 978338
• On our website www.hrce.ca
• On X (formerly Twitter) at Twitter.com/HRCE_NS
• On Instagram at www.instagram.com/hrce_ns/

Make sure you listen for either the Family of Schools name or the individual name of your child's school in cancellation announcements. Click here to find your Family of Schools.

Hats and Mittens

Students lose their hats and mitts often at school. Please make sure that all items are labelled. If you are interested in donating hats and mitts to our school we will put them to good use!

Our school will post items for purchase and assign school fees relevant to your child (eg. milk orders). You can make all purchases and payments from your phone, tablet or computer.

We would like families to register as soon as possible.

To get started, please register for SchoolCash Online. It’s free and takes less than two minutes. You will receive an email once items are posted for purchase.

Visit https://hrce.schoolcashonline.com/ and click Register to get started.

Need support? Connect with the SchoolCash Online help desk at schoolcashonline.com/Home/Support

We hope that SchoolCash Online makes paying school-related fees more convenient!

Discovery Centre March Break Camps - https://thediscoverycentre.ca/events/camps/march-break-camps/

YMCA March Break Camps - https://anc.ca.apm.activecommunities.com/ymcahalifaxdart/activity/search?onlineSiteId=0&activity_select_param=2&activity_keyword=March%20Break%20Camp&viewMode=list

Dalhousie University March Break Camps - https://athletics.dal.ca/kids-and-camps/march-break.html

Mad Science Camps - https://maritimes.madscience.org/parents-register-c.aspx

Dartmouth United Soccer - Looking towards Spring/Summer 2025, the Dartmouth United Soccer Club has details for your planning:

• AAA Rosters will be finalized around March 9th.
• AA/A Assessments for U12-18 will be happening after March Break (estimated March 18-30 inclusive).
• Registration for ASSESSMENTS will open on February 3rd. All players seeking to play AA or A from U12-U18 must sign up for assessments prior to March 17th.
• B players should register for the appropriate B program.
• Players should sign up only for the highest level they seek to assess for. If a player signs up for AA and is not selected, we will automatically include them in the A assessment list thereafter.

Program Summer Registration will open shortly after completion of each program’s assessments.

This tentative assessment schedule is subject to change, with all assessment sessions hosted at East Coast Varsity Dome in the evening:

https://www.udfc.ca/

Royal Soccer (summer) - Check the link below for registration!

• Program Name: Royal City Soccer Club Summer Day Camps
• Ages: 5-13 years old
• Dates: Weekly sessions from June 30 to August 29, 2025
• Locations: Click here for Halifax and Dartmouth locations near you
• Activities: Life and social skill development, soccer skill development, team games and more
• Registration: Now open at https://royalsoccer.com/registration/

Email: bla@hrce.ca
Website: bla.hrce.ca
Location: 4 Bell Street, Dartmouth, NS, Canada
Phone: 902-435-8353
X(Twitter): @belayrschool