Category Archives: From the Office

From the Office

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We’ve managed to make it through another month of excitement and learning opportunities at Hanley Composite School. This year our school is concentrating on three School Goals: Reading Intervention, Numeracy and Student Engagement. Each of the teachers are part of developing plans to meet those goals, so if you have some questions, or are interested in more information, stop by and ask one of them about the school goals.

Some more staffing changes are happening at our school this year. Mrs. Bain left this month on her maternity leave for the remainder of the year. Congratulations to Mrs. Bain and her family on the birth of their son, Liam. Ms. Adelman will be replacing her in all of her classes. Mrs. Koroll will be away on her leave by the end of the month. We’ll be moving Miss Martineau to the K/1 room at that time and Ms. Stefanson will be in to work with the grade 2/3 students until Mrs. Romanchuk’s return in the second semester.

Congratulations to Mr. Howie on the birth of his daughter. Mr. Howie is one of our interns we have working with Ms. Prakash.

I want to wish congratulations to our fall volleyball and football teams for their great performances this season and their accomplishments! Special congratulations to the Junior Girls’ Volleyball team on winning the District champions title, and to the Saber Football team on winning silver in the Provincial Final we hosted last weekend. We are proud of each of you and your efforts to represent our school with pride and respect. For your interest, Basketball is underway at Hanley with Junior and Senior teams already starting practices. Good luck to all the teams.

Information was sent home this week for parents to be able to start an account on PowerSchool – our online database for grades and attendance for students. If you have any questions or concerns, give the teacher a call to ask about it, or drop by to talk to me about it.

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.

From the Office

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It feels again like that colder, blustier weather that seems to track us down every fall is here for a while. Six weeks of our school year have disappeared behind us and Hanley Composite School once again doesn’t appear to be slowing down. This week staff and students are taking part in some Education Week activities. From practices like Stop, Drop, and Read, to a middle years trip to Wanuskewin, as well as a speaker on Treaty Education, this week involved the annual library Book Fair and our fall Tri- Conferences on Oct 16th and 17th. The older version of Parent-Teacher Interviews is becoming an old practice – being replaced by a Tri-Conference: a conversation that involves parent, teacher, AND student. A much more authentic sharing of work habits, practices, and behaviours happens, and when those areas are focused on, then much better learning takes place, always positively affecting the grade. This is the first year that we have had these Tri-Conferences before report cards are sent home – done on purpose to give students a chance to talk about and hear how they could improve, BEFORE the grades are sent home a few weeks later. I would love to hear about what you think of the change. Like always, we will encourage you to keep in contact with your children’s teachers, so if there is a question that comes up after the report cards arrive at home, make sure to contact the teacher to discuss it.

There will also be a big change happening in reporting this year that I want to make you aware of as it’s being finalized. Hanley Composite School will be moving to a Live version of reporting through an online program called PowerSchool. Students first, followed by parents, will gain access to reporting on their progress online by logging in to a site where they will be able to find a list of their courses and marks assigned to their work. Student attendance as well as work habits and behaviours are other areas that can be accessed. We will send home further information as it is available to families from Hanley School.

We had some excitement last month with the news crew out here to see the town and area, the school, a football game, and our newly paved court. It was a lot of fun and a great crowd was here all day.

This week we also held our Meet the Staff BBQ on the first evening of Tri- Conferences. A burger or hotdog, followed by a piece of cake and some witty conversation with one of our staff members was the norm I witnessed this week. It is clear that the teachers in our school care a lot about your children and really do want the best for their education and well-being. I’m proud of them for that.

I want to highlight that we’ll again be hosting another Flu Immunization Clinic on October 25 in the school gym. Be sure to tell others and encourage them to come to the school for a “shot in the arm.”

Extra-Curricular activities are moving along at a fast pace as well. We had a lot of interest in Cross Country this fall and I want to congratulate Chery for her progress to Provincial Competition. The Senior and Junior Volleyball seasons have been filled with a number of tournaments and a lot of practices, both before and after school. Saber Football has had a great undefeated season as well and is looking forward to playoffs starting this weekend in Hanley.

Just a reminder from me that there is no school on Monday, Oct 22 due to evenings put in by teachers for the Tri- Conferences this week. There’s also a couple days, Nov 9 and 12 that there will be no classes as well due to a day of professional development and a stat day recognizing Remembrance Day on Nov 11. We’ll hold a Remembrance Day ceremony at the school on November 8.

