Colts Connection - Welcome Back

From our team here at PES to all our new families, welcome to Ponoka Elementary and welcome back to all of our returning families! We are eagerly anticipating the start of another great school year at PES.

I hope that everyone was able to enjoy some rest and relaxation over the summer and are as excited as we are to have you back in school. For those who may not know me, my name is Nathan McEntee and I am the principal here at Ponoka Elementary. I personally am looking forward to seeing all of our students' smiling faces and hopefully getting a chance to see/meet you all throughout this year.

At the beginning of each month I will be emailing out a newsletter, like this one, that I call the Colts Connection (Colt is our mascot and school team name). In order to ensure you receive this email please make sure you have the correct email address set up for your Parent Portal account (more information below) and make sure it is not getting sent to the spam folder. This will also be posted to the school website (where the most up to date information about the school and school happenings can be found), as well as our school's Facebook page.

You may have noticed the image at the top of this page, this is our theme for the school year. We choose a theme each year to kick off the school year and this year is all about watching us grow. Watching our students grow academically and emotionally in their educational journey. We are committed to working with our families to support, encourage, and promote student growth and success. We have such a great school and parent community that have been, and continue to be, extremely supportive of our school from volunteering for field trips or in the classroom, to supporting fundraisers for the school, to reading to and with your kids on a regular basis, to the most simple but important task of making sure students make it to school every day. Every little bit our community does helps ensure each and every one of our students has an opportunity to be successful both inside and outside the school.

I look forward to our paths crossing and connecting with you all this year!

- Mr. Nathan McEntee

A reminder that Tuesday, September 5th, is the first day back, however, we have a staggered entry for our students, as outlined below. Staggered entry started during COVID for our Gr. 1-6, but we have found that it has been very helpful in ensuring students have a successful start to the year with smaller groups of students on the first couple of days.

• Students whose last names start with A-L will be in class on September 5th.
• Students whose last names start with M-Z will be in class on September 6th.
• ALL Gr. 1-6 Students attend on Thursday, September 7.
• Kindergarten and Bright Futures Play Academy Staggered Entry - September 5-14. Your child's teacher will contact you with your child's staggered entry days.

All families are invited to come and meet their child(ren)'s teachers and see their classroom space on September 7th from 3:30-5:30 pm. We will be serving free ice cream for all students and their families, with some opportunities to win prizes too (winners will be selected at our September Awesome Awards Assembly). Get the Scoop has happened before school starts for quite a few years now and it has been successful, however, we ran into issues scheduling it this year.

The Parent Portal is a one stop shop for information on student achievement, paying fees, signing consent and paying for field trips, signing up and paying for hot lunches, and the very important demographic form updates. Please make sure you know how to log into your Parent Portal and keep your log in information in a safe place. If you are not able to log into your Parent Portal please don't hesitate to contact the office and our office team can help you out.

All students' PreK-Grade 4 supplies are purchased by the school. The cost for these supplies are added to the school fees for the year. Students do share supplies, but this allows us to pass on significant savings to families. The only items needed for PreK-Grade 4 students are a water bottle, indoor shoes, a backpack, and a daily lunch.

For Grade 5 and 6 students, supply lists were sent out emailed out at the end of last year but can also be found here on our website.

School fees will be added to the Parent Portal in September. These fees include: supply fees (K-4), technology access fee (covers the cost of licensing for programs such as RAZ Kids, ST Math, IXL Math, etc.), student agenda, and swimming lessons (Gr. 1-6).

Fees for additional programming such as Options (Gr. 4-6), Field Trips, and Extra Curricular Sports are added as they arise. Fees can be paid online through the Parent Portal or in the office. Unpaid fees may result in your child not being able to participate in some non-core curriculum events/activities. If there are any issues or barriers with having school fees paid promptly, please contact the school to discuss alternate arrangements.

Morning entrance bell - 8:25 am (this is a bell to let students know they can head to their doors to enter the school (Gr. 1-6).

School Starts - 8:30 am

School End/Dismissal - 3:15 pm

Students arriving before 8:40 am can enter through their respective door ways. Any students arriving after 8:40 must enter through the main office doors.

**We have supervisors on the playground starting at 8:10 am. As we don't have supervisors out before that time, we strongly encourage students to arrive after 8:10 am. After school supervision is until 3:20 pm.

