Principal’s Message:
Today I had the honour of introducing our school theme to our community during Celebration. This year it is “The Stable Table” and our theme verse is Luke 14:13-14 “But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
We are sharing with our students and our community the realization that tables are one of the most important places of connecting with each other. It should not be any surprise then, to find that throughout the Bible God has a way of showing up at tables. One of my favourite Christian authors, N. T. Wright captured this idea when he wrote, “When Jesus himself wanted to explain to his disciples what his forthcoming death was all about, he didn’t give them a theory, he gave them a meal.” In the fast-paced, tech-saturated, “me-first” culture in which we find ourselves, Christians need to recover the art of a slow meal around a table with people we care about.
But in the middle of where we are, which increasingly seems to have lost its way with regard to matters of food, manners, decency, and the soul, Christian spirituality has something important to say about the way that sharing tables nourishes us both physically and spiritually. The spiritual significance of what we eat, where we eat, and with whom we eat cannot be lost. The table is the place where we as a world of broken sinners find connection and belonging. The world tries to divide. Despite our best intentions, we all, like Peter before us, stumble after Jesus. We desperately need people who will journey with us in our stumbling, welcoming us in. We need to recover table fellowship as a spiritual discipline in order to strengthen the bonds of spiritual friendship among believers who are walking together on the road of discipleship. A Madeleine L’Engel’s quote sticks with me often: “We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.” I truly believe that sitting around a table, breaking bread, and talking through these in person, allows us to do this in a way pleasing to Him.
As a kid, I think back to memories that shaped who I am. Good and bad things, but all memorable. 90% of those things happened around our kitchen table. Throughout the year, we are going to sit at our table together, stumbling with each other as we follow Jesus together. As we help our kids follow Jesus together, we are going to explore the table as a place for connection, blessing, brokenness, giveness, and the coming feast. It is my hope you come around our table with us.
Welcoming you to the table,
Mr. Simmons
Announcements:
NO Early Dismissal
Another change for this year! There will NOT be any early dismissal days this year.
Doors Locked For Security
We will continue to keep our exterior doors locked during the school day. This is for the safety and security of our staff and students, this is not meant to ”keep parents out.” You are more than welcome to come into the school, please ring the doorbell to the left of the office doors (by the flag pole). When you hear the door click that means it has been unlocked and you can enter the building.
Attendance
Attendance is taken two times throughout our school day. Once before classes begin in the morning, and once when they begin after lunch. If your child will be absent or late, please call (780-986-8353) or email ([email protected]) the school office to let us know. The cut-off for the office to enter absences is 8:55 am and 12:45 pm. If we do not have confirmation of your child’s absence by those times, you will receive a text/phone call and possibly an email letting you know to please contact the school to verify their absence.
Celebration
We hold weekly assemblies, which we call Celebration. We alternate between Wednesday and Thursday mornings each month so our kindergarten students are each able to join us every other month. We will hold Celebration on Wednesdays for the month of September. All parents are welcome to join us each week!
Hot Lunch
We are excited to once again offer a weekly Hot Lunch Day! This year, Hot Lunches will be on Wednesdays.
You can find the forms for Hot Lunch in your students’ PowerSchool account. Orders will close on the Tuesday prior to the following week’s hot lunch at 11:59 pm. All orders must be placed online, and payment must be made with form submission to be processed. (No cash or cheques are accepted). Please check your email for a confirmation receipt to ensure that your order went through.
Our first Hot Lunch for this year will be Wok Box and is scheduled for September 21. (The form for this lunch will be posted on or before Friday, September 2, and will close on September 13 at 11:59 pm).
If you have any questions or concerns regarding Hot Lunch, you can reach our Hot Lunch coordinator, Mrs. Horvath, via email at: [email protected]
School Council AGM
All parents are invited to our school council AGM meeting September 21st right after Celebration. We will meet in the staff room. This is a great opportunity to find out what’s happening at CCS and ask any questions you might have. If you have any questions, please contact Shauna Balehowsky, CCS chair, at [email protected]
2022-2023 Cell Phone Policy
In the spring of last year, we began to do a hard look at the current cell phone policy we have at CCS. This came from a variety of serious issues in and around our community with cell phone use. Over the last four months, we have polled parents, and staff researched what other schools do in and around the division, and looked at a variety of articles that showed the impact of cell phones in class.
An example of this would be a 2014 study called “in-situ study of mobile phone notifications” that stated that the average teen receives 63.5 notifications per school day, a stat that is obviously outdated by 8 years. In an event last year at school, a confiscated phone had 47 Snapchat notifications within 90 minutes of being on my desk.
But here lies the tricky thing for Christian educators. As any digital citizen, students need to learn how to handle this technology responsibility as they move into High School and adulthood. As they learn about discerning idols in their lives, phones can be a huge one to think about! A responsibility we do not take for granted.
In our data from parents, over 74% felt that we needed to become more strict on our cell phone policy. Some comments from these stated:
“Knowing the research on the negative impact on mood, relationships, and performance caused by smartphone use (esp social media) in kids and adolescents, I would FULLY support limited-to-no tolerance for any cell phones on school grounds. Students have access to a phone through the school at all times, there is no need for a device to be able to communicate with parents or others throughout the day.”
