From the Office

Welcome to our new year, everyone. We’ve been fortunate to have some abnormally nice temperatures so far this month as well as some very cold days to balance them as well. Try to keep sending warm outdoor clothing on the cold days, especially with bus students of all ages in case of bus trouble.

January is filled with finishing Semester 1 classes and studying for final exams and completing course end projects. See this newsletter for the exam schedule taking place the last week of January for the grade 10-12 students and encourage your student to study as much as they can. Assignments for all the finishing courses must be in soon if not already to make the course credit available, so students must be completing each assignment that is given by the teacher. Many students have been dropping in at the office for help with applications to various university or technical programs – that’s exciting to see! We also have a number of Youth Apprenticeship Program students working through those assignments as well and we hope to hear of successful apprenticeship agreements made as well for next year.

Curling and basketball season are the focus of school sports right now. Just like our Riders, some “building years” have been coming for a while and it’s great to see some strong junior teams working towards filling some future senior teams. Great job to all the coaches.

This is a reminder that January 29th will be the “turn around” day between semesters, and not a school day for students. Report Cards for grades 7-12 will head home on February 4th. I want to also remind our Grade 12 students that their second Work Experience full week is Feb 22-26 which follows the February break Feb 15-19. We did schedule this again on purpose so it wouldn’t break up their learning after the February break until the next one in April. I hope you enjoy your Family Day on Feb 15th .

The School Community Council would like me to mention that we still have some of the Community Calendars available at the office that families ordered this fall. There are also a few extra available for a reasonable $10.

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. Anderson and I would love to talk to you if you have time to drop by the office or give us a call. Take care and I’ll talk to you soon.

Chris Tucker

Principal

From the Office

We’ve been pretty fortunate this winter with the El Niňo effect and we’ve been enjoying the break from the tough winter weather we’re known to receive in December other years. Last week we enjoyed our Christmas Family Fun Night as well. I was surprised and very pleased we got to set up another eighty or so chairs from what were already set up. It was once again a wonderful evening for the students and their families filled with singing, time for activities and an opportunity for everyone to stop and catch up with other families and friends in what is always a busy time of year. Thanks for attending if you were able to be here.

Plans have again been under way for a while to have our annual Christmas Dinner on Friday. Miss Smith has the event organized and jobs are in hand for everyone here, including the high school students who are always expected and expecting to take part. Thanks again to everyone for your food and various contributions that make the day and the lunch a good time for everyone. We’ll again have some School Community Council Members, and some School Division members in attendance as they always enjoy these kind of student days at Hanley Composite School.

This month starts some changes in our staffing again. We’ll be needing to say good-bye to our one intern, Miss Vanderpost. Thanks for all your work and planning and preparation and good luck with the remainder of your studies next semester! We’ll miss you.

Just a reminder that the Hanley School Community Council-produced Community Calendars are in at the office, and can be picked up any time. The cost is still $10 and it looks great. Thanks for all your support to the SCC as the funds raised are directly spent by the SCC on something for the school and students.

We’ll be back after the holiday with a short three weeks to finish off some units and prepare for final exams for high school students. Exams will fall in the last week of January, with a PD day scheduled for Friday, January 29th so teachers can work on marking finals and preparing grade 7-12 report cards set to go home on February 4th.

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. 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.

Chris Tucker
Principal

From the Office

Welcome back to every-one again for the start of another great year. We have some new looks in the school as far as the building goes, the staff goes, and the students as well!!!
The school received a lot of attention this summer as much of the renovations and construction work that was planned was completed this summer, including the last few days before students came back and as well the last couple weeks as some furnaces are being hooked up and some areas that needed to be buttoned up at the end of the job. ConTech has done a really nice job of the school and we continue to be thankful of such a good crew of guys to work with, headed up by Kevin Sawyer.

We want to officially welcome a few new staff members who are on staff this year at our school. Welcome back to Mr. Brandon Hutchinson who has returned this year to teach ELA and Social Studies to the senior students. Welcome to Mr. Carter Block who is the Grade 9 homeroom teacher. Welcome to Miss Jeslyn Smith, our new Home Ec teacher. Welcome to Miss Mary Kolach who is our new Special Education Resource Teacher for the school, and welcome again to Miss Janine Buchinski our Kindergarten teacher. We’re so fortunate to include these new teachers on what is already a wonderful staff at Hanley. Welcome new staff as well as welcome back to the returning staff.