Students who arrive before 8:10 and/or are on the school grounds after 3:20 pm do so at their own risk and without any supervision by the school.

We know, especially with our younger students, bringing your child right into the school and even into their classroom on the first day is something students and parents look forward too. We love to see the excitement of both student and parent in those moments as well. On the first day of staggered entry parent(s)/guardian(s) are welcome to bring their child into school. After that day, we like to support our students in developing their independence (and our entry ways are quite busy and crowded as is), we ask that parent(s)/guardian(s) drop their child off outside the school and have them enter the school on their own.

We are excited to introduce a new, optional, Birthday Book Program at Ponoka Elementary School. Students. The Birthday Book program involves a $15 donation to enroll your child in the Birthday Book Program. Students who enroll in the Birthday Book Program will come into the library during the month of their birthday and select from an array of newly purchased books. The child's name is put on a bookplate sticker on the front of the book and the book is then added to our library's book collection for students to read. It is important to note that while the child will be the first to check out the book, it is not owned; it’s a donation to the library with the intention that the child’s generosity will last in the library for years to come and continue to build the inventory of books in our library.

The option to enroll your child in the Birthday Book Program will be available through the Parent Portal under Student Fees by the end of September.

Through continued government grants and generous donations (including the Breakfast Club of Canada), we will be running our breakfast and lunch programs. We will have quick grab and go type items for breakfast every morning in the Community Commons and bagged lunches available for students who don't have a lunch for any reason. We are extremely grateful for the amazing community support we have for this program as we know that if we feed their bodies we can then feed their minds!

We want your child to be successful in school and that means supporting and encouraging their whole development. While excelling in academic classes is important, children also need skills to take on learning challenges, make good decisions, manage strong emotions, and get along with others.

This year, we’ll begin Second Step® , a research-based social-emotional learning program designed to improve children’s social-emotional skills. Second Step skills and concepts are designed to help children both in and out of school.

Four units will cover the following:

Growth Mindset & Goal-Setting: Children learn how to pay attention and manage distractions, develop a growth mindset, and apply goal-setting strategies to their social and academic lives. Emotion Management: Children learn how to identify and label emotions and use emotion management strategies—including stress management for older students—to calm strong feelings. Empathy & Kindness: Children learn how to recognize kindness and act kindly, have empathy for others and take others’ perspectives, and recognize kind acts and empathy as important elements of building and maintaining relationships.

Problem-Solving: Children learn how to identify and state a problem, recognize if a problem is an accident, and use the STEP problem-solving process:

S: Say the problem

T: Think of solutions

E: Explore the outcomes

P: Pick a solution

You’ll receive regular communications from your child’s teacher to help you reinforce Second Step language, skills, and goals at home. If you have any questions about Second Step Elementary, please don’t hesitate to contact me or your child’s teacher for more information. Thank you for your support as we work to build a safe and supportive school community.

Demographic forms need to be reviewed and updated for each child by September 15, 2023. These forms are available School Engage (bottom left hand corner when you are in your Parent Portal) now. These forms confirm your child's enrollment at PES, and contain important information for the school to ensure your child's safety and well-being. If you are unsure how to access your Parent Portal and/or Demographic form please call the office and Shelley or Candi can help you out.

Demographic forms are easiest to access and fill out on a computer rather than a phone/tablet. Since the demographic forms include waiver documents and technology acceptable use agreements, any incomplete demographic forms after September 15th, will result in your child not able to participate in Phys. Ed, Field Trips, and/or access to technology. If you need any assistance in completing these forms please contact the office.

August 30th from 9 am- 3:00 pm

August 31 and September 1 - 9:00 am-3:00 pm

Office hours when school is in is from 8:00 am -3:30 pm

If you have left messages and/or emailed the school you can expect a response during these days/times.

September 5 and 6 - Staggered Entry Gr. 1 - 6

September 7 - All students attend Gr. 1-6

September 7 - School Year Kick Off Assembly

September 7 - Get the Scoop 3:30-5:30

September 15 - Deadline for Demographic Forms to be completed

September 22 - Professional Development Day - no school for students

September 25 - School Council AGM @ 6:30 pm

September 29 - Orange Shirt Day