Jan 10 Newsletter

Happy New Year! Welcome back. We hope you had an enjoyable break. January is a wonderful month at school. The students are a bit rested after the break and we often see lots of academic growth. This month we are immersed in the assessments required by Alberta Education. The purpose of these assessments is to determine what students know and do not yet know so that we can target instruction for the students. At the end of this newsletter, we share exactly what assessments we are required to complete with the students in January. There are other staggered assessments required by the province and by Rocky View Schools throughout the year. Parents can access more information about Alberta Assessments at https://www.alberta.ca/early-years-assessments .  

‘Assessment is today’s means of modifying tomorrow’s instruction’ - Carol Ann Tomlinson, Professor Emeritus of University of Virginia and author of a number of books about differentiation in the classroom. 

Upcoming Dates (Please see the Calendar on the Website for more information) 

• January 14 – School Council and Friends of Ralph McCall meetings (6:30 pm at school) 

• January 29 – Grade 3 Concert (details below) 

• January 30 – Grade 4 Concert (details below) 

• January 30 – Immunization clinic (morning for students with signed consent only) 

• January 31 – Drop in kindergarten Open House 

Staffing Update 

We welcome new member of the school office team in January. Mrs. Lisa Colpitts joins our office team as a receptionist. If you call the school or stop by in the morning, there’s a good chance you will connect with Lisa. Join us in welcoming her if you happen to come into the school during the next couple of weeks. 

Grade 3 and 4 Concerts - Tickets required! 

The grade 3 concert is scheduled for Wednesday, January 29, and the grade 4 concert is scheduled for Thursday, January 30. Both concerts will start at 6 PM. The grade 3/4 combined class will perform with the grade 4 on Thursday, January 30. The concert will last approximately 30 minutes. Students are asked to arrive at 5:45. Doors will unlock automatically at that time. Students should go to their classroom. Parents are asked to go directly to the gym.  

Given we must not exceed our posted gym capacity, we can only accommodate immediate family (parents, siblings) of the students who are performing. To ensure we do not exceed our limit, we will be using a ticket process. Tickets to the performances will be required but are free. Classroom teachers will send a paper order form to families so you can request the number of tickets needed, to a maximum of 4 per family. If you require more because there are additional parents/siblings, please explain on the order form and we will do our best to accommodate that need, pending availability of space. There will be dress rehearsals each day in the afternoon starting at 1 PM. Grade 3 families may come to watch the dress rehearsal on Wednesday, January 29 and Grade 4 families on January 30. These will be public performances, so photos and video will be permitted. No tickets are required for the afternoon dress rehearsal performances, and they are open to extended family and friends. If you choose to come in the afternoon, please sign in on the paper sheets as you enter the school. 

The topic of the musical is ‘It’s Saturday!’ and celebrates a day off in the life of a kid. Students are asked to wear pajamas, onesies, slippers, or anything comfortable that they may wear on a day off at home. They may bring a small pillow or a small stuffie as a prop. 

Kindergarten 2025-26 – Registration and Open House 

If you, a friend, or a neighbour has a child who will be entering kindergarten in September 2025, kindergarten registration opens on February 3. To help new families see our school before they register, we are opening our doors for a drop in visit from 12:00 – 1:00 on January 31. This is an opportunity to see our kindergarten classrooms, talk to the kindergarten teachers, meet school administrators, the child development advisor, and the learning support teacher, and ask questions about kindergarten at Ralph McCall. Prospective kindergarten students are welcome to come with their parents for this visit. Current families – help us get the word out in the community! 

Parking 

This is an ongoing challenge! We remind parents that there is no parking permitted in the staff parking lot or in the bus lanes. The bus lane is strictly for buses, day care providers (with school administration permission), and those with disability placards. Please also ensure that you are not parking in a way that blocks the driveways of residences or double parking on the roadway. 

PBIS 

We have now wrapped up our PBIS theme of Safety at School!  We learned about commuting with caution throughout our school and outdoor play areas, following directions and being body aware. Now that our Safety focus has concluded, teachers are working with students on expectations for riding the bus. Some students don’t ride a bus on a daily basis; however, all students ride a bus for field trips and therefore need to understand expectations on the bus. The bus is an extension of the school and expectations need to be explicitly taught for greater success for both students and bus drivers. 

Looking forward to February, the PBIS committee preparing review activities for the PBIS expectations we worked on last year when we focused on the areas of Respect & Kindness.  Completing these review activities will support new students and staff in understanding the big picture of our PBIS matrix and will review and reinforce schoolwide expectations in these areas.   

Our work with the PBIS framework guides us as staff in our commitment to respond to student behaviour responsively, through prevention, teaching and responding to student need.  Updates will be shared with you as we work together to strengthen our school community with our shared understandings of expectations at Ralph McCall! 

From Parent Council and Friends of Ralph McCall 

Welcome Back! Those of us on the Parent Council and the Friends Society hope that whatever you chose to celebrate over the break, you had a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!  We're working hard to find avenues to support our school community in the most effective ways possible. 

Healthy Hunger: Healthy Hunger is available to order for each Friday school is in session. If you're interested in ordering go to www.healthyhunger.ca and follow the prompts.  Orders must be placed by the Sunday prior to be included. 

Note: for those students who were in Ms. Arndt's class, the class name & number has been updated to reflect the change in teacher.  If your child was already enrolled, there is no impact. 

