June 2025 Principal’s Message

It is so hard to believe that we are already writing the June newsletter, and that this 2024/2025 school year is coming to an end! Time has flown! As we finish our year, let’s take a few minutes to celebrate our work together and our many accomplishments.

First, I would like to congratulate STUDENTS. We are very proud of the academic progress and personal growth that each and every one of our students has made. Each student has demonstrated growth as a reader, writer and mathematician, and they have all learned so much about themselves as learners. Student learning and growth has been visible across the school – posters, class presentations, research projects, artifacts, learning journals, artwork, writing samples, conversations, student council, leadership – and students have been actively engaged in reflecting on and assessing their own learning and work in all grades. We are seeing students taking ownership and responsibility for their learning as they set different goals that they wanted to work towards, collaborated with peers, and shared their projects and learning. We have been working with students around empathy and kindness, taking responsibility for their actions, trying to work through problems with their peers, and asking for help when needed. Please take a few moments to talk with your child about their academic progress, as well as the ways in which they have helped shape our school community through their resilience, positive work and respectful actions. All we can ask as teachers is that our students show up each day to work hard, try their best, take risks in learning, challenge themselves, and be kind, and Radisson Park students do just this! Students, thank you for showing us each day that you are RESILIENT, RESPECTFUL, REMARKABLE!

Second I would like to congratulate our STAFF on another incredible year as our talented and dedicated staff worked collaboratively together each day to provide the best learning opportunities for our students and challenged them to achieve the high expectations set for them. Every staff member plays a role in making Radisson Park School the safe and caring school it is, where we all feel comfortable challenging and pushing ourselves. Staff have been excellent role models for students, demonstrating resilience and a commitment and openness to learning with and from each other as we continue our own learning journeys and build our practice. To all staff, thank you for demonstrating each day your dedication to doing WHATEVER IT TAKES to design opportunities for students to learn and grow with confidence, to take that next step in learning with the knowledge that you will catch them if they fall, and to achieve and celebrate personal growth and success!

Third I would like to celebrate our PARENTS AND FAMILIES. You are truly our partners in learning, and students are most successful when families and school staff work together to achieve high academic and behavioral expectations for students. All staff members at the school feel very supported by the families of our students, and your commitment to supporting all of our processes and expectations, attending Learning Conversations, volunteering when possible, and truly being partners in education. THANK YOU for your support!

Next I would like to thank our SCHOOL COUNCIL/PARENT ASSOCIATION VOLUNTEERS. Again this year I would like to recognize the amazing efforts of our wonderful School Council members. This group of parents has done a tremendous amount of work on behalf of all parents, staff and students, and we thank them for their support and collaboration. It is through this amazing work, guidance and fundraising efforts of the School Council members that the school is able to access additional resources, bring in performances, provide field trip opportunities for all students at no additional cost to families, and super excitedly, this year replace a large number of our student laptops! Please remember that all parents are members of the School Council and are invited to join our monthly conversations whenever possible. We hope to see you at Council meetings next year!

Finally, I would like to thank our COMMUNITY PARTNERS who have also helped provide a variety of opportunities and supports to Radisson Park School. Thank you to our partners:

• ISSP, MASST, and Calgary Police Youth Foundation
• Hope Mission
• Grace Baptist Church and the CASP folks
• Our community daycares and staff
• Brown Bagging for Kids and Meals on Wheels for supporting our lunch program
• Our teams of specialists – Speech Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, counselors, psychologists …

BIKES AT SCHOOL

Although we are very excited that students are interested in riding their bikes to school, it is important to remember the following school rules about bikes:

• Children under the age of 18 are required by law to wear a helmet when riding a bike.
• Bikes are NOT to be ridden on school property (compound, playground/field).
• Bikes must be locked carefully on the bike racks outside. (We recommend that students use the bike racks closest to the front door of the school.) The school is not able to store bikes inside, and we are not liable if bikes get broken or lost.

BEFORE & AFTER SCHOOL

Just a reminder that teacher supervision begins at 8:05 am on school days, and students should not be coming to school before this time, unless they are coming to the Breakfast Program. Speaking of the breakfast program, any students who are arriving at school before 8:05 am should be coming into the school for breakfast, and actually having breakfast with us. BREAKFAST PROGRAM IS NOT A DROP-OFF SUPERVISION AND ANY STUDENTS ATTENDING NEED TO BE EATING SOMETHING FROM OUR BREAKFAST CHOICES.

Please also know that there is NO SUPERVISION on the playground after school and we insist that students go home and check in with you before playing on the playground unless you pick them up from school. Thank you for supporting these important safety piece and developing responsible habits.

