Good morning AFS families,

The year is off to a wonderful start. This is our first full week, students and staff are excited to be here!

There are a few dates coming up that we’d like to draw your attention to:

TODAY Thursday, September 12 – 5:30pm – sadly, due to the weather, the School Council Welcome Back Family Social evening, is CANCELLED/POSTPONED more information will be shared when available

Thursday, September 19 – 7:00pm – School Council and Parent Society meetings in the learning commons, or online

Thursday, September 26 – 5:30pm – Meet the Teacher and see the classroom event, please plan to bring your dinner, eat in the field, and then join us inside classrooms for introductory presentations from teachers.

Did your children talk to you about our Reading Rovers? Today was our second reading rovers, where a different teacher goes into each homeroom to read a book for 15 minutes. For now, it’s only our grades 1- 6 students, kindergarten will be included starting in October. You might remember reading and learning about our SDP (School Development Plan) over the years. One of the focal points is well-being. Reading rovers is one way we are working on improving our overall school well-being. This allows students to meet each teacher and have a personal experience, in their own classroom, with each teacher. It also provides each teacher an opportunity to engage with all students in their own space. Feedback, from staff and students, was very positive last week. Students were able to address different teachers by name, and shared with admin how exciting it was to meet a different teacher! Staff were excited to teach in a different space, and meet more of our students. If you heard any feedback, please share!

Thank you to everyone who has already completed and returned their welcome envelopes. There is so much important information contained in your responses, we appreciate you addressing these in a timely manner. For the online forms, we are required to review all of those. If/when you receive a call or email from Ms. Aab in the office please action her requests in a timely manner so we can ensure all our information is up to date. Thank you. You might have noticed that our annual volunteer forms are now also available online for legal guardians. If you have your police clearance, or are interested in starting the police clearance process, please complete this annual registration form online. If you have relatives who have clearance, who are not legal guardians, please complete the paper copy. It’s accessible through the general CBE website, or you can get a hard copy from our office. Thank you, we look forward to welcoming volunteers throughout the school year.

Swimming, grades 1-6 are swimming at Killarney pool starting Tuesday, September 24. Thank you to those who have already volunteered, if you are available to volunteer for more than “just” your child’s class please let the homeroom teachers know. We are in need of a lot of volunteers to make this opportunity happen. We have heard from families that they greatly appreciate school organizing swimming lessons, as it aligns with our PE&W (Phys Ed and Wellness) curriculum we are thankful to be able to offer this opportunity. It does require a lot of volunteer support to occur. Thank you.

Thank you to all parents who walk their children to school! There is very limited parking around our school. Please consider the safety of your children and all of our students when parking your vehicle. When you park too close to a stop sign, crosswalk or intersection it makes it difficult for your children to see oncoming vehicles thus endangering their safety. U-Turns are not allowed anywhere near our school as all interactions are controlled. Remember, the staff parking lot is not to be used for pick-up and drop-off of students. Residential permit parking is in place on several streets around the school. Please pay close attention to the posted signs. Wondering where you can park? Check out the map on the front door, or on our school website.

Get to know… Kindergarten and Grade 1 edition.

Ms. Katrina Weber – is our am and pm kindergarten teacher.
This is her third year at AFS. You will often find her with the kindergarten students outside learning on the land, fostering a connection with nature. Ms. Weber’s ability to establish clear routines and expectations provide all children with a foundation for a successful educational experience, in kindergarten and beyond. 

Ms. Rosanne Harder, Mrs. Morgan Warkentin, Ms. Willow Sosnoski – comprise our grades 1 and 2 teaching team. They work together to plan curriculum implementation, welcome your children each day, and provide a safe, welcoming, caring and respectful learning environment. We are so thankful for this strong team of educators who meet each child where they are at and move them forward to new heights.