We are also happy to be able to let you know about an increase of 15 students to what we had projected for September. That’s going to bring our total number to 232 for the fall. It’s a nice healthy number for our school. Welcome to all the new students and their families. We’ll hope to see you all at the Meet the Staff and Tri-Conferences evenings we hold in October.

Our extra-curricular programs have all hit the ground running this fall as well, as per normal. The SRC representatives are heading to the Student Leadership Conference this week with Miss Smith. The Senior Girls just won their tournament in Colonsay this past weekend. The Junior Girls played some spirited volleyball in Loreburn this past weekend, and the Football team handily took care of Viscount on Friday.

I’m always looking forward to the approach of fall to get back into the halls with staff, students and parents. This year is not different. Mr Anderson and I will always tell you that the best way to help your students succeed is to encourage them to get involved in our school wherever and whenever they can, and we’ll work through the road bumps of learning and social interactions together. 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. Take care and I’ll talk to you soon.

Chris Tucker

From the Office

From all the reports I’ve heard thus far, many families and staff had a great break last week. As always, it’s nice to have an opportunity to spend time with family and friends and with some warm spring weather thrown in there, it sounds like it was well used. The playground and surrounding school yard is finally drying up a bit more, but some areas are still wet with mud and puddles – please continue to send the students to school with the appropriate footwear and jackets.

The School Community Council will meet next week and have been an important part of our plans to create reading corners in the school for students to read and work. We already created an area at the end of the elementary hallway and our future plans are to do something in the middle years hallway as well. I want to give thanks to the RBC in Hanley for offering to do some volunteer work for the school this month to help raise some funds for the reading corners – your time and your assistance is most welcomed.

I’d also like to recognize Blair’s Fertilizer Ltd as they provided some welcome support for the Pink Shirt Day at the start of the month. The school received a donation of shirts and some classroom activities took place recognizing how inclusion of all students and a positive environment help everyone.

Our Drama club performs their show, One Giant Leap, this week on Wednesday night and then again at Thursday night’s Dessert Theatre and as normal everyone is looking forward to it. The glimpses that I’ve caught of their practices prove again that the strong effort and hours of learning their lines and roles will pay off.

Our badminton season here at Hanley continues this week with junior playoffs Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The senior playoffs will start next Wednesday with Hanley host- ing the first day and then playoffs continuing on April 25th. We had a large group of juniors this year and that makes for some bigger senior numbers in the future. I want to encourage more students to try to get involved as it was good to see the development this year. Great job everyone. Have your students keep their ears open for announcements about track practices starting soon now that the field is drying up.

I’m happy to say that we’ll see (and hear) some further construction in our school this spring, starting at the beginning of May. The work needed in the front lobby and main offices and lower hallway ceilings will begin, with work on the balcony surface to follow. This will interrupt some of our normalcy again for a while, but is an important job to get finished and we’re looking forward to it starting so we can see then end of the work one day soon, hopefully by September. As always, classes will continue and any disruptions to students and staff will be minimized. The crew from ConTech that did such a great job on the PAA rooms and lower classes will again be on site and they are a great group of guys to work with and very good around the students and staff.
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. Take care and I’ll talk to you soon.

Mr. Tucker

From the Office

While I write this, there is more snow falling from the sky to add to what we have on the ground but some more temperate days ahead if I can believe the forecasts. I know many people are looking forward to that, as it feels like we have dealt with a lot of up and down temperatures this winter.

We’re at the end of February and well into the second semester and as normal, there is lots going on in the school and our various programs. Check out the classroom submissions that follow for what’s happening in each of the grades. Our Grade 12s are taking part in their second week of Work Experience this week. We intentionally set it here again so as not to break up the learning when they’re back in class this semester. Good luck at work, Grade 12, we hope you learn a lot about the career area you’re experiencing.

I’d like to give you a heads up on another couple items for your calendars as well. The grade 9-12 ski trip is scheduled for March 6 to Table Mountain. The Grade 7 and 8 ski trip is scheduled for March 11. It’s always a fun day for those students and we look forward to having all the students attend.

