News from Vanier - October 19 - 23

Dear Vanier students and families: 

May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. 2 Peter 1:2 

Dear Lord, May you wrap a blanket of peace around me and my loved ones this day. Be our comforter, guide, and protector as we turn to you with all of our hearts.  Amen 

A huge thank you to all students and families who were able to help with the food drive last week – several tens of thousands of dollars worth of food was donated to the Whitehorse Food Bank!  These donations are an essential part of their winter food stocks. 

We are only about a week away from the mid-point of the first semester!  Time is flying by and students will be receiving academic interims (Grades 8 & 9) and report cards with percentage marks (Grades 10-12) in the mail near the end of the first week of November.  Let’s get those projects finished, overdue assignments handed in, and study well for unit tests and midterms! 

This week, we are also administering a short survey to our Grade 10-12 Senior School students to gather some self-assessment data on their skills and abilities in relation to the following aspects: setting goals, analyzing task requirements, planning, organizing, prioritizing, managing stress, notetaking, test preparation, persistence, resilience, utilizing resources, and self-evaluation.  We will measure these skills throughout the year to see if they are improving. 

All students will be surveyed using the Our School national survey in early November which will also provide the school with some great data to inform our decision making, especially through our School Growth Plan process. 
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact the school by replying to this email, emailing our general school email at [email protected] or phoning the school at 667-5901. 

Sincerely, 

Ryan Sikkes, principal and Alethea Wallace, vice-principal 


Week-at-a-glance 

Monday, October 19th 

•Senior School - Day 2 

•Bookend @ 8:20 am 

•SBT @ 8:45 am 

Tuesday, October 20th 

•Senior School - Day 1 

•Senior School survey  

•School Council AGM @ 7:00 pm in Learning Commons 

Wednesday, October 21st 

•Senior School - Day 2 

•Alpha meeting – grade 8 @ 12:15 pm in Room 26 

•X block = 2 

Thursday, October 22nd 

•Senior School - Day 1 

•Senior School survey catch-up 

Friday, October 23rd 

•Senior School - Day 2 
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Literacy Assessment 10 
The week of November 2-6 will see our Grade 10 students writing their Literacy Assessment – more details will follow by email and will be shared with students in class.  These assessments are graduation requirements and have multiple opportunities for re-writes. 

For more information on the Literacy 10 Assessment, please visit: https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/assessment/literacy-assessment/grade-10-literacy-assessment  

Our Grade 10 students will write their Numeracy 10 Assessments in January.  All students in all grades will have re-write opportunities in April 2021. 

November 2-6 will also be an opportunity for anyone to rewrite either the Literacy or Numeracy 10 Assessments – email Ms. Brogdon at [email protected] if you wish to be registered for a re-write. 


Phone Calls/Messages  

In the recent days and weeks, we have been noticing that more and more parents/guardians are making phone calls directly to students during class time. It is difficult for students to ignore incoming calls at the best of times, especially when they are coming from a parent.  

Every minute of class time is crucially important this year, so we would very much appreciate parents/guardians waiting until breaks to make calls or to simply send a message to a child requesting a call back at the next break time.  

We would also like to remind all parents that in truly urgent situations, please don’t hesitate to call the office and ask someone there to relay a message directly to a student. 


Yearbooks 2019-2020 
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The 2019-2020 yearbooks are in production at the Jostens Printing company.  There was a delay this year because of Covid-19 and the late Class of 2020 Cap & Gown ceremony at the end of August.  If you ordered a yearbook last spring, you will be contacted when the yearbooks arrive to the school.  If the student who ordered one is no longer living in Whitehorse and do not have the means of having the yearbook picked up for you, please send a forwarding mailing address to [email protected].  If you are away at University, other Post Secondary, or working out of Territory, yearbooks will have to be picked up by a family member at the school.