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Monday, May 6th:
Grade 6 badminton Tournament at Home, 3:30-5:15
Grade 7 badminton Tournament at Dunsmuir, 3:30-5:15
Boys and Girls Rugby practice, 2:45-4, Pexsisen field
Tuesday, May 7th:
Track and Field practice: throws, hurdles, long distance and high jump.
Wednesday, May 8th:
Boys rugby practice, 2:45-4, Pexsisen field.
Girls rugby game at Central, 3:30-5:15
Thursday, May 9th:
Boys rugby game at SMUS, 3:30-5:15
Track meet at UVIC, 4:00-6:00 please see posted schedule for events, or check with Mrs. Sharpe.
track practice 2:45-3:45: sprints, relays and triple jump/long jump
Hello Centre Mountain Lellum Families,
Communicating Student Learning
Teachers will provide the second informal learning update which will include information specific to the student’s learning. These informal learning updates may take the form of in-person/virtual conferences, phone calls, emails, portfolios, or written summaries. Teachers should have reached out already to inform parents/caregivers of the format and timeline of these informal learning updates, and will honour requests for conferences, either in-person, online, or phone calls. These informal learning updates must be completed by early May. If teachers plan to do informal learning updates in the form of conferences, these conferences can be scheduled at a time that works for all parties.
Please note: At Centre Mountain Lellum, we will not be organizing a full school parent/caregiver conference afternoon or evening. However, many teachers are organizing student-led conferences at Centre Mountain Lellum on Thursday, April 18. The times may vary from teacher to teacher, but the window of opportunity will be between 1:00-6:00pm. If you have not heard from your child’s teacher regarding the informal learning updates, please connect with them as soon as possible.
Athletics
Wednesday April 10th: Girls & Boys rugby practice 2:45 – 3:45 pm
Grade 7 badminton game at Dunsmuir 3:30 – 5 pm
Thursday April 11th: Grade 6 badminton practice 2:45 – 3:45 pm
Friday April 12th: Grade 8 badminton practice at lunch
Half Day Thursday, April 18
Students will be in attendance for the morning only on Thursday, April 18. Buses will be running 3 hours ahead of scheduled on this day. Bus schedules may vary slightly on this day, but they will all be running. A reminder that Friday, April 19 is a non-instructional day, so no school for students that day.
NA’TSA’MAHT Indigenous Education
Please see the attached poster for the upcoming T’Sou-ke Family Dinner on April 25 or sign up online: https://forms.office.com/r/ZEhXyvSTTt.
Please find the Indigenous Ancestry poster attached.
Book Fair
We will be hosting a book fair in our library from Wednesday, April 17 to Tuesday, April 23. This book fair will also be open from 1:00pm – 4:00pm on Thursday, April 18. If your child’s teacher will be running student-led conferences during these times, please stop in to visit the book fair.
Community Resources
Pacific FC is pleased to offer all SD62 students, parents and staff discounted ticket rates ($20 – $22/ticket) for their 2024 season. The home opener is Saturday, April 13, 4 p.m. at Starlight Stadium and the season will run through to Saturday, Oct. 19. Please click on the link below for tickets: Season FEVO Link: https://fevo-enterprise.com/group/sookeschooldistrict
Please find a poster for Westshore Basketball summer camp and distribute as you see fit.
There is an upcoming production of Alice in Wonderland by Amber Academy. Please find the poster attached and distribute as you see fit.
