École Elbow Valley Handbook

Regular attendance is essential for your child’s learning development, and well-being. Being at school every day helps them build strong relationships, develop good habits, and stay on track academically. Research shows that missing more than 10% of school days can lead to challenges in learning and social connections. Arriving on time is just as important – late arrivals can disrupt classroom routines and cause students to miss key instructions. We understand that occasional absences happen; if your child will be away, please notify the school. Together, we can support every student’s success.

If your child is going to be absent, please use SafeArrival to report their absence to the school. You can report your child’s absence in advance using any of these three methods:

Using your mobile device, download and install the SchoolMessenger app from the Apple App Store, the

• Google Play Store, or via the links on the SchoolMessenger website.
• The first time you use the app, select Sign Up to create your account.
• To report an absence, Select Attendance.

Use the SafeArrival website:

• The first time you use the website, select Sign Up to create your account.
• To report an absence, Select Attendance.

Call the toll-free number (1-833-244-5565) to report an absence using the automated phone system.

These options are available 24 hours/day, 7 days a week. Future absences can be reported at any time. If your child is absent and not accounted for, you will be contacted by our automated system. 

Student Sign-in and Sign-out

• If your child arrives after the school day begins, please sign them in at the office. 
• Students are not permitted to leave the school premises at any time unless they are picked up by a parent, legal guardian, or an adult that has been approved in the student’s PowerSchool contact information and signed out.
• When picking up your child during school hours, please come directly to the office. The student will be called from class once a parent has signed the child out.
• If a student has a scheduled appointment, inform their teacher and office in advance with a note or email. Please call the office by 2:30 PM for any messages for your student.

• School buses do not operate when temperatures reach -40 degrees Celsius or lower. Severe weather may lead to route cancellations without closing schools.
• RVS may close schools in extreme winter conditions to ensure safety, though this is rare. Factors considered include temperature, wind chill, road conditions, snow and ice amounts, and school location.
• Decisions are made early, and ultimately, parents/guardians decide if their child should go to school or the bus stop.
• Communication about closures is sent via email, and families can check the Where’s The Bus (WTB) App, RVS website, or social media for updates. Schools are open if no closure announcement is made.

Safety is our highest priority, and we’d like to ask drivers to keep their speed down and watch carefully for pedestrians. There are two different spaces that you can drop off your children for school. There is the parent parking lot as well as the Kiss & Drop area in the front of the school.  

If you are using the Kiss & Drop, please do not leave your car to walk your student to their doors. There is a supervisor outside to support students to get to their doors. The parent parking lot is open and available to all families dropping off students at Elbow Valley Elementary. 

We do have Handicapped Parking in front of our main doors, please be mindful of this area. Also, in front at the far west end we have a Fire Lane. It is important not to block this lane for emergency purposes. Thank you for your attention to this. 

• Each class is assigned an entrance that is convenient to their classroom. Their assigned boot racks are at these entrances. Students are expected to enter and exit the building through these assigned entrances only. These entrances are sent out to families in August with information about classroom placements.
• The main entrance is only used by visitors, volunteers, and those arriving late to school. Visitors to the school must enter through the office. 
• To ensure the safety of our students, all outside doors are locked. To enter the school please ring the doorbell at the main doors, you will be buzzed in to then check in at the office.

• Where’s The Bus (WTB) is a free, secure tool used by RVS to provide parents/guardians and schools with arrival times and location information for our fleet of buses. This will provide you with accurate information you can use to check for late buses and when your child arrives at school. 
• WTB uses GPS and tablets installed on school buses to track and report the estimated arrival times for our buses. This information is transmitted to the WTB Parent App, which can be accessed from any internet-connected device (smartphone, tablet or computer) to display your bus’s location, status and estimated time of arrival. The app displays real-time location information for your bus and is updated every 15 seconds. It will also display an estimated time of arrival (ETA), which will become more accurate as ride data is accumulated over time.  
• Transportation information can be found on Rocky View Schools website. https://www.rockyview.ab.ca/schools/busing-transportation
  • Contact transportation at: 403-945-4100
• For the Emergency Transportation line, please call 403-945-4089.

• At École Elbow Valley Elementary, we believe that our school is a safe community because we are respectful, responsible, and brave.
• We use PBIS (Positive Behaviour Interventions and Strategies) to create a safe and welcoming school community. PBIS is a proactive approach that teaches and reinforces positive behaviours, helping students understand expectations, know how to tackle challenges, and succeed socially and academically.
• The goals of being respectful, responsible and brave are talked about each day during our morning announcements. 

New students are assigned to a house at the start of the school year, with hoodies and t-shirts available for purchase in late September. Students earn beads for demonstrating character traits, which are collectively counted weekly to showcase positive behaviour, emphasizing teamwork. The character traits we are focusing on this year are: 

• September & October – We are a Safe Community 
• November & December – We are Respectful 
• January & February – We are Responsible 
• March & April – We are Brave 
• May & June – We are a Safe Community 

Students are encouraged to leave personal mobile devices and smart watches at home. The division has introduced Administrative Procedure (AP) 148: Responsible use of Personal Mobile Devices and Social Media in Schools to align with new provincial government standards. 

