Principal’s Message:
It feels like we have been in some sort of construction during the entire six years that I’ve been principal. It began with turning half of the library into a classroom, the addition of our Jr. High wing (6 brand new classrooms), and adding our “Jr. High Den” (which links the portables to the main building). It continued with re-creating the gymnasium into the amazing space it is today, and the auditorium getting a makeover. This year, we took on the epic task of making a new office area, so as to reclaim our library space, an additional classroom space, as well as create a conference room space. This addition also allows us to gain more space and create defined areas for our growing CCS office staff and LSCE staff. As we close in on the completion of Part A of this project, we also finally get to start on another project that we have been fundraising for, for the same amount of time.
A new playground! As I mentioned last week, this playground will not replace the old one, but be an addition to our current space. We are currently finalizing our order, and will be expecting our new playground for the opening of the 2023 school year!
While all of these projects take time, it is my hope that you see the time and care we are taking to create an incredibly special place for your child(ren) to learn and live in community with each other!
Announcements
Parking Lot Safety
Over the last while, we have been having some issues in the parking lot, which have caused some concerns with student safety as they exit the building at the end of the day. Please read below about how to navigate our lot. Also, please make sure that:
- You are only parking in designated parking spots
- You are only driving in/out through the correct entry/exit ways
- You are not driving in the bus lanes (only the two dedicated parent lanes)
- You are not driving in or through our ditches
Our parking lot was not designed for the amount and type of traffic that we experience, so we all need to cooperate to ensure the safety of our students. These are the key procedures:
- Always enter through the south driveway and exit through the north driveway
- Drive slowly and be particularly alert during recess and noon hour when the students are outside.
- Do not drive through or park in the “BUS LANE” (the area between the school and the first row of cars) between 8:25-8:40 and 3:00-3:20 as this is when the buses are present or due to arrive.
- If you want to park and walk your child to school, please park on the far west side of the parking lot (by the basketball court). Walk toward the auditorium and then up the crosswalk.
- The middle of the parking lot is where vehicles drive through to drop off students. Students should exit vehicles quickly and make their way to school (NOT between the cars).
- Students or adults should NEVER walk between buses.
- Yield to buses when they are arriving or leaving.
- Take extra care when backing out of a parking stall as students are not always paying attention.
Drop Off Reminder
Just a reminder that students should NOT be dropped off for school before 8:15 am. Teachers are not in their classrooms until that time for supervision needs. School begins at 8:35 am and the warning bell rings at 8:30 am. 8:15 am gives our students 20 minutes before their day begins.
Staff Appreciation
CCS community! As you know we like to put on Staff Appreciation every year!
This year, we will be treating our amazing staff to breakfast or lunch every day for a week! We will run it from February 27th-March 3rd. We know that our community likes to participate and help out, so we have some open slots to fill for supervising outdoor recess and a sign-up sheet for food items we are needing for our lunch on Wednesday and breakfast on Thursday. For Wednesday’s lunch, please bring your items to the office on Monday or Tuesday. For Thursday’s breakfast, please bring the food items on Tuesday or Wednesday. Please see the link below for the sign-up sheets and further details.
Staff Appreciation Food Item Sign-up Sheet
Staff Appreciation Supervision Sign-up
A big thank you to the public relations committee and school council for organizing this event!
Stable Table – Question of the Week
A huge congratulations to the Simmons’ family who were the winner (by default) as they were the only ones to respond this week to Mr. Simmons’, “Question of the Week” that was posted in last week’s Chronicle! A prize will go home today (check backpack)! Make sure you answer the question for your chance at a prize, as you can see, the odds are incredibly good!!
Please see below for this week’s question. Please talk amongst your family, and fill in this form for your chance to win next week!!
This week, during dinner sometime, talk to your kids about your favourite bible passage and how it came to be.
What is your favourite bible verse or passage? Why?
Preschool Registration
Preschool registration is now OPEN to the general public! You can find all forms and the registration process here.
Dress-Up Days!
On Wednesday, February 22, students and staff are encouraged to wear pink in support of Pink Shirt Day and anti-bullying.
