Our first newsletter of the new year! I hope you had a safe and restful holiday and are energized for learning into 2023.
After a 2 week break 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 we are at 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 will be starting with the grade 12s and letting you know your status towards graduation, and then the grades 11s and 10s.
NEW – CONTACTING YOUR ADVISOR
Recently EBUS Academy has implemented a phone system based on the internet so you can phone your teacher regardless of their work station location. My phone number is now 250-567-4413 ext 7409. Feel free to call me anytime, and if I am available I will answer, but you can leave a detailed message as well. I still recommend booking a phone appt with me if you like, and that is still available here https://tinyurl.com/yyrbnz7p
REQUESTING NEW COURSES
As you finish a current course or are 80+% complete, full time students can email me with new course requests. 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 for the beginning of Term 3. 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. The latest courses should be added this school year is March 1 2023 but recommend students have all courses added by mid-February.
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 by March 1 to finish by June 15.
IMPORTANT – REQUIRED GRADUATION ASSESSMENTS
Students graduating under the 2018 graduation program will need to complete a total of 3 assessments to meet graduation requirements; Literacy 10, Numeracy and Literacy 12. These assessments must be written under the supervision of a certified teacher and are written in high schools across BC. EBUS will help our fulltime students find a seat a local high school for the January and June sessions. EBUS will help our fulltime students find a seat a local high school for the January and June sessions.
Students need to complete these one time only.
The deadline to register was December 15, but we can consider late requests until January 13 but make no promises a seat will be found in time. You can register for that at www.ebusgradassessment.weebly.com
You can get all the details at https://ebus.ca/welcome-package/grade-10-12-homeroomnews/graduation-assessments-provincial-exams/
For students looking at post-secondary education, UBC requires students applying there must score a 3 or better on the Literacy 12 assessment, with no requirements for the Literacy 10 or Numeracy. Currently other colleges and universities have not indicated the Literacy 12 result will be used as part of their admissions requirements, but students are responsible to research their future college or university to ensure you meet all admissions requirements.
For the required graduation numeracy and literacy assessments, all BC students will need government issue photo ID. A drivers license, BCID card or a public school ID card will qualify. If you need a school ID card please send a current colour photo to ebusresources@sd91.bc.ca well in advance of your assessment date.
We appreciate that COVID will be a big factor in both student comfort in writing during the set sessions and also schools welcoming our fulltime students into their cohorts. Our guidance at this time is to register for the session you plan to write in, and we will work with our students, partner schools and the Ministry of Education to deal with this grad requirement safely. It is not a requirement for grade 10 or 11 students who are concerned to write this year, and for grade 12 students, if the January session cannot work, there is another in June.
WHAT ABOUT?
Lots of new things to being a full time 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 a grad ceremony at EBUS?
This 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 our EBUS Academy scholarship booklet. The booklet is released in the homeroom and our website by early February, 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 is planning to host grad ceremony Saturday June 3, and have booked Van Deusen Gardens near Vancouver at this time. In non-COVID years we host a ceremony the last Saturday in May in Vanderhoof, our hometown as well. To participate students need to be approximately 75% complete all grad required courses by the end of April. Notices to all grade 12 students will go out in February, so watch for a future email. 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!
UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES
- Tuesday Jan 12 10:30am school assembly – link on student dashboards
- Jan 23-27 required grad assessment session
- Jan 27 end of Term 2 – all work handed in on or before will be marked for report cards
- Thursday Feb 9 school assembly 10:30am link on your dashboard
- Friday Feb 10 Term Two report cards available
- Friday Feb 10 Professional Development Day – EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- Monday Feb 20 Family Day – EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- March 1 deadline to request courses for this school year
- SPRING BREAK March 20-March 31 EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- April 7-10 Easter Break EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- April 13 school assembly 11AM – link on your dashboard
- April 15 EBUS Scholarship application deadline
- April 20 end of Term 3 – all work handed in on or before will be marked for report cards
- 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 at
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 I get asked this often, if your student plans to finish their course(s) in a quarterly fashion, meaning by the end of term 2 or by the end of semester 1 on January 27, students should be nearly 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
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 January 20.