Parents of Grade 8 students, EMCS staff will be working with our classes over the next few weeks to prepare and enter course selection forms. Here is a little more information on the process this year:

• Updated course selection information and step-by-step instructions can be found on the EMCS website at:
  https://emcs.web.sd62.bc.ca/counselling-centre/course-selection/current-grade-8-students-course-selection/
• Teachers will watch this video with their classes by January 26th  (also available on the website link above)
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eTvBKhuUz4
• Students have been mailed a course selection package that includes a Course Planning Sheet (also available on the website link above)
• Please have Grade 8 students plan their course requests on the Course Planning Sheets and submit the sheets to their Gr. 8 teachers by January 27. 
  • That way the teachers can look over the courses students are planning to request, and make recommendations regarding any changes as necessary.

When EMCS staff members visit Grade 8 classes on Jan. 31 / Feb. 1, they will have the teacher return the Course Planning Sheets to students and will assist students with logging in to the MyEdBC Student Portal and entering their course requests into the system.

***If your child is in French Immersion and is not planning on staying in French Immersion at EMCS, please put this on your course selection form to let the counsellors know.

Given the current pandemic situation, we have made some adjustments to the Grade 8 course selection process for their transition to EMCS.

• The Admin and staff of EMCS are creating a video for our students to explain the course selection process, which will be played for students next week.
• Their staff will join us here at Journey on January 31st and February 1st to help students complete the course selection process.
• Please keep an eye on the EMCS website (link below) for updates regarding the Open House on Jan 20th – it may be put on hold.

*Please note the change in dates – now Jan 31, Feb 1 for Course Selection for EMCS.

All grade 8 students at Journey will automatically be transitioned to EMCS. If you are planning on your child attending a different school within SD62, you will need to fill out a School Change Request on the SD62 website, under Parents, Registration.

Parents of Grade 8 students are encouraged to also monitor the EMCS website for any updates on transition, https://emcs.web.sd62.bc.ca/.

Hello Parents and Guardians,

Happy New Year to all.  This was not the start-up we expected to kick off 2022, but I guess we have to be ready for anything. We certainly missed having the students at school the first week and were happy to have them back for the past few days.

Please keep an eye on your emails for messaging from the school district.  As we move through the month of January, I ask you to be aware that communication may be coming your way.  The messaging around pandemic updates to parents will come from the board office and then we will be able to add to this message if anything specific comes up regarding Journey Middle School.

Things have a way of changing with little notice these days.  Thankfully for us here at Journey, some of those things that we have been tasked with doing were already in place.  Due to the number of students in our school, we created grade zones during lunch recess, entering the school by separate doors as much as possible, having “traffic directions” in hallways and walking around the outside of the building when changing classrooms.  All of these things reduce crowding, but also make for a calmer, better-regulated student group.

A strong reminder that all staff and students are required to be performing a daily self-assessment, and to seek and follow the guidance of Island Health and/or 811 as necessary.  Simply, stay home if you are sick.

Safety measures that are being reintroduced or “tightened down” are:

• asking parents/visitors to call the office from outside the school rather than coming into the building to talk to staff in the office;
• teachers have re-examined the layout of the furniture in their classrooms and have looked to increase spacing between desks and reduce where students are facing one another when this is possible;
• we will be reemphasizing hand-hygiene practices, and wearing properly fitted masks.  Please ensure all masks are cleaned daily and have the proper fit;
• with regard to masks, please provide your child with a few extra masks in their backpacks as we hand out a huge number of masks every day.  We will start to keep track more of those students who are chronically not wearing their mask.  This may lead to further discussions with the student and the parent;
• students will continue to access lockers, but we will be limiting visits to lockers and they will always be supervised in order to limit overcrowding.
• reminder, we also ask our students to pack in and pack out their garbage, as this enables our custodial staff to focus more energy on keeping our school clean and disinfected.

As Dr. Henry stated earlier this month, there is an emphasis being placed on different sectors coming to their own contingency plans rather than all direction being province-wide.  Staff here have been working to create ‘At home’ learning opportunities for their students in the event of the need for school closures, as per Mr. Stinson’s message at beginning of January.

This year, Journey Middle came together to raise an incredible $891.50 for cancer research for our Terry Fox School Run. The Terry Fox Foundation is so grateful for our commitment and dedication. It is wonderful to see that Terry continues to inspire millions of students across the country. If you have not donated and would still like to contribute, our school donation link is still open at http://www.terryfox.ca/JourneyMiddleSchool #TryLikeTerry

Good morning,

With the accumulation of snow last night and road conditions as they are, schools will be closed today and busing will be cancelled (January 6, 2022). Stay safe everyone!

As we come back to schools next week, in light of the shift of our current pandemic conditions and the safety of our students and staff being our top priority, we would like to please remind any visitors to our school of the following:

We are trying to maintain a positive and inclusive environment for all. We are working to keep gatherings and face to face interactions to a minimum, (prioritizing virtual wherever possible). We are also trying to limit visitors as much as possible. If you must enter the school to drop something off for your child, please come directly to the office and we will ensure that the item is received. If you are picking up your child (due to illness or an appointment), please call the office (250-642-5881) when you arrive and we will send your child out to you.

Thank You

The staff and students at Journey wish all of our families and community members a safe and happy holidays! We look forward to our return on Tuesday, January 4^th.”

The following students won our local Royal Canadian Legion Remembrance Day Poster & Literary Contest. Their work will go on to the competition for the southern island. If they win there, they compete provincially and from there, if they win provincially, they could move onto the national competition!

Congratulations to Emily, Brynn and Marley!!

Please click the link for more information on the upcoming Winter Break Basketball Camp.

Winter Break BB Camp

Please click on the link for this week’s Parent Newsletter.

Dec 3 2021 Parent Newsletter