On Thursday, February 23, students are encouraged to dress up as if they were 100 years old. We’ve had some great costumes over the past years and it’s always fun to see how our students age for the day!
Spring Program Request
We are now preparing for Beauty and the Beast Jr, which will be performed on March 22-23, 2023 at the MacLab Theatre here in Leduc.
We have started many projects but need some community assistance in preparing for the performance. Please help in the following ways.
Please email Mr. Ward at [email protected] if you have any questions or want to join the Spring drama team!
- Costumes – A few parents are already working on dresses and costumes. We need a few more individuals that would like to design costumes for our cast, including pieces for our feature number, “Be Our Guest.”
- Construction and Painting – We have our Grade 8 parents working on sets, but we could always use more people to create, design, and build!
- Props – We have need for a number of props for the play. There will be a list of a dozen or so items in the Chronicle each week that we are looking for. This list will be updated weekly so please take a minute each week to see if there are items you can help us out with. If you have any of the items listed below that we could use, we’d be grateful for your help.
- Realistic-looking plastic fruit
- Short stools (approx 18 inches tall)
- Cottage bench
- Metal milkmaid pails (2)
- Books that look old
- Book for Belle – ideally larger and blue (but could be painted)
- 5-arm Candelabra
- Tap dance canes (4)
- Large megaphone
- Champagne bucket
- Gold lace, ribbon, trim, fabric
- Metal Lanterns
- Ornate dinner service tray
- Wooden vendor carts with wheels (perhaps a garden/flower cart?)
- Long white ladies’ gloves
Please email Nicole Dodds at [email protected] if have questions about items or are able to donate/lend.
Pastor’s Day – February 23
As members of the Christian community, pastors are very important to us here at Covenant.
Each year we have a special day when we welcome our pastors and church leaders to be part
of our Covenant community. This gives us a chance to acknowledge and show our appreciation
for all they do for us. Invitations have been created and one will be sent home with the youngest child in your family so you can invite your pastor, youth pastor, or church leader to join us! We will also be emailing invitations to all of the churches connected to Covenant. On February 23rd, they’ll come and worship with us, be a part of weekly Celebration, and will then be invited to stay after the assembly for a pastor’s brunch.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the office at 780-986-8353.
Student-Led Conferences – February 23
We will be holding Student-Led Conferences in person this year on Thursday, February 23 from 4:30 pm until 7:30 pm in the student’s homeroom.
A student-led conference is a meeting with a student and his or her family and teachers during which the student shares his or her portfolio of work and discusses progress with family members. The student facilitates the meeting from start to finish. Student-led conferences can be implemented at all grade levels, K–9. Preparation for a conference creates an authentic purpose for good organizational and communication skills. The structure builds students’ sense of responsibility and accountability for their own learning, and it helps to hone their understanding of what it means to meet learning targets.
Successful student-led conferences require changes in the roles that teacher, student, and parent have played in traditional parent conferencing. Teachers become facilitators, students become leaders and parents become active listeners and questioners.
Teacher Role: To organize the conference environment and guarantee success. This includes guiding ‘portfolio’ collection and training students to walk through the folio with parents. The teacher would guide students on how to take their parents through the process.
Student Role: Through all stages of the student-led conference process; preparation, implementation, and evaluation, the student becomes the key participant. The student becomes responsible for working with the teacher to identify strengths, identify learning needs, and collect evidence to validate learning. In student-led conferencing, as students prepare to conference with their parents, they engage in a self-reflection process about their achievements and future goals.
Parent Role: Parents become partners in learning when students led a conference. The opportunity for parents to have one-to-one time with their child focused on learning and achievement is important to the conferencing process. The parent’s role is to listen.
Candy Cup Volleyball Tournament – Service Project
School Clothing Clearance!
We ordered a few extra school clothing items before Christmas and would like to offer them to our community! If you missed out on ordering earlier, here’s your chance to add to your closet!
Here are the items up for grabs:
Black T-shirt – $20:
- 1 Child Small
- 3 Adult Large
- 1 Adult XL
Black Sweatpants – $35:
- 3 Adult Large
Camo Baseball Cap – $15:
- 2 (one size fits all)
Black Hoodies – $32:
- 3 Child Medium
- 1 Adult XL
Grey T-shirts – $20:
- 4 Child Small
Please contact the office via email at [email protected] or phone call at 780-986-8353 with what you would like to purchase. First come, first serve. The cost for the items will be added to your PowerSchool account.
