With the end of this week of December nearing, on behalf of everyone at Hanley Composite School, I want to wish everyone a great school break! We look forward to seeing you all in 2024! For our current newsletters, messages and notices for this year, check out the banner of items on our school Edsby app.

Thank you everyone for making such a strong finish to the school year. We were fortunate to have many good weather days in June for field trips and plans to wrap the year up.

As has been sent out earlier this year and this month, the reporting of classes has all moved to the EDSBY program, and can be accessed through the app on your phone or by a computer online. Paper copies can be generated from the computer version best.

New families, registration for new students can take place over the summer by registering online at the Prairie Spirit School Division website Prairie Spirit School Division – Learners for Life (spiritsd.ca).

We hope everyone has a safe enjoyable summer and we all look forward to seeing the students return in the fall.

I know that spring brings a ton of new routines and jobs to many of you – yards to clean up after winter, spring outdoor sports to get our kids to, crops to get seeded, and general activities that we pause from over the cold months. Spring also brings the push to get those classes finished and curriculum information delivered to our students, always working to prepare them all for the next year. This spring is no different for many of us, and the busy weeks ahead have all of us running to make the most of our time.

As I write this we have students competing at Track and Field Conferences and I wish them all our best as they throw, run, jump and race their way to their best results. Next week we’ll have students moving on to their District competitions and hopefully we’ll also have students represented at Provincials at the start of June.

Graduation is June 9^th this year and we’re looking forward to all the grade 12s finishing the year off as strong as they can with their sights set on their future and plans after high school. Way to go Grade 12s!

Our SCC annual general meeting was last week and our council has been supporting our school goals again this year and has plans for next year already. We’ve also had a few discussions about adding new equipment to the playground and making some updates.

That’s all for now.  For further information and updates from the students and classrooms, also check out our school website at http://blogs.spiritsd.ca/hanley/.  As always, Mr. Block and I would love to talk to you if you have time to send us a message or give us a call. We’ll talk to you soon.

Hello from the school office on a warm but windy April Monday. This week has some potential for some rain and/or snow according to the forecast so we’ll see where we end up this week. April always seems to bring some of this turbulent weather as the seasons change.

We have some extra-curricular plan continuing this month to be aware of. The SRC organized the Gym Blast before the April Break and it was a great chance for the grade 7-12 students to join together for a lot of laughs and energy and music in the gym as their four teams competed for top score. The SRC has also planned a Pancake Breakfast for this Friday morning on April 21^st. Yay for pancakes!

We also have students working on their skills for the Senior Badminton playoffs later this month. Good luck to those players and we all hope they play hard and move to the next rounds!

Track and Field season has also begun and staff will work together to supervise and coach students as they practice their events of choice this spring. I’ve arranged our annual Track and Field clinic with University students coming out to our school to work with our athletes. It’s tentatively scheduled for April 27^th so I hope our yard dries up a bit for that day. The conference track day will be in mid May with District track dates to follow. Coaches will communicate with the athletes and arrange travel to the meets.

I want to give you a reminder that the teachers have a Division PD and Prep day on April 24^th this month and a prep day on May 12^th as well. Both days are in the school year calendar.

Students are focusing on their semester courses as we are halfway through this last semester of the school year. I continue to send the guidance emails I forward from schools that send me messages about their schools and programs. I know of a number of our students who have conditional acceptance to schools for the fall and those who are planning on work opportunities. I can help direct families to links to official transcripts and student loans or you can always start by searching for those at the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education website as well.

Our SCC is having it’s annual general meeting on May 8^th with elections to take place then if required. They’ve been focused on long term plans to purchase new playground equipment and support the school goals of Inclusion, Collaboration, Engagement and Respect. If you’d like to officially join our SCC, please contact our present Chairperson, Leah Weisbrod, or myself and I’ll forward your information.

Just another reminder that our school division is using Edsby for attendance, entering grades, reporting of evaluation to families and for sending messages home for parents. Please check it regularly for information and messages about lates and absences. We encourage you to have the notifications settings on so you receive all of the communication from the school. Term 3 Reporting of Grades and evaluation comments will be posted at the end of April.

That’s all for now.  For further information and updates from the students and classrooms, also check out our school website at http://blogs.spiritsd.ca/hanley/.  As always, Mr. Block and I would love to talk to you if you have time to send us a message or give us a call. We’ll talk to you soon.

