Principal’s Message:

Today is the 100th day of school. As I sit here dressed as an old man; with my suspenders and slippers on, my pants pulled up, shirt tucked in, and my grey hair and wrinkles (way less makeup/hair colour than I would like to admit) prevalent, I can’t help but think back on those 100 school days. 

With the incredible power that dressing like I am 100 years old grants me, I want to say that they have not been easy ones to be a teacher. The thing with teaching is everyone has been a student, and therefore have their own thoughts on how school should look. Over the last school year, it has not looked like it has, and this has caused many to be frustrated.

As my own grandparents’ wise words go through my head – “You take a picture of a horse, you get a horse” – wait, wrong euphemism! They also used to say “This too shall pass.” And while it seems like an oversimplification, it isn’t wrong, it just took a lot longer than we all anticipated. But now as we start to come back to doing things we used to, we need to understand it will not come back exactly the way it was, nor should it. 

Moving forward, we want to look at some of the things we have done, and understand why we did them. We need to make sure that they go along with our core purpose and work towards our goal of Kingdom-Building.  We need to help our students, as the body of Christ, take on their role in His bigger story. The world has too much hate, hurt, and privilege. As we work to cultivate our students, it is our prayer that we do so to flourish, delight, and inspire. 
As we walk through the next 72 school days, let’s do so working together and working in love. 

Announcements:

Early Dismissal

Today is early dismissal at 2:30 pm. Students should all be picked up by 2:45 pm.

Next Year Intentions/Returning Students Form – Important!

With only 72 days left in this school year, it’s time to start thinking about next year! In order to help us plan for staffing, etc. in the fall, we need you to complete a Returning Student Form for your family. Please complete this online form by March 31st.

Hot Lunch

Hot lunch forms will be changing slightly; we are going to move to weekly order forms. The deadline will generally be Tuesdays at midnight for the following week’s order. However, if there is a holiday, ie. spring break, this may change slightly. Deadlines for order/payment will always be listed on the order form. Currently, the form for April 5 is available with an order/payment due date of March 22, 2022 (because of Spring Break).

His Story, My Part: Service-Learning Project

In Grade 9 ELA students are tasked to find an issue they are passionate about. Part of the project is to do service learning to make a difference. Koen de Klerk has chosen the problem of financial barriers in sports, specifically the restrictions put on families that can’t afford sporting equipment. In order to facilitate this, Koen will be collecting donations of gently used sports gear to take to a local sports charity. If you have anything to donate, please bring the items to school and place them in the donation bin located in the main foyer, which Koen will then take to Sports Central.

Clara Dahlman is looking at the topic of wrongful convictions in criminal trials. To help learn about this, she will be hosting an informational movie night. On Tuesday, March 8th, at Ebenezer Christian Reformed Church (49245 RR 250) there will be a showing of the movie ‘Just Mercy’. Tickets will be by donation and all proceeds will go to the Innocence Project. At this event, we will learn about wrongful convictions and what we can do to help. There will be snacks for sale and that money will also be donated. This movie is rated PG-13 due to its language and mature themes. If you or your child is not comfortable with real-life problems such as death row, this movie is not recommended. Please talk to Clara for more details.

Report Freeze

A reminder that on March 18 we will enter our term two “Report Freeze” on PowerSchool. During this week, parents will not be able to access their children’s accounts on PowerSchool. Teachers will have this week to enter final grades, comments, and assignments for Term 2. Access to PowerSchool will be activated again for parents on March 25th at 4:00 pm. For the week of March 28 to April 1, no new assignments or grades will be added. If you have any questions, please call the CCS office. If it is an assessment question, the subject teacher would be the person to ask via email. Their email can be found in the course section in PowerSchool.

Volunteers

We are now able to have some volunteers in the building during school hours! While I know this is exciting, teachers are being asked to ensure that their helpers have specific learning tasks to do in the classroom when they are here and to limit the number of visitors that are in each class to one person. 

Celebration

Even though restrictions are easing, we will continue to do weekly virtual assemblies, which we call Celebration, at this time. Celebration will be held on Thursdays for the month of March. In-person assemblies may be a possibility in the near future. Watch the Chronicle for more details. Please click on the button below to join us!

Spring Program Information

We are now in the thick of planning for Shrek Jr. The Musical this March 23-24, 2022

Special thank you to all that have donated wood and paint over these past few weeks! Because of your generosity, we now have enough for our production.