“Although personal responsibility is great, most teens are too immature and don’t have the self-images to exercise this. Some do and that’s great but probably not most. Phones can be highly addictive and if most adults struggle with it, I could see that being harder for teens.”
“Phone addiction is a huge problem! I don’t know if most kids at this age have the self-control to not reach for their phones during class time so I think that having them locked up during class time is the best option. If parents really need to get ahold of kids they can call the office.”
Our staff percentages were similar, and the anecdotal responses from school resource officers helped solidify our findings.
One resource officer listed off just a few of the illegal activities taking place in the month of June because of cell phone use in schools:
- Students taking videos and pics of other students in the bathroom, and posting on Snapchat.
- Students making audio recordings of test reviews and listening to it while taking a test.
- Students continually take out their phones in the locker room while students are changing.
- Students taking pictures in the classroom of other students without permission and posting on social media.
- Students taking pictures of teachers and putting them on Tik-Tok and rating them.
- Students taking pictures and videos of student outfits and rating them on Tik-Tok.
As you can see, the issues can be vast, and all of these take away from the learning that your child needs to do at school.
Since our core purpose is to create flourishing learners, who delight in God and are inspired to serve, we have decided we need to enhance our cell phone policy for this purpose. Please see the attached official policy below.
While change can be difficult, please know that time, effort, prayer, thought, and research was put into this policy.
Junior High Retreat
We are excited to be able to once again go on our fall Junior High Retreat! This is for all students in grades 7-9 and we will be looking for some parent volunteers to join us. We will travel out to Sunset Point at Alberta Beach (September 14 & 15) for two days of community building! If you would like to join us on this amazing adventure, you will need to submit a recent (within the last 12 months) Criminal Record Check and Child Welfare Intervention Check. Apply NOW as it can take quite some time to receive the paperwork back. Please contact the office for more details on how to apply for these documents.
Permission forms and fees for this field trip are now available on PowerSchool under Student Fees and Forms to be completed. Payment MUST be made at the time of completing the form in order for your permission form to be processed.
Lost & Found
We will post weekly pictures of our lost and found. If you see something that is your child’s, please have them stop by the table and pick it up or let the office know.
Athletics:
Golf
New this year, we are offering golf for our junior high students to be a part of! The golf team will begin practicing this week and will participate in one tournament on September 15. Fees and forms are on PowerSchool and MUST be paid before students can participate.
Volleyball
The volleyball season is drawing near. We would like to invite any junior high students, who are interested in playing volleyball, to some drop-in sessions taking place on Tuesday, September 6, and Thursday, September 8, after school until 4:30. Tryouts will begin the following week with the boys on Monday, September 12 and the girls on Tuesday, September 13. The tryout end time will be 5:15. We’re looking forward to another great season of volleyball!
LSCE News:
Invoices for Tuition
Invoices for the 2022-2023 school year will be coming out by mid-September via email or post (depending on the choice you made for registration/returning student form). If you have any questions, please contact Lisa Gatzke at 780-612-1557 or at [email protected].
Davison Orchard Fundraising Opportunity
Welcome back, everyone! I am excited to announce that we are once again doing our Davison Orchards apple fundraiser this year.
Please follow this link to place your order. All orders and payments must be submitted by 9 am on September 7. Pick up will be September 20, keep your eye on the Chronicle for more information about time and place.
Calendar:
September:
- 5 – Labour Day – No School
- 7 – Davison Orchards Apple Orders/Payments Due
- 14-15 – Junior High Retreat
- 16 – PD Day – No School
- 20 – Davison Orchards Apple Pick Up
- 21 – School Council AGM – immediately following Celebration, in the Staff Room
- 30 – National Day for Truth & Reconciliation – No School
October:
- 10 – Thanksgiving Day – No School
- 11 – PD Day – No School
- 12 – Individual School Pics – more details to come
- 13 – Individual School Pics – more details to come
- 20-21 – Christian Teacher’s Convention – No School
Community Events:
Please click on the image below to learn more about community events in our area! Also found under our Parents menu on the website.
Odds & Ends:
Sign In/Out Form:
In an effort to reduce the amount of shared touched surfaces, we will be using a QR code that you will need to scan with your phone for signing in and out of the school. You can also use this link if you are in your vehicle and need to sign out a student but can’t scan the code. This means that students/parents/visitors can scan the QR code when entering or leaving the office/school to sign in or sign out on their own phone/device.
Parents will also be able to sign their kids out from their vehicle in the parking lot when they arrive to pick them up for appts. etc. please use the link above if you can’t scan the QR code. We do ask that parents pull into a spot (not bus lane) where you can contact the office to let them know you have arrived and we can make eye contact with you
from the staff/office door. Students must also stop by the office before leaving the school. At that point, once a connection is made, we are able to send students out to you.
Facebook Page:
Check out our Facebook page for more highlights of happenings at CCS by clicking here.