Continue to enjoy the year, everyone. 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.

From The Office

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Welcome back everyone!! As I sit here thinking back to the last couple weeks, our first few weeks of this year, I’m amazed that so many things have already taken place this school year! This fall was our first year in a long time to have students return to school after the Labour Day long weekend. I hope each of the Hanley School families enjoyed the longer summer break. Teachers and support staff were in the school and around the division taking part in some meetings and professional development opportunities in the last week of August, getting ready for another great year of teaching our students.

I want to welcome back Mrs. Burgess who was away part of last year on a medical leave. It’s good to see you back in the halls! Mrs. Burgess is here for shortened days in September and October, so we also welcome Mrs. Harder for accepting the other part of those days for the fall. Great to have you here as well, Mrs. Harder! Also, welcome to Miss Martineau, teaching in the grade 2/3 room this fall and helping coach Senior Girls Volleyball! We welcome Mrs. Pozniak, formerly known as Miss Rancourt, and congratulate her on her recent wedding this fall! A summer order of tables went AWOL this fall, and the grade 4/5 room has been doing a wonderful job making due in the arts ed room – thanks everyone! I’d like to also welcome two interns we have in the school this fall – Mr. Howie and Mr. Bartsch, both with Physics and Math backgrounds, and working with Mrs. Prakash and Mr. Herman. Hanley School will also have a couple education students from the U of S every other Friday this year as we give them a chance to work and experience various classes in a school setting. We also welcome Mrs. Ashdown to our support staff as an EA in the mornings, and two new bus drivers, Mr. Drever and Mrs. Mooney, meeting those smiling sleepy faces for the morning ride to school. Welcome everyone to another wonderful year at Hanley Composite School.

Hanley School will be on NUT ALERT again this year as we have three students with serious allergies and peanuts and nut products are some triggers of those allergies. There is a danger of anaphylactic shock in these cases which involves a closing of the airways. This safety concern for students will require families to be aware of what food items we’re bringing and sending to school. Please check packages for food items that may contain nuts or nut products or be produced in a facility where they may come into contact with those nuts or nut products and please look for an alternative that doesn’t. Thanks for your help in keeping our students in Hanley School safe and healthy.

Many of our extra-curricular activities are fully under way this year. Our Saber Football team has had two very successful games, one exhibition and one league, starting off their season in the right direction. The Senior and Junior Girls’ Volleyball teams are also doing great this year, with a couple tournaments already under their belt and a full season ahead. Our Cross Country runners have been practicing and competing already this fall, looking forward to an- other great season, and we also have a couple students, Nathan and Taylor, heading off to Provincial Golf competition this weekend. Our SRC is also taking off today for their fall Student Leadership Conference in Watrous for the rest of the week. We look forward to the new ideas and plans for the year they bring back.

A couple dates are approaching before our next newsletter in October to make you aware of. Awards Night will take place again on the first Tuesday of October at 7:00pm in the gym – congratulations to everyone who will be winning an award! Also, our fall Tri-Conferences will take place this year on October 16th and 17th from 5:00-7:30pm, prior to the report cards going out in November. It’s a good opportunity for parents and teachers to get stu- dents on the right track with classes and behaviours, as well as an excellent time to encourage all the good things students are doing to continue! We hope to see you all there. The School Community Council (SCC) will also be holding their Meet the Staff BBQ that night starting at 5:00, so come on out for a burger and take some time to talk to the staff! The library will also be holding the annual Book Fair so make sure you stop in to check out the new reading materials and other items!

We’ve got a big day ahead on Friday this week with a bunch of happenings at school. There is a pizza sale at noon and a short recognition event for the donations and volunteers that improved our outdoor court this summer. A pep rally by the SRC will follow, including some face painting last class. It’s a Saber Pride dress up day and we have a home football game starting at 4:00pm as the Sabers host Loreburn-Kenaston. CTV news is also in town filming their Rural News broadcast on Friday and their plan is to broadcast some of their afternoon from the school as well.

Picture Day is Monday, Sept 24th, with an SCC meeting that night at 7:00pm. Enjoy the year everyone. 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
Hanley Composite School

From the Office

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Well, if any of you can tell me where this last school year has disappeared to, I’d appreciate the help. It has been a fantastic year for me “from the office” and I would like to make sure I take the time here to thank everyone for helping make that so. We have a wonderful group of people working in this building for the students, and I’m quite proud of their efforts to make our school a great place to be. I’d also like to recognize the students at Hanley Composite School for their hard work this year and their efforts to make this a school they can be proud of. It’s pretty hard to be best friends with 240 other students every day, year after year, but the students to a pretty good job of being respectful to everyone and working with each other. As I write this, I’m nervously awaiting my second son to decide to enter the world, and my hopes are that his future years at school can be as fun as what I see students in our school enjoy.

