Hi everyone,

As the first full week of October begins, school start-up and helping new students apply to EBUS and get their courses underway is still the focus of staff.  We appreciate your patience as we work through all the expressions of interest and new applications.  As we get past the crest of these, we will email you each a credit check detailing your progress in the graduation program.  We will be starting with grade 12s, then 11s and 10s in order to ensure our students planning to graduate this year are all set with required courses.  This will also indicate if the student has written any of the 3 required graduation assessments, Literacy 10, Numeracy, and Literacy 12, and is meeting the Indigenous Focus grad requirement.  More details about how to register for these required graduation assessments will be available in the November newsletters. 

NEW STUDENT PRESENTATION RECORDING

On Sept 29 we held a Teams meeting for brand new students joining EBUS, or students who completed grade 9 at EBUS and are now in the high school program.  The jump from grade 9 into 10 is a very significant one for students, and we want to make sure students are successful in their high school education.  If you have questions, please contact your academic advisor

New students and grade 10 students presentation-20260929_103132-Meeting Recording.mp4

COURSE REQUESTS, CHANGES AND ACTIVE LEARNING

Due to the popularity of our programming, some courses are reaching capacity.  We expect to have space in the course in 6-8 weeks, and our priority is space for full-time students like yourself.  The best way to start a new course is to finish any of  your current courses, so making room for other students, and in turn they make room for your requests.

What this means is you need to get active in courses, set a course and assignment completion schedule and submit work daily.  If you need to be away from your studies for more than 2 weeks, it is your responsibility to email your teachers with your situation, and they will be happy to work with you.  Students who are inactive for more than 4 weeks risk being withdrawn and having to wait until a new seat frees up.  Any concerns please let us know. 

For full-time students wanting to change courses, please use the “drop course” button on your dashboard and email your academic advisor with 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. 

LEARNING SUPPORT FUNDS

For full time EBUS students, the ministry provides learning support funds for new courses you are currently active in.  The process of accessing these funds has changed so please be sure to read all the info on our website.  Detailed information on the funds, how many courses you need to be active in, what you can use the funds for and more, is available at http://ebus.ca/welcome-package/learning-support-funds/ We encourage you to read all the information on this.  Students who are actively working in 2 or more new courses (more than 10% complete in the curriculum) and have 4 courses on their dashboard, will be eligible for the funding for 3^rd party vendor invoices.  The intent of Learning support funds is to support the current year’s learning, so all support funds must be applied for before Spring Break. 

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 2023 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 in person under the supervision of a teacher and are written in high schools across BC a few times a year set by the Ministry of Education. 

Students need to complete each of these 3 only one time.

EBUS will help our full-time students find a seat at a local high school for the January and June sessions.  You can get all the details at https://ebus.ca/welcome-package/grade-10-12-homeroomnews/graduation-assessments-provincial-exams/

For students looking to write during the January 11-22 2027 session, EBUS can help you find a high school close by for you to write in.  Watch for more details to register in the November newsletters

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.

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 your academic advisor by November 30.  More scholarship announcements will be found later in the school year in the homeroom.

MENTAL HEALTH MINUTE

We want to encourage all students and families to set aside space and time regularly to take care of your health in all its aspects.  In this newsletter we want to focus on the connection and value of physical health and wellbeing with our mental health.  Regular, vigorous physical activity is consistently shown to have a positive influence on our mental health.  We work hard to schedule daily walks in our busy lives.  When we can get out for a good long walk we are the better for it.  Take the time and make it consistent, we think you will find it helpful.  There is growing evidence that walking first thing in the morning and getting sunlight on your eyes for 10-30 minutes will help you sleep better too.

As school start-up can be a stressful time, students may experience anxiety.  Everyone has moments of anxiety, and for some it is much more prominent in their lives and needs extra attention to manage.  Anxiety is a top 3 reason students come to EBUS, so if you struggle with it you are not alone.  We encourage you to actively seek out effective management strategies at https://www.anxietycanada.com/ or https://www.heretohelp.bc.ca/q-and-a/where-can-i-find-self-help-materials-for-anxiety Give it a try for this month and see how it benefits you.

UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES

• Oct 8 school wide assembly
• Oct 12 Thanksgiving – EBUS closed, courses open
• Oct 19 newsletter sent
• Oct 23 Professional Development Day – EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
• Nov 11 Remembrance Day – EBUS closed, courses open to students
• Nov 20 Pro D Day – EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
• Nov 30 UNBC scholar expression of interest deadline
• Dec 10 school wide assembly
• Nov 27 guarantee date for Dec 15 report cards – everything handed in on or before this date will be marked and reported on the Dec 15 report cards
• Dec 11 report cards available on student dashboards
• Dec 19 – Jan 3 EBUS closed for winter break
• Jan 4 2027 EBUS open
• Jan 14 school wide assembly
• Jan 22-29 semester turn around – students finishing courses in a semester fashion should aim to complete courses this week and contact your advisor to request new ones

You can find the full year school calendar at

District Calendar

• Note that Term end dates are guidelines for students to finish courses, if you do not finish by the term end dates you can continue with your studies without penalty.  New courses are not automatically added at the Term change, students need to request them as they finish current courses by early February.

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.

And as we get asked this frequently, 1/5^th 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 20% complete.  Students planning to finish by the June 11^th deadline should be 10% complete.

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-K) can be reached at lbaumann@sd91.bc.ca or book a phone appointment HERE

Chris (for students with last names L-Z) can be reached at cmushumanski@sd91.bc.ca or book a phone appointment HERE

We hope you get to enjoy the coming days of autumn with the beautiful fall colours.  The next newsletter will be Monday Oct 19.