Hello Wildflower Families

Wow! It is starting to look a lot like spring out there and unbelievably Spring Break is only three weeks away. The past month has just flown by with lots of fun activities and great learning. There are multiple subjects I wanted to touch on today, but I would like to begin by discussing high school and high school graduation. Last week we had presentations from LVR and from Mount Sentinel. Most of our students will go to LVR so they came and talked to our grade 9 students about course selection and what their grade 10 year can look like. Mount Sentinel came to talk about their specialized Performance and Media Academy, aptly named Academy PM. Here at Wildflower, we are mainly focused on K to 9, but I thought it would be worthwhile highlighting what the grade 10 to 12 years look like for our students.

In British Columbia, students must complete the BC Graduation Program to earn a Dogwood Diploma. This requires a minimum of 80 credits in Grades 10-12, divided into required courses, electives, and assessments.

There are 52 credits of required courses that students must complete:

• English Language Arts (10, 11, and 12) – 12 credits
• Mathematics (10 and 11 or 12) – 8 credits
• Science (10 and 11 or 12) – 8 credits
• Social Studies (10 and one senior-level course) – 8 credits
• Physical and Health Education 10 – 4 credits
• Career-Life Education and Career-Life Connections – 8 credits
• An Arts Education or Applied Design, Skills & Technologies course – 4 credits
• Students also complete 28 elective credits, 16 of which must be at the Grade 12 level.

Along with these requirement high school students must also complete an assessment in numeracy and literacy in grade 10, as well as a grade 12 literacy assessment. Similarly in Career-Life Connections they undertake a capstone project that ensures students engage in career exploration and real-world learning. Finally, students are also required to take at least one credit of Indigenous studies, and this can be attained through a First People’s English course, or the grade 12 Social Studies course First Nation Studies.

One of the main focuses of our middle school program is preparing students for life in high school. One of our prouder achievements is the success that Wildflower students have in Mount Sentinel and LVR. In fact, we often hear from teachers at these schools about the strengths that our students have in expressing their opinions, their commitment to their learning and their ability to advocate for their needs. We are excited to invite grade 5 and 6 parents to a Middle School information night on March 6th at 5:15 p.m. This is just before the parent book club meeting, which runs from 6 to 7:30 p.m., so you will be able to attend both if you so desire. Speaking of the book club, if you are interested there is a copy of the book available at the school to borrow.

As I said at the start, there are lots of things happening at the school, in fact somedays it feels like things don’t stop happening. One of those things that is happening this Wednesday is Pink Shirt Day! We do our best to ensure that our students feel safe and happy at school every day, but we are not perfect and sometimes we miss things. If your child is having a hard time or being treated unfairly, please reach out to your classroom teacher or myself. You can also use the erase Report It tool. This tool lets you (students, adults, school staff) send a secure, anonymous and confidential message to your school or school district’s safe school coordinator, who will follow up right away. You do not have to provide your name unless you want to. LEARN MORE HERE or REPORT IT HERE

Finally, I want to send a huge thank and kudos out to Lindsay and the team from Wildflower who participated in the Coldest Night of the Year and raised over $1700. This was a wonderful achievement, but it also goes beyond that, and we are proud of their advocacy and awareness building around this important event.