Principal’s Post – October 13th 2015
Upcoming Events & Activities
Wednesday, Oct 14th – Photo Retakes in the Library (am)
Thursday, Oct 15th – Great Canadian Shake Out Drill 10:15am, PE 10 Kayaking Field trip in Deep Cove
Tuesday, Oct 20th – Celebrating Student Success Luncheon, acknowledging 2014 – 2015 student achievement
Friday, Oct 23rd – NID Students not in Session
Monday, Oct 26th – PAC Meeting @ 7:00pm, new members always welcome
Thursday, Nov 5th – Student Led Conferences 1:00 – 4:00pm, 5:30 – 7:30pm by appointment only
Wednesday, Nov 25th – Social Media & Awareness Education School Assembly – Jesse Miller
New Staff to Westview
We extend a warm welcome to Mr. G. Stevens and Mrs. T. Short to the Wildcat community. With the blocks created by the increase in staffing, Mr. Stevens joins the Science/Mathematics department and Mrs. Short will be working with the English/Social Studies team.
BC Lions Skills for Life Summit 2015
The BC Lions Skills for Life Summit will bring together middle school students from each school district across BC to participate in a two-day event hosted by the BC Lions. Participating students and chaperones will experience the beautiful city of Vancouver and attend the BC Lions’ November 7th home game versus the Calgary Stampeders, complete with a VIP sideline experience just before the game. On the following day, the participants will experience a series of workshop activities and discussions, stimulating their thinking about careers in demand in their region, how to speak out against bullying and violence against women, and how to make positive choices in their lives. BC Lions players and alumni will join the students through a series of team building activities, so they can learn first hand how important teamwork is in achieving success.
Congratulations to both Kieran Smith-Wareing and Zach Mayer-Buss, who have been selected to participate in the Summit. Both boys were excited to hear that they are participating in the event and we trust they will have an incredible experience. Thank you to Ms. Laidlaw for giving up her weekend to participate and supervise the two boys.
Student Led Conferences (Parent, Student, & Teacher Conferences) – Thursday, November 5th, 1:00pm – 4:00pm, 5:30 – 7:30pm by appointment only
Week five is behind us and students and staff are settling in to the regular routines of the school year. The teaching and learning process is well under way and, as I wander in and out of classrooms, I’m impressed with the level of student engagement. Currently, teachers are building positive working relationships with students and familiarizing themselves with their students’ strengths and abilities. Providing parents with meaningful feedback is important to staff and we hope to see you at this important event and look forward to meeting you.
Student Led Conferences at Westview Secondary School are pre-booked appointments. Notification will be sent when the booking sessions open.
We will be using an online sign-up system called PTC Fast. The login process has two parts. Parents will be required to click a link to request conferences, and the system will send them an email a few minutes later allowing them to pick the most convenient times available.
Closer to the date a schedule/reminder will be sent to your e-mail address.
This is the link you need to click:
https://www.ptcfast.com/schools/Westview_Secondary
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions:
- Why five minute appointments?
Feedback from other schools indicates that five minutes is sufficient for most purposes and creates enough time slots for teachers to connect with as many parents as possible. Bear in mind that most teachers have about 225 students.
- What if I cannot get an appointment?
Teachers remain committed to connecting with parents as a part of the Student Led conference process. Please feel free to e-mail teachers and ask for an update on your son or daughter. Please do not drop in without an appointment, this leads to genuine inconvenience for other participants.
- What if I don’t have internet access?
Please call the school at 604-467-3481 and we will assist you.
Tips for a successful Student Led Conference:
- It is a Student led conference. Bring your student, and expect him/her lead the conversation.
- Prepare specific questions for each Teacher / Subject in advance.
- Please support a 5- minute time limit to meet with each teacher. This allows for all parents and students to meet with teachers within the allotted time frames.
- Should you require additional time, please arrange a mutually convenient time for you and the teacher to meet.
- Ensure the teacher has your correct contact information such as e-mail or preferred phone number.
- Ask about teacher websites or additional contact plans.
- Follow up with your child after the conference.
