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. We hope you are keeping well and making good progress in your learning and finding a rhythm to your school year with us.
Your academic advisor 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. We are starting with grade 12s, then 11s and 10s, to ensure our students planning to graduate this year are all set with required courses.
COURSE REMINDERS
This year it is essential students get started in all the courses on their 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 Note that students who have not submitted any work within 4 weeks of having the course on their dashboard risk being withdrawn and not getting that course for an extended period of time.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 your academic advisor 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 a minimum of 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 your advisor the new request. Be sure to include your 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.
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. EBUS will help our full-time students find a seat at 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 8. Registrations received after the December 8th 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 to 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 issued 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.
NEW STUDENT PRESENTATION RECORDING
On Sept 23 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 the most challenging 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
Welcome to grade 10 Teams meeting-20250923_110210-Meeting Recording.mp4
GRADE 10-12 ACADEMIC ADVISING DROP-IN
Got questions about school? Drop in between 1:30 and 2:30 on Tuesday, October 21st to meet with an academic advisor and ask your questions. Please note that this is not a presentation; it’s just time for students to drop in and ask questions about course selection, grad requirements, grad assessments, learning support funds, strategies for organization, planning and time management, and anything related to the grade 10-12 homeroom. We hope to see you there.
Access the drop-in on Tuesday, October 21st, between 1:30 and 2:30 P.M. here: Grade 10-12 Drop-In
POST-SECONDARY PLANNING PRESENTATION
Considering post-secondary school after you graduate from high school? On Wednesday, October 29th at 1:30 PM Pacific we will be hosting a presentation on preparing for and applying to post-secondary school.
We will also include some information on scholarships and will try our best to answer frequently asked questions. Feel free to send us questions and we will try to incorporate those questions in the presentation.
While the presentation will be geared towards grade 12 students, there may be information grade 11s will find valuable as well.
Access the presentation on Wednesday, October 29th at 1:30 PM here: Join the Post-Secondary Planning Presentation
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.
So….what about the Learning Support Funds?
These funds are currently provided by the Ministry of Education for full-time Distance Learning students to offset the costs of memberships and lessons tied to the student learning plan. An example of a membership would be a gym membership for a student to help get their activity hours in a PE course at EBUS. Note that the funds can be used for a gym membership even if you are not in PE; we want to encourage all of our students to be physically active as a positive lifestyle choice. If a student is in a Piano high school course with EBUS and wanted to have a few local lessons related to this EBUS course, these funds can be used for this as well. All the details about the funds, how they can be accessed, the plan needed to be approved and how businesses can become a vendor of School District 91, are found here https://ebus.ca/welcome-package/learning-support-funds/ Note students wanting to access the funds need to be 10% complete or more in 4 courses, the Ministry does not allow the funds to be used for tutoring costs for non-Special Education students. Plans need to be submitted by March 1 to meet Ministry deadlines. 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.
UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY
Each year EBUS awards one eligible grade 12 full time 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 December 1. More scholarship announcements will be found later in the school year in the homeroom.
UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES 2025-26
- Oct 24 Professional Development Day – EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- Nov 10 assembly
- Nov 11 Remembrance Day – EBUS closed, courses open to students
- Nov 21 Pro D Day – EBUS staff unavailable, courses open
- Nov 21 report card 1 guarantee date – all work handed in by this date will be assessed for the Dec 12 report cards
- Dec 11 assembly
- Dec 12 report cards available
- December 19 EBUS closes for winter break, teachers not available, courses open
- January 5 2026 EBUS reopens
- Jan 15 assembly
- Feb 6 Pro D
- Feb 12 assembly
- Feb 16 Family Day EBUS closed, courses open to students
- Feb 20 report card 2 guarantee date – all work handed in by this date will be assessed for the March 14 report cards
- Mar 12 assembly
- March 13 EBUS closes for Spring Break, staff unavailable, courses open
- March 14 report cards available
- March 30 EBUS reopens
- April 3-6 Easter Break – EBUS closed, courses open
- Apr 9 assembly
- Apr 24 Pro D
- May 5 summer session registration opens
- May 8 Pro D
- May 14 assembly
- May 18 Victoria Day
- June 18 assembly
- June 12 report card 3 guarantee dates
- June 24 report cards released
- June 26 school closes
You can find the full year school calendar at
- Note that Term end dates are guidelines for students to finish courses, if you do not finish by the December 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 from their academic advisor as they finish current courses.
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, and June. For summer session courses only, we have a report card in September.
And as we get asked this frequently, students who started courses in early Sept and plan to finish by the end of Semester one in January should now be approximately 40% complete. Students planning to finish by the June 15th deadline should be 20% 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
Keep well! The next newsletter will be November 7th.