And then it was the last month of the year – calendar year that is. While December is one of our shortest school months of the school year, we contin- ue to cram as much into these three weeks as any other month. I’ll do my best to recap what’s been happening and give you a peek into the new year ahead.
We’ve been able to slow down on our staffing musical chairs game and I can tell you that the students are happily adjusting to their new arrange- ments. We wish Mrs. Koroll congratulations on her maternity leave as she is now the proud mom to their new daughter, Char- lotte Mary, born Dec 10th. Miss Martineau is doing a great job in the K/1 room since the start of December and Miss Stefanson also doing just as well in the Grade 2/3 room upstairs. Miss Adelman is also looking like she’s at home with our Grade 7 home- room. That leaves Mr. Woods-Fehr, Mrs. Pozniak and Mrs. Bishop- Moisan mentoring our new staff at that end of the school.
We’ll need to say farewell to our two interns, Mr. Howie and Mr. Bartsch, who’ve been with us since the start of the school year. Hanley Composite School will miss your contributions to our school, both in the classroom and out. Good luck in your educational futures and please keep in touch. Our teacher candidates from the U of S will return in the new year and see us every other Friday again and a full week of classes in spring.
Last week was the last four days of the first week of Work Experience for the Grade 12 students. Most reports were pretty good, regarding their time at work. There will be a second week at another placement March 11 -15, 2013.
I wanted to let you know what a nice success our Christmas Family Fun Night was last week. Thank you to everyone for making it such a wonderful success as it was very well attended and supported by so many families. The artwork and crafts and ice sculptures, cookie and house decorating, variety of musical contributions, picture opportunities and hot chocolate to boot, made it an evening of family, community, and Christmas cheer.
We hosted the Canadian Air Force Band Sunday af- ternoon to an intimate crowd as they put on a ninety minute perfor- mance of musical selections with a Christmas theme. If you missed them and have a chance to see them in the future, I’d suggest you do as they gave a fantastic performance. Thank you to Master Warrant Officer Gord Nichol for his work to ar- range the performance and to Colonsay School for lend- ing us their portable stages.
I try to keep you up to date about some of the purchases we make here to benefit the school and students. This week we’ll have a ceiling mounted projector installed in the gym for use in presentations as well as another set of speakers that will all tie into the audio system we installed last year. We hope to have it ready for the Christmas Dinner this Friday. Speaking of Christmas Dinner, it is a wonderful tradition we have in place to be able to sit down together as a whole school to enjoy a meal together, and I hope the students value it as much as we do. My thanks to all the hands that make it possible.
Our last day this week on Friday will go right to 3pm. Classes resume January 3, 2013. January 14 is a professional development day for staff and no classes for students. Semester 1 final exams will be held on January 28-31 with a semester turn around day on February 1 and no classes for students.
This will be my own family’s first Christmas with our six-month old son, Hayden, joining his brother Gavin at the tree on Christmas morning. From my wife, Kara, and I and our boys, and on behalf of Mr. Anderson and his family, and the rest of the staff as well, enjoy a safe holiday, filled with time for family and friends and we wish you all a very Merry Christmas. As always, Mr. Anderson and I would love to talk to you if you have time to drop by the office. Take care and I’ll talk to you soon.
Chris Tucker
Principal