We’re also at that time of year where we need to say farewell to a couple people from our staff. I want to say thank-you on behalf of everyone for twenty years of work with students to Mrs. McRae and Mrs. Beaumont. Your work each year supporting students and helping out in so many other ways around the school will be sorely missed by all of us. We wish you health and happiness on your retirements. We also want to wish a happy retirement to Mrs. Patkau, retiring from her bus driving position. Your work of keeping the students safe on the roads to and from school every day is very important and we appreciate what you’ve done to make that possible.

With the end of the year will also come a farewell to two of our teachers who were filling temporary contracts at our school. Thank you to both Ms. Anderson who was replacing Mrs. Burgess on her medical leave, and also to Miss Gabora who was replacing Mrs. Romanchuk while away on her maternity leave. We will miss your work in the classroom with the students and the parts you played on our staff. Good luck on your next positions, to both of you.

I would like to wish good luck to our graduating stu- dents who are leaving us at the end of this year. Good luck in your future years and with your plans for next year and those to follow. Drop in some time and let us know how things are going.

To everyone else, enjoy the summer and the rest and relaxation that comes with time away from work and school. Hopefully some warm weather and sun is in our future in July and Au- gust. 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

From the Office

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Well it’s that time again for another piece of wisdom and information from Hanley Composite School’s office. It feels like we may have finally seen the start of spring weather and it’s sure a relief. We have a number of events planned for the last few weeks of school and I’ve tried to give you that list included in this newsletter on the back page.

Congratulations to our Drama club who performed “Broken Hearts Club” at Regionals after a very successful drama season including a tasty dessert theatre. Great job everyone!!

Our Senior Badminton Team had another strong season and we were proud to see Tawny move onto Districts in Girls Singles and Josh and Alexander move past Districts to compete at Regionals. That’s an awesome season!!

We’re in the midst of Track season with about 90-100 students from our school body taking part this week and next as well. It makes me proud to see such a high number of participating athletes from Hanley School.

We had a fantastic grade 7-12 presentation about Addictions by Allan Kehler on May 1. He was a dynamic speaker who captured the attention of the students with his message of personal struggles with substance abuse and the power of talking to overcome life’s issues.

Last week was the second and final week of Work Experience for the grade 12 students. It sounds like the students had a number of valuable experiences at the job sites and either are very grateful to be able to get back to the comfort of their valuable education, or are now, more than ever, looking forward to their work life after finishing high school.

That leads me to my next item. Hanley Composite School Graduation is planned for June 8 with Exercises at 7:30 in the school gym. Congratulations to each of our graduating Grade 12s on their hard work this year.

I want to recognize the great work Mr. Vedress has done this year at Hanley School. Mr. Vedress will be leaving us at the end of this week as we’ll be welcoming back Ms. Bishop-Moisan who has been away on a maternity leave. Welcome Ms. Bishop-Moisan and thank-you Mr. Vedress for all your efforts and classroom work with the Grade 6s and your coaching of Senior Boys Basketball and Track and Field. We’ll miss your contribution to our staff and school.

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

From the Office

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Last month I mentioned how nice it was to see the sun shining and we were able to enjoy the good weather. Since then we’ve had a spring snowstorm and some following days of snow and sleet. This month I’m going to comment that it’s been so nice to get some cool, wet spring weather and we’ll see where that leaves us.

A number of events and happenings have taken place since my last message From the Office in March. We were excited to have our Drama Club present to the school one afternoon, as well as the Drama Night and Dessert Theatre performances of Broken Hearts Club. Once again they did not disappoint us with their practice and hard work preparing. We wish them well at Regionals this weekend. Break a leg!

Report Cards for grades 6-12 went home before the break. While there will not be another formal chance for Tri-Conferences with teachers, I would again like to invite you to contact your child’s teachers about their progress or anything else such as outstanding assignments. It is very important that they have every assignment completed this year to receive credit for the course. And just a reminder, final exams for this semester will begin on June 22.

