November 2024

Happy Friday ESQE Families,

It was so great to see so many family members join us for our annual writing day! Now that we are heading into December (can you believe it?!), we have a lot on the go as we get closer to the holidays.

Please keep informed with class news and our weekly communications so you don't miss anything! We are looking forward to some fun events ahead!

An important reminder to our school community: We really need everyone to keep our parking lot and entrance safe. If we all do our part to drive as slow as possible, respect the parking areas and watch out for students coming and going, it helps keep everyone safe. Please keep in mind students are accessing multiple areas to come and go from our parking lot and we want them safe. We are urging our community to make this a priority.

Sincerely,

Sarah Hain

Upcoming Dates

Dec 3rd Elf Workshop (information below)
Dec 9th Hold and Secure Drill
Dec 10th 2:00pm Winter Concert Group A
Dec 10th 6:00pm Winter Concert Group B
Dec 11th 2:00pm Winter Concert Group B
Dec 11th 6:00pm Winter Concert Group A
Dec 13th PAC Soup Day
Def 17th PAC Meeting 6:30pm SQE Library
Dec 18th Primary Movie Day (k-3)
Dec 19th Intermediate Movie Day (4-6)
Dec 20th Last Day before winter break
Dec 23rd - Jan 3rd Winter Break - School Closed
Jan 6th first day back from winter

Elf Workshop - Everything families need to know!

Students will have the opportunity to buy 5, $1 gifts for their immediate family. We understand that every family makeup is different, therefore we ask you to set clear expectations with your child that we can only purchase a few gifts to ensure that everyone has a chance to buy something.
We ask that parents send a MAXIMUM of $5 to school prior to the event to be collected by classroom teachers. For example, if there are 2 additional family members in your household, you would only send $2.
We are asking parents to send written GIFT TAGS or LABELS with your child identifying whom they are purchasing gifts for. This will allow adult helps to support students.
We also recommend sending a reusable bag with your student to ease transportation of gifts home.
Should there be additional gifts left at the end of the day, students are welcome to come and make additional purchases. Cash for these items will be collected at that time.
Wanting To Volunteer? Email [email protected] or you can even drop off wrapping paper, tape, or bows!

Winter Concert!

This years SQE will be hosting a Winter Concert! With a variety of songs and skits!

Given the size of our school, we will be dividing the school into a group A and a group B. With each group having a performance on both December 10th and 11th. To ensure that all families are able to attend their child’s show, each group will do an afternoon (2:00pm) and an evening (6:00pm) performance.

Group A: Lapointe, Paquette, Sorensen, Eade, Keller, Lazar, Hackett, Castrillo, Crighton

Group B: Busschaert, Georgy-Embree, Goldman, Hryhirchuk, McQueen, Dion, West, Regnier, Ryan

For Evening performances please drop your students at the school by 5:30pm, I preparation for the 6:00pm start. Audience members are asked to stay for the entirety of the performances, students will remain with their teachers for the whole performance, and will be picked up at their classes at the END of the show.

We are asking that if you live close to the school to please walk to the performance as parking will be limited. If parking on site, please do not block any car, do not park in the round about or by the dumpsters at the side of the school. We appreciate your support taking it slow it the parking lot and walking if you can.

Merry Foodmas - Food drive

This is a reminder from our grade 5/6 leadership student that the Merry Foodmas Food drive is still on! The leadership students are hoping to collect 1000 non perishable food items to donate to Helping Hands. Please send non-perishable food times to school from now until December 15th.

Community Christmas Care - Donations Needed

Mr. Georgy-Embree’s class is putting together Christmas hampers for Community Christmas Care. They are still accepting donations of new toys, gift cards or cash donations. Please drop any items off any Mr. Georgy-Embrees class.

Sickness

Tis the season of cold and flu! If your child is sick, we ask that you keep them at home. This helps prevent the spread of germs to other students and staff. Please note that if your child is sent to school sick, we will be sending them home. We need to work together to keep our community healthy!

Lice

We encourage families to make a point of doing regular lice checks - lice knows know boundaries, and anyone can get it. Their presences is not a sign of poor hygiene, poor housekeeping, or low socioeconomic status. Although a nuisance, lice is not a medical concern. Please click HERE to access more information on ways to prevent, check, and treat lice.

Feeding Futures Program

Over the last few weeks our school has been piloting a "Feeding Futures" lunch program supported by the Ministry of Education and Childcare. This program is offered to everyone to provide nutritious lunch options. Orders are due Thursday at 12pm the week before lunch day.

Families can order through the munch-a-lunch website, similar to how you may have done for hot lunch days. Families will also have the option to "pay what you can" at check out.

Go to https://munchalunch.com/ to access your account.

Nov 18th - Professional Development Day

Our teachers explored a variety of topics during this months Professional Development day! We had teachers exploring the differentiation of literacy, participating in Stuart Shanker's -Save Haven Training, mindfulness, and declarative language!

Celebrating ESQE

Mr. Castrillo's class has been learning about owls this month, and even visited the local hatchery!

Ms. Keller & Ms. Stewarts' grade 4/5 class have been buddying up with Howe Sound Secondary students to learn about textiles!

Mme. Lazar's grade 1/2 class were busy playing games and using playdough to explore French vocabulary, and to learn about owls!

Mme. Paquette's class went on an adventure to Science World, learned about the brain, and spent some time outside showing off their grade 6 hoodies!

PAC Update

What an amazing Market! The Sea to Sky Artisan Market was a huge success. We couldn’t have been more proud of the Grade 5 & 6 student vendors for their hard work making unique pieces, and for their creativity and dedication to stay all day to sell them! It takes a lot of bravery to be a vendor, and we were thrilled to have so many of them step up to this incredible opportunity. The adult vendors loved having them, and the public enjoyed shopping and supporting their entrepreneurial debut!

Coming up!

Dec 10 & 11th Purdy’s Sales at the winter concert ‘
Dec 13th PAC Soup Day
Dec 17th PAC Meeting 6:30pm SQE Library