The PAW Print

Welcome back to a new school year! We’re thrilled to have many familiar faces, as well as welcome many new families to our school community. SAM is a great place to be and this year promises to be filled with exciting learning opportunities, growth, and memorable experiences.

To help you get off to a smooth start, we’re introducing the Back-To-School Edition of our school newsletter, The PAW Print. This special edition contains all the essential information you need to get ready for the first few days of school, including important dates, schedules, and tips for a successful transition back to school. Please also visit our school website for even more information!

We are so excited to see everyone next week and hear all about your summertime adventures at our annual Welcome Back Family BBQ on Wednesday, September 11th at 5:30pm. Please come join us for some free hotdogs and to meet your teachers.

Here’s to a fantastic year ahead—let’s make it the best one yet!

Dawn & Cam

Week of August 28 - 30th

• Wed, Aug 28 - Staggered Entry for Students Gr 1-6 with Surnames A-K
• Wed, Aug 28 - Staggered Entry for Kindergarten Students
• Thurs, Aug 29 - Staggered Entry for Students Gr 1-6 with Surnames L-Z
• Thurs, Aug 29 - Staggered Entry for Kindergarten Students
• Fri, Aug 30 - First Day of Regular Classes for all students in Gr 1-6.
• Fri, Aug 30 - Staggered Entry for Kindergarten Students

Week of Sept 2 - 6th

• Mon, Sept 2 - NO SCHOOL (Labour Day)
• Tues, Sept 3 - First Day of Regular Classes for all Kindergarten students

We are excited to announce that due to the overwhelming interest in our program, we have been able to create two soccer academy groups. Students will be assigned to either a morning training session before lunch (blocks 5 & 6) or an afternoon session after lunch (blocks 7 & 8) on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. Group assignments will be based on the students' homeroom classes.

• Group 1 (M, W, F - blocks 5 & 6) - Homerooms 4MAR, 4RIN, 5TUK, 6CLA

• Group 2 (M, W, F - blocks 7 & 8) - Homerooms 4ROB, 5JUK, 6LET, ACE

Student homeroom placements will be posted on PowerSchool on Monday, August 26th at 4pm. Please have all soccer academy students prepared to start their training on Friday, August 30th.

The monthly Soccer Academy program fee of $150 is due on the first school day of each month. For your convenience we are happy to offer the option to set up a monthly payment plan for an automatic recurring credit card payment through your parent portal in PowerSchool. Please note that with any credit card payment there is a small payment processing fee of 2.4%. We also accept exact cash or post dated cheques made out to St Albert Public Schools in the school office.

Thank you for your enthusiasm and support!

When creating our classroom composition each year, our primary goal is to determine class placements that best support each student's learning strengths and needs as members of a class learning community. Several (sometimes competing) factors are weighed to determining these placements, including:

• Literacy learning strengths and needs;
• Numeracy learning strengths and needs;
• Social-emotional learning strengths and needs;
• Peer connections;
• Other learning supports.

We try as best we can to balance these strengths and needs within each class so our teachers are well positioned to support the learning strengths and needs of all students. Therefore, these factors are considered for each student, as well as between students as we evaluate class compositions.

In order to inform our class placement decisions, last spring we invited our families to share their input about the above factors for their children. Our teacher and administrative teams used this information alongside teacher generated information in regards to each of these factors to create this year's classroom placements. Due to the complexity of these factors and the ways they interact with each other, we cannot grant requests for specific classes or teachers, nor can we guarantee any particular placement. We thank all the parents who provided their very thoughtful feedback to us last year regarding their child success at school as it did help us inform our decisions. Class placements for 2024/25 will be shared on PowerSchool on Monday, August 26th at 4pm.

Please review the below map to identify the school door your class will use throughout the school year to enter and exit the school each day, as well as the location of your classroom.

• Door A - Main Office for Visitors
• Door B - Grade 2 door (2RAV, 2BEL, 2 SMO)
• Door C - Kindergarten Door (0BOW, 0DRE-AM, ODRE-PM)
• Door D - Grade 1 Door (1PHI, 1PRO)
• Door E - 3MIT, 3TAR, 4RIN, 5TUK, 5JUK, 45ACE
• Door F - 4ROB, 4MAR, 56ACE, 6CLA, 6LET

We are excited to welcome all our new students to SAM! We mailed out a kindergarten welcome package to all our families over the summer that contains the majority of information you will need. Just a reminder that there is a staggered start entry for all our kindergarten students according to assigned groups. If you need a reminder of what group your child is in, please contact our office.

