Sundance-Bank Elementary PAC Meeting – January 16, 2024 Meeting Starts: 6:30pm
1. Welcome and Land Acknowledgement (Andrew)
2. Dianne's School Update:
Floor Curling: Teachers and students are really enjoying it.
Thursday, 5:30-6:30pm Family Fun Floor Curling Night
Pro-D Day Jan 26: Staff and teachers will have another online session with Laurie Faith, who specializes in Executive Functioning Skills. Also, each classroom teacher will share with the group what they are enjoying in their class so that everyone can learn and benefit. Our teachers:
-Sarah, our all-inclusive learning teacher, will put together a presentation on Executive Functioning Skills, which provide the skills to stop, assess the situation, think, manage your emotions, and many other essential life skills.
-Linnea and Rebecca will share how they have utilized the school's new Literacy posters that list activities and skills. These posters have been put up all around the school.
-Karley has been using a video program called Everyday Speech, recommended by our speech and language teacher, Helen, which focuses on different ways to communicate. We anticipate it to be a rich day of sharing and learning from one another.
Symphony: We will have a visit from some musicians on February 13. They will visit all four classrooms and explain their part in the symphony. A great introduction before the whole school field trip (Feb 23rd) to the Victoria Symphony at UVIC.
We had so much fun at the Naden Band concert, and we look forward to this next one. Later on in the year, we will have our third whole-school field trip to the beach!
Yoto players: still trying to sort out an IT problem, but hopefully will be enjoying them soon.
Staffing: We are very grateful for all of our new hires. (Sam Ellis as our new support teacher and Jenessa Parker who will be our new PE teacher). We currently have an EA for each classroom, as well as Diego Ramdeen, who will go where needed, giving us a total of five educational assistants.
Questions: Do we have a music teacher? No, not yet, but as the school grows, we are confident we will have one.
Will we do morning sunrises again? Yes, once the weather improves.
3. Maker's Market/Emporium: We raised just over $800 from the Emporium and Maker's Market – thank you everyone for your support! It went so well, and most importantly, the kids loved it!
4. Fernwood Music Bingo Parents Night – We will push this to later in February so we have more time to advertise, sell tickets, and obtain six prizes for the winners! If you know of any local businesses who would be interested in donating a giveaway basket/gift certificate, their business name would be printed on the Bingo sheets, and advertised a bunch! Email us at: sundancebankpac@gmail.com
5. The White Hatter : We have been invited by Oaklands Elementary to join them in an online Internet Safety workshop for parents/guardians. Keep an eye out for a poll to see what kind of interest we have as a school community. The workshop is aimed at slightly older grades 4/5, but
still could be useful.
6. Bike Parking: A gentle reminder that there is a beautiful new covered bike rack around the other side of the school, and folks are encouraged to use that paved area to park their bikes during drop off/pick up times to minimize traffic jams on the sidewalk by the after-school care door/sidewalk.
Meeting ends: 7:27pm