December 12, 2025 Principal Message

Dear Robina Families,

Respiratory Outbreak Update:

Thank you so much to everyone for their understanding and patience as we’ve had to shift some of our events this past week. Though we missed seeing everyone in the building for our Parent Teacher Interview nights, I want to thank our teachers and families for quickly adjusting to a virtual format. I also want to thank all of our families who kept your kids home if they are unwell. This helps us immensely to keep our building healthy. We continued to see high absenteeism for medical reasons. AHS has informed us that we will be in outbreak status for a minimum of 14 days, which takes us into our Winter Break. 

Winter Concert Update: 

After careful consideration and ongoing monitoring of the health situation in our region, Black Gold School Division, together with school administration, has made the difficult decision to cancel our in-person Winter Concerts scheduled for next week in order to align with illness-prevention guidelines.

This was not a choice made lightly. We know how hard the students have practiced and how much families look forward to seeing them perform. However, our priority must be the health and safety of our students, staff, and families—especially as we head into the holiday break.

Why this decision is necessary:
Our school has experienced a significant increase in illness-related absences and has been placed in outbreak status, as defined by Alberta Health Services. We are seeing a similar rise in respiratory illness across the region, and several neighbouring school divisions have already paused large gatherings, including concerts, on the advice of health officials. By taking this preventative step now, we hope to minimize the spread of illness within our school community and ensure that everyone can enjoy a healthy, restful holiday break with their loved ones.

Our plan moving forward:
We still want to celebrate our students’ hard work! We will be pivoting to the following plan:

• Video Showcase: In lieu of a live audience, we will be recording the students’ performances during class time next Tuesday (Monday for K1 Class). We will compile these into a video link that will be shared with families next Friday, December 19, so you can enjoy the concert pieces from the comfort (and safety) of your home. If you wish to not have your child filmed, please contact our office [email protected]
• Spring Concert: While we are unable to gather this winter, Mr. Scott is already planning a special Spring Concert. This will give students the opportunity to perform live for families and allow our school community to come together to support the arts. We are hopeful that a spring timeframe will help us move beyond peak illness season and welcome everyone into the building for a joyful, in-person celebration.
  

We understand this is disappointing news, but we truly appreciate your understanding and support as we navigate this cold and flu season together.

Thank you for helping us keep our school community healthy.

Mr. Coffin & Mrs. Kirton

Book Fair Update

Book Fair Extension: Due to our unusual circumstances, and to give students who were sick this week a chance, the book fair will be open on Tuesday, Dec. 16th at morning and lunch recess.  

If your child is still sick next week, and you know what they would like, I am happy to put it aside for you and they can pay and pick up when they get back to school, even if it is the first week of January.  Scholastic has allowed us a grace period. 

If you want to see everything at the Book Fair, watch this video.

Thanks to those parents who volunteered their time to help out with the Book Fair.  Much appreciated!   

Grade 4 Leadership Team Holiday Fun!

Our Grade 4 leaders have planned some festive dress-up days for the last week of school:

Monday: Holiday Hat or Headband

Tuesday: Holiday Sweater

Friday: PJ Day

Participation is totally optional, but everyone is invited to join in the fun! After all, it’s the last week of school before Christmas—let’s make it festive and full of excitement!

Please take a look through our Lost & Found!

Missing Anything?

Watch this video and let us know if you spot anything that belongs to your child. We’ll do our best to make sure it gets back to them as soon as possible!

Club Moo Program

A big thank you to all the parents who have ordered milk tickets for our Club Moo program! 🥛

Leadership students will be helping by fulfilling and delivering milk orders to each class (Kindergarten to Grade 4) at lunchtime every day.

Parents can purchase milk tickets through PowerSchool: 20 tickets (white or chocolate) for $20.

We hope to provide a 3-day turnaround. Thank you for your patience as we develop our Club Moo Program

How to use your tickets:

• Send them all at once – Cut the tickets apart and return them in a baggie or envelope. They will be kept in your child’s reading bag, and your child can decide when to use them.
• Send them as needed – Place one ticket in your child’s reading bag on the days you’d like them to have milk.

In what is always our highest jackpot of the year, we’ve eagerly kicked off our Merry and Bright 50/50 raffle!

Head over to this link to buy your tix.

Don’t forget to check off a classroom to support, the classroom bringing in the highest total will win a hot chocolate and cookie party courtesy of our school council 

Here's hoping you win a little extra holiday cash while supporting the building of our new park!

https://www.rafflebox.ca/raffle/rbpfcholiday  

January Hot Lunch

You can order hot lunch until December 22. Just head to hotlunches.net and select the dates you’d like to order.

If this is your first time ordering, you’ll need to enter our school code: BGHL.

Bar Burrito Monday, January 5th, 2026

Marci's Friday, January 9th, 2026

McDonald's Tuesday, January 13th, 2026 

Subway Friday, January 16th, 2026

Calmar Bakery Tuesday, January 20th, 2026

A&W Friday January 23rd, 2026

Edo Japan Monday, January 26th, 2026

 Pizza Hut Thursday, January 29th, 2026

Absent Students

If your child is away on Hot Lunch Day, you’re welcome to pick up their lunch after 12:30 pm.

Kindergarten Students

If you’re ordering for a Friday, please double-check the Kindergarten calendar to ensure your child attends that day. If an order is placed in error, you may pick it up after 12:30 pm.

Please let the school know by 10:00 am if you plan to pick it up; otherwise, it will be donated. Refunds are not available.

Library Corner: 

• First of all I would like to give you all a HUGE thank you for supporting the book fair this week! It was disappointing that I couldn’t meet you in person, but we felt your support by how busy we were at recesses.  Your support is so greatly appreciated.  
• Book Fair Extension: Due to our unusual circumstances, and to give students who were sick this week a chance, the book fair will be open on Tuesday, Dec. 16th at morning and lunch recess.  
• If your child is still sick next week, and you know what they would like, I am happy to put it aside for you and they can pay and pick up when they get back to school, even if it is the first week of January.  Scholastic has allowed us a grace period. 
• Click on this link to see our Book Fair home page.  Book Fair
• Thanks to those parents who volunteered their time to help out with the Book Fair.  Much appreciated!   
• Book limits for students are as follows:

            Grades PK, K and 1 - 1 book

            Grades 2 and 3 - 2 books

            Grade 4 - 3 books

• Please email me, not your teacher, if you have any questions or concerns about library items.  [email protected]   

•  Amazon Wishlist. We have a wishlist for the library!  If you would like to buy one of these books for the library, please don’t forget to have Amazon send us a gift note with your name on it.  I like to acknowledge the person who purchased the book.  Thanks!
• Happy Reading!

Kindergarten Registration