Our winter cold weather has been hanging on to start this month off so I’m hoping by talking about it I jinx it and starts to warm up. March has been busy with plans for parents to be part of at Hanley School, as well as activities and items for students to take part in. The curling rink and skating rink have been part of the classroom programs as many teachers have organized skating opportunities for students. By the time you read this the grade 5-12 ski trip will have also taken place on the 10^th. We also have a junior and high school gym blast scheduled for later this month on March 31^st. There’s always so much to try to fit in a month!

Our senior Mixed Curling team did great at Regional competition last weekend that the coaches Linden Freeden and Chad Freeden organized, and they will host Provincial Mixed Curling competition this weekend on March 9^th and 10^th as well. Good luck to the team!

I’d like to thank Tasha Grasby again for coaching the Senior Boys Basketball team. The boys won’t be competing in District playoffs but they’ve had weeks of development and a lot of games that were organized including one more mid March. Great job, Mrs Grasby – your dedication and time you committed is appreciated! The Junior Boys didn’t make it past the first round of playoffs against Allan School at the end of February but they learned a lot again this season and I’ll encourage them to keep at it again next year.

Both Senior and Junior Badminton players are practicing after school Monday – Thursday. We will encourage players to get as much time on the courts as they can. Junior playoffs start on March 30 this season and will take place in our gym that afternoon. Senior playoffs begin on April 26. And then Track and Field will start around that time with our Track and Field Clinic tentatively set for April 27^th.

A parent survey we invited your response to earlier this year told us parents were interested in finding out more information about Mental Health and Students. We have sent home information about a parent engagement evening presentation called Head and Heart that’s scheduled to follow the first Interviews night this month starting at 7:15pm. The presentation is one that the grade 7-12 students will take part in during the afternoon. I encourage you to attend in the evening if you can following Tri-Conference Interviews. More information can be found in the Edsby message that was sent out by our office and in emails from classroom teachers.

Speaking of the Tri-Conference Interviews, this is just a reminder to contact Mrs Block at our office if you’d like to schedule your 15 minute block of time with any of your student’s teachers. I encourage you all to keep in contact with those teachers about student progress throughout the year, and these are specific times for in person meetings to celebrate how your child is doing and work together to help them further that progress. Interviews will take place on Wednesday March 22^nd from 4:30pm-7pm and on Thursday March 23^rd from 3:30pm-6pm.

We have had a few career type presentations this month with one on Apprenticeships for grades 10-12 taking place on March 8, and another one for Construction 20 class Construction Fall Safety. The CNIB is also presenting online next week on March 16^th around eye safety and that will include grade 9-12 students.

After a long Christmas break it was great to see our students back in the hallways and classrooms this month looking to get back to work and, for those students on semestered classes, getting ready for their final exams at the end of the month. As I mentioned in December, our staff changes happened and classes are moving ahead as planned with changes to the timetable. Mr. Carter is our acting interim vice-principal for the remainder of the school year as Mr. Hindmarsh is on a leave. Miss Brittany Nedelec joined us to work in the middle years and elementary classes as well for the remainder of the year. Welcome Miss Nedelec and Mr. Block to your new positions!

The last day before the Christmas Break we held our annual Christmas Lunch with the whole school taking part in the preparation, and everyone eating together in the gym. What a great tradition we were able to get back into place – thank you to Mrs. Schraeder for all your organization of the ingredients and the schedule of workers! Thank you to all the families for doing your part to provide those items to make it a success.

Final exams will start on January 25^th  and students in the whole school will have a day off of school on Tuesday, January 31^st as the school division has a prep day scheduled. We normally refer to this as our “turn around day” as the day after begins our second semester and our new classes and timetable.

Progress Reports will be available through EDSBY for grades 7-12 again at the beginning of February. The reporting is all done online this year with our new program. Many of you have said how easy it is to use the app and the division is clearing up many of the bugs we initially have found with the program. We hope the reporting in February is simple for you to access (and for us to complete :) ).

Our school extra-curricular programs are also continuing this month, with Basketball teams for Junior Boys, Senior Girls and Senior Boys practicing and playing. Curling for Junior and Senior teams has also kicked off and Badminton will start practicing after the February break. The SRC has done some wonderful planning at the Christmas lunch organizing the program, and held a movie night for elementary students on January 13. They also have upcoming plans for a high school event as well – stay tuned for more details.

Our School Community Council has raised some more funds through money raised on the Community Calendar project. They are directing a large amount towards a new playground project we have talked about. It is always a large amount to save for as those playgrounds are very expensive to install, but we have made a significant start. Thank you SCC for your interest on that project. The SCC also supported the SRC plans for engaging our students and plan to help us pay for some further signage around the school to display details of our School Goals in the form of the PAW the whole school helped create. The words RESPECT, ENGAGEMENT, INCLUSION and COLLABORATION are at the heart of what students and staff want to see at Hanley Composite School.

