The second half of the school year is underway! 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 summer holidays and the end of the school year, 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.

I am 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 then will connect with the grades 11s and 10s.

REQUESTING NEW COURSES

As you finish a current course or are 80+% complete, full time students can email me with new course requests.  All grade 10, 11 and 12 courses are now open.  Be sure to put the full 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.  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 I can check the implications of that on your graduation status.  When eligible, request your courses as soon as possible, but the latest courses will be added this school year is March 1^st if there is space but recommend students have all courses added by mid-February. EBUS will run Summer session this year, registration will open the first week of May and I will have more info about that closer to the date. 

GRADUATION ASSESSMENT RESULTS

Students graduating under the 2018 or 2023 graduation program will need to complete a possible total of 3 assessments to meet graduation requirements; Literacy 10, Numeracy and Literacy 12.  These assessments must be written under the supervision of a teacher and are written generally in high schools across BC. 

Results for the assessment are generally released 2-3 months after the session and are accessible on the student transcript with the Ministry of Education website, the Student Secure Web.  To access your account, or set one up as a new student, check the homeroom on student dashboards and look for “Creating a Student Account with the Ministry of Education”

The next session EBUS will arrange for students is June 10-14 2024. EBUS can help you find a school close by for you to write in.  More information will be coming in the April and May newsletters.

You can get all the details at https://ebus.ca/welcome-package/grade-10-12-homeroomnews/graduation-assessments-provincial-exams/

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 scholarships and grad ceremonies at EBUS?

Every year EBUS has thousands 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 will be released in the homeroom and our website very soon, 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.

This year EBUS will be hosting at Van Deusen Gardens in Vancouver Saturday June 1 and Saturday June 22 in Kamloops.  If there is enough interest, we will host a ceremony Saturday May 25 in Vanderhoof, our hometown.  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.

MENTAL HEALTH MINUTE

Over the years we have collected a number of free online resources to help with mental health.  I encourage you to email me if you have a great free resource not listed here! 

Mental Health Resources

UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES

• February 9 Pro D – teachers unavailable, courses open
• February 19 Family Day – EBUS closed, courses open
• March 1 deadline to request new courses – sooner is better
• March 1 work submission deadline for term 2
• March 15 term 2 report cards published
• March 23 – April 7 Spring Break EBUS closed, teachers not available but courses open
• April 15 Grade 12 scholarship applications due
• April 26 Pro D – teachers unavailable, courses open
• First week of May summer session registration opens
• May 10 Pro D – teachers unavailable, courses open
• May 20 Victoria Day – EBUS closed, courses open
• May 25 tentative grad ceremony in Vanderhoof
• June 1 grad ceremony in Vancouver
• June 10-14 Graduation Assessment session
• June 14 year end work submission deadline
• June 22 grad ceremony in Kamloops
• June 28 EBUS closed for the school year

• Note that Term end dates are guidelines for students to finish courses, if you do not finish by the November or January 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.

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, and June and for summer session courses only, September.

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 22 students should be 15% complete.  Those working on a semester fashion just started.  And for students working in a linear fashion to complete by the June deadlines, they should be about 55% complete at this time. 

PHONE APPOINTMENTS

Currently I am 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 up as SD91 for School District 91.  EBUS Academy as also set up Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phone calls so I now have a phone number you can reach me at!  I am available at 1-250-567-4413 ext 7409.   Booking a phone appt is the easiest was to ensure you will reach me, but I will answer calls during the workday when available.  

Keep well, the next newsletter will be Friday February 16.