FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

The two best sources of information are this website (take some time to browse around!) and the Parent/Student handbook, which may be downloaded here.

Here are some additional FAQs regarding life at our school:

THE SCHOOL YEAR

Do you have any orientation for new students?
Home room teachers spend a significant amount of time and effort looking after the orientation of new grade 1-5 students in the first couple of weeks of the school year. For grades 6-12 we typically have an orientation day in late August. (For 2010, August 24 from 1:00-3:00 PM will be orientation time at the Atrium area of the school - grades 6-8 come to room 135, grades 9-12 come to room 136).
All classrooms are clearly marked with room numbers and (in the elementary wing) with the teachers' nameplates above the door.
Kindergarten and grade one students have a "staggered entry" at the start of the school year, with a portion of the class coming on the first instructional day, and other portions on the next few days, with everyone all together after everyone has had a chance to come with the smaller group. This information will be sent to parents directly by the K-1 teachers. Parents are welcome to accompany their K-1 students to class on the first day and stay for a little while.

What should my child bring on the first day of school?
No matter what the grade, on the first day of school just send the basics - a notebook of some sort and something to write with. Elementary students may wish to bring some basic art supplies, too. Mid-high students should bring their "textbook caution cheque" with them, details to be announced in the late August Notice to Parents. The full student supplies list is posted here.
Each elementary classroom is a little different when it comes to the use and storage of school supplies, but that will be made clear within the first couple of days. Mid-High students will have lockers, but it takes a week or two to issue locks and finalize locker assignments.

Do you really do school photos prior to the school year?
In order to get our photo IDs done for students, staff and parents prior to the first day of school, our school photos are being taken on August 24-25-26, 2010. Having these photo days on non-school days helps us to minimize disruption to classes, and also helps us avoid the unfortunate situation of having one's hair and clothing "just so" at the beginning of the day, but not having the photo taken until later in the day after PE class or recess!

Does Westmount have school uniforms?
No. However, just as there is a mode of dress suitable for business, professional work, the playing field, the gymnasium, or various social activities, there is also a mode of dress suitable for the classroom.  Good taste and judgment are among the educational goals we aspire to develop in our students. For more specific information about our dress code, please consult the parent/student handbook.  

When are the report cards? Do you use percentages or letter grades?
The most recent reporting cycle is posted here.
Mid-High Courses use percentage marks, while elementary grades use the following letter grades: E for exceeding, C for commendable, M for meeting expectations, and N for not yet evidenced.

When do I meet my son/daughter's teachers? How do I book a time to meet with them regarding student progress?
There is a meet-the-teacher night in mid-September (date will be posted on the monthly calendar). Parents of high school students, please check your son/daughter's timetable to see which teachers they will have in the spring semester, as there is not a second meet-the-teacher time in the spring.
Formal Parent-Teacher interviews are generally scheduled to occur shortly after report cards are distributed. Typically, these are by appointment only, at the request of parents or teachers - just send the teacher an email to arrange a time. In addition, parents and staff are encouraged, when the need arises, to request an after-school meeting to develop strategies that will enable the student to improve.
For some tips on developing positive communications with your child's teachers, click here!

Are there opportunities to get to know other Westmount parents? What is expected of me as a Westmount parent?
School Council meetings are held on a monthly basis - see the website's monthly calendar for dates. This is a great place to get involved with other parents at our school. As well, there are "Mingle with Martha" times every month or so, informal Friday afternoon gatherings with other parents and our Principal, Martha Faulkner. In addition, involvement with school organizations such as the Westmount Music Association ("Band Parents") or the planning team for our annual "Spring Fling" silent auction fundraiser, are great meeting-places. School Council also offers parent-to-parent Mentoring; click here to send an email expressing your interest in exploring this!
We encourage each family to contribute at least ten volunteer hours each year. Volunteerism is a key aspect of student life, particularly at high school, and it's great if students can see their parents modeling this. We have found it to be a key aspect in building a positive, engaged school culture for everyone concerned.

Do you have a Christmas Concert, or other school concerts? Do all grades K-12 participate?
As a school with a very rich diversity of cultures, we offer two concerts in December: Deck the Halls - a celebration of the season, an afternoon event for elementary grade students (see monthly calendar for specific date). Individual elementary grades or home rooms may have other celebrations as well. There's also the Winter Band/Orchestra/Choir concerts, for mid-high students plus grade 5 students in beginner band, typically held on an evening in December.
Elementary grades have monthly assemblies, each month's assembly featuring presentations by a different grade, and parents are most welcome to attend. Additional Band/Orchestra/Choir concerts are usually held in February, May (Jazz Night fundraiser), and June (BBQ and outdoor concert) - check the calendar for details. In addition, Westmount is the host and founder of the Summerstock High School Musical Theatre program, which rehearses throughout the school year to produce a great open-air show in the summer at Olympic Plaza. See www.summerstock.ca for details.