Important Dates:
April
District Wide Chess Tournament – Thurs, April 11 in MPR
Book Fair in Library – Wed, April 17 – Tues, April 23
Half Day only for Conferences – Thurs, April 18
Non-Instructional Day – Fri, April 19
April 29-May 3: Welding Simulator – April 29-May 3 All day in the Multi-purpose room
May
Hot lunch – Fri, May 3 (Subway and Booster Juice)
Grade 6 Immunizations – Tues, May 7 in MPR
Grade 6 Immunizations – Wed, May 8 in MPR
Hot lunch – Fri, May 31 (White Spot)
June
Grade 8 Band students to Belmont – Thurs, June 6 at 1:30pm
Band Concert for Grade 6 students – Wed, June 12
Evening Band Concert for Parents – Wed, June 12 at 7pm
Harbour Cats Field Trip- Thurs, June 13
Grade 8s to Cultus Lake – Wed, June 19
Grade 7s to Hamsterly Beach – Tues, June 25
Grade 8 Leaving Evening for grade 8 students – Wed, June 26
Grade 6s to JDF Fields – Wed, June 26 all day
Please email cml@sd62.bc.ca to report your child’s absence from school.
Please indicate your child’s name, homeroom if possible and dates they will be absent from school.
Parents are able to check their child’s attendance by logging into the parent portal.
Dear families:
Beginning on January 23, 2023, families who have students who have been force transferred to an
overflow school (placed in an overflow school due to space constraints) will have an opportunity to
submit a School Change Request (SCR) form to return to their in-catchment school.
Families that would like to request a change to an out of catchment school may apply at this time.
Priority will be given to students who have been force transferred and would like to try return to their
in-catchment school.
Please note SCRs will not be reviewed until after Spring Break. Schools will respond by June 1, 2023
whether or not the change request can be accommodated.
School Change Request Period: January 23 – February 3, 2023 for the 2023/24 school year.
Apply online: https://www.sd62.bc.ca/changerequests
Open to students who were force transferred to an overflow school by the district or made the
choice to leave their in-catchment school and would like to return.
Open to students who are requesting a transfer to an out of catchment school.
Important Information
A critical piece you should consider is district provided transportation services (if applicable).
You decide not to apply for an SCR.
You will no longer be considered a “force transfer” student. By not submitting an SCR to return
to your in-catchment school, you will be choosing to continue at your current through personal
choice. As a result, you will be ineligible for district provided transportation services.
If you apply for an SCR, but are not successful in receiving a seat at your in-catchment school.
Your child will still be considered a “force transfer” and you will be eligible for district provided
transportation services.
You apply for an SCR and are successful.
You can still apply for district provided transportation services; however, transportation
registration is dependent on your primary home address and whether safe walking routes have
been identified by the Transportation Department.
You apply for an out of catchment school, and are successful.
You are making a personal choice to attend an out of catchment school and therefore ineligible
for district provided transportation services.
Definitions
In-catchment School is your designated neighbourhood school based on your home address.
Out of catchment School any school other than your designated neighbourhood school.
Overflow School when a neighbourhood school is at or over enrolment capacity, the district will
designate an overflow school for additional registrations for students.
Force Transfer are students who cannot attend their in-catchment school due to space limitations.
Students are placed into an overflow school at the direction of the district.
Eligible riders are considered to be those students travelling to their catchment school or students
attending an educational program of choice or academy program not offered at their catchment
school.
Educational programs of choice are defined as:
• French Immersion
• Trades Awareness and Skills Knowledge
• Nature Kindergarten
Hello Families,
A special ‘Thank You’ to all the families who joined us for the Family Games Night on Thursday, Feb 2 at Centre Mountain Lellum. The Board Game Café hosted this evening event and we had up to 300 people attend. The organizers had never done this event at a middle school, but it was such a huge success, they are now going to visit other middle schools in the Greater Victoria area, and we hope to have them back at Centre Mountain Lellum again. It was a great way to bring our school community together.
Leadership Team
We would like to provide an update on our leadership team at Centre Mountain Lellum. Pam Gerrits, our vice-principal, is currently on leave. During this time, we welcome Kelly Dvorak to the role of Acting Vice-Principal. Kelly is in the middle school VP pool and was in an acting role this fall at Spencer Middle School. She is in a wonderful position to step back in and support our school community. Thank you to Kelly for taking on this leadership role. Our thoughts and good wishes are with Pam as she takes the needed time to focus on her health.
