Principal’s Message – October 15, 2022
As I review the announcements each day I am amazed by the number of clubs and teams students are able to participate in. From choir to volleyball, to art club and building teams…students have many opportunities to get involved.
On Monday we are having our first “Colour House” day for students in grades 1 to 8. Our Spencer Spirit Squad will be leading Houses that are made up of students from a variety of classrooms in some team building activities. It is an opportunity for students to get to know each other, have fun and build community.
As a community, we are always striving to make our schools more inclusive and welcoming for all students. Part of this work is looking at our practices around holidays and celebrations. With Halloween around the corner we will be doing some work with our students to understand that some people are unable to participate due to religion, culture and/or socio-economic status. Halloween can be a day that excludes others from school. We have been engaging in conversations about cultural appropriation, recognizing that a person’s culture is part of their identity and not a costume (e.g., cowboys and Indians, gypsies, black-face, Day of the Dead, etc.) Costumes based on cultural appropriation reinforce negative stereotypes. We also realize that this is a day that many of our students who do celebrate look forward to. These discussions continue to be rich and insightful.
So…what are we doing about Halloween? We are allowing appropriate costumes, black and orange, or wear your regular clothes to school on Monday, October 31st. We are having a regular school day with any classroom activities planned around the theme of autumn, rather than Halloween.
For those wishing to wear a costume:
- Please make sure that your child can independently get in and out of their costumes.
- No masks
- No weapons of any sort.
- Nothing with gratuitous violence (think of our smallest kiddos)
- No costumes based on cultural appropriation.
- Costumes must be in line with our school dress code.
- Avoid sending the props that come with some costumes. Students will not have access to the building on Friday and we don’t want them missing a piece of their costume if they are trick-or-treating.
A reminder to our families that we are having a PD Day on Monday, October 24th and the school will be closed to students. Teachers will be completing mandatory training and working on Progress Reports that will be going home in November.
We hope you have a fantastic weekend!
Categories: News