March 18th and 19th is scheduled to be our second Tri-Conferences days for parents and students to book time to meet with the teachers. Tri-Conferences will be from 5:00-7:30pm those evenings and I’d like to remind you it’s a great time to celebrate the accomplishments of your student and recognize them with their parent in the conversation as well. I’ll look forward to seeing many of you here in the school those evenings and I invite you to drop by the office if I don’t see you in the halls. Swimming lessons for grade K-6 students during the school day at CC Pool was a nice success I think. The lessons wrapped up this week and I’m sure Mrs. Prosofsky and I will talk about setting up more in the future if you’re interested. You can contact CC Pool for more information.

There haven’t been any decisions made lately for further work being scheduled in our school on the structural upgrades. When more happens I’ll fill you in.
I’m going to give a final plug for the SCC Community Calendars that are available at the office for ten dollars. There are still a few that families ordered and haven’t picked up – we’ll assume next year that you’re not interested in ordering one. I’d also like to send a large thank-you to our SCC for helping us pur- chase some comfortable seating upstairs in the elementary hallway for a new reading spot for students.

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. Take care and I’ll talk to you soon.

Mr. Tucker

From the Office

We’re heading into that winter weather we were trying our best to avoid this year. Remind your students to wear the proper warm clothes to school again this season, including snow pants for elementary students headed outside to slide around and play in the snow, as well as for any of our students being picked up by bus. Bus Drivers do have the authority to refuse students entry to the bus if they don’t have proper clothing for cold weather. In the case of a breakdown, all students should have proper clothing to ensure they are safe and warm on the bus while waiting for support to arrive.

The grade 11 and 12 students enjoyed another morning this month at the annual Career Fair in Saskatoon. Planning should be well underway for students to narrow their options for careers or education following grade 12. For those students who are still struggling with ideas, help is always available from Mr. Tucker who can lead the students to directions to start looking for answers. I’ll also encourage any students who are considering an apprenticeship opportunity to spend some time to complete the Youth Apprenticeship Program this year as it offers many benefits to the student and the employer.

Just a reminder that the Grade 12 Work Experience week one is scheduled for the first week of next month, December 1-5. Students should have met with their work placement employer by now for their interview in preparation for the first day that week. Good luck to each of the students as they spend a week in their chosen career areas.

Progress reports were sent home on Friday with students in grades 1-12 as the first quarter of the year is passing us very quickly. The report has a new look again this year, and is a common format for all the students in those grades, incorporating the behavioural comments onto the same report as the academics yet still reporting them as separate items.

I wanted to give my congratulations to each of our sports teams that competed already this fall, doing a great job of representing Hanley Composite School in the extra-curricular areas. I’ve heard a ton of awesome comments about how polite and well-mannered our students can be as either hosts in our school, or while we’re on the road. Great job, everyone!

That’s all for now. For further information and updates from the students and classrooms, check out our school website at https://blogs.spiritsd.ca/hanley/. 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.

Chris Tucker Principal
Hanley Composite School

From the Office

What a great month so far this fall. That dose of cold weather in September made me think we were going to be in for a real doozy of a winter this year, but it’s been great to have such nice days in October to extend our fall a bit longer. Just a reminder that when the colder weather starts to appear, try to help your son/daughter choose the right clothing, jacket and other gear to help stay warm and healthy. We had another nice Awards Night on October 7th. Thanks for making the effort to attend if you were there to help support our students and celebrate their successes and hard work. Thank you also to the sponsors of the various bursaries and awards and those who took time to be there to present them. Our School Community Council is in the process of finishing off this year’s order for the 2015 Hanley Community Calendar. If you’ve been missed and would like to have your name on the order list, please call the school and talk to Mr. Tucker or Mr. Anderson or leave a message with Mrs. Block. The week of Oct 20-24 is a busy one. Bus Driver Appreciation Day is on Monday, Oct 20. Hanley Composite School is hosting our fall Tri-Conferences on Tuesday and Wednesday night from 5:00- 7:30pm. Please call the school to book an interview time with your son’s/daughter’s teachers and bring along your student as well for a great interview experience focusing on behaviours. Progress Reports will be sent home on November 15th for grades 1-12. Tuesday, Oct 21st will also be busy as the School Community Council is sponsoring our annual Meet the Staff BBQ from 5pm-7pm. Everyone is invited to drop in for a burger and cake, and we invite you to take time to visit with the staff and the SCC members as well. If that wasn’t enough going on Tuesday, I wanted to bring to your attention that the Saskatoon Health Region will be holding a Flu Immunization Clinic in the gym from 3:00-7:00pm. I’m sure everyone is still aware of the variety of construction that continues in the school through our renovations. Work is nearing completion in the PAA rooms, and installation of the heating systems in the first floor of the high school wing are progressing on schedule. We’ll be taking the grade 11s and 12s to the See Your Future Education and Career Fair on November 3rd in Saskatoon. If you can find time to talk to your student between now and that day, ask them about what career plans they’ve been considering to get them thinking about it before that Monday. We have a variety of teams and students finding success this fall. Come cheer on the Football Team on Oct 25th as they host a playoff game and the Junior Girls Volleyball Team as they host their Home Tournament on the same day. The Senior Girls’ Volleyball Team is also enjoying a great season. The Cross Country team had a great fall with a lot of participation across the grades, and we got to celebrate Kaycee Schroeder on her provincial win as well. Good luck everyone this fall and this year! 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. 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.
Chris Tucker
Principal Hanley Composite School

