Family Literacy Day: Tues. Jan 27th: To celebrate, we will have a theme day on Tuesday: Read My Shirt Day! Students are encouraged to wear a shirt with a school-appropriate message. This special day highlights the importance of reading and learning together as a family. Spending time each day reading or engaging in learning activities with your child plays an important role in building strong literacy skills and supporting their overall development.
This year’s theme is “Make Mealtime Family Learning Time.” Preparing and sharing meals offers a fun (and delicious!) opportunity for families to learn together. From reading recipes and writing shopping lists to talking and sharing stories at the dinner table, mealtime can become meaningful family learning time.
February is Registration Month: Do you have a child who will be starting pre-primary or primary this fall? It’s almost time to register! (Our current pre-primary students do not need to register for primary).
Registration for the 2027-27 school year begins on February 1. To ensure we have the right staff and supports in place for September, it’s important that students register. Please spread the word!
Lunch Monitors Needed: We urgently need full- and part-time lunch monitors. On multiple occasions, students have had to stay inside during lunch because we did not have enough supervision—and they have missed some of this outdoor playtime.
If you can help (even a little), you can make a big difference for our students and get paid. Please send your name and email address to hres@hrce.ca.
Power Outage Information for Families: HRCE has provided some information so that you are aware how decisions are made when a school experiences a power outage. The priority is always to keep schools open safely when possible. A power outage does not automatically mean classes are cancelled – even if it happens during the school day. The decision depends on when power is expected to be restored.
Here’s what happens:
- When a school loses power, HRCE's Operations Team contacts Nova Scotia Power to gather available details on the cause and an estimated restoration time.
- Once we have this information, we consider:
- Before school starts: Have buses begun their routes? If so, we wait until students arrive before making a decision. If classes are cancelled, elementary families will be contacted before dismissal.
- During the school day: How close is dismissal? What is the temperature in the building? Does the school rely on power for water or septic systems? These factors, among others, help us decide whether to stay open or close. Often, power returns faster than we could safely send students home.
If classes are cancelled:
- HRCE will notify families by email and text.
- Families of elementary students will also receive a phone call before dismissal.
More information about school cancellations for any reason can be found here.
Inclement Weather: It is HRCE’s goal to communicate any changes to the regular operations of schools and/or buses as close to 6:00 a.m. as possible. An announcement could be:
- All schools are delayed in opening by two hours and bus pickups are delayed by two hours; or
- All schools are open, but some or all busses are not operating for the day; or
- Some schools (either individually or by family) are closed for the day (our Family is Lockview); or
- All schools are closed for the day.
If weather deteriorates, or is forecasted to worsen throughout the morning, there could be an announcement for early dismissal. This takes place around 11:00. Please be aware that if there is an early closure, students cannot be sent home until we’ve communicated with all families. To help, consider emailing your child’s teacher to let them know you are aware that there is an early dismissal and what the dismissal plan will be (picked up or taking the bus). Students who go to Inner Strength will need to be picked up since Inner Strength is not open on snow days.
Your admin team,
Kellie West & Diana Trider