PLANNING AND PROGRAMMING FOR THE FALL

Our school is anticipating enrollment about 385 students for the 2024-2025 school year, from full day Kindergarten to Grade 6! Please know that grade teams will continue to work closely together to plan learning opportunities, share tasks and assessment expectations, and regroup students to provide increased chances for small group student support. As we have always done, this means that children may work with different teachers and students from their grade team classrooms at times. Radisson Park School remains committed to providing students with daily focused literacy and numeracy instruction, providing opportunities for cross-curricular project work where students can apply these skills in different ways, and teaching of the social-emotional learning program PAThS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Skills). As well, staff will continue to examine how we can continue to learn with and from each other as we commit to our professional learning together, especially as we work to better understand and successfully implement the new Social Studies curriculum, as well as our ongoing work to build strengthen our school community.

At this time, we are still in the process of staffing for the fall, and we may have staff leaving/joining our school for the new school year. Please watch for the announcement of any staffing changes and updates in our short year-end newsletter.

NEXT YEAR INFORMATION

Thank you, too, to all families who are contacting us with information regarding plans for next year. Knowing students who are moving from or staying at Radisson Park at this time helps us with our planning for the fall. Each year we gather this information so that we can make informed budget decisions and allocate staff as best we can. Please talk with your

child’s teacher or simply jot a note in your child’s agenda or communication folder letting us know if you will be living in our area and staying at Radisson Park in the fall, or if you have moved or are planning to move over the summer. You can leave a message about this on the school phone during the summer if you move, etc.

Also, if you know of any families who have moved into our area or who have kindergarten-aged children, please encourage them to register as soon as possible as this also helps us with our planning. We are happy to hear that we will once again have full day kindergarten for the 2025/2026 school year! As always, we will only be accepting and keeping student registrations for families living within our designated boundaries, especially with growing enrolment numbers! Thank you!

Although staff will meet to discuss class placement for all students at the end of the year in an effort to start the work of creating balanced class lists for the fall, these lists will be reviewed in August as new students register. This will result in some shifting of students and classrooms before the first day of school. Therefore, class lists will not be confirmed until the end of August. Teachers will be calling to introduce themselves and talk about the first day of school (where to meet, etc).

NEXT YEAR SCHOOL HOURS

In April all families should have received communication from the CBE about changes to school bell times across the system. For the 2025-2026 school year, the CBE will be expanding yellow bus service and adjusting walk zones in response to Alberta Education’s School Transportation Amendment Regulation that comes into effect on Sept. 1, 2025. This means many more students will become eligible to take the bus. The CBE has also experienced record enrolment growth over the past three years as more families move to Calgary. A growing population also impacts transportation by:

• Increasing yellow school bus ridership and requiring more bus routes
• Filling up many of our schools, resulting in more students requiring transportation to attend schools that have space.
• Increasing traffic on the roads, which means buses need a little more time to complete their routes.

When changes are made to yellow bus transportation, it has an impact on bell times for all schools. That’s because bell times are directly connected to transportation. Aligning bell times across schools makes transportation more efficient, allowing each bus to run multiple routes. This creates a reliable transportation system, allowing students to get to school safely, on time and ready to learn. More information about transportation changes will be coming next week, so watch for emails from the Calgary Board of Education. We do know, though, that our bell times are changing.

For the 2025/2026 school year, Radisson Park school hours for ALL students K-6 will be:

***Monday to Thursday students will have a 40-minute lunch break (no lunch break on Fridays).***

Breakfast Program will start at 8:20 am.

We recognize these changes may mean adjustments to your schedule and appreciate your understanding as we all work together to adjust and prepare for the next school year.

TRANSPORTATION

We have had families asking about transportation, and we thank everyone for patience as we work to understand what provincial changes to transportation will mean for us at Radisson Park. What we do know is:

• Families eligible for transportation to Radisson Park School will see a registration form in their My CBE accounts. If you do not see this registration, it means that your address remains in the walk zone.
• Registration is due by June 22nd, through your My CBE account, for transportation to be organized for the first day of school.
• If you are NOT eligible for transportation, you may apply for your student to be considered as a Conditional Rider. This application is available through the CBE website and opens after June 22nd.

THANK YOU

On behalf of all our staff, we would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to everyone for working toward another incredible year of learning and know that we are BETTER TOGETHER!!!!! We wish all our families a safe and happy summer holiday. Please remember to read together, talk about stories and movies, visit the public library, and have fun outdoors.

NEXT YEAR

Just a note that our first day of school for the 2024/2025 school year will be Tuesday September 2, 2025 – see you at 8:58 am!