The Falcon's View

2024-2025 Issue #2

Forestburg School

Principal’s Message

December 2024

We are in the final weeks before our Christmas break and things are looking quite busy as we move forward. Winter weather has arrived, although we continue to experience wavering temperatures and a wide variety of weather patterns. Regardless of the weather, the magic of Christmas has begun and will undoubtedly continue to grow as we move towards the break. There is no place more evident of that than in our elementary classrooms!😀

The month of November saw many key events in our school. We celebrated our annual Awards ceremony on Nov. 3. This event saw us award over $15 000 in scholarships and honor both our current and former students. This support is vital for our students as they set out to find their way in the world. Our greatest hope is that they will find success in their post-secondary endeavors and see the value in the support their community provides for them. Ultimately, we would love to see these students return to Forestburg to raise their own families and carry on the community traditions and values that are evident here today. Our annual Remembrance Day ceremony was held on Nov. 8 and helped our students understand the importance of honoring our veterans and all that his day represents. We believe it is critically important to foster this message in our youth. Our new Candle Lighting Ceremony saw us honor over 70 veterans that are linked to our community. To close off the month, our sr. girls’ basketball team held their inaugural Icebreaker basketball tournament. Our girls lost a close game to Gus Wetter from Castor (50-45) before bouncing back to defeat Daysland (55-25) and Erle Rivers from Milk River (66-33) to win the Consolation side. Congratulations to our Sr. Girls’!

Looking ahead to December, we will welcome sr. boys’ basketball teams from near and far on Dec. 6/7, as we host our annual Sr. Boys’ Icebreaker tournament. We welcome you to come out and cheer on our home team! Go Falcons! We have several special days planned throughout December to help everyone get in the Christmas spirit. Our Christmas Concert will be held on Wed., Dec. 18 at 7 pm at the Community Hall. We look forward to seeing you all there.

Our staff have formally implemented “Dress Down Friday’s” into our practicd. In exchange for dressing down, our staff have agreed to pay $1/Friday (or for those of us who may not want to bother with change every week, they can pay $40 for the year). Of course, this is completely optional for staff to participate. The money raised from this initiative will go towards our Awards and Scholarships program. Our students will directly benefit from this practice.

As we close out the final weeks of December and move towards Christmas, I would like to take this opportunity to with all our students, parents and families the best of the holiday season. I sincerely hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year. May the joy of the holiday season be with you all. We look forward to seeing everyone again in the new year!

Upcoming Events:

• Dec. 2 - 20 Falcon's Tree

• Dec. 4 - Post-Secondary Career Fair - Daysland School

• Dec. 5 - Wear Your Christmas Socks Day

• Dec. 6 - Staff Meeting/Professional Learning Day (Teachers)

• Dec. 7/8 - Sr. Boys’ Icebreaker Tournament

• Dec. 9-13 - Jingle All Your Change

• Dec. 13 - Red/Green Day

• Dec. 18 - Christmas Concert

• Dec. 19 - Christmas Spirit Day

• Dec. 20 - Christmas Breakfast/PJ Day

• Jan. 6 - School resumes

Thank you.

Mr. Anhorn

Principal, Forestburg School

All school and sports fees and permission forms are posted and are now DUE! Please check your accounts to sign forms and pay any outstanding fees!

Payments can be made by cheque at the school or by using the online payment system at: https://www.brsd.ab.ca/families/online-payments-ordering

Please take a few minutes to log into the PowerSchool Parent Portal to view your child’s most up-to-date grades and comments. Our Real-Time Reporting system allows you to stay connected to your child’s learning progress throughout the year, providing insights into their achievements and areas for growth. By regularly checking PowerSchool, you can support your child’s learning journey and celebrate their progress together. Thank you for partnering with us to foster a positive and collaborative learning experience.

An email was sent out at the end of August indicating that parents could now complete student verification forms for the 2024-2025 school year. If you have not yet completed these forms please do so as soon as possible.

