From the Principal
Ever wondered how you could make $250 an hour?
Now that I’ve got your attention, I’d like those of you in grade 11 and 12 to be looking at our scholarship opportunities as each of our scholarship pays out $500 and will likely take you a couple of hours to complete. The general categories are Trades/Technology, Arts/Humanities and Academics. For more details, please check out the secondary/scholarship portion of our website (due date is April 15).
Report cards demonstrated that many of you are doing well and sticking to your completion rate timelines. For those of you falling behind, please remember that it is never too late to get busy and start submitting. We pride ourselves on supporting students in a variety of challenging learning situations so please, pick up the phone and give us a call. We have the following professionals ready and willing to help: clerical, tech support, administration, academic advisors, homeroom teachers and special education teachers.
Exciting News
Apprenticeship programs for Auto Technician and Collision Repair soon to be offered by SCIDES.
We are in the final stages of building an articulation agreement with an accredited trades college. Students who register with SCIDES in Auto Tech 11 will be eligible for Secondary School Apprenticeship and have the opportunity to ladder into an apprenticeship program. Stay tuned for more breaking news in our next issue of the ‘ focus’.
Graduation
Mark it on your calendar!
Our Graduation Ceremony will be held at the historic Quilchena Hotel, Friday June 5th. Please contact our grade 12 homeroom teacher, Al Rasmussen, for details.
Earth Science 11
SCIDES is pleased to offer this course as of March 2009. Please visit our web site to see the complete course outline. This could be your next science course!
Virtual School Society Conference:
We are presenting at the VSS conference in April. One of the themes at this years’ provincial conference is collaboration and sharing. We are pleased to be able to present with our two sister schools, North Coast and Fort St. John, our model for grade 8 & 9 students. Students from each of the three schools have had the opportunity to come together for live virtual classes for Social Studies, Math, English, Science and HACE. Reportedly, students have enjoyed their time together and have found their courses much more engaging. They have had a lot of fun making new friendships from around the province.
Daily Physical Activity
Sometime early in November, all students were sent information about DPA. All students must report their daily physical activity to their homeroom teacher. Students in grades K – 9 must document 30 minutes a day. Students in grades 10 – 12 must document a minimum of 150 minutes per week. Recording calendars are available from our website: www.scides.com. Go to the Student Area to access our DPA material. Secondary students also have the choice of using a DPA tracker from the LearnNowBC site: www.learnnowbc.ca
Daily Physical Activity is a requirement of graduation.
Provincial Exams
Provincial exams are offered at the following times:
April 16 – 17 (paper and electronic exams)
May 19 – 20 (electronic exams only)
June 17 – 25 (paper and electronic exams)
Please contact your homeroom teacher for course specific information. Remember, it is your responsibility to let us know when you are ready to register for the exam. You must write the exams at a secondary school in your community or contact us for other possibilities.
News from our Parent Advisory Council
PAC President: Sarah Watters
I am writing to you today to invite you to become involved in the SCIDES Parent Advisory Council (PAC). All parents and guardians (as defined in the School Act) of students registered at SCIDES are eligible to attend. We meet once a month via teleconference. The next meeting is Monday, April 6th at 7:00 p.m. Contact Al Mackay-Smith (Principal) for teleconference details.
The Parent Advisory Council’s primary mandate is to promote effective communication between home and school. At the meetings we have a chance to hear about what’s new at SCIDES - often this includes a discussion on new and upcoming technology that our children have an opportunity to work with. We are also exploring the idea of creating a parent information site to provide a sharing forum.
As a parent new to the distance education format (my youngest is working on grade 9) I am realizing the importance of timely and meaningful communication and support from the SCIDES community. As the PAC President I hope to encourage more people to add their voice and experiences to the SCIDES PAC.
Please stay tuned for details on a “blog” that will allow parents an opportunity share thoughts and ideas.
