This month's Key Communiqué

Please have a look at the most recent Key Communiqué, distributed via email on Friday of last week. There are some important updates to the calendar for the 2010/2011 school year, and an interesting update on Bill 206.

Also of note - the Grade six class is at bird school this week, and the Parent Association/Council is meeting on Wednesday night at 6:30 in the library for its annual performance review. Please feel free to attend, with your questions, comments or concerns.

As promised...

I've uploaded the minutes of our last Key Communicator Steering Commitee Meeting - they can be viewed here. Also, on speaking with other Key Communicators, there was a great deal of interest in the School Act revisions - here is a link to what the Board sent to Alberta Education regarding this.

Have a great Grey Cup weekend!

Negotiating an end to the homework debate

From the CBC website

Anna-Liza Kozma has worked as a writer and producer on many CBC Radio programs. She has three young children and has just returned to work on Cross Country Checkup.

Childhood passes quickly. And so do sunny days.

That means, in our house, sunshine trumps homework pretty much every time.

I figure that the kids have been shut in a classroom most of the day, and I've been glued to my desk. So if our wretched climate gives us an excuse to play outside, we should grab it.

When I confessed this delinquency to Paul Cappon, director of the Canadian Council on Learning he was surprisingly sympathetic.

Read more here.

The PAT test - is it necessary?

I attended the Key Communicator Steering Committee meeting last week, and, among various topics covered, was the concern of parents as to the relevance of the PAT exams - why they were necessary, and how the results were interpreted. I found this video posted by the Alberta government, which offers some insight as to the test's importance.

I'll detail the full meeting agenda and minutes once they are sent to the committee for distribution.

Should kids roam free?

From the Canada.com website:

Lenore Skenazy is leading a one-mother campaign to ground some of the "helicopter parenting" habits she contends cost millions of modern kids their right to roam free.

Growing up in the 1960s and '70s, she did lots of things now off limits for many children. "I did indeed walk and bike . . . to school. I went by myself to the town pool, I explored the neighbourhood and some abandoned orchards, and I never thought of myself as being adventurous or daring. Just normal."

Click here to read the full article.

Childhood Poverty in Canada: A Shameful Effort

Twenty years ago today - the Canadian House of Commons voted unanimously on an all party resolution to end child poverty in Canada. The resolution read "... acheive the goal of eliminating poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000"!

Today 1 in 10 Canadian children lives in poverty.

Obviously they have missed the mark. Just as obviously, they tackled a beast. Although the sentiment has to be lauded, the execution has been embarrassing. A watchdog group called Campaign 2000 has been monitoring the progress of the governments efforts. Today they have released their report card.

As rich as Canada is, I see no reason that our children should be hungry. I'm ashamed to think that 10% of our children have a hard time getting proper meals.

Make your voice heard - tell your MP that this effort needs more attention. To make it very easy to contact the right people go here and fill in the form. This will send a letter to your MP that states you wish them to (among other things) " develop an immediate plan to eliminate poverty in Canada for all, starting with achieving 50 per cent reduction in poverty by 2020..." A much less aggressive goal but hopefully more attainable.

Read the letter carefully, it will be sent in your name and there are a number of requests. If you don't agree with all of them but still want your MP to work toward ending poverty - then send an email or letter to Jason Kenney (for most of us). His email is kennej@parl.gc.ca and his snail mail address and phone number is here.

Crib Blamed for Infant Deaths: Recalled

BC based Stork Craft has had to recall almost 1 million cribs in Canada and over a million more in the US as the cribs are reportedly faulty and may have caused 4 Canadian infant deaths. Read the rest of the story here - stop using this crib if you have one!