Great news! Nicola Doughty, the smart and funny Registered Clinical Counsellor who shared her wisdom on parenting with us in the Fall, is returning to Tennyson to share her ideas  about Friendship, Conflict and Building Resilience. 

Event details:
When: March 2nd, 2020
Time: 7:00-8:30 pm
Where: Tennyson Library

Childcare provided in the staff room.
 
Nicola Doughty will deliver an interactive presentation outlining the development stages of children's emotional and social behaviours and support parents helping their children learn to make friends, uphold their own values and negotiate conflicts and peer relationships with confidence. 
 
This interactive session will allow parents to workshop their own situations and come up with strategies to support their own children to make confident and healthy decisions in their developing relationships.

It's the start of Workout for Women’s Day, a week long campaign to celebrate and honour International Women's Day and raise money for three local charities:  
 
1) Girls Rock Camp Vancouver 
2) Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre 
3) Battered Women’s Support Services 
 
If you haven’t yet, check out the schedule  here  and register for classes! I will be attending many of them so I hope to see you there (or message me and we can make a date to attend together)!
 
Tennyson mum, Shana Alexander,  will be teaching 2 classes on Saturday, March 7th - 10:30 AM at RYU in Kits, and 5:30 PM at GymBox on W. Broadway with Andi Davis of Train of Thought Fitness. These will be high energy, feel-good classes with great tunes, door prizes and lots of love from yours truly.  Sign up if you can!

The Senior Choir, led by choirmaster Catherine Campolin, is taking part in the Vancouver School District Elementary Choral Festival on March 11. This is an amazing opportunity for our students to perform in front of a large audience and to enjoy other choirs perform.

The annual  three-day festival celebrates students' talents and accomplishments and seeks to share music across the District. Each choir that participates presents two of their favourite selections; and, all choirs must also master two pieces to sing altogether at the end of the evening – with only one rehearsal to prepare.

Eight schools will be performing on the night that Tennyson is presenting and we are likely to have a full house. 

The event details:
Date:  Wednesday March 11th, 2020
Show time: 7PM - 9PM
Place:  John Oliver Secondary Auditorium (530 East 41st Ave. at Fraser St.)
Tickets:    by donation at the door

Come along to enjoy a wonderful night of music if you can.

Thank you to the Noon-Hour Program team for offering programs like the choir that add such richness to our kids' education.

To keep our parent community up to date with PAC activities we share news through the website and  weekly email.  Tai, our email champion, sends out the weekly blast and I put the information on the website. It's a great partnership!

Unfortunately I wont be able to manage the website  next year so I'm looking for someone, or team of people, to take over. The sooner you can start the better so we can work together and handover smoothly. 

What you need to know about the job.

• No experience necessary! We use Weebly to manage the website. You drag and drop all the elements and  can cut and paste the content  so it's quick and easy to use. If you're new to websites I'd be delighted to show you.
• The main tasks are:
  • Posting the information  emailed to  e.g. Information about Noon-Hour and Hot Lunch programs, blog posts that are interesting to parents, parent speaker information and event promotion.
  • Updating the homepage to keep it current
  • Adding events to the calendar
    
  • Sharing posts and information on Facebook
    
• You can make the job as big or a small as you want. You can share what is emailed to you or you can source stories for the blog if you want. It's up to you.

Please email me at orlasturgess@gmail.com if you're interested.

More than 40 parents attended Monday's PAC meeting for a presentation  on last year's Grade 7 Quebec trip and a discussion about the trip going forward. It was exciting to see so many parents there and from the conversation  it's clear that the trip means a lot to the school community.

We want to give a big thank you to Tennyson alum, Rachel, who gave a great presentation and answer lots of questions about her exchange experience. Thank you too to  her mum, Karen Davies, who is currently co-chair of the Quebec 2021 team. Karen shared  her thoughts on the fundraising for the trip and on hosting an exchange student. Rachel and Karen  kindly offered to record their presentation for parents who couldn't make it to the meeting; we'll post it on the website when we get it. In the meantime,  here is the Quebec 2021 Parent Presentation  which is packed with useful information about the Quebec trip and the Quebec Futures Fund and Quebec Trip Document page which has all you need to know about  planning and implementing the exchange.

