Mark Your Calendars:
· Sept. 1, 2025: No School – Labour Day holiday
· Sept. 2, 2025: First day back to school
· Sept. 10, 2025: First School Council Meeting 6:30-8:30pm in our staff room
· Sept. 11, 2025: Fire Drill #1
· Sept. 12, 2025: 5:00 –8:00pm School Council Welcome Back Picnic in the Park at RRROCA
· Sept. 15, 2025: Grade 1 –3 Alberta Education Early Years Assessments begin
· Sept. 18, 2025: DATE CHANGE - Meet the Teacher/ Open House @ 4:30 –5:30pm for families with last names starting with letters M-Z, AND @ 5:30 –6:30pm for families with last names starting with letters A-L. More information to come.
· Sept. 19, 2025: Terry Fox Run – Time TBD
Dear Royal Oak School Families,
Welcome back to a new and exciting school year! Over the past week, our staff has been busy preparing classrooms and the school to warmly welcome both new and returning students to Royal Oak School. Together, we have also been collaborating to build a shared vision and set thoughtful plans and next steps to support teaching and learning in the year ahead.
By now, you should have received an email from your child’s classroom teacher with information about their classroom placement for the 2025–26 school year. You should also have received a message from the CBE’s Chief Superintendent, confirming that—based on current information shared through the ATA—schools are scheduled to begin as planned on Tuesday, September 2, 2025.
We are excited to welcome students and families that morning, beginning at 8:30 a.m., at your child’s designated entry and exit doors. Our staff, wearing bright supervision vests, will be on hand to greet and guide students.
Moving forward, you should expect to receive weekly parent updates sent through School Messenger every Saturday at noon. These messages will also be posted in the News Stories on our school website. For further school information and help to answer questions, we always invite families to visit our website at: https://royaloak.cbe.ab.ca/
Royal Oak School Council: Our amazing School Council, run by parent volunteers just like you, already has two events planned to welcome our students and families back to another school year.
1. Coffee and Kleenex Event: School Council volunteers will be setting up a table at the front of the school on Tuesday and Wednesday next week, to welcome the new kindergarten families (as well as returning families) to Royal Oak School. Typically, they have coffee and snacks for families dropping off their children, Kleenex for those shedding tears, and a cardboard frame for families wanting to take "First Day of School" photos. Their team will also have new School Council information postcards to hand out to parents.
2. The Royal Oak School Council invites students and their families to a Welcome Back Picnic-in-the-Park on Friday, September 12, 2025, from 5:00 to 8:00pm at the Rocky Ridge Royal Oak Community Association (9000 Royal Oak Way, NW). Bring your dinner and blanket OR purchase your food from YYCFoodTrucks and enjoy a picnic with all of your friends from Royal Oak School. Don’t forget to enter their draw for a prize! Calgary Fire and Police Services may be stopping by for a visit. This event is rain or shine. There is no cost to attend. Please note that there are no bathrooms onsite. If you have questions, please email: ROSchoolCouncil@gmail.com
Lunch at ROS: This year, as we have moved our Learning Commons into our Gathering Space to accommodate for classroom configurations, all students will now be eating lunch in their classrooms. This will also help us save some time with transitions and getting dressed to go outside. If your child will be staying at school for lunch, you must register for this supervised program, which is at a cost to parents. Please follow this link or log into your PowerSchool account to complete the registration process. Finally, this year, we will be implementing a Garbageless Lunch program. Students will be asked to take home all lunch waste in their lunch kits. This initiative will help to support waste management and help parents become aware of what their child is eating at school each day.
ROS Hug & Go: As we prepare to kick off the 2025/2026 school year, the Royal Oak School Council is looking for help with setting up the Hug & Go for the first two weeks of school, helping bring awareness to our new families to ensure this zone is properly and safely used. Along with the Hug & Go, we will also be placing pylons at crosswalks to ensure students and parents are crossing safely. This initiative helps educate our school community on how parking works at the front of the school during morning drop off, as well as parking and safety around crosswalks at all times. NO POLICE CLEARANCE NEEDED - all parents are encouraged to sign up at the link here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0A4FA9AE2CA5F94-58210800-huggo
Bus Students - Change of Plans: To help our staff with bus attendance at the end of the school day, we kindly remind families to inform the office or come directly to the bus line if there is a change in your child’s end-of-day transportation. If your child is biking, walking, or getting picked up instead of taking the bus, it’s important that we are aware to ensure all students are accounted for and get home safely. Thank you for helping us keep dismissal time smooth and secure for everyone.
Transportation Registration: Families are able to register for school bus service for the 2025-2026 school year. Registration is available using your MyCBE account. (If you do not already have an account, learn how to create one.) For those families who register after the June 8 deadline, it may take until mid-October before your child is able to ride the bus. Transportation can be cancelled with no financial impact by submitting the cancellation form by Sept. 30, 2025.
Wishing you a great long weekend!
Sincerely,
Michelle Ryskamp,
Principal, Royal Oak School