Second Written Learning Update for 2023-2024

SD83 Communications

Students in Elementary and Middle schools will be receiving their second Written Learning Update (formerly known as report cards) for the 2023-24 school year on Wednesday, March 6, 2024.

This second Learning Update provides information about your child’s engagement in learning, relationships with others, and social/emotional well-being. You will also find proficiency levels and descriptive feedback in all of the curricular areas using the following framework:

  • student’s strengths
  • areas of growth
  • next steps at school or home

Also included in your child’s Learning Update is a self-reflection of the Core Competencies they focused on this term. The Core Competencies are sets of intellectual, personal, and social and emotional proficiencies that all students need in order to engage in deep, lifelong learning. Specific goal(s) are also included in all Learning Updates, as goal setting is a curricular requirement and also an important life long skill.

Please review the Learning Update with your child and celebrate all of their successes to date this year! As always, please feel free to reach out to you child’s teacher if you have any questions or concerns about your child’s learning journey.

Draft Calendar out for Public Feedback

SD83 Communications

SD83 is collecting feedback from families and community on the proposed 2024-2025 district school year calendar.  Your input will be shared with the Board to help trustees decide if any edits to the calendar are necessary before it comes back for approval during the March Board meeting.

The draft calendar, which was co-created by a District Calendar Committee consisting of senior leadership, principals and vice-principals and North Okanagan Shuswap Teachers’ Association representatives, meets all Ministry requirements (for example for hours of instruction) as well as contractual obligations. An approved calendar must be submitted to the Ministry by March 31, 2024. 

The draft calendar proposes the school year will begin with a full non-instruction in-service day for all employees on September 3. This will be followed by a gradual start half-day for students on September 4 with the first full day of instruction on September 5. 

The in-service day will allow District staff to complete important work related to the Strategic Plan, explained Assistant Superintendent Michelle Guillou when she presented the recommended draft calendar to the Board of Education at its meeting on February 20, 2024, at the District Education Support Centre (DESC). She added that feedback from District staff last year was clear that the traditional half-day gradual start on the first day of school is needed to organize classes in the afternoon on the first day after meeting the students in the morning. 

Other dates to note on the draft include the last day of school before Winter Break being December 20, Spring Break is March 17-28, and the last day of school for students, which is a half day, is June 26. 

Please note the following:

  • The number of professional development days (in red) have been decided through provincial negotiation, and are not part of the local calendar process. The proposed placement of these days, done in collaboration with the local teachers’ association (NOSTA) as per the language in our Collective Agreement, is part of the local calendar process.
  • As of November 2015, the new BC School Calendar Regulation has been in effect. It is different from the earlier regulation in several ways, primarily that it sets the number of hours of instruction rather than the number of days of instruction. You may also have noticed the added non-instructional days and a subsequent reduction in instructional hours in recent years. These were negotiated provincially to help implement Ministry of Education New/Renewed Curriculum. 
  • The Semester Transition Day (in light purple) on January 28th is for secondary schools only. Elementary and middle schools will be in session on that day.   
  • Once a District Calendar has been approved by the Board of Education, each school will work with their local stakeholders to establish their bell schedules in a manner with the framework of the BC Calendar Regulation and the SD83 Teachers’ Collective Agreement.

VIEW PDF OF CALENDAR HERE

Please review the proposed SD83 District School Calendar pictured above, then provide comments in the survey form by clicking the link below.
FEEDBACK SURVEY LINK HERE