TEMPO TIMES. Tempo School Newsletter December 2016

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1 TEMPO TIMES Tempo School Newsletter December 2016 Headmaster s Message Mr. Ray Battochio, Headmaster While it has been a busy fall at Tempo, it seems there is no time to rest before the holidays. We are diligently working on two January events that we would like to bring to your attention. On January 11, 2017 we will be hosting an evening at the University of Alberta Faculty Club for Grade 9 students and their parents. We have dubbed the evening: Why You Should Choose Tempo for High School. We will be providing students, parents, and Tempo staff with a buffet dinner that will include soft drinks, coffee, and tea. Following dinner a variety of speakers will present compelling reasons why grade 9 students should choose Tempo for their high school. Speakers will include Tempo staff, former students, and other guests. Parents and students have already been invited to the event. Tempo will require an RSVP from parents by December 21, 2016 in order to make final meal arrangements with the Faculty Club. Parents may RSVP Ms. Mykytiuk at nmykytiuk@temposchool.org to confirm attendance. On January 19, 2017 our Parent Advisory Council (PAC) will be hosting a Town Hall Meeting for parents to meet with school administration. If you have issues that you would like to have discussed in the forum, please them to PAC members. The address is pac@temposchool.org. The principal focus of the meeting will be to consider how the digital world is affecting Tempo students. Whether it is increasing screen time, cyber bullying, or the impact of social media, there is little doubt that students today are very connected to digital devices. We will begin at 6:00 p.m. with a light dinner and a viewing of the documentary movie Screenagers to help us focus on the topic. At 7:00 p.m. we will convene the Town Hall Meeting. We will discuss the main theme indicated above as well as other issues Tempo parents have passed along to members of our school s Parent Advisory Council. Christmas Charity Drive December 1 8 Please donate: Parent Advisory Council presents... Town Hall Meeting (Childcare Provided) Thursday, January 19, :00 p.m. Dinner and Movie Screenagers RSVP pac@temposchool.org. 7:00 p.m. Main Theme: Challenges of Growing Up in the Screen Time Era End time 8:30 p.m. In This Issue Headmaster Message Non-perishable food items Gently used winter clothing Unwrapped toys Christmas Charity Drive Spelling Bee of Canada Volunteers Needed Parking at Tempo

2 Alberta Regional Tournament at Tempo School Saturday, April 8, 2017 Spelling Bee of Canada Coming to Tempo Tempo School has been invited to host the Spelling Bee of Canada Regional Spelling Bee Competition on April 8, Since all age eligible students are invited to participate in the tournament, Tempo will be starting spelling bee clubs for students ages 6 to 8, 9 to 11, and 12 to 14 at the beginning of February. Students may choose to compete in either French or English. There will be no charge for students interested in participating in the spelling bee clubs or in the Spelling Bee of Canada Regional Competition on April 8, As you well know, spelling is an important English language skill and one on which Tempo places a high degree of emphasis. Whether your son or daughter is an excellent speller, participation in the Spelling Bee program could prove to be both engaging and supportive in your child s learning. If your child is interested in registering for a Spelling Bee of Canada after-school club, please complete a registration form as soon as possible. Registration forms are available from Ms. Mykytiuk at the office. Since registration for the Spelling Bee of Canada Regional Competition must be completed by December 31, 2016, we ask that students complete their registration with Tempo by December 16, Lunch and Learn Career Exploration Volunteers Needed Lunch and Learn is a parent volunteer program that supports students with career exploration and development. Here is how Lunch and Learn works. You volunteer your time to talk about your career for 20 minutes between 11:50 a.m. and 12:10 p.m. on any day of the week between mid January and the end of May. Your conversation with students can be live in our library, or virtually through Skype. We provide you with these questions to guide your conversation: Could you tell us a little about professional life? Why did you choose your field of study/career pathway and how is this connected to your passion or purpose in life? Could you describe your typical work day? What are the best parts of your work? What challenges have you found in your work that you weren t sure of, or necessarily prepared for, when you started? Our Parent Advisory Council (PAC) sponsors the event by providing students with a pizza and a drink for lunch, so it makes it very easy for students to attend. All we need is you. If you would like to volunteer please contact Mr. Battochio via at rbattochio@temposchool.org.

3 Tempo Fall Dances had some spooktacular costumes. Princesses and super heroes enjoyed the dance and game rooms. Middle School Mysee Masche Masqquerading. Are these really students in Lower School? These students were all dressed up for the Family Dance. These Tempo students and friends got caught in the volunteer web. Upper School students looked great at their Halloween dance.

4 Upper School News We are very pleased to report that Tempo School has hosted several universities this fall including the University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, and McGill University. We are very proud to announce that 100% of our grade 12 students have applied to one or more institutions for post-secondary education. Tempo grade 2 students learned about the Lord Strathcona Mounted Troop. The examination schedule for our Upper School students has been prepared and is available to our students. We would like to remind parents that regular classes will be held when students are not writing exams this January. Our Student Council has been busy this fall organizing bi-weekly events including a very successful Halloween Dance. They also volunteered on Friday, December 2 to decorate the school for the holiday season. This event included decorating the school and enjoying a pizza dinner. The event ended with a mug of hot chocolate and a movie. Tempo students, parents and staff enjoy a spectacular performance of the Strathcona Mounted Troop Musical Ride. Tempo School will be hosting grade nine students and their parents to an evening at the University of Alberta Faculty Club. We shall outline ten reasons why Tempo is their best choice for continuing their high school education. All grade nine students and their parents are encouraged to attend. We ask that you RSVP before Christmas break to Ms. Mykytiuk. She can be reached at nmykytiuk@temposchool.org. Students were thrilled to meet members of the Strathcona Mounted Troop and their horses following the musical ride. Finally, Tempo School will once again purchase, prepare, and serve a meal for the Mustard Seed located in Edmonton's city center. The cost to the school is $1000 and it is our intention to have a TOONIE TUESDAY in the New Year to fund this meal. We will also be looking for 12 volunteers from our upper school to prepare and serve the meal. An update will be provided in the New Year.

