The second half of the school year is underway! We 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.
Leal and I are 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. It is important parents and students review this snapshot to ensure you are on track for your goals this year.
REQUESTING NEW COURSES
As you finish a current course or are 80+% complete, fulltime students can email your advisor 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 this time in the school year. 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 your advisory know first so we can check the implications of that on your graduation status. When eligible, request your courses ideally no later than February 10th. If this timeline does not work you, contact your academic advisor very soon to discuss your options. EBUS will run Summer session this year, registration will open the first week of May and more info about that will come out closer to the date. We will know which courses are offered for summer session after April 25th.
GRADUATION ASSESSMENT RESULTS
Students graduating under the 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 6-8 weeks 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 2-13 2025. 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 on how to complete the required registration.
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 have questions about.
Sooo…what about scholarships and grad ceremonies at EBUS?
This year EBUS has scholarships available for our full-time students who meet graduation requirements by June 2025 along with meeting the requirements listed in our EBUS Academy scholarship booklet.
Students who are with EBUS prior to their graduation (grade 12) year and meet all grad requirements are eligible for all District Authority and EBUS scholarships. Students enrolled in EBUS during their Grade 12 year, and considered a full-time student by EBUS criteria are eligible to apply for all scholarships awarded by EBUS. Students must be enrolled full-time for the academic year; new students enrolled only in their final semester of Grade 12, whether taking a full course load (4 to 6 courses) in the second semester or not, are NOT considered eligible for EBUS scholarship awards but can apply for an EBUS District Authority scholarship award. The student must have completed a minimum of 4 EBUS high school courses during their entire grade 12 academic year.
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.
EBUS is planning to host a grad ceremony Saturday June 7 in Vancouver, and Saturday May 24 in Kamloops. If there is enough interest, a ceremony in our hometown of Vanderhoof will be planned as well for May 31st. To participate, students must register and also need to be approximately 75% complete all grad required courses by the end of April. Notices to all eligible grade 12 students will go out in February, so watch for this important email to register. 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!
2024-25 WELLNESS PROJECT FEBRUARY RELATIONSHIPS
We are hard wired for social connections, and this month we are highlighting relationships and how we communicate inside of those relationships. As funny as it sounds, silence is one way we communicate, and can be easily misunderstood. Think about the ways you communicate and use silence within those relationships. Now think about how easy it is for silence to be misinterpreted, leading to strain on your relationship. One of the easiest ways to improve your relationships is to talk about how silence shows up, how its is used, what it can mean, and how to effectively manage it.
Try it, and we hope you see that improving your socials connections!
UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES
- 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 11 Pro D DATE CHANGE – teachers unavailable, courses open
- April 18-21 Easter EBUS closed, 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 November or January term end date you can continue with your studies without penalty. New courses are not automatically added at the Term change, students must request them as they finish current courses.
- 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.
You can find the full year school calendar HERE
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 we 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 should be completed all courses started in September, and have just started 3-4 new courses. 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
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, the next newsletter will be Friday February 21.