From The Office

When I look back at the past week I’m reminded about the phrases around being busy and the time flying by. School visits, field trips, track and field practic-es, a few meetings, and a burger taste test on Friday are some of the events that made up the week. Parents, you have some wonderful students at Hanley Composite School and many of us here are kept young by the fun interactions and smiles that working with them brings to us each day. We continue to be proud of their accomplishments, and their strides in growth and maturity each year.

We hosted the Prairie Spirit School Division annual board meeting on Wednesday night this week. The public attendance was low, but those in attendance were excited for the learning taking place here around our School Goals and shared our excitement around the big reno-vations taking place in the Home Ec and Industrial Arts rooms. I’d invite you to call and ask about what’s happening, or even stop in for a peek, if you don’t mind wearing a hard hat. The work is expanding to include some hallway and other room flooring, as well as changes to some classroom lighting. The latest development includes plans to complete the school painting project that began three years ago. Our renovations are going to include work to replace the lower level electric heating, and that was the only thing holding back the paint work.

I’ll take another minute and confirm for some of you that the renovations and work in the school will include some work on the balcony above the gym. We’ve been directed not to use the balcony for large public assemblies until their work this year is completed and so that area of the school will need to be closed during the Graduation ceremonies. We apologize for any disruption that will cause for the public or family plans to invite many people.

Plans for graduation continue to move forward as well as preparations for students’ lives after grade 12. If you have some questions about courses that we can help answer, or have some developments about future plans that you’d like to share, we’d always love to hear about what the students are planning on doing once their lives here move on.
Congratulations to our Drama club that did so great at Provincials. They received a number of awards and once again were lucky to see some great productions from other high school students from across the province. Way to go, Mrs. Griffin and the cast and crew!

Our Learning 4 Life School Goals around Literacy, Numeracy, and Student Engagement will be the centre of a report that Hanley School will deliver at the end of the month to the school board. I am once again proud of our progress. Our graduation rates (94% average over the last 7 years) continue to be higher than the school division’s which in turn are higher than the provincial average. For more information or details, please drop by or send me a note.

Last weekend was the last long weekend of the school year and the last partial week until the end of June. I’d like to encourage all the students to make all the effort needed to finish strong this year and if they have final exams, to give themselves lots of time to study.

Thanks again to everyone who was able to respond to my question last month to tell me what your home reading practices are. There were some very good ideas sent to me that I’ve compiled to share with you in this newsletter.

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. Take care and I’ll talk to you soon.

Family Reading Responses – I asked last month what routines or common reading practices you have in your home – these were the reactions I was emailed:

  • Parents who try to show reading in front of their children – newsletters, newspapers, magazines, articles.
  • Narrated YouTube Stories.
  • Practices of older siblings reading to the younger.
  • Bedtime stories.
  • Practice of having to read a book before watching the movie it’s based on.
  • Reader’s digest stories.
  • Comic books and graphic novels

Chris Tucker
Principal
Hanley Composite School

From The Office

Although we looked around all day on Monday for that slippery Leprechaun, and no matter where we checked or what traps the elementary students had created, we still couldn’t find one of those “green-clad small people” and have resided ourselves to the knowledge that a pot of gold is not in our future this year.

