Happy Summer Holidays to the Chartwell Family!

I cannot begin to express how grateful I am to write these words to you all as we are a few hours away from completing the 2016-17 school year. From my first visit to Chartwell last spring for the Multicultural Night, I felt a sense of community here that embraces every individual teaching and learning at our school. The students are fully engaged in their learning, their families supporting them every step of the way. All the teachers and staff members are deeply committed to the children in their care and excited to be at school every day to provide an innovative learning environment and experience.

This has been a year of growth, in so many ways. New students, new staff members, new curriculum, new initiatives! None of that could be possible without everyone’s energy! I have many people to thank for making me feel so welcome and for helping me get to know the rich traditions. The PAC executive, under the leadership of Chair Nessa Van Bergen, has been tremendous in their fundraising and advocating and the new Learning Commons being renovated this summer will be a perfect display of the teamwork at play here. In the office, Ms. McKay Lee and Ms. Karimabadi, along with teacher assistants Ms. Locher and Goepel, have kept us all organized and operationally sound! The teachers  have embraced Inquiry-Based Learning and have made provocations and wonder walls a part of their units. Students have developed their skills in all academic areas, and have shown their caring nature time and again. The senior students were active in Service Learning and Leadership Club, and the Capstone Connect impressed students and parents and special guests. At every grade level, students have developed their foundation skills in literacy and numeracy, and digital tools are used in every classroom, to support learning in a variety of ways. It has been exciting to see students learn about coding, textiles, computational thinking and foods, all part of the new ADST curriculum. We are confident that the new Communicating Student Learning format gives parents descriptive and valuable feedback as to the progress of the students. We celebrate their learning and progress and set goals for the future.

Yesterday we celebrated the end of the elementary journey for our Grade 7 students! I am so glad that I had the pleasure of getting to know them! They were positive role models and I appreciated their contributions to the school this year. I am thrilled to see the growth that every single student demonstrated this year. They all demonstrated the virtues of perseverance, respect and responsibility, the core values of our Rights Respecting School. They also demonstrated our core competencies day to day, developing their communication, thinking, and personal and social skills. Well done Chartwell students. I am very proud of you!

Special thanks to  Ms. Desai and Ms. Johnston who acted as Head Teachers during the last two years. The time and effort they dedicated to the school did not go unnoticed. Their contributions were outstanding.

Before I say a final goodbye, I need to wish the best of luck to staff members who are leaving Chartwell for new opportunities. We will miss Mr. Hunter, Ms. Gratton, Ms. Tung, Ms. Woodley, Mr. Broughton, Ms. Caudwell, Ms. Lim, Ms. Misener and Ms. Hathaway. We wish happy Maternity leaves to Ms. Desai, Ms. Lee Law and Ms. Goesen! I am looking forward to introduce new staff members in the fall, including our new Vice Principal Ms. Alysha Karsan.

I also wish to thank District Leadership Team for supporting me and Chartwell School, and the amazing Facilities department led by Mr. Wade Hickey, for moving our school into a new age of enhanced learning spaces!

Happy Summer everyone! I wish you plenty of rest and relaxation with your wonderful children. See you in September!

Mme Chantal Trudeau