MidSun Moving to HomeLogic

Dear Parents/Guardians;

Welcome to Home Logic, the parent portal to student information.

In an effort to enhance communication between MidSun school and our parents/guardians, we are instituting a parent portal called “HomeLogic.”   This online environment allows parents/guardians to check their child’s progress throughout the school year.

The following information about your child can be accessed:

1.  Attendance – This information will be available for each school day.  You will be able to access the class, date, and reason for the absence.  Attendance information can also be printed from your home.
2. Schedule – this feature allows you to see your child’s class schedule on any given day for the school year. The display also includes class times and the teacher’s name.  Convenient navigation buttons allow you to see a student’s schedule for any day in the school year as it exists now in our data.
3. Transcript – Parents and students will be able to review his/her past final marks.  While it is unofficial, this information can also be printed for your convenience.  Only Alberta education can issue official transcripts.
4. Demographics – Although the information will not be editable from HomeLogic, you will be able to see the current information we have about your child (ren) at the school.  Should there be errors or informational changes, please contact the school directly.

While the HomeLogic program can give you a glimpse of what is going on, it does not replace direct communication with the school.  If you have questions for a teacher or school administrator please speak to us directly.

For now, information provided to you from our Student Information System will be in read-only format.  Please contact the school with any concerns you would like to communicate with the school.

The HomeLogic website is:  https://sirswebapps.cbe.ab.ca/homelogic

Please visit the website and click on the “New User?” prompt to create an account.  **Please note, for the security of your child(ren)’s information, you will need to be registered with the school as a parent/guardian who receives mail in order to create a valid account.** It is also very important to have a valid  and current email that is registered at your child’s school, as this is the email address  to which your username and password will be emailed.  To provide parent access to this information we are required to use the parental email address that we have on file.  If you have previously provided this email address you will be able to register for HomeLogic at the address above.  More detailed instructions are included on our website (http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b691/) and on our blog.  If you have not provided a parental email address, please do so by sending a message from ¬that email address to ajarnold@cbe.ab.ca, type the student name(s) in the subject line and a note to say that it is for HomeLogic access.  If we receive your email response by October 4, 2013 you will have time to register and access HomeLogic by October 15, 2013.

If you have trouble creating an account, please refer to documentation on our website and our blog.

As this application will take some time to for us to fully understand we thank you in advance for your patience while we implement this new communication platform.

If you have any questions about HomeLogic, or have difficulty with the account, please contact the school at 403-777-6430.

Sincerely,



V. Saretsky
Principal

Start Up at MidSun

The first few weeks at MidSun have been wonderful!  Our outdoor classroom is getting lots of use and our welcome flags have been installed!  We had a well attended and fun evening for our meet the teacher with Leadership students raising $1000.00 to go towards the purchase and install of another, much needed, bike rack. Special thanks to our parent chefs, student servers, and Cranston Sobey's for the donation of the hot dogs! It was great to see so many members of our community meeting and connecting at our school.  Thanks to all the parents who have volunteered to be room reps at our school council meetings.  These parents will be advising the school on some important issues like communication between school and home, feedback on new procedures like our on line school forms, Speaker topics, how to spend the money MSEES has raised, and many more new routines.  All you need to do is come to our monthly school council meetings with your experience and opinions. Many spots are still available.  Speak with your child's homeroom teacher to volunteer!

The next day we had singer, songwriter, Robb Nash visit the school with his inspirational message that life is well worth living!  Many students have commented on how much they appreciated the funny and creative way he shared his experiences with them and encouraged them to share their unique talents with the world.

He called up our very own, Caitlin H., who sang a song with him and his band.  She did a fantastic job and Robb commented that she was one of the best singers who has ever joined him on stage! We thought so too!

On Friday we met during RTI time to prepare for our upcoming annual Terry Fox run.  We learned a bit more about Terry's courage and were inspired to help others by raising money for cancer research.  The run is coming up on September 26, 2013 and we are looking for parent volunteers to help out with the race.  Please let Ms. Amirault, our learning leader for athletics, know if you are able to help out that morning.

The volleyball and cross country teams have begun to try out and/or practice and  the library has been busy before school and at lunch. Our Lunch Buddy program began today with many students volunteering to eat lunch with our students in rooms 23 & 24.  Students have already been applying to be part of our LINKages program, where they become friends with a senior from Mckenzie Towne. The completion room even saw about 6 students electing to come to the completion room over lunch to get their homework done! We have amazing students here and they are off to a great start!  Keep up the good work MidSun!

Picture day and "Meat" the Teacher

Students are reminded that Tuesday September 10, 2013 is picture day! Bring your best smiles!

Students are also asked to bring their parents out to our "Meat" the teacher BBQ on Wednesday September 11, 2013 and introduce their parents to their teachers. The schedule for the evening is as follows:

6:00-6:20 - Meet and greet and eat

6:20-6:40 - Program in the Main Gym

6:40-7:20 - More meet and greet

6:50 - Grade 7 Band parent meeting in the Main Gym

7:00 - Grade 8 Riverwatch meeting in the Library Commons

7:20- School Council meeting in the Library Commons

BBQ Items available:

 (All proceeds will go into the Outdoor School Fund)

Hot dog $1.00

Chips $1.00

Drink $1.00

Popcorn $1.00

Your child came home tonight with an information sheet about "Meat" the teacher and two separate information evening that are being hosted by your school council.  Please sign the tear off form and send it back to school with your son or daughter.  We are looking forward to seeing everyone at the BBQ.  It looks like it will be a lovely evening.

