January 16

Hello Brackendale families,

I hope you all had a wonderful week. It was a nice change to see the sun for the last couple of days and our staff took advantage of it, bringing their classes outside for some afternoon sunshine. We are lucky this week to have Roxy Lewis, our Squamish Nation educator, join us. She has been delivering lessons to many classes around weaving, bracelet-making, traditional plants, and many other topics. Many of our students are well connected to Roxy, so it gift to have her with us for the next two weeks. We also had Sensei Grant and Rie with us all week from Aikidaily. All students had the chance to participate in several hours of Aikido throughout the week. The students enjoyed themselves greatly, and a huge thanks to the Brackendale PAC for sponsoring this event. We will look forward to welcoming Aikidaily back at some point in the future.

I want to also say thank you to Laura Eckert. Laura is one of our Learning Services teachers, supporting so many of our students and educators. She has now left on a maternity leave, so we wish her the best of luck and she embarks on a new adventure. Chloe Starcheski has replaced Laura, and is already connecting with so many students and staff in the building.

A few important reminders for next week:

• Thursday, January 22^ndis a Collaboration Day. There is an early dismissal for all students at 12:00pm. For students who ride the #6 and #9 bus, the buses will be picking students up directly at dismissal. Also, the Seamless Day program will be cancelled for the afternoon.
• Friday, January 23^rdis a Professional Development Day. No school in session for students.

I wanted to put out another invitation to parents who might be interested in hosting a club during our long recess. At this point, we have had and continue to have some clubs running at long recess from 12:15pm-1:00pm: volleyball, Dungeons and Dragons, choir, strength training for both boys and girls. We have a parent and staff volunteer who will be starting basketball next week and a staff running a guitar club. If you are able to come into BRE during our long recess to run a club, even for just 3-4 weeks, our students loves these different opportunities. Board games, puzzles, chess, etc…there are so many ways to connect with our students and enrich their days. If you are interested or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Finally, as a follow up to my message last week about out parking lot, please see the easy-to-understand visual below that clearly indicates where we DO and DO NOT want vehicles to park when dropping off and picking up children.

Antony Blaikie – Principal

Brackendale Elementary School

Sea to Sky School District, SD48

I am honoured to be living, working, and learning on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Sḵwxwú7mesh Nation.