5 Student Drop off and Pick up Routines at Tempo On most days when you drive your child to Tempo, you probably notice a parent volunteer and Mr. Battochio out in the parking lot. We are very fortunate to have wonderful parking patrol volunteers who are able to help out for about 20 minutes between 8:00 a.m. and 8:20 a.m. These people do an amazing job keeping our students safe and facilitating the flow of traffic through the passenger drop-off lanes. Since we need volunteers for each day of the school year, it is quite helpful to be able to draw from a large pool of people. Greg Berghuys is our parking patrol volunteer coordinator, and he is looking for people to volunteer a few days per week or even a week sometime during the year. As with any volunteer activity, many hands make light work. We ask that you Greg at tempoparkingpatrol@temposchool.org, if you are able to help out. Drivers should pull forward all the way in the passenger dropoff lanes. Please do not stop your vehicle until you have reached the STOP sign. As you can see in this picture, ideally, we would like to fit three vehicles in each drop-off lane to ensure the flow of traffic. Our drop-off area has painted arrows, stop lines, a safety zone, and signs to remind drivers to pull forward and to stop where required. While the focus of these features is student safety, we are trying to help facilitate the flow of traffic by having vehicles move all the way forward to the front of the passenger drop-off zone. Each drop-lane is designed to hold three vehicles. We would like to encourage people to move forward in order to make the drop-off and pick-up more efficient. Being out in the parking lot allows us to observe the morning traffic patterns. It is no surprise that the line of vehicles outside becomes longer as we get closer to the time that school starts. Another observation is that the line-up is longer and occurs later when there has been snowy, cloudy, or foggy weather. Homeroom attendance begins at 8:10 a.m. and ends at 8:20 a.m. You should plan to arrive so that your children are not late. As a school, we believe that punctuality and attendance are essential life skills for students. Students who are late three times in a two- week period are considered to be persistently late. May we suggest that when weather and driving conditions change, you leave a little earlier so that your children are not late for school. Thank you for your support. Stopping at the large yellow line creates enough room so that three vehicles can stop in the drop-off lane. As you can see, there is likely a long line of cars behind you. If your children need parental assistance to get out of the vehicle, you should park in the parking lot instead of spending a couple of minutes in the drop-off lanes. Parking Patrol Volunteers Needed Please Contact Greg Berghuys tempoparkingpatrol@gmail.com Grade 9 Students and Parents Why You Should Choose Tempo for High School University of Alberta Faculty Club Cocktails (ho-host bar) at 5:00 p.m. January 11, 2017 at 6:00 p.m. Program to Follow RSVP to nmykytiuk@temposchool.org by December 21, 2016

6 Parent Advisory Council (PAC) The Tempo School Parent Advisory Council would like to welcome you to another school year. PAC is a liaison among the parents, the school administration and the Board of Governors, and it provides support to parents who need information about our school. PAC always welcomes your thoughts, ideas and questions. Special thanks to people who have already signed up to volunteer for parking patrol and photo day. Below is a list of the events PAC supports and coordinates: Parking Patrol every school morning (8:00a.m. - 8:20a.m.) Christmas Charity Drive December 1 December 8 January Town Hall Ski Club - select Fridays in December, January, February, and March Doughnut Day 4 times throughout the year Lower School (Grades K-6) Sports Day May 19 Upper School (Grades 7-12) Sports Day June 9 In order for these events to run, volunteers are needed. We encourage you to become involved and to participate. Please contact us for more information. Parent Advisory Council (P.A.C.) pac@temposchool.org Radhika Bhargava (President) Csilla Fee Lise Warmington Important Ski Club Reminder to Parents You, or your approved guardian over the age of 18, must sign out and pick up your child at Snow Valley following your child s release from the ski club lesson at 4:30 p.m. A Tempo Ski Club Official will be in the chalet for this purpose. Speech and Debate News Tempo students are off to a great start in Speech and Debate this season. Under the coaching of Sirisha Valupadas, our students have done extremely well in two early season tournaments. During the last weekend of October more than 60 teams competed at the Westminster Junior High School Tournament. Tempo School students achieved these results in the Open category: Adnan Black and Saima Sami Irshad Sayed and Hannah Dean Adnan Black Hannah Dean Contact Tempo We would appreciate hearing from you! Tempo School St. Edmonton, AB T6H 4T7 (780) admin@temposchool.org First Place Second Place First Place Individual Speaker Second Place Individual Speaker During the last weekend of November teams competed at the Sir Winston Churchill High School Debate and Speech Competition. Tempo achieved these results: Garrett Hildebrandt earned First Place in the Speech category and advanced to the final round at McKay Avenue School where he took Second Place on December 2. Garrett received a $200 cash prize from the Churchill Society of Edmonton for his performance in the finals. Harveen Brar received the overall award for the Best Novice Speaker in the Speech category. Simran Grewal and Gurbir Sandha received the award for Best Tempo Team in the Debate category. Finally, on Wednesday, November 30 at the Speech Tournament at Old Scona, Tempo achieved these results: Simranjit Grewal First Place in the Original Oratory category Rafay Osmani Third Place in the Prose category