Junior Badminton playoffs were this week and I’d like to recognize Steffen from grade 8 and Ashley from grade 9 as each progressed to the second playoff day in their singles categories. Great job to both of you! Senior Badminton playoffs are next week starting on Tuesday.

There are a number of field trips that will occur over the course of the next couple months to be aware of. Information will be going home for individual class trips. Please continue to return any and all forms as soon as possible.

Before our next newsletter the grade 12 students will be taking part in their second full week of Work Experience during May 7-11. The important benefits have included an experience in a workplace for a whole week versus a single day per week, and a decrease in lost time from normal classes. This is a new format for Hanley School, I would appreciate any feedback from you about the course and if we should repeat this year’s arrangement of two separate full weeks instead of one day per week for all of semester two.

The only week day with no school in the next few weeks is on May 7th for a teacher PD day.

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

From The Office

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I’m not sure if it was that old groundhog coming out on a cloudy day, or just some shifting weather that’s making it possible, but it’s sure nice to see Spring and the sun out and watch the snow melting. The school yard is still holding a lot of moisture so it would be a good idea to send rubber boots to school with students who will be outside during the day.

I notice that every month I let you know how proud I am of the students at Hanley Composite School and this month is no different. I’d like to highlight another fundraising event that the elementary students participated in called Jump Rope for Heart. $3651.00 was raised for the Heart and Stroke Foundation – Fantastic Job everyone! To make you aware of another charity fundraiser – the school staff raised over $540 for Telemiracle this year through some casual days in February.

A couple months ago I made you aware of some classroom data projectors we’d been getting into place in our school for teaching use – at the same time I mentioned our hopes to make improvements to the sound system in the gym. Out hopes would be to have a good system in place by graduation this year. As always, these are costly ventures for our school so if you or someone you know happens to trip over one of those pots-of-gold this month and are in a sharing mood, make sure to let us know.

I want to encourage you to make arrangements to attend Tri-conferences this month on the evenings of March 21nd and 22rd from 5:00-7:30 pm. Teachers would like to see you and their students and discuss their progress this semester. Mrs. Block is taking calls to schedule those interviews if you give her a call.

In the area of school activities, I’d like to wish congratulations to our Curling and Basketball teams for some great seasons this year. Junior and Senior Badminton is our next sport that will take us into April with Spring Senior Golf and Track and Field to follow into May. Drama is well under way as well getting ready for the Drama Night on April 17th and Dessert Theatre on April 18th. Tickets are for sale at the office.

I’d like to plug one other program that is aimed at high school students who are working towards apprenticing in a trades after high school. A Saskatchewan Youth Apprenticeship program can save a student up to 300 hours of work in their first year after graduation as well as tuition by completing some self-education about apprenticing. Please encourage students in grades 10-12 to drop by the office to see me so I can register them for the program.

I think that’s enough for another month. Reminders that students don’t have school on an upcoming General Assembly day for teachers on March 23rd as well as March 26th due to a day in lieu of Tri-conference evenings. 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.

From the Office

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Our second semester has taken off on a good start and we’ve been helping all the students get settled into their new classes and timetables. Thank you to parents who have taken such interest in their student’s timetables and course selections. Thank you as well to so many parents who do such an important job of informing the school if your son/daughter is going to be absent.

The month is once more flying by and while short, it has been filled with many items since I last wrote a “From the Office.” It was nice to see a small but interested group of parents attend the School Community Council sponsored “Math Night for Parents.” Trish Reeves was out from our Division office to discuss the provincial math curriculum and the program that our schools follow. Some good discussion took place along with the reinforcement for elementary parents to stay in good contact with their student’s teacher and continue to ask good questions about how best to help their young mathematicians.

Our students have been wrapping up some seasons in both curling and basketball. Congratulations to those students who’ve been involved for their hard work on one of our school teams while continuing to focus on keeping up good grades as well. Good luck to the Senior Girls Curling at Regionals this weekend!

I was fortunate to tag along on the Grade 7 Ski Trip to Table Mountain last month and want to tell you that I was very impressed by such a good group of young students. Congratu- lations to those students on such a good day of team building and to Mrs. Bain for her efforts to help them grow together.

Hanley School was also able to invite Duncan Seimens from the Saskatoon Blades to give a talk to the grades 6-9 about a drug prevention program called Project Face-Off that took place on Jan. 24th. Duncan and a member of the Saska- toon Police drug detail were in to encourage students to make better choices in their future.

