On behalf of the entire staff, I am delighted to welcome everyone back to school. I hope that each of you enjoyed a very happy holiday and are looking forward to a successful, productive school year.

I am very excited about the upcoming year and look forward to seeing you all on September 7.

The summer season is ending and now it is time to begin a new and exciting year at EMS. I hope that everyone has spent a summer of relaxation and renewal. The Summer newsletter will be sent on Friday, August 27th and is designed to assist you in making a smooth transition from the summer holidays to the new school year. The Summer newsletter is full of information to make the return to school a positive experience. Please take the time to read it carefully as it has all the information you need for the first few weeks of school and especially procedures for September 7, 2010.

I would like to extend a very warm welcome to our returning students, all students new to EMS, and a very special welcome to our new grade 8 class.

I would like to welcome the Class of “2015″. Our new grade eight students are always very excited with the move to secondary school, and we want you to know we are excited about having you at Earl Marriott Secondary. I would also like to express my congratulations to you for successfully completing your Elementary Education and to express my best wishes for successful completion of secondary school.

Earl Marriott has a lot to offer in academic and elective courses as well as athletic and co-curricular activities. It is my hope that each of you will take advantage of these opportunities and become part of the tradition that has made Earl Marriott Secondary such an outstanding school.

A special “welcome back” is reserved for this year’s graduating class – The Class of 2011.

As the graduating class, you have a special and important role to play in the life of our school. You can, and should, provide leadership and a sense of purpose to the rest of the student body. Make this year a most positive experience – both for yourselves as individuals and for our school. We will expect nothing less. As individuals, you have tremendous potential. Study hard and enjoy your final year! It will be up to you to make it a great one.

I would like to continue to encourage everyone to become involved in our school and become part of the Mariner tradition that has made Earl Marriott a wonderful place to work and learn. This means becoming involved in Mariner activities such as athletics, fine arts, and other academic and extracurricular clubs / programs.

Parents, we really need you to get involved in all aspects of our school, including the Parent Advisory Council and School Planning Council. Your involvement is welcomed and is necessary to continue to mover our very very good school into a great school. Staff will continue to develop new assessment strategies to consistently move toward being a great school. A school where there is a deep learning culture.

To ensure a successful start to the new school year, there are a number of things you can do:

• Read this newsletter and accompanying information carefully.
• Pay attention to the information given to you in homeroom and in your classes.
• Use your agenda book and be familiar with its content.
• Follow and demonstrate our code of conduct: Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe, Be Prepared.
• Be on time for every class and be prepared to learn.
• Take advantage of all of the resources that Earl Marriott has to offer.
• Ask Questions.

The Marriott Messenger is published throughout the year. It will be available online and will be emailed to you directly. Parents are encouraged to visit our website regularly and sign up for an online subscription to the Messenger. You will find that our website is updated almost daily. Our website is in a Blog format so it will be a focal point for clear and open communication between school and home. This link is imperative for a successful year for your child. If, at any point, you have questions about any aspect of the school or our programs, please do not hesitate to contact me, by phone or email (johnston_p@sd36.bc.ca).

Peter Johnston
Principal

The newsletter is in pdf format which requires Adobe Reader to view. Adobe Reader is a free download and can be found here.

If you would like to receive email notification of when future newsletters have been posted, you may wish to add yourself to our newsletter mailing list. You can do this by clicking here and entering your name and email address.

• August Newsletter
• Newsletter Mailing List

Class of the month for May 2010
Social Responsibility has been one of the Goals at EMS for the past three years. This year, the staff has decided to adopt the definition of Social responsibility as it is described in the Ministry’s Quick Scale. The scale defines four aspects to social responsibility. Mrs English decided to ask her Grade 11 English class to develop a series of posters that would focus on each of the 4 aspects. The following students have done a great job and the poster they have created will be used next year in the school to help foster social responsibility at EMS. Congratulations for your creativity and effort.

Daniel, Ping, Melia, Emma, Amira, Ranvir, Jeremy, Stephanie, Andrew, Nai-Wei, Gregory, Sun, John, Wan Jae, Jae Kim, Greme, Daniel, Anne, Mai Qi, Maggie, Hilary, Monica, Julis, Carley Jeanne

Most Improved Students Semester II
Each semester, teachers are asked to submit the names of students who may have been in danger of failing or were not performing but in the end were able to turn around and improve before the end of the semester. The following students have all been nomitated for Most Improved Students at EMS for Semester II. Congratulations to all of you for your efforts, determination and hard work.

Courtney, Samatha, Corey, Taylor, Ryan, Ross, Matt, Chris, Jack, Jessica

The following is a school-wide announcement that was given to students after lunch today:

Afternoon Mariners,

It is truly unfortunate what occurred today at lunch. A premeditated food fight has left the deck area in a mess. Eggs were launched outside. We have a few students with injuries and many who had their clothing stained.

It is unfortunate that a few immature people can impact so many.

We will be checking the two video cameras in the cafeteria. We will be looking for anyone who threw food. Regardless of who started it, by throwing even the smallest of food, you have perpetuated the fight and could have caused injury to others.

We will make a list of those who threw any food substance from the video.

We ask any student who threw food to report to the cafeteria after school to help clean up the mess. Please make sure you sign in so you have been identified as having helped clean up. We will have mops and cloths ready for you to help with the clean up. If you help with the clean up we will not follow through with suspensions, sending you to write exams at another location or withholding of transcripts. All of these consequences are common consequences for this type of behavior. Once again, please make sure you sign in so you have been identified as having helped clean up

Students who do not show up after school and have been identified as having thrown food substances on the video, will be suspended starting next school year, will have to write exams at another location and/or will have their transcripts withheld until which time we will ask you to come pick them up.

Please note:

The cafeteria/Deck will be closed for the remainder of the year.

Teachers, please note that Locker clean up will be postponed until further notice.

Peter Johnston
Principal

The newsletter is in pdf format which requires Adobe Reader to view. Adobe Reader is a free download and can be found here.

If you would like to receive email notification of when future newsletters have been posted, you may wish to add yourself to our newsletter mailing list. You can do this by clicking here and entering your name and email address.

• May/June Newsletter
• Newsletter Mailing List

• Mariner GPS

Reminder to all grade 8 students and parents:

Please note that the deadline to submit has been extended to midnight on June 15th.

EMS is participating in The BC Adolescent Substance Use Survey (BASUS). The survey is a longitudinal study of Grade 8 students – same students will complete surveys every 6 months.

Questions on the survey will ask students about tobacco, alcohol, marijuana and other drugs, as well as psychosocial development, stress, and general health. The study has been approved by the UBC Behavioural Research Ethics Board and our School District Superintendent. The ultimate goal of the study is to follow the participants through high school so that they can find ways to help improve existing programs focused on preventing drug and alcohol problems in youth. In addition, the information collected will be used to begin developing “online” sources of help for teens using tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs. As part of this project, BASUS will produce district and school specific reports so that each district and school will know about the patterns of tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use in their students. The information contained in the surveys will be kept strictly confidential.

• Myra Percy (myra.percy@ubc.ca)
• More Information

Way to go Mariners!