THE REST OF THE WEEK AT A GLANCE!
Thursday November 3rd
NO HOT LUNCH! HOT LUNCH IS ON FRIDAY THIS WEEK!
Mad Science 12:25pm-1pm (K/1s)
Mad Science 3pm-4pm (2s-5s)
Ballet Field Trip 12-3/3:30
Friday November 4th
SPIRIT DAY!! WEAR YOUR RED!!
VOLLEYBALL PRACTICE 8 AM
CARVING WITH ROBIN ROBERTS (3rd SESSION)
HUDSON DANCE CLUB 12:25pm-1pm (Ks/1s) & 3-4pm (2s-5s)
CHESS CLUB 3pm
REMBRANDTS 3pm
Did we Diwali or what???
Henry Hudson’s first Diwali celebration was a huge success! Thanks so much to all the students and parents who came out and danced danced danced, did some painting on pots and faces, ate and danced again, and then enjoyed our unbelievable festival of lights fireworks! (A key component of Diwali!) Food sales from the event went towards paying for the fireworks.
Mayor Gregor Robertson congratulated DiwaliFest for its leadership in bringing Diwali celebrations to communities across Vancouver this past weekend! Henry Hudson school was the ONLY school who partnered with DiwaliFest and brought DiwaliFest right to our school! Mayor Gregor Robertson personally commended our school as a leader in creating and hosting multicultural events for our school and community! We have received calls from PACs and community leaders all over town congratulating us on our event. Apparently they’ve heard we do some fantastic events at our school and want to know what is next!! And all about our amazing parent community of volunteers and our great students!!
A huge thanks to all our food service and decoration volunteers, to our student helpers, set up and clean up volunteers, to Firewx for giving us a killer deal, and to DiwalFest!
See you at our next awesome cultural celebration coming up in January!!
Best,
Nina J Patel and Marina P
Halloween Hangover?
Hope everyone is getting over Halloween !! What a fun week filled with Halloween events that began with our super fun Pumpkin Carving night last Wednesday right through to Halloween Costume Parade at the school and Halloween events, led by our Grade 6/7s. Thank goodness the rain stopped on Monday night… everyone from our school seemed to be trick or treating in the neighbourhood… it was so great to see everyone out and about! (But, So glad it is over. Hid most of the candy now!)
NO HOT LUNCH TOMORROW!! HOT LUNCH IS ON FRIDAY!!
Reminder there is no Hot Lunch tomorrow!! Due to the exciting excursion to Queen Elizabeth Theatre to see the Ballet, we have rescheduled Hot Lunch to this Friday! The meal the same: Pasta with Meatballs and tomato Sauce. ALSO please note there will be NO HOT LUNCH NEXT TUESDAY NOVEMBER 8TH. The Hot Lunch volunteer crew are meeting to lay out budgets, menus, logistics, and schedules for next term. The Hot Lunch meal will be rescheduled for later this term. Your accounts will be credited back and applied back to the date the meal is rescheduled for. We will let you know after our meeting on Tuesday.
BALLET TOMORROW!!
For all students grade 2 and older, we are heading to the Ballet tomorrow around noon! Please wear appropriate clothing and do not bring anything unnecessary with you. We do not want your back packs and extra shoes etc coming along. Please leave them at the school. Just you and your jacket is best! We are taking the #2 Downtown and then walking to the theatre along Georgia or Robson. We have a group bus pass already organized. Students will go with their Divisions on the bus etc. Follow your teachers’ directions. Many parents are coming along. Please go with your child’s class. Special thanks to our Community Partner Ballet BC and to Nina J Patel for bringing this amazing opportunity to our school.
New Session of Lego Robotics begins next Wednesday! Register Here! (grades 2-7). Wednesdays 3:15-4:45
https://my.bricks4kidz.com/index.php?action=classdetail&record=157808
Direct Donation Appeal
Thank you to the many parents who have made donations so far — Hudson families have contributed $2986.00 to date! This leaves us with a month to go and $7014 to raise to meet our $10,000 target by the end of the appeal on November 30.
And if you haven’t already, please consider making a donation!
This is the PAC’s only fundraiser other than hot lunch — so we won’t be bugging you with a lot of small fundraisers throughout the year — and meeting our target will ensure that we can continue to support such amazing opportunities to enrich our childrens’ education as:
- workshopping with Robin Roberts, First Nations Carver, who is working with the students to create a Hudson Hawks mask carved from a 525 year old Cedar from Squamish Nation Lands.
- PAC’s second set of laptop computers, now received, that will double students’ hands-on access to up to date technology
- last week’s Diwali festival celebrating a global festival, right here in our Hudson community
- Team Jerseys, Bike programs, sports programs
- Arts, Drama and Music programs
- Books, reading materials, resource materials,
- Guitars
- and much much more!
Public Education Support Committee
The Hudson PAC is forming a Public Education Support Committee to help keep parents informed of the issues facing Henry Hudson, the Vancouver school system and public education in British Columbia, and keep interested parents up to date regarding various advocacy efforts underway to support quality education. What with local issues of seismic upgrades, budget shortfalls, etc. and larger questions about the amount of education funding and the formula used by the province, it would be helpful to have a group of parents working together to track this information and make it available to the wider Hudson community. A larger group would also allow us to maintain stronger connections with the District Parent Advisory Council, the British Columbia Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils, and the unofficial advocacy groups working in the community such as the Parent Advocacy Network and Families Against Cuts to Education.
If any of this interests you, please contact me (Alan Patola Moosmann, currently PAC vice-chair, external) at apatola@telus.net or 778-998-8596. If there is enough response, we’ll set up a meeting, plan how best to focus our energies and skills. Among many possibilities, two that I’m thinking about are: 1) How can we best document and communicate to our elected school district and provincial representatives the effects of budget cuts on Henry Hudson?, and 2) How can we work to make public education spending a significant issue for all parties in the coming provincial election campaign?
For an introduction to the wider issues about public education funding in British Columbia, please read this thoughtful and well-documented article by Alex Hemingway, Public Finance Policy Analyst at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives:
http://www.policynote.ca/education-crisis/
Other key links:
http://vancouverdpac.org/
http://bccpac.bc.ca/
Many of us on the PAC also attend many VSB committee meetings regularly as well as correspond regularly with elected officials and Board management and staff. For more information please feel free to contact any of the PAC Executive.