Hi everyone,
As the first week of October wraps up, school start-up and helping new students apply to EBUS and get their courses underway is still our focus and the focus of our 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 a future newsletter.
COURSE REQUESTS AND ACTIVE LEARNING
Due to the popularity of our programming, some courses are reaching capacity. Currently, Physics 11 is closed for new registrations. We expect to have space in the course in 6-8 weeks, and our priority is space for full-time students like yourself. If you are looking to take Physics 11 this year, please email your academic advisor and we will get you on the wait list.
What this means is you need to get active in courses, submit work each week and complete it in a timely manner. 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 Students who are inactive for more than 4 weeks risk being withdrawn and having to wait until a new seat frees up.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 me know.
REQUESTING COURSE CHANGES
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.
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.
Students need to complete these only one time.
EBUS will help our fulltime 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 13-24 session, EBUS can help you find a school close by for you to write in. Watch for more details to come in the November 1 newsletter
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…having a 5 year old dog is Chris’ motivator, and even Leal’s 13 year-old dog still looks forward to her daily walk. 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.
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. I 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 10 school assembly – link on EBUS dashboard
- Oct 14 Thanksgiving – EBUS closed, courses open
- Oct 25 Professional Development Day – EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- Nov 1 details about the January 2025 grad assessments available
- Nov 8 Remembrance Day assembly link on dashboard
- Nov 11 Remembrance Day – EBUS closed, courses open to students
- Nov 22 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 7 deadline to register for the January assessment session
- Dec 12 school assembly
- Dec 15 report cards available on student dashboards and parent portal
- Dec 21-Jan 5 EBUS closed for Winter Break – teachers unavailable but courses open
- January 6 2025 EBUS opens
- January 9 school assembly
- January 13-24 grad assessment session
- January 15 date for students to aim to finish semester 1 courses and email request semester two courses
- 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
- March 15 report cards published
- March 22 to April 6 Spring Break – EBUS closed, courses open
- April 18-21 Easter EBUS closed, courses open
- April 25 Pro D – teachers unavailable, 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
- 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 need to request them as they finish current courses by March 1.
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 I get asked this frequently, 1/5th 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 14th 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-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
We hope you get to enjoy the coming days of autumn. The next newsletter will be Friday, Oct 18.