The key take-aways from the discussion that followed are:

• Many parents are passionate about the exchange and believe its an invaluable opportunity for cementing language skills, building friendships and personal growth. These are great things we want to foster in our children.
  
• Most parents were reassured that the  fundraising events for the for the trip are highlights of the Tennyson experience anyway (hot lunches, BBQs and Winterfest) so it's not too onerous.
  
• Some parents were surprised to learn that the exchange is an opt-in trip, not driven by the school, rather put together in partnership with administration and staff.  As well,  because we apply for a grant to fund part of the trip the school we are assigned changes every year.
  
• Some parents expressed concern that an exchange will be  a stressful experiences for their child and that their child may be put in  situations where their safety and/or well-being is compromised.  For some this was based on previous Tennyson Quebec Exchanges.
  
• Some parents asked if the same benefits (cementing language skills, building friendships and personal growth) could be achieved from a trip rather than an exchange. Other parents asked if it was possible to forgo the grants and be paired with the same school each year instead.
  

Although no conclusions were drawn,  it was good to have a conversation about something that is so important for all our children. Please feel free to post comments here to share you opinion. All voices are welcome.

Students and  teachers alike donned pink today at Tennyson, to mark Pink Shirt Day, raise awareness about bullying and spread the message that bullying stops here!

A big thank you to Madame Kateryna and the Grade 6 and 7 students who delivered inspirational assemblies about  inclusion.  And,   a  thank  you to Mme Simone and Mme Jacinthe and their Grade 2 classes  who sang beautifully for the whole school.

  Above are some pictures from the day; send me any  you took so I can add them to the slideshow

Without a doubt that our world is changing rapidly, and the jobs we thought our kids would have may not even exist when they grow up. Nowadays, young adults find themselves taking on positions like social media manager, digital marketing specialist, an influencer or YouTuber. These jobs were born as a result of the changing world. The tools our kids need for the future requires innovative education and RIse Venture School is at the forefront of this evolution.
 
We teach students 8-14 years old, applicable life skills through Entrepreneurship. Taught in the form of camps and workshops, students will learn:

• How to turn their ideas into a venture
• The value of earning and spending money
• Become a forward thinking leader
• How to leverage the internet to build an online business
• Create an actionable business plan
• How to clearly articulate their ideas to a panel of friendly judges

Prepare your child with the skills needed to build their future today. Join us at Spring Break in one of our Entrepreneurship Camps to jumpstart their future!
 
If you think this our program can add value to your community, please post this on the PAC site and forward to families you feel it will benefit. Our program ties together all the teachings from the new BC ADST curriculum.

We are looking to find our awesome Irish nanny, Emily, a new home. She doesn’t have a vehicle but she drives and is available to work full time starting April 20. She’s been an absolute dream for the past year and a half with our very energetic three year old and our artsy daughter who’s currently in grade 1 at Tennyson. Super reliable, flexible, patient and an all around gem. We can’t recommend her highly enough. Email her at emilyotoole@gmail.com if you think she might be a fit for you, or Amy at amyjdavison@hotmail.com if you have any questions for us.

Calling all actors, stage hands and the curious!

This Friday, February 28 at lunchtime, we will  hold the first meeting of the Tennyson Drama club.  Place TBA.

All grades are welcome, and no one will have to act if they don’t feel comfortable.  We will start by playing a few drama games, and starting to discuss our ideas and plans for future skits,short plays, and maybe even a long-term plan of a musical.
 
Any questions may be directed to Jacqueline Crummey by phone or text: 778.788.2585

Boogaloo Dance Academy have some exciting new programs for the Fall. SPARK! Begins Fall 2020-2021!


Apply Now!!


They are offering two High School Credit programs for dancers of all skill levels from beginner to elite.

SCHOOL CREDIT PROGRAM
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Train with Vancouver’s top professionals in Street and/or Classical styles of dance and earn up to 16 credits a year for grades 9−12*. The program runs from September 2020 to June 2021 with classes starting as early as 2:30 pm. *Grade 8 credits available at select schools.

ELITE LEVEL DANCE PROGRAM
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Train with Vancouver’s top professionals in Street and/or Classical styles of dance: our elite level curriculum is open to high school students enrolled in Magee Secondary’s SpArts Program. Take academic classes at Magee in the mornings and train at Boogaloo studios in the afternoons.

For more  information  please call us at 604 805-0558 or email contact@boogalooacademy.com