January Meeting: Our January Meeting is this coming Tuesday at 6:30 in the Learning Commons, or on Zoom (https://rockyview.zoom.us/j/96691685730 Passcode: Ralph). All are welcome to attend.  As usual, we have one of our trustees joining us and it's an excellent way to learn about what's going on in our division.  

Read-A-Thon: Our annual Read-a-thon Fundraiser is coming up from April 14th - 28th.  Help your child get excited about reading!  More details to come as we get closer to the date. 

Playground:  Planning continues for acquiring funds for the new playground.  If you or anyone you know is interested in helping out, please reach out to Friends... You can find our email address on the school website. 

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Provincial Assessment Details 

To help you as parents understand the literacy and numeracy screening assessments that your child is taking this month, we are providing a bit of detail around each one. Many of the assessments require 1:1 administration, meaning the teacher works with each student individually to complete the assessment. Here are the assessments we must complete for K-3 in January. 

- Phonological Awareness Screening Test (PAST) - This test assesses the student's ability to isolate sounds in words. Example 1- The teacher will say a word like ‘dinosaur’ and have the student repeat the word. Then the teacher will ask the student to say the word again but take off ‘di’ sound and say only what is left ‘nosaur’. Example 2 – The teacher says ‘change’. Take off the ‘g’ sound. What is left? ‘Chane’ 

- Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) - This timed assessment measures the student’s ability to automatically recall print information. While it involves recognizing numbers, it is considered a literacy test because it is assumed that if they can quickly name numbers, they will likely be able to also quickly recall high-frequency words in the future. 

- Letter Names and Sounds (LeNS) – This assessment asked students to look at letters, say the name of the letter and provide the sound it makes. Depending on the level, students may be asked to identify single letters in isolation or a combination of letters. Example - ‘wh’ or ‘dge’ 

- Castles and Coltheart (CC3) - This assessment examines the student’s ability to read regular words, irregular words, and non-words using what they know about decoding words.  

- Alberta Numeracy Screening Assessment (ANSA) - This is an extensive assessment with many parts specific to the Grade. Some of the topics assessed include rote counting, naming numbers, giving the next number, comparing numbers, writing numbers, numbers on a number line, addition and subtraction facts, and equations. See specifics below by grade. 

This month the following grades will complete these assessments: 

• Kindergarten completes the PAST (50 questions), RAN (48 questions; timed), LeNS (20 letters and sounds)  

• Grade 1 completes the LeNS (56 questions), CC3 (up to 40 for each type of word, 5-7 seconds permitted per word), and the ANSA. 

• • Grade 1 ANSA –  

• • Rote counting as high as student can 

• • Next number - 8 questions; counting forwards and backwards including skip counting  

• • Name the number – verbally say18 numbers up to thousands  

• • Comparing numbers - 40 pairs of numbers, student cross out the larger number; Timed (30 seconds) 

• • Writing numbers – 15 numbers up to thousands, teacher says the number and students write it down 

• • Numbers on a number line – 4 questions, blank number line from 0-100. Teacher says a number and students place it on the number line. 

• • Addition facts – up to 9 + 9, 39 questions; Timed (60 seconds) 

• • Subtraction facts – up to 18-9, 39 questions; Timed (60 seconds) 

• Grade 2 completes the LeNS (56 questions), CC3 (up to 40 for each type of word, 5-7 seconds permitted per word), and the ANSA 

• • Grade 2 ANSA - 

• • Comparing numbers - 40 pairs of numbers, student cross out the larger number; Timed (30 seconds) 

• • Writing numbers – 15 numbers up to tens of thousands, teacher says the number and students write it down 

• • Numbers on a number line – 6 questions, 2 blank number line from 0-100 and 4 that are 0-1000. Teacher says a number and students place it on the number line. 

• • Addition facts – up to 9 + 9, 39 questions; Timed (60 seconds) 

• • Subtraction facts – up to 18-9, 39 questions; Timed (60 seconds) 

• • Ordering of Numbers – 2 pages with 28 questions per page. Each question has 3 numbers, not necessarily consecutive. Students check the box if the numbers are getting larger; Timed (60 seconds per page) 

• Grade 3 completes the CC3 (up to 40 for each type of word, 5-7 seconds permitted per word) and the ANSA 

• • Grade 3 ANSA - 

• • Comparing numbers - 40 pairs of numbers, student cross out the larger number; Timed (30 seconds) 

• • Writing numbers – 15 numbers up to hundreds of thousands, teacher says the number and students write it down 

• • Numbers on a number line – 5 questions, blank number line from 0-1000. Teacher says a number and students place it on the number line. 

• • Addition facts – up to 9 + 9, 39 questions; Timed (60 seconds) 

• • Subtraction facts – up to 18-9, 39 questions; Timed (60 seconds) 

• • Equations – 16 questions; mixed addition and subtraction; variety of equations – examples: 9 - ____= 3, 8 + ___ – 3 = 10, 4 + 5 = ___+ 7; Timed (3 minutes) 

• • Ordering of Numbers – 2 pages with 28 questions per page. Each question has 3 numbers, not necessarily consecutive. Students check the box if the numbers are getting larger; Timed (60 seconds per page) 

As mentioned above, these screening assessments are not about a score or grade on a report card. Rather, they are intended to help us see how students are progressing and identify what the next steps for learning might be. If you would like to discuss how you might further support your child in specific areas of literacy and/or numeracy, please reach out to your child’s teacher.