A Message to Families from Grand Erie’s Director of Education

Good Afternoon Grand Erie Families,

I’m reaching out today with another important update regarding back-to-school.

As I shared last week, we’re currently finalizing our back-to-school plans for September and greatly appreciate your continued patience and understanding as we all work through these challenging times together.

We’ve posted a new feature on our website. It’s called Back-to-School Frequently Asked Questions. Here, you’ll find a wide range of information related to what school will look like for students in the fall as well as details on health and safety, masks, transportation and school day procedures. These questions were collected from you to help with making the best decision for your family this fall. You can find the FAQs on our website here.

On Monday, we’ll provide the Board of Trustees with another update on our return-to-school working plans. You can watch the update to Trustees on Monday night as the Board Meeting will be streamed live on YouTube. The link to this meeting, as well as the presentation, will be posted on our website on Friday.

This is a very unique back-to-school for all of us. There’s a lot of information that we need to collect from families and our goal is to always make it as easy as possible for you. As a result, we’ve made an important change.

Moving forward, we’re asking all families in Grand Erie to complete a short survey about their back-to-school plans. This survey will ask you to select the learning choice for each student in your family as well as identify your technology, transportation and child care needs.

The Back-to-School survey will be posted on our website here. I want to thank you in advance for your cooperation in completing the survey by August 23 so that we can ensure a smooth transition for all students this September.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to providing you with another update next week.

Healthy Bites Success for Graham Bell-Victoria Students

Graham Bell-Victoria School has been presented with a GOLD award of recognition and achievement in the Healthy Bites Program. The staff and students have worked hard and enjoyed the “fruits” of their labour as they have now been recognized with GOLD!

Throughout the year, Sonia Martin, school health nurse with the Brant County Health Unit, has lead our staff and students in a variety of healthy eating awareness activities. These included a Mystery Fruit and Vegetable contest, a trivia question in the monthly newsletter, and healthy fruit and vegetable snacks every Friday. These tasty treats, prepared by the grade 4-5 class were a big hit and helped us learn about the benefits of eating healthy.

Next year the program will be expanded to Healthy Steps and Healthy Bites, a program in which we will learn about and practice healthy eating and healthy activity. Congratulations, Graham Bell!

Voluntary Aboriginal Self-Identification

The Grand Erie District School Board recognizes the importance of school success for Aboriginal students. Our dedicated staff members are committed to improving services and programs for Aboriginal students attending school in the Board.

With a goal to improve the school experience for all Aboriginal students, the Board encourages the development of strong partnerships with Aboriginal families, communities and organizations, both on and off the reserve.

Through the Voluntary Aboriginal Self-Identification process, Aboriginal parents and students will have access to additional support services, including educational, social, and emotional supports that focus and foster Aboriginal identity, culture and values.

There are three categories of Voluntary Aboriginal Self-Identification – First Nation, Métis, or Inuit.

Your child may bring a GEDSB Voluntary Aboriginal Self-Identification form home or if not, you can contact your child’s school to receive a form. You can also, visit the Aboriginal Education section under the Program tab at www.granderie.ca for more information and a copy of the Voluntary Self-Identification form.