As we are in the final days before Winter Break, we want to thank you all for choosing EBUS as your school this year. Many families are new but a number of you have been with us for years, and regardless of the time as a full time student here, we appreciate you all and the efforts you are making this year. We hope you all have a safe and restful holiday over the next two weeks and come back energized for learning in 2025.
EBUS will be closed from the end of the day Dec 20 and will reopen Monday January 6 2024. During this time, courses are open, but there are no teachers scheduled to work, set up tests, mark assignments or answer questions. Often after a holiday like this, teachers come back to a higher than normal email and marking load; we appreciate your patience as we try and catch up as quickly as possible after the break.
As a fulltime student with EBUS, your advisory emailed you each a credit check detailing your progress in the graduation program showing the courses and required assessments completed, courses you are registered in and what remains to be complete to meet graduation requirements. We will be updating these and sending to families, please be sure to review the document to ensure it is accurate.
As well, in January we will begin sharing information about scholarships and graduation for our grade 12 students.
REQUESTING NEW COURSES
As you finish a current course or are 80+% complete, fulltime students can email your advisor with new course requests. Be sure to put the student name and the specific course you are requesting, like English New Media 10 or Foundations Math 11. We do not automatically add new courses at the end of January for the beginning of semester 2. As students complete or drop courses they finish or are not interested in taking, that frees up a seat for another, so it is in all students’ interests to not have inactive courses on your dashboard and to finish courses as soon as you can. To drop a course, use the “drop course” button on your dashboard, but be sure to let me know first so we can check the implications of that on your graduation status. The latest courses should be added this school year is February 10, and students can contact their advisor if they are looking at adding a course after this date.
The term 2 end date is January 27 but if a student is not finished a course by that date, not a problem at all, keep working! There are no late marks or penalties to continue, and once finished, students can request new courses to finish by June 15.
WHAT ABOUT?
Lots of new things to being a fulltime online student. And often you only realize the questions you have after you’ve been in the learning trenches for a bit to then see the things you don’t know.
Sooo…what about my transcript?
All high school students should be familiar with their Ministry of Education transcript found HERE, the official record of high school courses successfully completed. This record only shows courses and grad assessments successfully completed; failed, incomplete or withdrawn courses are not recorded there.
Your transcript is created by the Ministry about 2 weeks after you finish your first grade 10, 11 or 12 course. EBUS sends marks to the ministry 2 times a week, so if you finish a course and disappears from your dashboard, it should show up on your transcript about 10 school days later.
As this is a Ministry of Education service, you will need to create an account called a BCeid, and then access your account. Instructions on how to do this are found in the homeroom on your dashboard under your appropriate grade. For students wondering if they wrote their required grad assessments, you will find that on your transcript as well. Grad assessment results show up 6-8 weeks after the assessment date.
We recommend students check their transcripts at least 1-2 times a year as there can be errors or courses missing. If you find something amiss, send your advisor an email and we will look into it.
MENTAL HEALTH MINUTE
Over the years we have collected a number of free online resources to help with mental health. We encourage you to email your advisor if you have a great free resource not listed here!
UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES
- Dec 15 report cards available on student dashboards and parent portal
- Dec 21-Jan 5 EBUS closed for Winter Break – teachers unavailable but courses open
- January 6 2025 EBUS opens
- January 9 school assembly
- January 13-24 grad assessment session
- January 24 date for students to aim to finish semester 1 courses and email request semester two courses
- February 7 Pro D – teachers unavailable, courses open
- February 10 – deadline to request semester two courses
- February 17 Family day – EBUS closed, courses open
- March 1 work submission deadline for report cards
- March 15 report cards published
- March 22 to April 6 Spring Break – EBUS closed, courses open
- April 18-21 Easter EBUS closed, courses open
- April 25 Pro D – teachers unavailable, courses open
- May 9 Pro D – teachers unavailable, courses open
- May 19 Victoria Day – EBUS closed, courses open
- May 24 Kamloops in person grad
- June 2-13 grad assessment session
- June 7 Vancouver in person grad
- June 13 work submission deadline for report cards
- June 27 report cards published
- June 27 EBUS closed for the school year, reopening September 2
- Note that Term end dates are guidelines for students to finish courses, if you do not finish by the term end date you can continue with your studies without penalty. New courses are not automatically added at the Term/Semester change, students must request them as they finish current courses.
- PARENT ACCESS
Parents, you can access your student’s progress and report cards on the EBUS parent portal: https://my.ebus.ca/parentportal/login.php We recommend parents log in with their student at least once a week to stay actively engaged in their learning and progress. Students, you can access your report cards from your dashboard, look for the A+ icon in the upper right-hand corner. Report cards are published 3 times a year; December, March, June and for summer session courses only, September.
As I get asked this often, if your student plans to finish their course(s) by the end of semester 1 on January 19, students should be about 90% complete. And for students working in a linear fashion to complete by the June 15 deadline, they should be about 50%+ complete at this time.
PHONE APPOINTMENTS
For students and families looking to connect with us by phone we are using an online system this year that is well received by our families.
Leal (for students with last names A-L) can be reached at lbaumann@sd91.bc.ca or book a phone appointment HERE
Chris (for students with last names M-Z) can be reached at cmushumanski@sd91.bc.ca or book a phone appointment HERE
Keep well, wishing you all a restful Winter Break, and the next newsletter will be Monday January 6 2025.