It’s amazing that we’re looking back at more than eighty percent of the school year behind us and only a month and a half until the end of June. I look ahead at the field trips, special days and big events we have scheduled and know that there are so many more good experiences for students ahead before their summer starts.

I know that a number of you might have some questions about how the calendar is going to affect our school day next year. There have been some changes made by the Ministry of Education which I’ll try to summarize. The Ministry has decided that students need to start their school year after Labour Day in September and end before July. There need to be 950 hours of instructional time within those dates. Schools and families both agreed that it was important to continue to have a break in February and in spring. There also were contract issues with prep time for teachers to be included into the discussions. Next year’s calendar takes all those points into consideration but in so doing, our school day time will be increased by 9 minutes. Those 9 minutes will be added to our day by starting our first period in the morning at 8:55am and our last period will run until 3:04pm. Our morning recess and noon hour times will stay the same. We will no longer have early dismissal Thursdays for an hour of teacher preparation time. Those hours will be moved to full days during the year and the other teacher professional development days have been left off the calendar which will give us more time in the classroom.

Please be aware of the class trips as they are planned and keep an eye out for permission forms and due dates for any trip fees as they come up.

Our School Community Council will be looking for volunteers for the K-6 PlayDay/Track & Field day on June 10 to help around the concession cooking hotdogs and selling lunch. Please look for the note and lunch order form coming home next week.

Kindergarten orientation is scheduled for June 7. We look forward to our meeting our future Hanley Sabers as they and their parents come to school to get a look at Kindergarten for next year.

The June Final Exam schedule is included in the newsletter and on the website and should give some focus for our high school students to start studying. Good luck students on a strong end to another good year.

The last item I’ll add this month is a congratulations to all of our Grade 12 students who will be at our graduation proceedings next month before our last newsletter for the year. I sat with a grade 12 student today and reminded them that the end of the year will be the start of something new and that’s something to be excited about. Good luck to each of you and keep working hard for the next six weeks!

That’s all for now. As always, Mr. Anderson and I would love to talk to you if you have time to drop by the office or give us a call. Talk to you soon.