It’s been a busy year for your GATE Parent Association. With your support we have had many successful events.
Our first meeting of the GATE Parent Association (GPA) was a FAMILY event held on September 26, 2017 at Queen Elizabeth High School. This was a combo event that included a speaker presentation along with our Annual General Meeting. Michelle Springman, a registered psychologist, spoke about Building Strong Social Skills: Helping our gifted students with tools to manage social anxieties and challenges. If you missed it, you can access her presentation materials on our website, here. During our annual general meeting several new executive were elected and the baton was passed.
The GPA and Louis Riel School Council Purdys fundraiser was held in December and it was a great success! We raised over $1,500.00, which will be used to support GATE teacher professional development and other enhancements for GATE classrooms. A big THANK YOU to everyone who volunteered and participated by buying those yummy chocolates!
On February 6, 2018 at Louis Riel School the GPA hosted another speaker session on Anxiety and Depression in Gifted Children. Our presenter was Dr. Laurie Alisat who is an Assistant Principal at Westmount School Society. She is passionate about working with Gifted students, teachers of all levels and administration staff to build meaningful challenges for the Gifted learner. Laurie’s presentation notes can be found on our website,here.
The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) hired a new Gifted Specialist Cathy Wiederick who has extensive experience working in GATE schools. We have enjoyed getting to know her and working with her to support both our schools, teachers and families. Our last event of the year, presented by Cathy, and held on April 11, 2018 at Queen Elizabeth High School, was on the Gifted and 2e (twice exceptional) – Helping Gifted Children with Multiple Exceptionalities to Thrive. During this seminar Cathy shared background and ideas for helping families and our 2e children to thrive.
Throughout this past school year our GPA Executive team has met regularly to continue to plan future events, to work to continue the success of the GPA, and to work with each of our schools and families. We also held several General Meetings after our presentations to keep all of our members informed.
Up and coming events:
Stay tuned for the announcement of our Annual General Meeting which will be held in September 2018.
We are also excited to announce our next Casino Fundraiser which will be held November 15 & 16, 2018 at the Elbow River Casino. This is our biggest fundraising event. Thanks to our volunteers and this event, in the past year we have funded several tools and initiatives at GATE schools, including, among others:
- Gr 9 Field Trip to Fish Creek
- Gr 4 Princess Dirt
- Math Contest
- Museokit rental
- Gr 8 Telus Spark field trip
- Gr 9 First Student
- Gr 6 Writing workshop
- Gr 4,7 field trips
- Field trip transport
- City Hall field trip
- Observatory field trip
- Escape Room
- Open Minds Supplies
- Author in residence
It has been a busy year of planning, events, and working with the four schools we support in many different ways. I would like to thank each person who volunteered their time, personal skills and energy to make this year a great success. We couldn’t have done it without you!
We hope each of you have a great summer and we will see you in September.
Your GPA Executive and Board.
June 2018