Welcome to our newest staff members
We would like to welcome Tom Kritikos and Izzy Spencer to our teaching staff. Kyla Pelletier, teacher for division 7-04, has decided to take Thursdays off, so Tom will be the Thursday teacher for the students in this class. Izzy is a band teacher at Belmont Secondary and will be teaching our band class in the absence of Pam Gerrits. Izzy will be at Centre Mountain Lellum on Wednesday and Friday mornings. We are excited to have these teachers join our team.
The name of our school
We are very fortunate to be gifted the name of our school by Beecher Bay Nation – Centre Mountain Lellum Middle School. Lellum (Lay/Lum) meaning ‘House’ and ‘The idea of community, where we raise our children’. Chief Russell Chipps said, ‘To me it means a place of coming together’. This name means a lot to us and we are doing our best to honour the name and not shorten the name to Lellum, Centre Mountain, or CML. It is so easy to shorten a name or use parts of the name, but we will be using the full name and we would like our community to do the same. Please help us by using ‘Centre Mountain Lellum’ when referring to our school.
Thank you.
Craft Show & Silent Auction
Please join us on Saturday, March 11th from 11:00am – 3:00pm at Centre Mountain Lellum for our first annual Craft Show and Silent Auction. We were going to have our band perform during this event, but in the absence of our regular band teacher, we will not be able to perform at this time.
We are looking for help for the craft sale/silent auction on March 11th. Artists can purchase a table for $30 to sell their products at the craft sale. We are also asking these Artists to donate one thing to either the silent auction or craft sale. We are also looking for donations for the silent auction and hoping we will have volunteers to help us run this event.
Let us know if you think you can help with any of the above. Please email Donna Newman (our head secretary) at dnewman@sd62.bc.ca if you can help. If you know someone who could help with a donation or wants to participate, please send the information their way.
Students not feeling well
Since the winter break, we have had a number of staff and students absent due to illness. If your child is not feeling well, we are asking you to please keep them at home until their symptoms have settled down. We realize this can create some challenges at home, but we really appreciate your support.
Parking/Drop-off/Pick-up
We are so close to opening our lower staff parking lot at Centre Mountain Lellum. Since Nov. 14, we have only had the upper parking lot available for staff parking, so many of our staff have had to park along the road or even in the lower gravel lot at the bottom of Constellation Ave. If the weather cooperates, the line painting for the lower staff lot will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 15 and our staff should be able to us the lot as of Tuesday, Feb. 21.
Parent drop-off and pick-up of students will continue to be in the lower parent loop. The sidewalk has just been completed, so it will be much safer for our students as they will not have to walk along the road in the lower parent loop. We are very fortunate to have this lower loop for parents and we will continue to improve the routines and procedures to keep our students safe. There will be parallel parking for parents along this loop and now that the sidewalk is completed, there will be more parking spaces available for parents in the lower parent loop.
There will be 4 accessible parking spaces in the lower staff parking lot. Right now, we do not have any staff who need to use these accessible spaces, so if there are any families with accessibilities needs, and you need to come into the school, you are welcome to use the accessibility spaces in the lower lot.
The upper driveway and parking lot is strictly for buses and staff only. This is no space for parent parking, or for student drop-off and pick-up.
Sooke School District is Hiring
We are now hiring Education Assistants and Supervision Assistants in our District. Please see the attached information if you are interested.
Metis Nation of Greater Victoria Community Potluck
Please see the attached information regarding the Community Potluck.
Chess Club
We now have our chess club running every Monday and Thursday at lunch. We are excited to announce that Centre Mountain Lellum will be hosting its first Chess Tournament March 13 to 17th. All students are welcome. Students are required to follow the “Chess Etiquette” as outlined by the facilitators, Ms. Efford, Mr. Douglas and Ms. Clement.
Any parent volunteers are welcome to email sefford@sd62.bc.ca
Important dates for your calendar:
Friday February 17th – Professional Development Day
Monday February 20th – Family Day
Saturday March 11th – Craft sale and Silent Auction
March 20 to March 31st – Spring Break
Sports for this week
Monday, Feb 13th: 6/7 girls, both teams practice @ lunch
Boys team home game, 3:45-5:45
Tuesday, Feb 14th: 7/8 girls, both teams practice: 2:45-4:00
6/7 Girls, Ms. Bilous’s team @ Cedarhill, 3:45-5:45.
