This Week at WMES
November 15th – 19th  

Dear Families:
Please use the Covid19 Daily check before sending your child to school each day.  Thank you for helping us all stay safe and healthy this year.

Some reminders for this week:

• Veggie Box Pick-ups:  Thank you to those who purchased Veggie boxes to support our school. The boxes will be ready for pick up at the Vegetorium Country Farm Market (2900 Nova Scotia Trunk 2, near the Fall River roundabout) beginning on Wednesday, November 17th.
If your family could benefit from a donated box please reach out to kwolfe@hrce.ca.  We have 13 boxes to donate this year.   Thank you WMES community!

• School Clothing Fundraiser: Items are for sale until Friday, November 19th
WMES School Clothing is now available for sale at https://hrce.schoolcashonline.com/ . Please sign up to view and purchase items.  There are t-shirts and toques available for all students, and hoodies available for Grade 5 students (which will have their signatures on the back).
If you need any assistance with School Cash online, or would like to order in another way please contact wmlcs@hrce.ca and we’ll do our best to help.  Thanks for your continued support.

• Term 1 ends on Thursday, November 18th.    This Friday, November 19th is an Assessment and Evaluation Day for teachers and there is no school for students on that day.

• Student Progress interviews with classroom teachers will take place virtually for first term.  Classroom teachers will reach out to set up appointments this week.  The dates set aside for interviews are November 24th (evening) and November 25th (afternoon).  There is no school on November 25th.  
 

• Food Drive:  We are so pleased to be able to support the Lion’s Christmas Express Food Drive again this year.  If you would like to help out, please send in one of the following items on or before December 9th: (cranberry sauce, store bought boxed cookies, Hamburger Helper, Boxes of tea bags, Stove Top Stuffing, juice, sugar, jam, pasta sauce, canned fruit, peanut butter).
The Christmas Express will be here to pick the donations up on December 10th.

• We also collect new or homemade hats and mittens this time of year if you would like to send some in for our “Hat & Mitten Tree”.  We keep a few at school so that no student ever goes without on a cold day, and we donate some to local charities.  
Thank you for your support.
 

• Do you want to receive information from our school and HRCE by text message?
We now have the ability to send information to you by text message. To ensure compliance with Canadian Anti-Spam laws, you must opt-in to receive information by text message.  You will receive the opt-in message on November 16.
We’ll still communicate with you by email and by phone. Text messaging will allow us to reach you quickly when it’s urgent. It will also allow us to flag when there’s important news or announcements in your inbox. It’s just another way to keep you informed.
Here’s what you need to know:
If your mobile number is up-to-date in PowerSchool, you will receive a text message from the short code 978338 on November 16 that looks like this:
"Halifax Regional Centre for Education messages. Reply Y to confirm, HELP 4 info. Message & data rates may apply. Message frequency varies. Schoolmessenger.com/smsca”
If you want to receive school and HRCE information by text message, reply with a “Y” or a “YES.”

If you do not reply, you will not receive any future text messages from your school or HRCE.

Please note: this text message function will be used to share information about school cancellations due to inclement weather AND other information.

If you do not receive the opt-in text message on November 16, please call the school to update your mobile contact information in PowerSchool. Any changes are uploaded nightly and reflected the following business day. When your number is added or changed in PowerSchool, you will automatically receive the opt-In message.

If you decide you no longer wish to receive HRCE and school information via text, you can reply to the message with “STOP”. 

Parents/guardians can opt-in at any time by texting “Y” or “YES” to 378338.

This text message function will NOT share bus delay information.

Anyone who is NOT a parent/guardian in our system who wishes to receive school cancellations due to inclement weather will have to opt in via the HRCE website.
We’re excited to now have the ability to share information with you by text.
On November 16, we hope you choose to opt-in!

Have a great week everyone. 
Please reach out if you have any questions / concerns.

Karla Wolfe
Principal WMES

Our webpage can be found at:  https://wms.hrce.ca/
You can also follow us on Twitter at: @WMESchool

Important Dates in November:

November 17th – Pick up Veggie Boxes at Vegetorium
November 19th – No School – Assessment and Evaluation Day
November 22nd – First day of Term 2
November 24th/ 25th – Student Progress Interviews re. 1st Term progress