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.