Wednesday, Feb 15th: 6/7 Girls, Ms. Pelletier’s team practice @ lunch
7/8 Girls comp team home game, 3:45-5:45
Thursday, Feb 16th: Boys and 6/7 girls (Ms. Bilous’s team) practice: 2:45-3:45
Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022
Hello Families,
We are getting closer to our move to Centre Mountain Lellum and we are all very excited to finally get there. This week, we have scheduled many delieveries, including all the student desks and chairs. It will finally look real to have our new desks and chairs set up in these beautiful classrooms. Other delieveries include office furniture, Library furniture, staff room furniture and supplies, music equipment, and all the PE supplies.
Over the next week, our custodians will be working in the building cleaning up the classrooms and getting the school ready for our staff and students. Farmer is putting the finishing touches on the classrooms and they will continue to work on some areas of the school. We do not have final occupancy yet, but any staff who complete the safety orientation course, will be able to access the building with the proper safety gear. Once we have final clearance from the City of Langford and the Fire Department, we will be able to come and go without the personal protective equipment.
We know there will be some definciencies when we move in, but the school will be operational and safe for all the staff and students. As it stands right now, there will be a few rooms on the lower level that may not be ready, but they plan to complete these rooms shortly after we take full possession.
We will be sending a map to all families outlining the bus zones, the parent pick up and drop off areas and the walking route for our students. We hope to get this map out within the week.
Centre Mountain Lellum PAC
Our PAC had a meeting last week and hope to see some new PAC members join in for the next meeting. Our PAC hold their meetings on the last Tuesday of the month, so the next meeting will be scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022 at 7:00pm at Centre Mountain Lellum.
Routines and expected behaviours at Centre Mountain Lellum
Over the next week, we will be scheduling grade assemblies at each school to chat about our transition to our new school and discuss some the expectations we will put in place from day one. Some discussion items will be as follows:
- All students will be outside in the morning until the bell rings. We will have dedicated doors for each classroom to avoid a massive crowd in the foyer. These locations will be discussed on the first day of school.
- Day one we will be meeting all students on the turf field behind the school. We will have signs on the fence with 6-1, 6-2, etc. Once all the students are accounted for, teachers will lead their students to their dedicated entrance and go right to their new classroom. We realize that students will want to see the whole school right away, but we will spread out the tours throughout the day to avoid a crowded hallway.
- Similar to the other middle schools, students will not be using their cell phones inside or outside from bell to bell. Students will be expected to keep their phones turn off in their backpacks and kept in their locker.
- There will be absolutely no food or drinks allowed out of the classrooms. Keeping our environment clean and garbage free will be a priority from the day we arrive.
- Respect for our space. With this amazing new building, we want all staff and students to feel proud of our school and our community. We will all do our best to keep this school clean inside and out.
- All students will be outside for the lunch break – rain or shine. The exception would be to participate in clubs or using the gym for inside activity.
- Giving students a variety of options at lunch would be a great way to build relationships and have students make connections with others. We are hoping to start up a few lunch time activities and clubs, so please have you child listen to announcements so they do no miss out on these opportunities.
- Our school has 3 levels with lots of stairs and open spaces to the lower floors. In some areas of the hallways, you can see the lower level and in some areas, you can see the first floor from the third floor. It is important for all students to understand that nothing is thrown over the railing in the hallways. We will be letting our students know that this is unexpected behaviour and all staff will be strictly enforcing this rule.
- Lastly, we will be letting our students know that all staff members of Centre Mountain Lellum are very excitied about this move and we are all very lucky to have this amazing opportunity.
Please watch for further information .
Sincerely,
Michaela Mistal, Glenn Bedard and Darren Russell
Vice-Principals and Principal
Centre Mountain Lellum Middle School