Semester I is drawing to a close. On January 23rd, exemptions will be posted, and the following week of January 26-29 will see our grade 9 to grade 11 students write final exams. The grade 12 students will be out on work experience, while the Junior High students have a variety of curling and skiing activities planned. Both sign-out sheets for students writing exams, and permission forms for our grade 7 and 8 students have been sent home. Parents should keep an eye out for either form if they have not seen them yet.

It won’t take place until March 5th, but RCI had been invited to participate in the 2008-09 Youth Smoking Survey (YSS). This is the only survey conducted nationally to monitor smoking behaviours of Canadian youth and will be conducted in over 300 schools across Canada this school year. The YSS is funded by Health Canada and in Manitoba will be implemented by CancerCare Manitoba in partnership with the University of Waterloo. In addition to studying smoking behaviour, the YSS looks at purchasing behaviour, smoking cessation, perceptions of peer smoking and exposure to environmental tobacco. The information provided by students may be used by schools and health officials to plan programs and interventions and to provide information on effective tobacco control policies. Students in grades 7 to 12 with parental permission will be asked to take part in the survey. Rivers Collegiate will receive a $100 honorarium in appreciation of the time and effort of school personnel to administer the survey and will be entered into a draw to win an additional award of $250, $500, or $750. Parents and interested public can visit the project website www.yss.uwaterloo.ca for more information about the project.

RCI RAMBLINGS

Happy New Year! We are onto the home stretch for Semester I courses at the high school level. An exam schedule will be sent home shortly, and students are reminded to prepare early for their final assessments, rather than leave studying to the last minute. Remember to seek out help from your classroom teachers during class, or over lunch. A number of teachers are available to help students before and after school – you just need to ask!
Our grade 12 students do write exams earlier in January, to allow them a chance to complete their Career Preparation activities. The ELA 40 exam begins on January 6, and concludes on the 9th. Physics 40 is on January 16, and Biology and World Issues 40 is on January 23. Exemption lists for those students over 80% (in grade 9 – 11) will also be posted on the 23rd. Career Prep for Grade 12 students is from January 26 – 30 inclusive.

Additional Activities for January are as follows:
Jan 13: RRSD Trustee Tour
Jan 20: Parent Advisory Council Meeting, 7 p.m. in the RCI library
Jan 26: Junior High Curling (am)
Jan 27: Junior High Curling (am)
Jan 28: Junior High Ski Trip
Jan 29: Junior High Funspeil (all day)
Jan 30: no school
Semester II begins on Feb. 2, 2009.

As a final note, a big THANKS! goes out to the Town of Rivers who have donated funds towards the International Science School 2009. As reported earlier, Josie Paddock and Cassandra Pryzner have been chosen to attend ISS 2009 in Sydney, Australia in July.