Principal's Message

Welcome Back!

I would like to welcome everyone back for the 2017-2018 school year. I hope that everyone had a wonderful and exploratory summer. 

We will have a lot of new students in the school this year, including 27 new kindergarten students. This enrolment boost has changed the structure of our classes as well as the layout of our school. We now have a straight Kindergarten class, a Kindergarten/Grade 1 class, a Grade 1/Grade 2 class, a Grade 2/Grade 3 class, a Grade 4/Grade 5 class, and the Grade 6/Grade 7 class. We also had to convert the computer room into a classroom over the summer and relocated computers into all of the classrooms and learning commons.

This year at the school we will be continuing to follow the curriculum redesign. We will be doing that through the use of Assessment for Learning strategies. These strategies will allow our children to become reflective learners and will place an stronger emphasis on the process of learning rather than rote learning. Hidden Valley School has been utilizing these strategies for the past few years but we are all committed to expand our own learning in this area.A simple way for your to engage in the same support for your child will be to ask them 3 simple questions: (a) what are you learning and why is it important, (b) how is it going, and (c) what's your next step.

Another way that we are supporting the curriculum redesign is by converting our traditional library into a learning commons space. This will include the starting of a maker space in the school. I would like the thank the school council for supporting this initiative. 

This year we will be canvassing for volunteers to start helping with school programming and planning. If you are interested please let us know. There will be more information to come.

If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions please feel free to contact me any time at the school.
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Sincerely,
John Duclos