*Every year we are required to provide Alberta Education with a signed and dated Student Verification form for each of our students.* We also use the form to ensure all of the information we have regarding your child(ren) is correct. This year we have moved to an electronic verification form for this process. In an attempt to streamline our process, the FOIP and Technology Use forms have been incorporated into the Verification form.

To access and complete this form you will need to log into the PowerSchool parent portal via your Web browser (Google Chrome for example. You will not be able to complete this process on the App). Click on the SchoolEngage icon on the left. You will be redirected to the SchoolEngage site where you can select your child’s name. Click on the 2024-25 Student Verification Form and then on the blue icon in the first column to review the information. Once you’ve completed your verification, click on the green submit button on the bottom of the page.

On November 6th, our grade 1-6 classes gathered in the Learning Commons to participate in I Read Canadian Day. The zoom event hosted by author Sigmund Brouwer featured book recommendations by notable Canadians such as Karl Subban, Rick Hansen and... Connor McDavid! Thanks to all who participated!

Shout out to our bus drivers! A big thank you to those who drove for athletic and extra curricular events so far this year!

Art Club started again this year in October. We have 10 members ranging from grade 5 to grade 10. Our first project of the year was Remembrance Day artwork that was displayed outside the main office for our Remembrance Day Ceremony.

Check out our school store! You can find the link on the Forestburg School Website. Go to Quick links on the home page - School Clothing Shop or click the link below:

https://forestburgschool.entripyshops.com/

The Falcon's Sleigh will be travelling to classrooms next week to collect change for the Flagstaff Food Bank. Students can bring their change any day from Monday, December 9th to Friday, December 13th.

The Junior High boys volleyball team had another successful season. They hosted a home tournament on September 28th and went to tournaments in Castor and Bashaw. In league play they ended up 3rd which qualified them for the Divisional tournament in Tofield. They pulled off an upset to place third again and qualified for the Regional tournament in Tofield, again. There they finally ran out of steam, with a battered bench, and ended up not making the playoffs. The boy's team would like to thank everyone who made the season such a great success including staff, parents, students, and officials. A special thank you goes out Mrs. Prehn for setting up concessions, Mrs. Bartlett for booking buses, Mr. Johnson for setting up our online game feeds, and Keaton Martz and Maisie Burlock for donating their time to ref games for us thise season. Our school and community are so lucky to have a wonderful culture of volunteerism! See you in March for badminton season! Mr. Forster

Staff members carved Jack-o-Lanterns for Halloween and the students voted by placing their spare change next to their favorites. Together, we raised a whopping $235.75 for the Flagstaff Foodbank! Thanks to the staff for creating these ‘monster’pieces! The jack-o-lantern that brought in the most money was the ‘Skeleton Jail,’ made by Mrs. Brennan.

The elementary students put on a fantastic Spook Walk, showcasing all of their wonderful costumes. The gym was full! Thank you to everyone who came and enjoyed this event.The Kindergarten-Grade 2 classes then ventured over to the Villa to perform a couple of spooky Halloween poems. We all ended the day with a class party!

Student council provided an afternoon of fun for the JH and HS students. There was also a spook walk and students voted on best costumes in different categories.

Grade 4 fun! We started a LEGO challenge in LC, with the first task of building a tower that could withstand an earthquake.

A Remembrance Day Program was held on Friday, November 8 in the school gym. Staff, students, veterans, and community members gathered in the gym and then at the Cenotaph to remember those who served our country. Guest speaker Michael Fawcett delivered a meaning message to everyone in attendance. A special candle lighting ceremony was added to the program this year where students lit candles in memory/honor of family members who have served or are serving in Canadian forces.

We are excited to host author Sigmund Brouwer for a Story Ninja presentation to our K-12 students December 19! Thank you to Hot Lunch for helping put on this presentation.

Email: forestburgschool@brsd.ab.ca
Website: https://forestburg.brsd.ab.ca/
Location: Forestburg School, 4914 46 Ave, Forestburg, Alberta, Canada
Phone: 780-582-3792