January 2025

Hello, and Happy New Year to all the Sifton families! It's exciting to be starting out 2025 with our students. We've had a fantastic first week back. It is great to see everyone settling smoothly back into routines after all of December's excitement and a two-week break. It's a perfect time for fresh starts and new goals!

Thank you to all of the families who were able to attend our holiday concerts. With your generous contributions in our "Best seat in the house" draw, we raised over $900, which will be used to pay for buses for our skating trips in February and to support other school initiatives.

We are also looking forward to this month's Literacy Week, which is always a highlight of the year. What better New Year's resolution than to spend more time reading! See details about our school activities during Literacy Week below.

All the best,

Kathleen McLennan

We use our ROAR every day.

We do our best in every way.

We make strong choices.

We respect all voices.

We strive for more.

Here we ROAR!

January 6 School Resumes

January 28 Parent Council Meeting 7:00pm

January 27-30 Literacy Week

January 31 Staff meeting/Division PD/Staff Collaboration (No School for Students)

February 10 & 11 Skating

M/W Kindergarten / Maternelle (Mrs. Skoglund & Mme Urkow)

January 10

January 24

T/Th Maternelle (Mme Urkow)

No Fridays in January

Don't forget about our school home page that has a complete and up to date list of important dates and information. https://sifton.brsd.ab.ca/

This month I would like to provide information about our Well Being goal in Sifton's 2024-25 Annual Education Plan, which can be found on our website.

Our school wellness goal is to increase students' sense of belonging and connection within the school community. We will be helping students build relationships with a wide variety of students at the school through more activities involving students in mixed grade groups, such as the activities that our SWAT team led for the whole school before the break. We will be expanding ROAR assemblies to include more time with house teams. We will be working in our classrooms and as a whole school to help students build skills they need to make and and keep friends.

The PowerSchool Parent portal has 2 convenient ways to keep you informed of your child's progress throughout the school year: the APP and the web browser.

The PowerSchool portal APP is a quick easy way to keep informed on the day-to-day.

The APP does have it's limitations though, and does not offer everything the web browser does.

Please click on the PDF link below to learn more about the PowerSchool Parent Portal web browsers great features, so you can start using it with ease!

December 13, 2024

Dear Parents and Guardians of BRSD:

Subject: Holiday Letter to Parents and Guardians

As we approach the holiday season, together, let’s reflect on the achievements of 2024 and share our gratitude for the collaboration and support that defines Battle River School Division.

This notable year has been filled with remarkable success. Our recently unveiled 2024-27 Education Plan, guided by our vision: Every Student, Every Day, a Success, is already fostering growth and innovation. Our priorities—the foundation of our continual commitment—have been instrumental in achieving quality improvements in our learning, well-being, and in the creation of high-quality environments for students and staff.

Our Annual Education Results Report (AERR) revealed promising outcomes:

• 83.4% of stakeholders shared that they find our learning environments welcoming, caring, respectful, and safe, highlighting the supportive atmosphere in our schools.
• 86.8% of parents, teachers, and students expressed satisfaction with the overall quality of basic education, reflecting the dedication of our educators and support staff.

We are also proud of the diverse extracurricular opportunities available across BRSD, which have enriched students’ experiences beyond the classroom. From sports teams and leadership initiatives to music and drama programs, these activities continue to build community connection, resilience, and joy in our schools.

As we conclude 2024, please accept my heartfelt gratitude—our parents and guardians—for your unwavering support and trust. Your partnership is invaluable in helping us achieve our shared goal of making every day a success for our students.

May this holiday season bring peace, joy, and cherished moments to you and your loved ones. Please view our BRSD holiday greeting. I wish you a Happy New Year and look forward to welcoming our students back in January, refreshed and ready for another inspiring year of learning and growth.

Rhae-Ann Holoien
Superintendent of Schools

All Sifton students will have the opportunity to go skating on February 10 or 11. There will be no cost for students, as we raised enough money from our "Best Seat in the House" fundraiser at our holiday concerts. Please sign the online permission form here or by going through PowerSchool to School Fees and Forms.