That’s all for now.  For further information and updates from the students and classrooms, check out our school website at http://blogs.spiritsd.ca/hanley/.  As always, Mr. Block and I would love to talk to you if you have time to send us a message or give us a call. We’ll talk to you soon.

We’re in the middle of a pretty cold week for the last days before the Christmas Break. The temperatures and windchill are bringing a combined reading lower than 40 below today! The school division’s policy of no buses running when it gets that cold has affected a number of day already this winter so we’ll have to see how many more in January. It’s good to see the students that do get here on those days to catch up on any missing assignments and to work with their friends and other students as well.

The SCC Hanley Community Calendars are finished and ready for pick up at the school office for those who ordered one. The picture was taken by Charlotte McGregor and we thank her for sharing it with us to use. Thank you as well to all the advertisers for their continued business and their ad on the calendar. Your support for our school is appreciated!

Our annual Christmas dinner is still scheduled on Thursday this week and it’s wonderful to bring back the tradition we’ve been fortunate to have had with students in the gym sharing a meal. Thank you to Mrs. Schraeder for organizing it!

Mr. C Freeden has been arranging a new activity for the high school students to take part in with a hockey game on Thursday afternoon at the rink after the clean-up jobs from lunch have been taken care of. Students and some staff members will play and many students are helping as well. We have some classes that will be going to the rink to watch and cheer them on.

The Basketball season is underway and along with my own Junior Boys team, we have Miss Randall coaching the Senior Girls and Mrs. Tasha Grasby volunteering her time to coach the Senior Boys. Thank you both for giving your time to those programs.

Next month will wrap up our first semester this year. We’ll send out an exam schedule in January for the exams that will fall between January 25^th and 30^th.

I think we’re working out the bugs in the Edsby program that the school division is now using for marks and attendance and report cards and communication. Parents can also use it to clear their student’s attendance before school each day if it’s needed. I wanted to thank you for you patience and your willingness to try something new. Many of you have reported that you like using it more that you did PowerSchool and that it’s a good change. Our next set of reporting marks for students in grades 7-12 will take place at the end of January and will be ready to access in Edsby at the beginning of February!

We’ll have some staffing changes after the Christmas break I can tell you about here next. Mr. Hutchinson will return after his leave and we want to thank Mrs. Stanley for her work the last five weeks she joined our school! Mr. Hindmarsh is taking an education leave starting in January to go back to school for the remainder of the school year. Mr. Block will be our Vice-Principal after Christmas for the rest of this school year, and some classes will be shifted as we adjust some schedules. Mr. L Freeden will assume some of the classes from both of them and we will welcome Ms. Brittany Nedelec to our school staff in January as well to take some of Mr. Freeden’s classes. Ms. Nedelec has subbed in our school recently this past month or so and is looking forward to her position.  

Thank you for a positive first four months of this school year and your support of our school, our staff and our work with your students. I wish all of you a wonderful Christmas season, and Season’s Greetings to everyone as well as you enjoy time with family and friends. The first day back for students after the break will be on January 9^th. That’s all for now.  For further information and updates from the students and classrooms, check out our school website at http://blogs.spiritsd.ca/hanley/.  As always, Mr. Hindmarsh and I would love to talk to you if you have time to send us a message or give us a call. We’ll talk to you soon.

Here we are on (hopefully) the other side of some nasty days of colds and flus that were battering down our student and staff numbers the last couple weeks. Thank you to families who were able to keep their students home when they started to feel symptoms and to those of you who made arrangements to come to the school to pick up your children when they started feeling tough. It appears that we’re back to our normal numbers again.

It was a great chance for many families to find some extra time with each other last week with the extended weekend on the school calendar. We have a full five weeks of school ahead for the students with only the Friday off before the Christmas Break. I’m sure most teachers are going to get as much teaching squeezed into those weeks as they can after some slower days that we had to start this month.

A few of our seasons wrapped up in November with Senior Girls’ Volleyball, Football, as well as Junior Girls and Boys teams having some great matches and lots of growth and learning in those sports. Thank you to all the coaches and to you parents for arranging driving to so many after school and weekend competitions. We’ve been highlighting a need for some volunteers to help coach some basketball teams this season ahead and have mentioned a few times that Senior Boys and Junior Boys and also Junior Girls could use coaches. If you have interest in Basketball and can offer your time to work with players, or you know of someone you can encourage to volunteer, please contact our office and let us know.

