Tell Them From Me Survey

Beddington Heights School has partnered with Alberta Education and The Learning Bar (www.thelearningbar.com) to survey students in Grade 4, 5 & 6 at Beddington Heights School on their level of engagement in learning, their level of student wellness and the climate of their classroom(s) and school.

The Tell Them From Me (TTFM) survey was developed by internationally renowned educational researcher Dr. Douglas Willms and is based upon years of research in Canada and around the world. Gathering student feedback through this survey will support our school’s plans for continuous improvement.

Also included in the TTFM survey are Alberta Education’s Accountability Pillar Survey questions for students. As an annual check-up on the education system, Alberta Education conducts surveys of students to gather information on the quality of education provided by Alberta school authorities and their schools. The results are provided to school authorities to inform the development of their three-year education plans and annual education results reports, and are used to evaluate performance on Accountability Pillar survey measures.

Student participation in the survey was voluntary and completely anonymous. Students were assigned a random username and password so that survey responses could not be attributed to any individual student. Grade 4, 5 & 6 students at our school participated in this survey in January.  The survey was completed on-line and was completed within the school day during regular class time.

For further information on Alberta Education’s Accountability Pillar Surveys, please contact Keith Bowen, Director, System Assurance Branch, by email at keith.bowen@gov.ab.ca or by phone at 780-422-4750. Dial 310-000 first for toll-free access.

School Lockdown Practice - Thursday

 

 Re: Safety precautions at Beddington Heights School

 

The safety of all students and staff of Beddington Heights is of great importance. To that end, we have been working to establish appropriate safety measures for the various situations that may occur and affect our staff and students.

Fire drills are a long-standing expectation of everyone who congregates in a setting such as a school. We are required to have a minimum of six fire drills each school year. Our students and staff treat each drill as though it was the real thing and we are very proud of their performance during those drills. Teachers keep class lists with them during all drills and attendance is always taken. Parents or other visitors are expected to evacuate the building when the fire alarm is sounded.

It is a reflection of the changes in our society that we must add variations to our safety drills. We are going to practice a drill known as a “lockdown” on Tuesday, January 29, 2014 at 10:00 a.m.. The teachers will be instructing students regarding their role during a drill of this kind.  No one is allowed to enter or leave the building during a lockdown procedure.

Our staff will be providing students with the following directions for our lockdown drill:

-          There will be an announcement from the office to notify students and staff of internal lockdown

-          All students will come in to a classroom with a locked door

-          Staff and students wait quietly until the drill is over

 

As we continue to refine our school safety procedures, other safety precautions we now have in place include:

• Locking Exterior Doors, with the exception of the main door for office access
• Walkie-Talkies – have been purchased for communication when children are out in the school field
• A Fan Out Procedure – has been established to ensure clear and swift communication with parents in the event of an emergency.
• Visitors – are expected to register at the office
• Volunteers – must complete a security clearance and wear nametags at all times
• Substitute Teachers – are provided with emergency information upon entering the school.
• Teachers are trained in first aid and have thoroughly reviewed emergency plans with the children.

If you feel that your child might become anxious or nervous during this drill, please provide them with the reassurance that lockdown drills and fire drills are regular parts of increasing safety for students in all schools.  We appreciate your support in these very important matters. If you have any questions, please give me a call.

 

Yours truly,

 Brian Hebert

Principal

School Evacuation - Jan 5, 2015

Please be advised that we had an unscheduled fire drill this morning at Beddington Heights School. The alarm sounded at 11:10 a.m. and originated from the pull station by the upstairs boys’ washroom.  Due to weather conditions, we moved students to our evacuation location at St Bede School. Unfortunately this involved students travelling to the evacuation location without coats and outdoor shoes.   This was necessary as we were not aware of whether we were facing a real fire. 

This alarm was previously tested, and appeared to be fully operational in December of 2014. Should this have been a prolonged evacuation, teachers would have been contacting you using the student information that is contained in their emergency backpacks. If there are any changes to your emergency information please let us know as soon as possible.

It should be noted that students of Beddington Heights represented our school well while at St.Bede’s. They also observed fire drill protocol and exited the building in quick and efficient manner and it looks as if they have learned a lot from our previous drills. Due to the fact the drill happened during our lunch break we realize this may have caused some scheduling concerns for families.  We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

If you have any further question please feel free to contact us.

