Vincent Massey School Medicine Hat
901 Hargrave Way NW T1A 6Y8 Medicine Hat, AB, Canada

Hello Families, Our Scholastic Time Machine Book Fair has been extended for two more days until the end of Wednesday, November 18th! Shop for great books on line, with 20% of all sales going to support our library with new books to benefit all our students. Shop on Wednesday from 6:00 to 8:00p.m. at our Family Night and get free shipping on all orders! https://virtualbookfairs.scholastic.ca/pages/5150779... Thank you for your support! See more

Students in Early Childhood Services and Grades K-6 will remain learning in-person until Dec. 18. All students will return to at-home Scenario 3 learning after their winter break on January 4th and resume in-person learning at school on January 11th.

Thank you to MHPSD First Nations Métis Inuit Support Worker Morgan Muir for coming into Vincent Massey today to speak to several classes on the Importance of Reconciliation and FNMI appreciation. Thank you Morgan!

To us adults, snow is a pain. But our Vincent Massey kids were loving it! VM students reminding us to find the positives in everything and to stay a kid at heart.

Thank you to these very excellent parent volunteers from our bacon fundraiser delivery on November 3rd! Appreciations to everyone that supported this fundraiser. (Wow! What a difference in weather 9 days can make! )

Celebrating and wearing blue for the United Nations designated World Children’s Day today at Vincent Massey School. Check out these Kindergarten-created unique cookie children. We love these kids and so appreciate all of the caring and dedicated staff who help all children To Learn, To Grow, and To Build a Better World. Hug a kid today!

Vincent Massey School is excited to have three student teachers from the Medicine Hat College. We look forward to having Mr. Whitson, Miss Livingston, and Mr. Quinton with us until Christmas break.

To: Grade 4-6 Vincent Massey Parents/Guardians Re: November OurSchool Student Wellness & Transition Survey Dear Grade 4, 5, 6 VM Parents/Guardians,... The start of this school year was unique, unlike anything we have ever experienced. Although we anticipate additional challenges to come our way as we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, we are very proud of the way our school community (students, staff, families) has adapted. It is important that we understand how our students are feeling about the transition back to school in Scenario 1. Over the month of November, students in MHPSD from Gr. 4 12 will be asked to complete a 20-minute survey to share their perspective about how we transitioned back to school. This will also include an additional component about overall well being. Our community has been working to assess how the added dynamics of a worldwide pandemic can impact mental health in schools. The feedback that we receive from this in-school survey will help us to make adjustments and identify immediate and long-term interventions to support our MHPSD students. Vincent Massey administration plans to conduct this survey during the school day with grades 4-6 students very soon. If you have any questions about the survey, please contact Mrs. Steiner or myself at 403-527-3750. Sincerely, Andrew McFetridge Principal

Today our entire Vincent Massey School community met online for our virtual Remembrance Day program. We remember, thank, and honour all who have served for our country in the name of democracy, peace, and freedom. We would like to share some pictures of our online assembly today and also some great Remembrance Day student artwork from our halls with our VM parents/guardians to include you.

A very meaningful and positive day yesterday at Vincent Massey as we honoured Orange Shirt Day/Reconciliation, and also participated in something else very close to our hearts, the Terry Fox Run/Walk. All that and we also took part in our first ever online, month end whole school assembly! Great work VM!

We have been engaging in discussions and activities around Residential schools, and Reconciliation towards honouring Orange Shirt Day tomorrow. Please wear an orange shirt or any other orange clothing tomorrow to recognize the experience of the children who were sent to residential schools. We are proud to support this campaign for truth, hope, justice, and reconciliation for Indigenous communities.

So we decided to get some practice in with the photo props for next weekend. Full disclosure your pictures will be taken with a high quality camera! But we had fun! There are still spaces available to sign up! Text me at +14039281421

Our first fundraiser of the year is here!

Our schools will be honouring Orange Shirt Day on Wednesday, Sept 30 to recognize the experience of residential school survivors. We are proud to support this c...ampaign for truth, justice, and reconciliation for Indigenous communities. #MHPSDfamily #thisisus #everychildmatters #orangeshirtday #reconciliation See more

Our School Council Chair and Vice Chair on site this morning planting and planning. Thank you, Ladies for loving this school so much. We are grateful for all you do.