• Group 1 - Wednesday, August 28th
• Group 2 - Thursday, August 29th
• Group 3 - Friday, August 30th
• All Kindergarten students attend - Tuesday, September 3rd

Our grades 1 - 6 students will also have a staggered entry on the first few days of school according to their surname.

• Students with surnames beginning with A - K will attend school on Wednesday, August 28th (but not Thursday, August 29th)
• Students with surnames beginning with L - Z will attend school on Thursday, August 29th (but not Wednesday, August 28th)
• All students grades 1 - 6 will attend school for their first day of regular classes on Friday, August 30th.

SAM School will have a slightly revised daily schedule for our students this year. To accommodate busing schedules, please note that our school day is both starting and ending slightly earlier than this year. Click here for the SAM 2024/2025 Bell Schedule

As there will be limited scheduled staff supervision on the playground before 8:40am or after 3:25pm, it will be very important for families to time their morning drop-offs and afternoon pick-ups accordingly.

Please be assured that students will also have an additional morning recess and snack time (between periods 1 and 6) scheduled by their teacher where students will have the opportunity to get some fresh air and a nutrition break.

Across the division, schools will no longer have early dismissal on the first Wednesday of every month for staff meetings. Instead, professional development days will be combined with staff meetings, resulting in a full day off for students each month. Please be assured that our plan is to still have our school cupcake day on the first Wednesday of each month (phew!)

Why did the Division make this change?

• This schedule allows for better continuity of learning for students, with more full days of instruction.

• It will help decrease student absenteeism, as it allows a full day for families to schedule appointments, vacations etc.

• It provides families with a long weekend every month.

• It will help families with childcare arrangements.

• It will be a more effective and productive use time for staff as their attention is not divided between providing instruction and PD/meeting times.

• Kindergarten students will be on a more similar schedule to their older siblings.

• More concentrated time for staff learning.

If you haven’t already viewed the calendars, we encourage you to do so. If you have questions, please contact our Human Resources department at 780.460.3712.

In collaboration with our staff and our families on School Council, we are happy to provide you with our School Calendar for next year.

• Click HERE for a link to the SAM School Calendar 2024/25. Any revisions will be updated throughout the school year.
• Click HERE for a link to the Division School Calendar for grades 1-6.
• Click HERE for a link to the Division Kindergarten School Calendar.

We understand that drop-off and pick-up can be challenging with many vehicles moving through limited spaces in a brief window of time. For the safety of our children, please only use the designated areas for vehicle traffic.

In the past, our neighbours at St. Albert Montessori Preschool (located at the nearby Braeside Presbyterian Church) have experienced challenging situations in their parking lot during our drop-off and pick-up times. This is a reminder that the parking lot at the church is only available for the staff and families who attend St. Albert Montessori Preschool.

School Council is an important group of parents, community members, and school staff members who work together to support and enhance student learning. It is important that schools promote meaningful and positive engagement of parents and families in our education system and School Council is a wonderful way to bring various family perspectives to the school.

The responsibility of a School Council is to:

• foster, develop, maintain, and reflect the culture of the school;
• provide the opportunity to participate in an advisory role;
• create a forum for discussion; and,
• seek and represent various school community views.

School Councils provide a means for members of the school community to consult with and provide advice to the principal and the school board.

Our SAM Fundraising Society provides a means for parents and community members to provide additional financial resources and support to the school. This wonderful group of parents and community members have been responsible for creating and supporting a number of amazing activities throughout the year that both contribute to the vibrancy of our school culture while also fundraising money to support various school initiatives and purchases.

In the past our SAM Fundraising Society has raised money to:

• purchase and build our playground equipment;
• purchase Chromebooks for student use; and,
• purchase equipment to start our STEAM Lab (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Mathematics)

This year, we are very excited to announce that the fundraising money raised from last year's events will go towards paying for swimming lessons for all of our students from K - 6!

Parents and school community members are welcome to participate in one or both of the School Council or SAM Fundraising Society. Our first School Council and SAM Fundraising Society meetings of this year will be held on Tuesday, September 17th. All families are welcome to attend and we are hopeful to see many new faces this year!