October is commonly known as “safety month” in school. This is the month that we teach students about fire safety, bus safety, personal safety, playground safety, etc. This is done early in the school year because safety is so important to all of us. In our school, staff recognize that when your child is with us, we are responsible for their safety. We do our utmost to maintain a safe environment for the students in the building, on the playground,… Read More
Summer is an exciting time of growth. Gardens are planted with much anticipation of the growth that will come. Farmers plant seeds in fields with the hope that crops will grow healthy and strong. We rely on this growth for our very existence! Over the past few weeks, much to our delight, we have also seen growth in our student numbers at school! We welcome the new students and families to our community! I can’t help but wonder if we… Read More
Next school year has potential to be a very unique school year! Here are a couple of updates that I want parents to be aware of . . . As some of you may have heard, South Oaks received some difficult news that we will see a reduction in staffing for next year. We are currently in the process of navigating what this will look like. Initially, this news was difficult to hear as we all want the best possible… Read More
I am writing this on a day when schools are closed due to the extreme cold weather. It is very easy to get a little bored when we are staying inside due to storms and cold weather. This is why February is perfect for I Love to Read Month. Reading is the best activity when everything outside is frozen! However, a few other benefits also come to mind. Since mental health has become extremely important for us and our loved ones,… Read More
What do speaking and listening have to do with Literacy? This year, our staff had the pleasure of spending a day with a HSD Reading Clinician, Allison Aitken, to explore “Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness”, as these are important elements of language learning. What we learned was very important, and a little surprising, so I wanted to share this with all parents. Phonological awareness is related to the knowledge and skills kids have with oral language. Phonemic awareness is about the knowledge and… Read More
As we all know, there are plenty of struggles these days. At South Oaks, we are focusing on “pandemic recovery” of the academic gaps caused by COVID. We are also trying to attend to the social emotional recovery of our students from the pandemic experience. Recovering can be a challenge and it requires a lot of patience and hard work. Recently, I came across an article by Diane Benson Harrington called, “Productive Struggle; what it is and how to achieve… Read More
Several years ago, we began working much more deliberately at developing learning partnerships. The reason we are interested in partnerships and working collaboratively is because we can do more effective work when we engage the knowledge and skills of a larger group. A year ago, the South Oaks PAC initiated a partnership with Green Valley School’s woodworking department, to explore some ideas to enhance the playground for our students. We invited our parent community to do some fundraising and you… Read More
Recently, I participated in a meeting where Manitoba Education shared some basic information about the new Manitoba K-12 Education Action Plan. The plan has been in the works since 2018 and has included a lot of discussion and consultation from many people over the past few years. The vision for this plan begins with a description of “The Good Life”. What is “The Good Life”? It includes concepts such as hope, belonging, well-being, having a voice, feeling safe, having healthy relationships, interacting respectfully with nature,… Read More
Years ago, I was given a simple homemade gift by one of our students. It is a simple wall plaque, with the word “Hope” written in twine. The significance of the plaque is that the student who gave it had major physical disabilities that will last for his lifetime. I thought, if he and his family could find hope in such a challenging situation, perhaps we can all find hope when things are difficult in our lives. Where do we… Read More
Jordan River Anderson was born on Oct. 22, 1999. Due to complex medical needs, his mother, Virginia, left her home in Norway House and went to Winnipeg for his birth. Soon, Jordan needed extensive medical care and this was available in a foster home, near to a Winnipeg hospital. However, since the federal and provincial governments could not decide who would pay for Jordan’s medical support, Jordan remained at the hospital. Jordan’s short life ended on Feb. 2, 2005 at… Read More