To participate all students must have an CSA approved ice helmet. Bicycle helmets are not an option. For safety reasons students without helmets will not be allowed on the ice.

The school does have extra skates and helmets that can be borrowed. Please indicated on the permission form if you have your own.

See the schedule below to find when your child's class is attending skating.

Hello! My name is Theia Hackenschmidt, and I am excited to join the Ecole Sifton School community as your new Student Wellness Facilitator. This is my 11th school year working in this role with Battle River School Division, where I have had the privilege of supporting students and their families. My background includes a focus on Disability Studies, trauma and resilience, family violence, crisis intervention, and group facilitation, all of which I have integrated into my work to help foster safe, supportive environments for students.

Having my own children attend Sifton in the past makes this position even more meaningful to me, and I am thrilled to be part of such a wonderful school once again. I’m truly looking forward to this new chapter at Sifton!

Parent School Council has partnered with the Camrose Bottle Depot to make supporting the school easy! Simply drop off your bottles at the Bottle Depot and request the refund be directed to the Sifton
school account. Please donate and invest in the school’s future – one bottle at a time!

Grade 4 Art club runs every Wednesday from January 8 to February 5, for students who had permission forms signed in December. It is in Mme Kendall's room from 3:25-4:45.

Please remember that ALL students are required to have a waterproof library bag to protect their library books. Ziplock type bags work great! The bags must be big enough to cover the book and keep them protected from water and dirt.

We thank you in your cooperation at helping us keep our library books in good reading condition.

We will start the week off by joining in the Camrose Public Library's Read for 15 challenge to become the most readerly community in Canada. Everyone will stop and read for 15 minutes. We will send our number of readers to the Public Library to be included in their number of readers in the community.

We will have numerous activities throughout the week for students to participate in during the school day.

Our theme this year is "Have you READ a good movie lately?" Our activities will focus around books that have been made into movies. Please see the picture below for a list of the up coming theme days for literacy week for those who wish to participate.

The next parent Council meeting is Tuesday, January 28 at 7:00pm in the Library Learning Commons. All parents/guardians of students attending Sifton are welcome to attend.

Hot Lunch is available to order for students in Grades 1 - 5.

If you have ordered hot lunch and you child is absent, their lunch will be donated unless you contact the school by 12:00pm to make other arrangements. Unfortunately we can not offer refunds for any reason. Thank you for your understanding.

Ordering for February will be open from January 15 to 25. After that no more orders can be submitted for the month.

February Hot Lunch:

February 7 Panago Pizza

February 21 Booster Juice

February 28 Subway

Please place your ordering using our online payment system: https://www.studentquickpay.com/brsd/

Without parent volunteers we would not be able to have hot lunch.

If you would like to help distribute hot lunch please sign up using this link: https://forms.gle/9bbr3YJ8G6bDUHGg7

Thank you for your support!

Looking for a simple way to identify and keep track of your child's items? Support Parent School Council’s Lovable Labels school fundraiser and stick it to lost belongings!
These personalized, vibrant, and durable labels are waterproof and microwave, dishwasher, and laundry safe — perfect for everything from jackets and shoes to mittens and water bottles.
Plus, 20% of every order will go DIRECTLY to Sifton School, making it a win-win!
Best of all, your labels will be shipped straight to your door for FREE!
To order and make sure 20% of your purchase supports École Sifton, visit:

www.EcoleSiftonSchool.lovablelabels.ca.
Thank you for your support!

If you need to come to the school for any reason, please check in at the office. Anything that needs to be dropped off or picked up can take place there. To avoid disruption to learning, parents should not be going to classrooms or dropping off/picking up from lockers.

Please Remember to complete the School Verification form on SchoolEngage . Here parents can confirm contact numbers and ensure information for students is up to date and accurate.