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 Thursdaysfor the month of February. 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.
We are noticing that a number of our families are unintentionally placing more than one order for hot lunch day/student. If you are unsure if you have ordered a hot lunch or not, you can always check your email for a confirmation receipt. You can also check under the Completed Forms tab on your student’s PowerSchool account. All of your completed forms will be listed there and you can view them each by clicking on the small eye icon.
Please see the photo below for where to find this.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding Hot Lunch, you can reach our Hot Lunch Coordinator, Mrs. Hofstra, via email at: [email protected]
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:
Basketball
The regular season is coming to a close for our basketball teams. We will finish league play shortly and then enter into playoffs before the season is finished.
Junior Boys – will have practices on Mondays after school until 5:00 pm. Games will be held on Tuesdays and a schedule was emailed home to parents.
Senior Girls – will have weekly practices on Tuesdays until 5:00 pm. They will have games on Thursdays.
Senior Boys – will have practices on Wednesdays after school until 5:00 pm. Games will be held on Thursdays.
Elementary Badminton
We have the opportunity to have a grade 5 and a grade 6 team participate in a badminton tournament coming up in the next few weeks! Teams have now been selected.
Grade 5 badminton team will play in their tournament this weekend from February 16-18th.
Grade 6 badminton team will practice at 7:45 on Wednesday mornings for the month of February.
A permission form and fee have been added to PowerSchool for those individuals who were selected for the teams.
NFL Flag Football for Junior High Students
We have another new and exciting opportunity for our junior high students! NFL Flag Football will be offered as an extra-curricular sport this year! Mr. Hennink will be holding tryouts TODAY after school from 3:30-4:45 pm to establish a 12-person co-ed team. The season will begin on April 12 and run until May 19. Games will be played on Wednesdays from 4-6 pm at the Turf Training Centre in Nisku.
LSCE News:
Executive Meeting Update
The sixth Society Executive meeting for the 2022/2023 school year was held on Monday evening, February 13. Here are some highlights from our meeting:
- Addition update: Good progress continues to be made on the addition. We are hoping to have occupancy by the end of February!
- Playground expansion update: Great news – we received $125,000 of grant funding (the maximum allowed) for our playground expansion from the Alberta government under their Community Facility Enhancement Program (CFEP)! Thanks to Lisa Gatzke, Donavin Simmons, Rebecca Henuset, Jody Nelson, Leanne Simmons, Curtis Plitt, and the Playquest grant writers for their hard work in putting the grant application together! We will be finalizing the design and placing the order for the playground equipment shortly. Our playground expansion should be installed and ready to go for the beginning of the next school year!
Fundraising Opportunities
Although we do a few special fundraising campaigns throughout the year, don’t forget about our ongoing fundraisers that you can take advantage of all year long.
Drop any of your Boston pizza receipts at the office for the school to receive 5% back on the total of your bill.
Purchase CO-OP gift cards from the office in $50, $100, and $500 denominations.
Save the Date
The LSCE has some exciting events happening in the new year so mark your calendars!
Saturday/Sunday, April 22/23, 2023 – 40th Anniversary Homecoming Weekend
Saturday, June 10, 2023 – 3rd Annual CCS Golf Tournament
Social Media
We’re on Instagram and Facebook! Come say hi and stay up-to-date on all the events and fundraising opportunities we have to offer. You can find us on Instagram with the username “fundraising.lsce”.
https://www.facebook.com/covenantchristianschoolfundraisingpage
Calendar:
February:
- 20 – Family Day – No School
- 21 – PD Day – No School
- 22 – Pink Shirt Day
- 23 – Pastor’s Day
- 23 – 100s Day Dress Up Day
March:
- 4 – Candy Cup Volleyball Tournament
- 13 – PD Day – No School
- 15 – School Trustee Visit
- 22-23 – Beauty & The Beast Performances
- 27 – April 3 – Spring Break – 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.