Welcome to November! Autumn has definitely descended across BC and as the first snowflakes fall, we wanted to connect with you about some important information.
As a full-time student high school student with EBUS, I will email 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. I am most of the way through our grade 12s and will begin soon on the 11s and 10s, in order to ensure our students planning to graduate this year are all set with required courses. Watch for this important email in the coming weeks if you have not already received one.
WELLNESS PROJECT NOVEMBER – PHYSICAL HEALTH
We are physical creatures, and as such we need to look after our bodies in a wide variety of ways. I recently discovered a wonderful scientist named Andrew Huberman who has social media accounts and a podcast, and he is big on physical well-being in a variety of ways. A few to high light are getting enough quality sleep every day or as often as possible, hydrating well, and eating a nutritious diet. A key to this is consistency well. Check his info out, and I encourage you this month to make your physical health a priority. Each month we have a new focus as found in the student day planner, if you would like a student day planner contact us at EBUSresources@sd91.bc.ca
REQUIRED GRADUATION ASSESSMENTS
Students graduating under the 2018 and 2023 graduation programs will need to complete a total of 3 assessments to meet graduation requirements; Literacy 10, Numeracy and Literacy 12. These assessments must be written in person under the supervision of a 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.
Students need to complete these only one time.
For students looking to write in the January session, EBUS can help you find a school close by for you to write in. You can register for that HERE between November 3 and December 18. Registrations received after the 18th will be accepted but we cannot guarantee to find a seat.
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, and 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 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.
REQUESTING COURSE CHANGES/NEW COURSES
For full time students wanting to change courses, please use the “drop course” button on your dashboard and email me your new request. Be sure to put the full student name and the specific course you are requesting, like English New Media 10. If you have courses on your dashboard, you should be handing in work in all of those courses regularly, or drop the course and we can add that later in the school year. The last day to request new courses is March 1.
PHONE APPOINTMENTS
For students and families looking to book an appointment with me, please visit https://tinyurl.com/yyrbnz7p and select the appropriate amount of time you need when you are available for my call.
WHAT ABOUT?
To ensure our full-time high school students have all the information about EBUS Academy needed to be successful, our website contains lots of information vital to student success. In this section of our bi-weekly newsletter, we will highlight some of the elements of EBUS that we get lots of questions about.
Sooo…what about the ends of Terms?
Ministry of Education policy requires high schools to formally report out to parents. At the end of each term, a report card is produced showing the progress in the high school course as a percentage complete, a grade shown as a percentage, and any comments regarding student learning. The term deadline of December 1 is set as a guarantee date – any work submitted before that date will be marked and included in the term 1 report card. Work can be submitted December 2 and beyond, and we strongly encourage students to keep working, but that work may not be on your term 1 report card, a snapshot of learning accomplished and assessed by December 1.
If a student has a self-determined deadline of December 1 to finish a course and does not finish by that date, they just continue on until finished, no penalties or late marks taken off, no need to ask for an extension before the year end June deadlines. The final course completion will show up on the next report card. So in the end, take Dory’s advice from Finding Nemo and just keep working…just keep working 😊
UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES
- Nov 9 Remembrance Day assembly link on dashboard
- Nov 10 Remembrance Day – EBUS closed, courses open to students
- Nov 24 Pro D – teachers unavailable, courses open
- Dec 1 work submission deadline – all work submitted on or before this date will be assessed for this report card
- Dec 14 school assembly
- Dec 15 report cards available on student dashboards and parent portal
- Dec 18 deadline to register for January 2024 grad assessments
- Dec 23-Jan 7 EBUS closed for Winter Break – teachers unavailable but courses open
- January 8 2024 EBUS opens
- January 15-26 grad assessment session
- January 19 date for students to aim to finish semester 1 courses and email request semester two courses
- February 9 Pro D – teachers unavailable, courses open
- March 1 work submission deadline
- March 15 report cards published
- 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.
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 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) in a quarterly fashion, meaning Nov 10, they should be about 95%+ complete today. For a planned finish by the middle of the school year or January 19, students should be about 50%+ complete. And for students working in a linear fashion to complete by the June 14th deadlines, they should be about 25%+ 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 November 17.