I would like to highlight how proud I am of our SRC and their work on the Breast Cancer Awareness volleyball tournament they organized. They raised over $2100 and the day went smoothly from start to end. I continue to be very impressed by the commitment and talents that our students are capa- ble of and would like to en- courage all of our students to find a way to contribute their talents to our school as well.

We continue to have some more staffing shifts this year and February is no different. Mrs. Burgess has left us for the remainder of the school year as she is away on a medical leave – Miss Anderson has taken over her classes. Also, Mrs. Romanchuk is starting her maternity leave after this break. Congratulations Mrs. Romanchuk! – Miss Gabora will be filling her Grade 2/3 teaching position for the remainder of the school year.

Well, I started typing this not sure how much I would have to say and find now there was a lot. Mr. Anderson and I would love to talk to you if you drop into the office. Take care and I’ll talk to you soon.

Mr. Chris Tucker Principal

From The Office

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The end of January marks the halfway point of the school year, and with it brings a semester end as well as Semester exams running the week of January 24th to 27th. Senior students, please note the exam schedule so you are prepared for your final evaluations. This is a reminder that there will be no school on January 30th while teachers prepare for semester 2 that starts January 31st.

As I discussed in December’s newsletter, there will be an opportunity for Grade 12 students to take Career Work Experience A30 in semester two again this year but we will be run- ning the program in a different format. Stu- dents will take the course in two separate 5 day weeks, March 5-9 and May 7-11, ensuring a more realistic experience at the jobsite. It is important to receive this credit that the students do not miss one of those days, and will need to arrange another day to complete it if missed. Students will be responsible to arrange their travel to the work placement. Give me a call if you have some questions I can answer.

The Grades K-7 took part in some hands on Science projects when some students from the Saskatchewan Science Center visited Hanley School on January 17th. They always do a great job to involve students and get them interested in Science. A couple of players from the Saskatoon Blades will be out on January 24th to see the Grades 6-9 students as part of a program they call Project Face-Off, aimed at educating kids about the effects and consequences of substance abuse. January 27th will see the Grade 7 students heading to Table Mountain for a day of skiing.

Both the curling and basketball season’s are underway with the Senior Boys Basketball host- ing their home tourna- ment last weekend, and the Junior Girls Basketball hosting the weekend of January 21. Hanley will be hosting Senior Curling Conferences February 10th-11th.

On an informational note about the school building, we have installed sixty new lockers in the middle years hall- way and we were able to have seven new data projectors installed in the classrooms, connecting them to the classroom computer for extra resource possibilities for teachers. We’re hoping to make some changes to the gym sound system this school year as well, but the cost for those improvements may be more than we can budget for in the remainder of this year.

As always, drop in to see Mr. Anderson and me sometime. We’d love to say Hi. Take care and I’ll talk to you soon.

Mr. Chris Tucker Principal

From the Office

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We’ve had the luxury of very little snow to deal with this winter, but I’m finding it strange to get ready for the break with- out some more of the white stuff on the ground.

Students and staff alike are looking forward to the break starting next week on December 22nd following the festivities of Christmas Dinner on December 21st. Classes resume on January 3rd this year and senior students will be spending some serious weeks preparing for the Semester 1 exams the week of Janu- ary 23rd-27th. There will be no school on January 30th while teachers prepare for semester 2 that starts January 31st.

There will be an opportunity for Grade 12 stu- dents to take Career Work Experience A30 in semester two again this year but we will be running the program in a different approach. Students will take the course in two separate 5 day weeks, ensuring a more realistic experience at the jobsite. More information will be sent home in January but give me a call if you have some questions I can answer.

I want to take a moment to tell you how proud we have been of the four interns in our school this fall and wish them our best as they return to university after the break. Hanley School was very fortunate to have four quality people to share our students with and we know that they will have a great career at teaching. Good luck to Mrs Kinzell, Ms Rugg, Ms Clark and Mr Cavanaugh and thank- you on behalf of the staff and students for your efforts, hard work, humour, participation and planning in our school and its events this semester.

If you were unable to attend the Christmas Concert this week you missed a great perfor- mance by the K-6 stu- dents. Congratulations students on your work to prepare and to the teach- ers and all staff and stu- dent helpers who con- tributed to getting them ready for the big night. You did a wonderful job!

On a personal note, I would like to wish you and your family a safe Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas. As always, drop in to see Mr Anderson and me some- time. We’d love to say Hi. Take care and I’ll talk to you soon.

Mr. Chris Tucker