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News from the Principal - May

It is hard to believe that there are only two months of school left! Where has the year gone? The weather has been tolerable, even with the hint of rain now and then. Let’s hope the sun continues to shine so we can enjoy the great outdoors even more.

The months of April and May are busy times of year where we begin making plans for the remainder of the year and also begin planning for our future. As always we at Midnapore School will be allocating our resources carefully to continue providing engaging and rigorous learning opportunities for all students.

This is also the time when we begin our discussions about next year’s classroom configurations. Teachers and administrators invest a great deal of time and energy into creating class scenarios for the upcoming year.  Our goal is to provide heterogeneous classrooms with a balanced number of boys and girls who have varying academic abilities, achievement, work habits, and students who require additional, intentional intervention. The intent is to create equitable classes that are organized in a manner that facilitates an excellent learning environment.  If you feel you have additional information that will assist our decision making you are encouraged to share this information with me, or with Ms. Cartwright, in writing by Thursday, May 17.

Based on Calgary Board of Education student class size projections, next year, we are planning to staff for the following classes:

1 Regular AM Kindergarten Class
2 Mandarin Bilingual AM Kindergarten Classes
2 Mandarin Bilingual Grade One Classes
1 Mandarin Bilingual Grade Two Class
2 Regular Grade 1/2 combined Classes
1 Regular Grade 2/3 combined Class
2 Regular Grade 3/4 combined Classes
2 Regular Grade 5/6 combined Classes
Our plan includes hiring a music specialist as well.

At this time I am very pleased to welcome Mrs. Ying Hua (Elaine) Yang, who is joining our staff on May 1. Mrs. Yang is a new grad of the B.Ed. program from U of Calgary. Her specialization is in elementary French. She was able to obtain a FYTT (Full Year Temporary Teacher) contract with the CBE starting May 1 until 2012-2013. She has been ‘gifted’ to us from teacher staffing. We will place Mrs. Yang in various classrooms so she becomes familiar with our students. As a FYTT teacher, Mrs. Yang will be on the substitute teacher roster, so we will place Mrs. Yang in classrooms when she is available.

We invite all new Kindergarten, Grade One and Grade Two parents who have registered and/or are interested in enrolling their children in the South Mandarin Bilingual Program, to an Open House, on Thursday, May10, at 7:00 p.m.. This Open House is geared to our new parents who have just registered, but everyone is welcome to attend. At the meeting, you will be able to meet with teachers and to hear our updated plans for this exciting program. Ms. Zhang will continue her role as one of our Mandarin Bilingual teachers next year. We will be hiring one more Mandarin Bilingual teacher to our staff as our program continues to grow.

Although May is a busy month of organizing and planning for the future, there are many exciting events happening at our school to celebrate Academic Success, Personal Development, Citizenship and Character Development. Please refer to our calendar, classroom D2L Shells and student’s agendas to keep informed. If you have any questions, please contact the school.

Jean Hugill, Principal