The Falcon's View

2023-2024 Issue #3

March 14-16 - HS Boys Provincial Basketball Tournament in Vegreville

March 18-22 - Spring Break

March 25 - School Resumes

March 26 - Spring Pictures

March 28 - Hot Lunch - Subway

March 28 - School Rummage and Bake Sale

March 29 - Good Friday - school closed

April 1 - Easter Monday - school closed

April 4 - Early Dismissal

April 15 - PD Day - no school for students

Payments can be made by cheque at the school or by using the online payment system at: https://www.brsd.ab.ca/families/online-payments-ordering

An email was sent out at the end of August indicating that parents could now complete student verification forms for the 2023-2024 school year. If you have not yet completed these forms please do so as soon as possible.

*Every year we are required to provide Alberta Education with a signed and dated Student Verification form for each of our students.* We also use the form to ensure all of the information we have regarding your child(ren) is correct. This year we have moved to an electronic verification form for this process. In an attempt to streamline our process, the FOIP and Technology Use forms have been incorporated into the Verification form.

To access and complete this form you will need to log into the PowerSchool parent portal via your Web browser (Google Chrome for example. You will not be able to complete this process on the App). Click on the SchoolEngage icon on the left. You will be redirected to the SchoolEngage site where you can select your child’s name. Click on the 2023-2024 Student Verification Form and then on the blue icon in the first column to review the information. Once you’ve completed your verification, click on the green submit button on the bottom of the page.

On our PowerSchool Parent Portal you will have access to real-time assessment regarding your child's learning. In the first link below you will find written instructions as well as video tutorials to guide you to creating an account, downloading the app for your phone, as well as navigating throughout the program so you can become familiar with the platform. Here are instructions for signing up:

PowerSchool Sign Up

1. Go to https://brsd.powerschool.com/public/home.html

2. Click on "Forgot Username or Password".

3. Your username will be Firstname.Lastname

4. An email will be sent to the email we have on file.

5. PowerSchool Mobile app is available for download (free), enter code: NTPH.

Please contact the school if you have any difficulties or click the link below:

https://forestburg.brsd.ab.ca/families/powerschool-parent-sign-in-instructions

Sora provides the quickest and easiest way to get started with digital titles from our school. Students can simply log in using school credentials (Google SSO) and instantly access hundreds of eBooks and audiobooks on virtually any device. Get started today at https://soraapp.com or download the free Sora app for Android or iOS.
What’s great in Sora:

• Easy onboarding
• One-tap borrowing and reading
• Fun reading achievements and avatars
• Quick access to assignments
• Unified experience across devices

You can find an instructional 2 minute video on using Sora here.

If you have any questions please contact kkells@brsd.ab.ca

A huge thank you to ATB for the extremely generous donation of $1000.00 to the Forestburg School Breakfast Program.

We are able to make this amazing program run thanks to the help of the following people:

• Community volunteers who come and serve breakfast every morning and help with grocery shopping
• School staff and students who help with the clean up
• Junior high volunteers and work experience students

We are always looking for volunteers to help in the morning. It's less than an hour commitment and can be as few or many times as you want. If you are interested in volunteering please contact Deanna Bartlett at the school at 780-582-3792.

The Forestburg School staff planned a day of exciting activities for all kindergarten to grade 12 students to start the new semester. It was wonderful to see our older students become leaders for our little ones. We had scavenger hunts, a full school game of rock, paper, scissors, and a dance party to end the day. We are very proud to see our kids soaring together at Forestburg School.

The JH girls had a very productive season; the amount they grew from start to finish was incredible. These girls hustled all year long and made it to the final regional tournament where they faced tough competition and played hard. We want to acknowledge our Grade 9 players as they leave their junior high athletic careers to enter high school next year. We wish the best of luck to Jin Ju Hillman, Chloe Wilson, Logan McNabb, Tess Shannon, Jayda Songhurst, and (missing from photo), Hayden Fuller.

Our Caught You Soaring Campaign has been a hit with students. They feel very proud when they receive a Caught You Soaring card from a staff member. It is very encouraging to see how many of these cards we have handed out this year already (almost 500)! We can't wait to see how many of our students become draw winners between now and the rest of the year.