My child is in the Kindergarten program at Westmount. Is it true that they have to re-apply for grade one?
Yes. Kindergarten is considered an "optional" program in the province of Alberta, and students are not assessed prior to their entrance into Westmount Kindergarten, so... Kindergarten students must go through Westmount's thorough assessment process in order to apply for grade one. Information coming home early in the new year will outline the steps in the application process.
To reiterate: attendance in the Westmount Kindergarten program does not indicate automatic acceptance into the Westmount Charter School Grade One program. For more information about Kindergarten, click here.

Do Westmount students in grades 1-11 have to re-apply each year?
Once students have been accepted into the grade 1-12 program and are achieving at a suitable level, they do not need to go through the assessment process each year, but parents do need to log in and re-register their children each February, and pay a deposit toward the next year's instructional resource and transportation fees. This is our only way of knowing how many spaces will be available for new students, and gaining the information needed to plan the following year's bus routes.

I've heard about a laptop program at Westmount. Where would I learn more?
Westmount's laptop program began in January 2010 with a pilot project involving grade 10 students. Following that very successful pilot program, the laptop program will continue in the fall of 2010, with the incoming grade 6s and 10s involved. For full details and forms, click here.

DAILY ROUTINES

If my child is going to be away at a medical appointment, or is ill and will not be attending school, how do I notify the school?
Please call 403.217.0559, our school attendance line, and leave a message. PLEASE indicate your child's symptoms if he/she is ill, to help the school know if there are a large number of students away with similar symptoms. This line is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This line is very busy from 7:00-9:00 AM on school days, so if you know about your child's absence in advance, please call ahead of time.
We do ask, in the interest of everyone's health, that children be kept home if they are ill. In particular, it is important that children showing symptoms of "Influenza-Like Illness" (see the Health and Wellness page for more on this) stay home until they have been symptom-free for 24 hours.

How do you work recess at a K-12 school?
Elementary grades 1-5 have a 19-minute recess time at 1:38 PM, plus a lunch break from 11:41 AM-12:20 PM (half inside, eating lunch in the classrooms; and half outside). In addition, there is a "body break", snack and "SQUIRT" (sustained quiet uninterrupted independent reading time) from 9:53 to 10:23 AM. Kindergarten classes have their own recess times.
Grades 6-12 do not have recess, but there is a lunch break from 11:27-12:15; students from grades 7-12 are permitted to leave campus during lunch time. Grade 6-9 students get active each day via Alberta Education's mandated K-9 "daily physical activity" and through their Phys Ed classes.

Parents are to ensure that students are dressed for the elements! If the local wind chill exceeds -20 degrees C, or if it is raining heavily, recess will be indoors.

My child forgot to bring his/her lunch. What happens next?
There are emergency lunch supplies available at the elementary office - all the student needs to do is come and ask, and a simple lunch will be provided. Parents and students are reminded, however, that this "emergency" service is not intended as a replacement for or supplement to bringing a proper lunch. Please also remember to send cutlery with your child if it is needed - the office goes through hundreds of disposable forks and spoons each year!
Chinook Learning Services operates a Monday-Thursday Cafeteria for Chinook's students, and for Westmount's grade 6-12 students. In addition, our Health and Wellness Committee has worked hard to provide additional "healthy eating" options for all grades - click here for details.

Does Westmount offer before and after school care?
A private service provider, Westmount Student Care, provides before and after school care for elementary students on a fee-for-service basis. Their phone number is 403.279.3190 (or 403.217.0426, extension 247).
Please note that Westmount Charter School staff are available to supervise students from 8:15 AM to 4:00 PM only, with the assumption that parents will make every effort to pick up their child(ren) by 3:30 PM. If you are going to be earlier or later than these times, please make alternate arrangements for your child.

Could I see a sample Newsletter?
Due to FOIPP Privacy standards, we do not post our full Newsletters in the public area of the website. However, if you click here, we do have a public version of a school newsletter available for download, to give a sense of the kinds of activities and programs that our school and students are involved in. Once the school year begins, you will find that most communication from the school happens via regular emails from the communications coordinator, or by direct emails from teachers.

