Blog Posts

At Kandal, we are committed to strengthening our family partnerships in our school community. It’s no secret the more parents are involved in their children’s lives, both at home and school, the more they will be in the ‘know’ about how best to support their children. To this end, our kindergarten and grade 1 teachers and our English Language Learners (ELL) teachers initiated the “Parents as Partners” program.

Welcome to spring term! I hope everyone had an enjoyable March Break and is ready for the fun and business of term 3. It is wonderful to be coming to school in the sunshine!

As we head into the final term of this school year, there are a few reminders to be made.

1) Check out our school calendar often it is updated monthly with school and district wide events, or as events come up. Your child's individual classroom events will be communicated to you via planners, seesaw or class newsletters, etc, so it is important to check those things too.

Keeping the district’s focus on equity in mind, the Dr. Thomas A. Swift Elementary school community has taken on a small project of our own. Together with a couple of other elementary schools, we are using picture books to dive into topics of diversity and equity.

In our school district's four-year strategic plan, we have targeted improved early learning as a means of impacting student success. At Mathxwí Elementary, all primary classrooms have committed their year to explore practical ways to improve early literacy learning.

Greetings McMillan Families!

Noticing a shift in literacy instruction across the district? Wonder what is going on in the classroom down the hall?  

We walk into our schools each day and meet with faces, a multitude of beautiful faces behind which there are stories, personalities, interests, skills, hopes and values. And each day, we are lucky enough to have these children share pieces and layers of themselves in what might seem like surface-level interactions. A welcoming smile can draw someone in and engage them in conversation, and taking some time to listen to a child's story gives insight into their identity and, in turn, gives them the confidence they need to share with others.

The Abbotsford School District's Early Years learning team has been working to ensure that as many children and families have access to early learning support throughout our community. The following services and programs are currently available:

Harlem arrived at my school in September 2021 with a G4 file as thick as my fist. It stated that he had been in foster care for 11 years, rarely attended school, and could become violent if he became frustrated. He had been in foster care since birth and had been mainly homeschooled by his foster parents who did not value public school or his culture. When I first met him, it became apparent that we were not dealing with a violent or mean child but a soft-spoken, gentle, and curious boy.

Hello McMillan Families,

September is coming to a close, and what a month it was! So many fun events and opportunities to connect with both old and new friends! Thank you so much for all your support, as students settled into new routines. We also appreciated all the support from families around our cancer fundraisers. Between the popcorn sale, and the Toonies for Terry drive, we collected more than $1700 to donate to cancer research. The generosity of our community is overwhelming! Please see some photos from the day below.