Thank you once again for all of the donations to Jingle all of your change! $684.81 was donated to the Christmas Sharing Program. Thank you to our helpers who collected all the change each day!

On Tuesday March 12th, the school Art Club welcomed Beaverhill Bird Conservatory! They did a presentation on Falcons of Alberta and brought Vinnie, a peregine falcon, for the students to draw afterwards. This was a great opportunity for students to learn more about our "school mascot" and practice their sketching skills with a live model.

*Falcon Fun Fact - the peregine falcon is the fastest animal in the world!

Did you know that the school division has student advisory groups for both junior high and senior high students? We send two volunteer students from grades 7-9 and 10-12 to meetings where they get to discuss ideas with students from all of the other schools in our division. As meetings continue, we update the school council about what students would like to see in our building and the things that they have noticed already take place and are positive contributions like our breakfast program.

School Council and Hot Lunch treated all students and staff to a Christmas breakfast before the Christmas break! This has become a fun tradition where students are paired with different grades and everyone can sit, eat and visit! Even Freddie the Christmas Falcon made an appearance! A big thank you to everyone who helped put this on!

The High School Curling team competed at Zones in Red Deer, Feb. 9 and 10. They curled some great games finishing 3rd in their pool, with 1 win and 2 losses. Unfortunately they did not qualify for the medal round this year.

The JH boys finished off their season with a record of 20 wins and 1 loss. We had 15 guys on the team this year and each contributed to our success throughout the season. We won tournaments in Bawlf, Bashaw, and our home tourney in Forestburg. We had the privilege of hosting JH Regionals and won our first two games before losing to a solid Camrose Comp team in the finals. A Regionals silver medal is a great accomplishment for our group! Thanks to Tanner Woody for helping me out with practices all season. Thanks to all those who came out to watch us play this year. Your support is appreciated.

Mr. Rathwell

In February, The Grade 5/6 girls were lucky enough to be a part of the Virtual Choices Conference for Women In S.T.E.M. We spent the morning learning about opportunities in STEM and got to work on some cool experiments. Our Ice Cube Cooler challenge has carried on this week with us making revisions, teaching the rest of our class what to do and participating in a province wide challenge to see whose ice cubes will stay cold for the longest. A big thank you goes to our Hot Lunch Society for sponsoring our entry fees!

Pink Shirt Day was on February 28th. Mrs. Pfeffer and her Grade 9 Leadership class created informational slides and activities for students. Members of the Art Club created "Kindness" artwork that was displayed in the front foyer to recognize this day.

The Mini Dunkers wrap up a great season on Monday, March 11th by hosting the year end tournament. We've had a great year, learning about basketball and growing as a team. Good luck to our Gr 6's moving up to Jr High next year!

A big thank you to Presley Brennan for helping coach!

And thank you to Grace Kells, Tess Shannon, Hayden Fuller, Abrahm Bartlett, Noah Kells and Cooper Wiltse who all volunteered to ref or scorekeep for our games this year.

Special thanks to Kyla Forster and Shannon Grymaloski for organizing and running the concession for the Mini Dunkers Tournament. Proceeds from this concession will go towards the Grade 5/6 Field Trip to Circle Square Ranch!

Students in grades 7-9 faced the Skills Canada Challenge in January and knocked it out of the park! The teams worked for over three hours to create prototypes that centered around ‘water conservation.’ They built, tested, and revamped their designs to create some innovative projects. The students enjoyed posting their pictures to the Skills Canada padlet for the chance to win some really great prizes!

They also enjoyed snacks and ice cream to end their very successful day. It was a great day, enjoyed by everyone who participated!

The Grade Fours are learning about Non Contact Forces in Science. We created our very own Egg Protectors Against Gravity Devices and had a lot of fun testing them out. We were completely successful in protecting our eggs!

Email: forestburgschool@brsd.ab.ca
Website: https://forestburg.brsd.ab.ca/
Location: Forestburg School, 4914 46 Ave, Forestburg, Alberta, Canada
Phone: 780-582-3792