- Teacher e-mail addresses are listed on the school webpage, and follow the format “firstinitiallastname@sd42.ca”
Social Justice Conference 2015
Westview Secondary is thrilled to host this year’s social justice conference – From the Personal to the Universal: The Cost of Conflict. Thanks to the generous support of our district, we have lined up three exceptional keynote speakers on the timely theme of conflict: Dr. Samantha Nutt, founder of WarChild and international humanitarian, Retired Sgt. Debbie Bodkin, war crimes investigator for the United Nations, and Dallas Yellowfly, Aboriginal speaker and storyteller. We have also planned a number of engaging workshops for students and teachers on a wide variety of Social Justice topics; Humanitarian Action in the Face of Violence: A Red Cross Program, Understanding Impact: What does it mean to ‘do no harm’?, Focus Rwanda, Cyril’s Story, Climate Justice, Migrant Justice, Out in Schools, Tomorrow Your Friend Will Die: A Case Study about Responding to a Threat to Human Rights at the micro-level in Angola, West Africa, Walking the Tightrope: the United Nations in Iraq from Saddam Hussein to the Islamic State, and The Stories Behind Homelessness.
Thank-you to Ms. Zagar from Westview and Ms. Godfrey from THSS for bringing this conference to our district.
Social Media & Awareness Education November 25th, 2015 – Presentation to WSS Students by Jesse Miller
Social Media Safety and Awareness Education
Jesse Miller is a national speaker who has addressed thousands of participants over the past three years. Presenting and consulting to schools and companies across Canada since 2007, he is in high demand as a keynote speaker on the topics of social media awareness, social networking behaviour and online content evaluation. Jesse drives the majority of his business from social media awareness based presentations to schools and non-profit groups who seek to facilitate change for youth online. His awareness programs in 2010/2011 delivered to schools in the province of British Columbia reached over 150,000 students.
Using behaviour changing presentation techniques, Jesse demonstrates his ability to motivate his audience to evaluate their online profiles and how to assess privacy and connectivity issues. As a public safety innovator, Jesse combines a diverse background in community policing, volunteer management, behaviour analysis and social media connectivity to develop unique presentations and awareness based solutions for his clients. The approach designed around multimedia awareness campaigns delivers a measured response to an audience who previously had no idea of their vulnerabilities when participating in online environments.
Jesse is a trusted resource to numerous school districts in British Columbia who use his expertise to address issues that occur in school hallways and through social media requiring online evaluation and investigation. Jesse uses this skill set to benefit companies who need evaluation of their social media footprint and current connectivity to clients. He has been featured in numerous publications and articles as an authority on the topics of Internet safety, social media, and mobile application based technology.
Like to know more click on link: http://speakerpedia.com/speakers/jesse-miller
Celebrating WSS Student Success 2014 -2015
Next week, Westview will recognize our subject award recipients and top academic students at each grade level for the 2014 – 2015 school year. Mr. Stanley and Ms. GieSinger along with some of the Westview staff will honour these students at a celebratory lunch on October 20th. We look forward to the event and encourage you to view photos of the event on the website and/or our twitter feed.
Auto Dialer & Attendance 2015 – 2016
Auto Dialer is a message system that automatically sends messages home to parents when students have un-excused absences. With the implementation of MyEdBC, the new BC Ministry student information system, there have been technical challenges inter-connecting MyEdBC with the Auto Dialer. School District staff are working to resolve the issue.
Parents, we ask that you please notify the school if your child is not going to be in attendance. Attendance is recorded in each class if students are absent without prior notification, the Westview auto-dialer (currently out of commission) will phone your home and advise that your child was absent without permission.
Please note that due to Health & Safety Regulations, should students have an appointment or need to leave the building during instructional time, they MUST go to the main office to sign out of the building when they leave and sign in when they return. When a student signs out of the building, they MUST present the office staff with confirmation (e.g. note, phone call) from a parent/guardian granting permission to leave.
Stay Connected to Westview Secondary
As part of our commitment to make our communications digital and, thus more eco-friendly, we no longer send home paper newsletters or notifications. We will keep you up-to-date with news and happenings around the school through our school website (wss.sd42.ca), our twitter account (@WSSsd42), the SD42 Parent Portal (parents.sd42.ca) and our WSS App that provides parents with the entire school calendar of events.
WSS App
An app for parents to access to a full year calendar of activities and events, simply download for free from you App store by searching for “Westview Secondary”.
This app serves as an agenda for students. It is simple to use and allows students to personalize settings. Students will be able to; add classes and colour code them; record homework, view personal calendars monthly, weekly or by day layouts; add events for morning, lunch or after school activities such as sports, fine arts, study groups and so forth. It also has a push notification system capable of sending reminders to upcoming school activities and events.