New classes, options and other school start up info

If you haven't yet, please sign up  to receive our blog.  This will allow you to get up to date school info right to your in box! MidSun School does not have a school newsletter but does most of it's communication through the school blog.  You can sign up for it on our school website: www.cbe.ab.ca/b691

We have had a busy start up.  Our enrollment is up and we added another grade 7 home room to reduce class sizes.  We are still sorting out some issues with student placement in complementary subjects and will be providing students an opportunity to tweak their options with a change process starting Monday September 9, 2013. Application forms will be available that day from homeroom teachers.  The applications need to be completed and returned with all required signatures by the end of the day on Thursday September 12, 2013.  We will attempt to complete all of the changes for the following Monday September 16, 2013.

We want to remind everyone of our Meat the teacher BBQ at 6:00 PM on Wednesday September 11, 2013 and ask that you plan to stay for the school council meeting at 7:20 PM that night.

Be sure to send the students to school on these hot days with sunscreen as they may be spending some time outside for physical education or lunch.

Thank-you

Leadership students support our grade 7 orientation

Today we kicked off the school year with some great helpers.  About 40 returning grade 8 and 9 students were on hand today to welcome our grade 7 students with some fun activities, help them with their lockers and serve them a wonderful lunch in our almost completed "Outdoor Classroom". What a friendly start to our year. Thank you to everyone who came out to lend a hand.

The new bike racks were well received by many students who rode their bikes to school today. We would like to remind students to take their locks with them when they leave school.

Over the course of this week, teachers will be doing classroom activities to help students get to know their classmates and make new friends.  Students should not be overly concerned if they do not know anyone in their homeroom class yet, they are sure to make some new friends in the days to come!

It was wonderful to welcome back our grade 8 and 9 students to the school and catch up on some summer news. Demographic forms should have come home tonight for review.  Fee sheets will be out later this week. Reminder to parents to print off the first day forms that need to be signed and returned ASAP.  They are located to the left of the blog on our website: www.cbe.ab.ca/b691
There is a pizza party for the homeroom that is first to bring in all completed forms!

Wednesday September 4, 2013 is our first regular day 1.  We will be having an extended homeroom all week long to review school procedures and handle minor administration. Thanks!

MidSun School Starts on Tuesday September 3rd!

Hello MidSun Families,

The staff at MidSun is excited to begin a new school year.  We have lots of fun start up activities for the first day.  Grade 7 students are scheduled to start from 9:00-Noon on Tuesday September 3, 2013 and grade 8 & 9 students will begin that afternoon from 1:30 PM-3:30 PM.  Busses will be running in the morning and at 3:30 PM.  That means that grade 7 students need to find their way home and grade 8 & 9 students need to find their own way here. Bus maps are available on the transportation link above.

We are going green this year and the majority of our school start up forms are posted on our web site. http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b691/  The links for each grade can be found on the left hand side of this page. We are asking parents and students to review the forms, print off and sign the 9 forms that need to be returned. You are also asked to read the "Student Handbook" (In it's own link) you will find the whole document. Please  read it with your child and sign the Agreement at the end of the document.  There are prizes for the first home room to have all of their forms signed and returned!

The following forms need to be signed and returned on the first day of school. There is a link for each grade:

Terry Fox 

Allergy Alert

Athletics Permission

Medical Information

Science Lab Safety

Permission to Publish

Volunteer Registration

Volunteer Recruitment 

Last page of the Student Handbook

WE are looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

The 2013-2014 School Year is almost here!

Our caretaking staff are busy working to get our school ready to welcome our students on September 3, 2013 for the next school year.  Teachers will be arriving on August 28th to begin their planning and our office is open to welcome new student registrations on August 28th starting at 1:00 PM. Information on bus routes, first day forms, fees and start up information will be posted shortly.  Keep checking our website! Parents of registered students can expect an email with more information by the end of the day Friday August 30th. We will be sending home our start up forms electronically and asking students to arrive with signed signature pages on the first day of school.

We have some exciting changes planned for this school year with the addition of a weekly RTI (Re-Teach It) class and a bimonthly Literacy class to help support student achievement. We are moving to one lunch hour with plans for some fun intramural activities to build whole school community. Each grade will have their own line up for our cafeteria and each learning hallway will have new eating areas for that grade.  Our completion room is moving to lunch time so that all students can access it.  The first day will see student activities that will help them get to know each other and build community spirit.

Our staff has worked hard to balance classes and provide the majority of students with their top complementary course selections.  We know that the first day can be hard on students who feel that none of their close friends are in their classes.  We ask parents to encourage their child to make some new friends in class and see their old friends over the lunch hour or after school. We will not be moving students into new classes to be with other students or specific teachers.

Meat the Teacher BBQ will be held at MidSun on September 11th at 6 PM with our first School Council meeting following at 7:20 PM. We are asking parents to consider attending monthly meetings as a room rep and we are still looking for someone to take on the duties of Secretary.  Please consider helping us with these important jobs!

It will be an exciting year of learning at MidSun.  Thanks for helping us make it happen.