We are asking for a little more help from the community to provide supplies to help keep our costs down.

Grade 4-6 CHOIR:

The grade four to six classes have been working very hard to learn all the music for the spring performance, Shrek.  It is very exciting to know that it is only a few weeks away.  **All choir members will need to wear black or dark pants and a white top on performance days.**

Preparation Requests:

Seamstresses: Anyone who is able to help with sewing costumes over the next week or two, please contact Mr. Ward at [email protected].

Ticket Sales:

Tickets will be going on sale next week. Watch your email and the Chronicle for further details. They will be on Ticketmaster, so please make sure that you have an account created so you don’t miss out. Tickets will sell out fast!

Virtual Book Fair

It’s time for our school’s Virtual Book Fair! Join us from March 7 to March 20, 2022. Shop online from over 450 items! Best of all, purchases still support our school for more learning resources. You can preview books via the following link. (Note: you cannot make purchases until the online store is live on March 7) .

Covenant Christian Scholastic Virtual Book Fair

Canada West Basketball – CCS Alumni Participation

I often talk about the idea of community at CCS and highlight what our alumni do once they leave Covenant. With that said, this weekend, March 4-6,  four of our CCS alumni will be in Calgary for the 2021-2022 Canada West Women’s Basketball Championships.  Canada West, the western league of University Sports, is the highest university basketball level in Canada. We are excited that we have four Covenant girls playing!  Congratulations ladies!
Live and On-Demand passes can be purchased to view all championship games: https://cw.yaretv.com/#section-package

Lost & Found

We will continue to post a photo of our Lost & Found each week in the Chronicle. If you see an item that is your child’s, please have them pick it up the next day or email the office and we will make sure it gets home with them.

Athletics:

Basketball

As you probably heard, junior high athletics are now back on! Annnnd, spectators are allowed too! The Senior Boys team plays at CCS tomorrow at 4:00 and the Senior Girls play right after at approximately 5:30 pm. Come on out and help cheer our athletes on!

If your child is on one of the basketball teams, please complete the permission form on PowerSchool and make payment as soon as possible. As the season has been shortened this year, the fees have been reduced to reflect this. The fee for the junior team will be $50, plus a $10 jersey rental fee. The fee for the senior teams has been reduced to $62.50 with the jersey rental fee of $10 as well. IF you made a payment previously, you will see an overpayment on your account and that can and will be used for future fees.

LSCE Update:

Fundraising Opportunites

Our spring fundraising options are here! We will be offering Stawnichy’s Mundare Products and Purdy’s Chocolatier.

Orders and payments for Stawnichy’s are due Friday, March 18. Orders and payments for Purdy’s are due Friday, March 25. Payments can be made over the phone by credit card or by e-transfer to [email protected]. Pick up of all orders is scheduled for Tuesday, April 12.

Please download the letter below for more details and keep an eye on The Chronicle for specific pick-up times. Easy to access links are below and can also be found on the Covenant Christian School Fundraising page on Facebook. No paper order forms will be available. Any questions can be sent to [email protected].

Please also save the date for our 2022 CCS Golf Tournament which will take place on June 26. Registration is not yet open but mark your calendars!

Stawnichy’s Mundare Product Order From
Purdy’s Chocolatier Order Form (https://fundraising.purdys.com/828991-93619)

Calendar:

March:

• 2 – Early Dismissal @ 2:30 pm
• 2 – 100s Dress-Up Day
• 7-20 – Scholastic Virtual Book Fair
• 8 – Hot Lunch – Boston Pizza (Pasta)
• 11 – PD Day
• 15 – Hot Lunch – Subway
• 18 – Stawnichy’s Order and Payment Due
• 22 – Hot Lunch – Dominos Pizza
• 27 – Purdys Order and Payment Due
• 28 – Spring Break Begins

April:

• 1 – Last day of Spring Break
• 4 – Classes Resume
• 6 – Early Dismissal @ 2:30 pm
• 12 – Pick up for Stawnichy’s & Purdy’s Orders
• 15 – Good Friday – No School
• 18 – Easter Monday/Mid-Term Break – No School
• 29 – PD Day

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.

Events added this week!

• Shantz Basketball Camp – March 28 – April 1
• Connectivity Dance Sessions

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.