Happy Spring Everyone!  It is great to see our days getting longer. Birds chirping, flowers blooming and most of all a lot of people enjoying the nicer weather!

We had a nice two week Spring Break. Now that we are back, we are ready to get back into our routines and get some good learning in before the end of the year!

This is what is happening in the month of April:

April 5th, 12th, 19th & 26th, 2016

The Grade 6/7 Class will be doing Cooking Classes with Nanaimo Food Share. They will also be visiting the Nanaimo Community Gardens.

April 8th, 2016

Jump Rope for Heart Fundraiser for the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation. This will happen at Princess Royal from 1:00pm to 2:30 on Friday, April 8th, 2016. Please remember to make your pledges of support to our students! J

April 14th & 15th, 2016

No School for students.

Staff will be attending the Annual First Nations Schools Association Conference in Vancouver.

April 20th, 2016

Cultural Day – Staff and students will be harvesting cedar bark.

April 22nd, 2016

Earth Day – Students and Staff will be going out into the Snuneymuxw First Nation Community to do a neighbourhood clean-up. Please join us in making our community a clean place to live, work and play! J

April 24th, 2016

QQS Staff will be doing the Times Colonist 10K Run/Walk in Victoria.

April 25th, 27th, and 29th, 2016.

Grade 6/7 Class will be doing an anti-bullying workshop lead by SFN Health Department.

April 28th, 2016

Bowling and Pizza Day!

April 29th, 2016

QQS Assembly lead by the Grade 4/5 Class.

We are starting a new Attendance Contest at QQS! Our final trip will be to Playland! Our hope is that all of our students will be here 100% until the end of the year.

Also a big heads up, we are preparing for the Hulquiminum Language Competition that will be happening on May 19th, 2016 at Ladysmith Secondary School. Gary Smith our Language Teacher will be working with our students to ensure that they are ready for this competition.

It is going to be an exciting month ahead of us!

Respectfully, Roxanne Harris -- Principal

April 5th, 2016                      

Uy’skweyul  Snuneymuxw Mustimuxw, Parents & Guardians;

It is time to start our new “ATTENDANCE CONTEST” for April, May and June!

I am excited to announce that we will be bringing the children who miss 2 days or less and that have 6 lates or less to PLAYLAND IN VANCOUVER!

At QQS we believe that if all of our children are at school everyday on time, we can teach them all that they need to know by the end of the school year.

Our QQS staff has been working hard to understand the needs of the school. What we do know for sure is that we need to work on attendance and getting to school on time.  So, the QQS Staff have identified “ATTENDANCE” as our “Greatest Area of Need” and are totally committed to getting our students here every day and on time.

QQS ATTENDANCE CONTEST!

ALL QQS students are entered!
Our contest runs from Monday,April 11th, 2016 to June 22nd, 2016.  
QQS students are expected to attend everyday on time (8:40am to 2:30pm) Except on Mondays we have early dismissal at 2:00pm.
In this contest students MUST not miss more than 2 days.
School starts at 8:40am SHARP! If they walk in at 8:41am they are late!
Lates: what if my child is late for school? Three lates will be equivalent to one day missed.
Early departures: if a child leaves early three or more times this will be equivalent to one day missed.
Excused absences (example: Doctor or Dentist appointments) parents MUST PHONE IN BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS AT 8:40am to report that their son/daughter won’t be at school because of an appointment or illness.
DOCTOR’S NOTE IS NOW REQUIRED IF YOUR CHILD MISSES 3 DAYS OR MORE.
SAFE ARRIVALS: Please ensure that you sign your child in upon their arrival so that we know that they have arrived at school safely.
SAFE DEPARTURES: Please sign your child at the front desk, so that we know who they are leaving with. This also helps us with our bus run at the end of the day. We also need to make sure we know who is in our school at all times in the event of an emergency.

We will be taking the students who have successfully made it to school and have missed or more than 2 days of school & on time between Monday, April 11th, 2016 to June 22nd, 2016 on this VERY SPECIAL TRIP!  THE QQS BEST ATTENDERS will be going to PLAYLAND IN VANCOUVER!

Who: All of the QQS students who attend school and miss less than 2 days of school between Monday, April 11th, 2016 and June 22nd, 2016.

What: QQS Attendance Contest (for the months of April, May & June)

Where: We will be going to PLAYLAND IN VANCOUVER!

When: The trips will be on:

                                    Thursday, June 23rd, 2016 (Bex & Peter’s Classes)

                                    Friday, June 24th, 2016 (Lisa, Nikki and Tina’s Classes)

Why: We want ALL of our students to be here at QQS everyday!

We need your help parents, guardians, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, friends & relatives! Please help us get all of our children to school every day and on time!

What can you do?

Set regular bed times and morning routines
Lay out clothes and pack backpacks the night before
Don’t let your child stay home unless he/she is truly sick. Keep in mind complaints of stomach ache or headache can be a sign of anxiety and not a reason to stay home.
If your child seems anxious about going to school, talk to teachers, school counselors, and the principal and other parents for advice on how to make him/her feel comfortable and excited about learning.
Develop back-up plans for getting to school if something comes up. Call on a family member, a neighbour, or another parent.
Avoid medical appointments and extended trips when school is in session.
Family members can go outside and stand on their porches and driveways and give our kids positive encouragement for going to school every day!
Ask your child/children how their day was & “What did you learn today at school?”
Be positive and encourage the kids to come to school!

It does take SNUNEYMUXW FIRST NATION COMMUNITY to raise a child! Please help us out by making sure that all of our students are at QQS everyday!

Yours in Education, Roxanne Harris Principal

IMPORTANT: PLEASE RETURN COMPLETED FIELD TRIP FORM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

VIU GYM WORKSHOP

Written by Debbie Tommy

Tuesday April 4, 2016

On Friday April 1, 2016 the grade 4/5 & 6/7 classes went to the Vancouver Island University (VIU) gym. We went to the gym for our P.E. class and to give the student teachers practice teaching.  First thing we did was free play. There were different stations to play: hula-hoops, stacking cups, jump bands, Frisbees, basketball, and scoops. That’s all the stations and everyone had a turn at each station. Then the student teacher called us all over to sit down somewhere so she could tell us what we were going to do. She was saying there are four stations. Station #1 is the omniken (a giant ball), station #2 is the track (relay races), station #3 is 4 square, station #4 is drum fit. My favorite station was station #4 because it was fun and the music was loud. Everyone was put in different groups. And I don’t who was in the other groups but mine. In my group was Melissa, Morgan, Gabby and me. After, everyone was playing Titanic. It was fun because we had to use three hula-hoops and five people were on one team. It was easy but then someone fell off so we had to help him. We made it there and back and I think our team won. After we played that game we did yoga, everyone sat in a big circle, we had to partner up with someone. And I partnered up with Alexis. Some poses were funny and some of then were hard too. After we did yoga, we all got water bottles with a little orange inside it. I hope we could go to VIU again.