Dance Residency to begin Wednesday November 26th, 2014

The long awaited Dance Residency instructed by Pulse Dance Studios will begin Wednesday.  The residency is cross-curricular learning that will include Art, Music, Language Arts, and addresses the individual pursuits  and dance and movement strands of the Physical Education curriculum.  A number of artists will be in the school to work with students around all of these disciplines. Mr. Rattan, our music teacher, has been working with students to provide accompaniment through the use of the school musical instruments and through regular music class instruction.  The exciting outcome of this residency will be that the school will be divided into two performance teams that will present our Winter celebration on the evenings of Wednesday Dec 10th and Thurs Dec 11th . Both performances will begin at 6 p.m.

Parent council will be providing beverages and selling cookies and fundraising after the performance. Winter raffle tickets will be also be sold.  Parents should check the list below to determine when their child is performing. The list provided gives your child's teacher's name and the performance date:

Dec. 10th: P.M Kindergarten (Hay), Young, Gaspar, Binks, Laberee Lee, Sadowsky, Anderson, and Paschalis

Dec. 11th: A.M. Kindergarten (Hay and Fisher), Nelson, Brink, Grainger, Maher, Grant, Quon, Tam and Cheng.

We ask that during the residency, students are dressed in appropriate clothing that allows for ease of movement while still providing coverage. Appropriate shoe for dancing will also support student success.

We want to thank Parent Council and the Alberta Foundations for the arts for their support of this residency.  Without the financial support from these sources this residency would not be possible.

DURING THE PERFORMANCE

The level of performance by our school as a whole is expected to be of a high quality and we want to thank families that have made arrangements to attend the performance in its entirety. Our goal is to honour the work of the school and recognize the efforts of all our students here at Beddington Heights.

We will be providing a photo area for parents to use to record their child's performance. If parents wish to use their own camera's or recording devices, we ask that you use this area to avoid disruption of the performance.  Please note, that parents are only to record their own child as there are many children within the school who are unable to be recorded. We ask for your help in protecting the privacy of others in our school community.

So I guess it is time to start wishing you all Happy Holidays and along with your children we look forward to your attendance on Dec, 10th or 11th.

Beddington's Responsiveness to School and Community Safety

With the recent events that have taken place in Ottawa, and the power outages that have occurred this past September, we want to reassure all parents that student safety continues to be planned for proactively at Beddington Heights School, and throughout all CBE schools. "Emergency Response Plans" are revised annually, and are reviewed regularly with staff.  As well as being sent to Area Office, a copy of this document is also sent to Corporate Security downtown.  Fire drills and lockdowns are scheduled and practiced as we move to continually plan for student safety. In addition to lockdowns, we also work closely with our Occupational Health and Safety staff at CBE. This work is continually revisited with safety being a primary concern. We do our best to keep all students safe.

Beddington Heights - New Logo

Schools throughout CBE are given the opportunity to have their logos redesigned when a building is repainted.  Beddington has recently finished being painted, and we have had a new logo designed that reflects both the history of the school, as well as gives a fresh new design that is easily recognizable.   The Beluga tail has remained, but the pillars of care logo, which was no longer accurate (due to having the historical three pillars instead of four) has been replaced by the stylized letters "BHS".  The letters of the school name have given inspiration in the form of three new guiding verbs, which students will work towards. These will be combined  with the pillars of care (Care for Self, Others, Place and Learning) as students continue to develop character throughout their experience with us here at Beddington Heights.  "Believe, Honour and Strive" have been chosen to symbolize inspirational qualities we continue to value  Belief in self and others, honouring what has gone before and what is to come, and striving to be our very best personally and academically will be guiding virtues we will espouse as we move forward as a school community.  The new logo can be found on our webpage and it also found on the back wall of our gymnasium.  We encourage you to take a look.

Free Movie Day at Cineplex Sunridge Spectrum this Saturday!

On Saturday, October 18th, Cineplex is hosting a FREE community day with $2.00 concession items. 100% of proceeds will be going towards "Free the Children".  Please see the flyer below for more information on the movies that are playing and select show times.