Halfway through October already?! For those who don’t know Vanderhoof well, we are a major stopover for geese flying south, and certainly our skies, fields and waterways have been active of late with these boisterous visitors. Hope you are keeping well and making good progress in your learning and finding a rhythm to your school year with us.
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 currently and what remains to be complete to meet graduation requirements. I am starting with grade 12s, then 11s and 10s, to ensure our students planning to graduate this year are all set with required courses. Currently I have completed approximately 20% of the grade 12s.
PHONE APPOINTMENTS
For students and families looking to connect with me by phone we are using a new system this year that is well received by our families. Please visit https://tinyurl.com/yyrbnz7p to book that, and select the appropriate amount of time you need when you are available for my call. As I am working from home, my call will show up as “no caller ID.”
COURSE REMINDERS
This year it is essential students get started in all the courses on your dashboard given the volume of new students we are welcoming this year. Note that students who have not submitted any work within 4 weeks of having the course on your dashboard risk being withdrawn and not getting that course for an extended period of time. If you need help with something reach out to the teacher right away, or if you need to make a course change, let me know. Our goal is not to stress students out with this information; we want to support each one of you with your goals of learning and high school graduation. At the same time we want to provide learning opportunities for as many learners as we can this year, so please make sure we know what we can do for you. As a guideline, students working in 4 or more courses should plan for 25 hours each week for learning time, scheduled flexibly when it works for you. Your teachers are available during the traditional school day by email or phone, and we work hard to respond to student questions within 1-2 school days, but note if your teacher works part time, it may take longer to respond.
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. Courses will only be added if the student is dropping one or is substantially complete in a current course.
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 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. Literacy 12 is a new required assessment starting this school year. These assessments must be written 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. There will be announcements in the homeroom, on our website and in these newsletters about registering for the assessments, and you can get all the details at https://ebus.ca/welcome-package/grade-10-12-homeroomnews/graduation-assessments-provincial-exams/
In the November 5 and 19th newsletters there will be specific instructions for how students can register to write in the January assessment session. It is the student responsibility to register for these assessments as directed.
UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY
Each year EBUS awards one eligible grade 12 student the prestigious UNBC scholar award. This $20, 000 scholarship is based on the academic results from the student’s grade 11 year. If you are interested in knowing more about this scholarship, or would like to be considered for it, please email me asap, the deadline was Oct 15. More scholarship announcements will be found later in the school year in the homeroom.
UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES
- Friday Oct 22 Professional Development Day – EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- Wednesday Nov 10 school assembly 10:30am on TEAMS
- Thursday Nov 11 Remembrance Day – EBUS closed, courses open to students
- Friday Nov 12 Term 1 ends, report cards available Nov 25
- Friday Nov 26 Professional Development Day – EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- Tuesday Dec 7 Grade 10-12 assembly 11AM
- WINTER BREAK Dec 20 – Jan 3 – EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- Tuesday Jan 11 10:30am assembly
- Jan 24-28 Literacy 10, Numeracy and Literacy 12 assessment writing
- Friday January 28 Term 2 ends
- Tuesday Feb 8 school assembly 10:30am
- Thursday Feb 10 report cards available
- March 1 deadline to request courses for this 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 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 5 times a year; November, January, March, June and for summer session courses only, September.
And as I get asked this frequently, 1/4th of the time for semester one has passed. Students who started courses in early Sept and plan to finish by the end of Semester one in January should be approximately 25% complete. Students planning to finish by the June 15th deadline should be 15% complete.
If there are ideas for the newsletter you would like to suggest please email me those to cmushumanski@sd91.bc.ca
Keep well, the next newsletter will be November 5th.