We’re in the later part of March already and I find myself surprised that our long, cold winter is going to be behind us soon. The snow seems to be melting, and our school yard is wet with puddles and mud that won’t be disappearing anytime soon. Please make sure you’re sending your son/daughter to school with the right clothing and footwear to be comfortable on the way here, whether by car, bus or foot, and also that they still have the right jacket and other clothes for the school day. Thank-you.

I want to tell you how proud we are of our Senior Girls Curling team for their great performance and gold medal win at the Curling Provincials we hosted Feb 28-March 1. Thanks also for the support from the community for the event at the hall and the curling rink. It was a well-attended weekend for such cold weather we were getting at that time. Congratulations, girls, on your win!

We’ve had a number of educational and athletic trips this last month with a few more scheduled in the next month. We’ve also got a couple visitors head- ed to our school in the future and we’ve invited the students from Dundurn to join us for those presentations.

I think everyone’s looking ahead to the sunshine and warmer temperatures that will be headed our way soon. The next two nights are Tri- Conferences at Hanley Composite School. Drop in and have a chat with one of your children’s teachers and find out about what’s happening in the classroom, and around the rest of the school. I’m sure the staff would love to update you on our School Goals around Literacy and Numeracy, the upcoming Drama performance, Ski Trips, Knight to Remember, SnowPitch and Bake Sales.

I have another item to raise some awareness for you about a Percussion Quartet called TorQ that will be out to see us on the morning of April 3. Dundurn School will be over to hear them with us and I’ll invite you to drop in as well if you want to listen to this energetic foursome from Toronto as they play their percussion instruments. (For all you non-musical types out there, those are the important instruments that keep the drum/beat/rhythm for the rest of the band/ orchestra to follow) Hope to see you there.

The School Community Council would like me to mention again that we still have a few Community Calendars available at the office for a reasonable $10. I’d also like to make you aware that our Annual General Meeting for the SCC is going to be on May 12th if you’re interested in becoming a member.

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. Take care and I’ll talk to you soon.

From The Office

As I write this there are forecasts today of more snow and another bite of cold weather before our February Break. The forecast includes some nice weather ahead while the students are off school and I know many people are looking forward to that as it feels like we’ve been cooped up a lot indoors this winter with the cold temperatures.

We’re halfway through February and well into the second semester and as normal, there is lots going on in the school and our various programs. Check out the classroom submissions that follow for what’s happening in each of the grades. Our Grade 12s will take part in their second week of Work Experience immediately following the break. We intentionally set it there so as not to break up the learning when they’re back in class this semester. Good luck at work, Grade 12, we hope you learn a lot about the career area you’re experiencing.

We’re also looking forward to hosting Senior Girls’ Curl- ing Provincials at the end of the month. Our Senior Girls’ team won four straight games at Districts in Blaine Lake Feb 7-8, and will be playing at Delisle in Regional Competition Feb 14-15. If you’re able to make it out to cheer them on, they’d be proud to have you there and to see you at the Hanley Curling Rink Feb 28-March 1. The girls who make the team up are Courtney Orsen, Hanna Anderson, Jill Krueger, Ashley Randall and Taylor Black. Also, if you have more questions, or you’re interested in volunteering some time to take part in the Provincials in some form, contact me or Scott Cory for more information.

I’d like to give you a heads up on another couple items for your calendars as well. The grade 9-12 ski trip is scheduled for March 14 to Table Mountain. It’s always a fun day for those students and we look forward to having all the students attend.

March 19th and 20th is scheduled to be our second Tri-Conferences days for parents and students to book time to meet with the teachers. Tri- Conferences will be from 5:00- 7:30pm those evenings and I’d like to remind you it’s a great time to celebrate the accomplishments of your student and recognize them with their parent in the conversation as well. I’ll look forward to seeing many of you here in the school those evenings and I invite you to drop by the office if I don’t see you in the halls.

I’m going to give a final plug for the SCC Community Calendars that are available at the office for ten dollars. There are still a few that families ordered and haven’t picked up.

Have a nice break everyone.

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. Take care and I’ll talk to you soon.