We are past the halfway point in the school year! I hope you are all doing well and for many of you, students have finished the first semester courses and have requested the second semester courses or are past the halfway point in courses finished by June. With less than 5 months to go the summer holidays, its important for all students, parents and guardians to assess the progress made to date and make a plan for assignment and course completion for the remainder of the school year.
As we are past the halfway point in the school year, I will be updating student credit checks 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. I am working on the grade 12s and have a few left to do, and then will email the grades 11s and 10s to ensure our students have a clear picture of their educational plans and to help with course planning for the next school year if relevant. For students carrying on for the next school year these will be useful for course selections which will happen in May.
IMPORTANT – CHANGE TO OUR COURSE ACCESS IN JULY & AUGUST 2021
In previous years students adding courses now could continue past June and access their courses in July and August but without teacher supports. In the summer of 2021 and going forward, our regular school year computer servers will be down for annual maintenance. This means students who start courses from September to March in the school year will have no course access from the end of June until the beginning of the next school year. This will not affect our annual Summer session program as that will be run on a separate server. We encourage all students to finish their course work by the June 15 deadlines for a variety of reasons, but if necessary, students can continue into the fall with no penalty. Please note we cannot move students from “school year” courses to “summer session” courses due to ministry funding policies. Any questions or concerns, please contact your academic advisor.
REQUESTING NEW COURSES
By now students should have requested their new courses and be well underway in them to finish by June 15. Full time students can email me with new course requests. All grade 10, 11 and 12 courses are now open but they will be closing soon as courses get to capacity. I recommend emailing me no later than Wednesday Feb 24 to add a course. EBUS does run Summer session every year where students can take 1-2 courses with teacher supports in the summer, with a goal to finish by the end of August. Registration will open in early May at our website, www.ebus.ca
SCHOLARSHIPS FOR STUDENTS GRADUATING
Every year EBUS has up to $40 000 in scholarships and bursaries available for our full-time students who meet graduation requirements by June and the requirements listed in the scholarship booklet. The booklet was released in the homeroom and at https://ebus.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2020-2021-Scholarships-EBUS-final.pdf and the deadline to apply is April 15. Scholarship winners are announced at our grad ceremonies. We strongly recommend all students who will graduate by June apply for any scholarships they are interested in as we often have scholarships not applied for each year.
With COVID considerations this year EBUS will be hosting one online grad ceremony June 5, but in non-COVID years we host a ceremony the last Saturday in May in Vanderhoof, our hometown, and then at Van Deusen Gardens in Vancouver the first Saturday in June. To participate, students need to be approximately 75% complete all grad requirements by the end of April. Notices to all grade 12 students will go out in February. If you have questions, contact your academic advisor.
COURSE SELECTIONS FOR SEPTEMBER 2021
For students continuing into the 2021-22 school year, EBUS will be doing grade presentations and course selections the week of May 17. The presentation will go over graduation requirements, course selection considerations, thoughts on learning after high school and more. Watch for details announcing the specific grade presentation dates and process to select courses in MyEd in future newsletters.
For students considering leaving EBUS for the next school year, I recommend you contact the new school you are considering soon as they will be doing course selections much earlier, often in February or March. If you plan to leave EBUS at the end of June, please be sure to send you advisor a heads up so we can transfer your file, but we much prefer our students to continue with us, we think the world of all of you! For students continuing with EBUS the only thing you need to do is course selections in Spring.
UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES
- Friday Feb 26 Professional Development Day – EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- Spring Break March 22-April 5 – EBUS closed, courses open
- April 15 EBUS Scholarship application deadline
- April 19 Term 3 ends
- April 23 Professional Development Day – EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- Early May summer session registration opens at ebus.ca
- May 3 Term 3 report cards available
- May 14 Professional Development Day – EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- May 24 Victoria Day – EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- June 15 Term 4, Semester 2 and year end deadline
- June 28 report cards available
- June 29 EBUS closed for summer holidays all school year courses closed for summer
- Note that Term end dates are guidelines for students to finish courses, if you do not finish by the April term end date, continue with your studies without penalty and finish the course(s) as soon as possible. New courses are not automatically added at the Term change, students must request them as they finish current courses.
You can find the full year school calendar at
https://ebus.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/EBUS-2020-2021-School-Year-Calendar.pdf
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 5 times a year; November, January, March, June and for summer session courses only, September. As we get closer to the end of the school year it is vital that parents stay engaged with your student and monitor their progress to course completion. Remember with the self-paced element of our program teachers cannot see the reasons for student inactivity or have a good idea of the plan for assignment and course completion.
As I get asked this often, if your student plans to finish their course(s) in a quarterly fashion, meaning by the end of term 3 or on April 19 students should be 30% complete. Those working on a semester fashion should be about 15% complete. And for students working in a linear fashion to complete by the June deadlines, they should be about 60% complete at this time.
PHONE APPOINTMENTS
As COVID related changes were announced by the Province, I transitioned to working from home. To book a phone appt with me, use https://tinyurl.com/yyrbnz7p and select the appropriate amount of time you need when you are available for my call. My calls will show as “no caller ID” but I will call at the time you request.
Keep well, the next newsletter will be Friday March 5.