What a great idea from our parents on our VM School Council! Sign me up! Please help us build towards an outdoor classroom.

Parent Communication below:

Updated Stay Home Guide. Do your kids have symptoms of illness? Check our Stay Home Guide to see when to keep your kids home from school. If you need more information connect with your child's school and they will be happy to help. Check it out... https://bit.ly/2FzJfe5

Parents/Guardians, Some very important guidelines and requirements should your child become ill. (This information has also been emailed to all VM families)

Reminder of school picture day tomorrow. Also, no school for students this Friday, September 18 as this is a Teacher Professional Learning day.

All Vincent Massey Parents/Guardians, it would be great to see you at our first School/Parent Council Meeting tomorrow, September 15th at 6:30pm in the VM Gym. Please use the staff parking lot doors, sign in and sanitize hands upon entry, and please wear a mask. Thank you and we hope to see you there.

Always valuing Kindness in our Vincent Massey learning community as we take precautions in Scenario 1 learning. Thank you to Ms. Macleod, Mrs. Lister, Mrs. Harvey-Zenk, and VM Students for your creativity and awesome work.

Over the past several months we’ve faced unusual challenges as a community. Loss of routines, predictability, and favourite activities often leave us feeling di...sconnected or isolated. Our ability to cope during stressful times by coming together is what makes us resilient. While our circumstances have made that difficult, we are wired for connection and will continue to seek it out, particularly during times of stress. We know that children may be dealing with the recent loss of family member or a friend. Some are trying to process the loss of people they didn’t even know because there is a heaviness in our community right now. While we hope that we’ve created space for them to come to us, we also know that they will seek out connection from their peers even when they have healthy adults in their lives. Kids are using a variety of social media platforms to connect and get their buckets filled (I.e., Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok). Much of this content is positive, hopeful, and intended to meet this need for connection. However, there is also hurtful, threatening, and negative content that is being shared amongst our youth. Our lack of opportunity for real, in person, social connection in recent months has left us more vulnerable to the impact of stress than in the past. More than ever, we need to physically and emotionally connect and communicate with our kids. You will find contact numbers for community wellness supports at http://ow.ly/s43e50BkeXT Together let’s start open conversations with our children about what they are seeing online and help them to know who they can tell when they are worried about what they see. Asking our children about the apps they use, the content they view, and if this content makes them feel hopeful or more disconnected is a great start. Parenting children and teens isn’t easy, reach out and let your MHPSD family keep you strong. - Claire Petersen MHPSD Psychologist

Our community has experienced the loss of a young person which has impacted many students and staff in our MHPSDfamily. In fact, we have experienced a number of... losses over the past several months. We are grieving for each other as we see impact of these losses on our students and staff. We are a small community and we care about each other. It is OK to not be OK and we are here to support you. We want to ensure that you have the resources you need to support your kids. There are school based supports available and community resources. Kids Help Phone Text CONNECT or 1.800.668.6868 Health link at 811 Note: This line is handling higher than normal call volumes so please be patient or select another option if it is urgent Distress Centre 403.266.HELP (4357) Alberta Mental Health Helpline 1.877.303.2642 We recognize that there are many difficult feelings associated with loss and we are here to listen. MHPSD Counselling services are available; our Family School Liaison Workers are here to help your child and their phone numbers can be found on our website at MHPSD.ca under the COVID-19 tab for Family Resources.

Dear Vincent Massey Parents/Guardians: We are happy to have you back as part of our Vincent Massey learning community. It is our goal to have the best year possible for our students, parents/guardians, and staff even during the current COVID conditions. For the health of our students and staff, if you have yet to do so, it is very important that you please read the "Vincent Massey School Re-entry Plan" document below and be familiar with the information and requirements in it. Thank you. http://www.vincentmasseyschool.ca//vincent_massey_school_r

Superintendent Mark Davidson just sent a call home to families to share the following reminder: The Chief Medical Officer of Health requires that families and s...taff are required to do a daily COVID-19 symptom assessment based on the daily health checklist attached, prior to getting on the school bus or entering an MHPSD building. The health check does not need to be signed and handed in each day, it should be completed on the honour system. If your child has any of the symptoms on this list they need to stay home until their symptoms are gone or until they receive a negative COVID-19 test. We are extremely excited to see students back at school tomorrow, both in person and at-home online.