 Our grade 11 and 12 career fair opportunity on November 7^th was cancelled due to poor road conditions to travel. If I can find an online opportunity for the students this year I’ll set that up for them. We’ll make plans to attend next year’s again as it is a worthwhile event for our students and many post-secondary schools and career paths have booths our students can stop at and check out.

Cold weather has hit us in November and I’m sure by the long range forecasts we’re liable to see more of it this winter. Please continue to send good cold weather gear with your students to school for recess times to save them from freezing fingers and ears and also so they have a chance to enjoy the winter weather at the breaks. It’s also a good idea to check what your students being transported by a bus are wearing to school – no one wants to worry about a bus having engine trouble on a route but we can all prepare to have warm clothes in preparation for those times.

The Hanley SCC Community Calendars are being created this month and we’ll look forward to selling those calendars again in December. Please contact the school if the SCC members missed you and you want to add more details to your family lists. Also contact the school if you’d like to order a calendar for yourself this year and haven’t had one before.

The SRC is arranging our annual Christmas dinner again for students and staff and we’ll look forward to having that again before we head out for Christmas Break. Thank you all for your contributions to what has been such a wonderful time to get our whole school together.

That’s all for now.  For further information and updates from the students and classrooms, check out our school website at http://blogs.spiritsd.ca/hanley/.  As always, Mr. Hindmarsh and I would love to talk to you if you have time to send us a message or give us a call. We’ll talk to you soon.

I hope you and your family are feeling like we are here at school this fall – that it’s wonderful on many sides to be able to get back into our annual fall school routines and leave as much of that other stuff in our rear-view mirrors. The weather has really felt like fall is here and the trees are losing their leaves more and more each day.

Our Cross Country runners had a great showing at Districts and two runners qualifying for provincials this past weekend. Congratulations to Delaney M who was in the top ten!

The senior girls volleyball team hosted a tournament this past weekend at our school and our coaches, Kianna Dietz and Chery Randall, hosted a wonderful day along with the team and their parents. The girls were in the final game but lost in the third set. Great performance, Senior Girls!

Our Football team has had a strong season this fall and they have their first playoff game this Saturday at 1pm. Staff coaches Carter Block, Brandon Hutchinson, Linden Freeden and Chad Freeden, along with our senior intern Jacob Schilling have been working hard to help the team develop into a force to be reckoned with on the field. Best of luck this weekend!

The junior boys and girls volleyball teams are also moving ahead this fall with myself coaching the boys and our vice principal Josh Hindmarsh coaching the girls, with help from our intern, Kaleb Schulz.

We’ve been making families aware of needing some support this year on some other teams upcoming this winter. If we have some community members who are available to coach Junior Boys Basketball and Senior Boys Basketball, please contact our athletic director, Carter Block, for more details about how to get involved.

The fall Tri-Conferences are this week with interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Tuesday the SCC planned a free burger supper for those in attendance and it will run from 5-6:30pm. Contact Mrs. Block at the office if you still want to get an interview scheduled. Just a reminder that there is no school on Monday, October 24^th.

We are going to plan our fall trip to Saskatoon for the grade 11 and 12 to take them to the See Your Future career fair on November 7. Students will get a chance to interact with booths from about a hundred different schools and career booths in the morning and we’ll have them back at the school for afternoon classes.

The School Community Council will be making calls about the Community Calendar this month and ask for your interest in purchasing another one this year and as well to add any new information on it. If they miss you because you’re not on their list, give us a call in November and we can handle it at the office. We have a wonderful group of SCC members again this year led by our chairperson, Leah Weisbrod. Thank you all council members for supporting our school and school goals.

Mrs. Block and I were just talking about our new student information system called Edsby and I need to encourage any of you who haven’t signed in for it to do so as soon as you can – it will be the system our division and our school uses to track attendance, as well as deliver evaluation and a lot of communication as well. The app is quite simple to use when you check it out and we’ve heard from many already how much they do like it.

That’s all for now.  For further information and updates from the students and classrooms, check out our school website at http://blogs.spiritsd.ca/hanley/.  As always, Mr. Hindmarsh and I would love to talk to you if you have time to send us a message or give us a call. We’ll talk to you soon.

Congratulations to Callie Steen for her awesome performance at Provincial Track and Field last weekend! Callie recieved the gold medal for her 1500m run and another gold medal for her 3000m run! Way to go, Callie! We’re all so very proud of you!