FACILITY

I see that the parking lot is for staff and students only. Where do parents park when we come to help in classrooms, accompany field trips, or attend special events?
Many of the streets surrounding our school have parking restrictions, including Richmond Road immediately in front of the school, which is a NO PARKING zone, with the cul-de-sac designated as a NO STOPPING zone. The best place to park is adjacent to the playing field: on the east side of 25th St SW, or the north side of 30th Ave SW. For a parking map of the area, click here and look for the "green" zones.
The parking lot south of the school is often available for special events in the evening or on Fridays, but during the day from Monday-Thursday the school parking lots are not available for parent parking, and is never to be used for student drop-off or pick-up. As well, the small staff parking lots west and north of the school building, and the Accessible Parking area west of the building, are not for parent parking or student drop-off/pick-up.
Please obey all parking signage in the neighbourhood. We want to be good neighbours... and have found that the Parking Authority is happy to give tickets to vehicles that are parked improperly!

I see that you share the Viscount Bennett Centre with another school. How do you handle security in a shared building?
Westmount has shared this building with Chinook Learning Services since 2001, so we are quite accustomed with having neighbours under the same roof. The two schools share the Cafeteria, and Chinook uses our Main Gymnasium for their high school Diploma exams. We have always employed hall/ security monitors to ensure that only Westmount students, staff, parents, and authorized visitors are in our hallways, and we have a number of video surveillance points.
The Viscount Bennett Centre does have numerous doors. In November 2008, Westmount reached an agreement with Chinook Learning Services to lock all but the most essential entry points, with additional security personnel posted near these entrances. Parents and visitors must sign in at the door to get a visitor's badge (parents who regularly drop off/pick up their children from school are encouraged to get a photo ID badge from the school office), to assist our security monitors and security personnel know "who's who in the hallways." All Westmount staff, and grade 6-12 Westmount students, wear ID lanyards for this same reason. Westmount students and parents are not to take short-cuts through Chinook's hallways, and vice-versa.

Is there a map of the school?
Click here to download a simple floor plan of the school. For driving directions to the school, see the Contact Us page of this site.

Every time I turn around I see a different Office. What are the different offices for?
The Main Office is just east of the Atrium, in the south part of the building. The Principal's and Vice-Principals' Offices are here.
The Board Office (formerly known as the Business Office) is on the west side of the Atrium, housing the Superintendent, Secretary-Treasurer, Human Resources/Payroll Specialist, Accounting Specialists (including school fee payments), Controller and Transportation Specialist.
The Student Services Office moved to a new location in the fall of 2009. It's now in the middle of the building, just south-east of the Main Gym. Our Student Services Specialists' offices are here.
The Elementary Office is in the north-east part of the building, elementary wing, main floor. This office is home to our Assistant Principal, Communications Coordinator and Resource Teacher, and is the location of the Infirmary.
Each office has front-line support staff to offer assistance.
For a basic floor plan, click here.

We're planning to move to a different part of Calgary and would like to move closer to the school. I hear rumours that you might be building a new school sometime soon...?
Westmount is continuing to work with the CBE and Alberta Education in our search for a different building.  While there are no appropriate facilities currently available that would be suitable for Westmount, the Charter Board is continuing to pursue this solution to our facility requirements.
While having a facility we can call our own would be ideal, we are presently unable to look at building such a facility due to restrictions in the existing School Act.  The current act denies charter schools permanence and thus we do not have the ability to access the necessary funding for the construction of a new building.  It had been the hope of the board that changes to the act might have occurred as soon as this spring, however, the act is now scheduled to be brought to the Legislative Assembly this fall.  This is then the earliest we can hope that the issue of charter school permanence will be addressed.
In short, it now appears that Westmount Charter School will remain at the Viscount Bennett Centre for the 2010-2011 school year.  The Charter Board and Administration remain committed to making our present facility a place where students can learn in a safe and enriching environment.

Are you part of the CBE (Calgary Board of Education)? I'm still a bit confused about Charter Schools.
Westmount is entirely separate from the Calgary Board of Education...we lease a portion of the Viscount Bennett Centre building from the CBE and share the building with a CBE program, but have no other affiliation with the CBE.
Each Charter School in Alberta is an autonomous, publicly funded school with its own elected Board. For more information about Alberta's Charter Schools, click here. Like a typical community-based school, we levy a modest instructional resource fee but are publicly funded - we cannot and do not charge tuition.

25 August 2010