 Highlights of the AP include: 

• The safest place for students’ devices is at home. Should they choose to bring them to school, they must be out of sight and turned off or silent. Parents/guardians and students assume full responsibility if their device is lost, stolen or damaged. 
• Students cannot use their personal mobile device in school during instructional time, unless specially authorized by their school’s administrator or their teacher for educational purposes. This includes any personal electronic device that can be used to communicate with or access the internet. Examples include cell phones, smart watches, laptops and tablets. 
• Students with health or medical reasons or special learning needs may be granted permission to use personal mobile devices during instructional time, upon completion of Form AF148A or as indicated in the student’s IPP. 
• Students will not have access to social media platforms at school over the school’s Wi-Fi network and are not permitted to access it at school using their own data plans to ensure students remain focused on educational tasks. 
• The procedures are designed to have teachers and administrators work with students and parents/guardians toward the common goal of limiting distractions and staying focused on learning. 

Student Accounts

• Every RVS student has access to a Google account through their @rvschools.ab.ca email address. If students are required to access their account at home, teachers will share information with families.

PowerSchool Parent Portal & School Engage

• PowerSchool's Parent Portal gives parents and students access to real-time information including attendance, grades and detailed assignment descriptions. Everyone stays connected: students stay on top of assignments, parents can participate more fully in their student's progress, and teachers can use their gradebook to make decisions on what information they want to share with parents and students. 
• Sign in at https://ps.rockyview.ab.ca/public/home.html using your username and password. If you do not have this information or have questions, please contact the school office. 

School Cash Online

• Each student has a School Cash Online account that is used to pay for any field trips and other school-related expenses. We cannot accept cash or cheques at the office. Click https://rockyview.schoolcashonline.com/ for the website. 

Conference Manager

• Twice a year, parents, students, and teachers meet for Collaborative Conferences. This is a chance to discuss the school year, celebrate learning milestones, and look ahead. Conferences occur once in the fall and once in the spring. Information for this is shared in the Owl Outlook and is posted on our school calendar.
• To access your Conference Manager account, please go to this website: https://elbowvalley.schoolsoft.com/login.jsf

Rocky View Schools provides school supplies for students in Grades K-4, but students will need to bring the following: 

• A backpack and a pair of indoor, non-marking, running shoes (these will be left at the school). 
• A snack, a lunch (for Grades 1-4), and a reusable water bottle daily. Please remember to send utensils in your child’s snack or lunch daily. Heating lunches at school is not permitted, please use a thermos for warm food items. 
• Please consider providing a couple boxes of tissue to your classroom. 
• We encourage parents of younger students to keep an extra set of clothes in their children’s bags in case of spills or accidents. 
• Please label commonly misplaced articles like jackets, sweaters, shoes, mittens, and hats. We donate or discard many items from our Lost & Found rack every year. 

Recess

• Whenever possible, recess will be taken outdoors, as usual. During times of extreme cold weather (windchill will be considered) recess time outside may be shortened or cancelled. If outside recess is cancelled, students will be asked to play and have quiet time in their rooms or commons areas. 
• As the decision to stay indoors is made on a day-to-day basis, please ensure your child is dressed properly to go outside in a variety of weather conditions. 
• If your child is healthy enough to be at school, they are considered healthy enough to participate in recess. There is not adequate supervision to accommodate students simply staying in, by family request. 

Playground

• The play structure is out of bounds in the morning before school and immediately after dismissal in the afternoon. This is to ensure that students arrive in their classrooms on time and get to their buses at the end of the day. 

Learning Commons

• Students have an opportunity to borrow books from our library. They visit weekly and can bring their books home to read.

Fun Lunch Program

• School Council is pleased to offer a few special lunch options for students in grades 1-4 through Healthy Hunger. All profits from the special lunch program go directly to School Council to help fund enrichment activities enjoyed by the students. These include things such as guest speakers. inline skating, robotics, etc. This is an optional program. If you are not interested in ordering a lunch for your child, please send a regular lunch with them. 
• To order a meal through Healthy Hunger please visit: https://healthyhunger.ca  
• All Healthy Hunger orders can be placed, modified or cancelled on the website until midnight five days prior to the special lunch date. 
• Please note that Elbow Valley Elementary cannot guarantee all food products are from nut free suppliers. 
• Should you have any questions, please contact evespeciallunches@gmail.com

• Elbow Valley Elementary is a nut aware school. To accommodate students with severe nut allergies, families are asked to not send peanut or nut products to school with your child in lunches, for snack, or classroom celebrations. 
• Elbow Valley Elementary adheres to Rocky View Schools Administering Medication or Medical Treatment to Students. For more information, please search Administering Medication in Administrative Forms: https://www.rockyview.ab.ca/about-rvs/administrative-forms

The Friends of École Elbow Valley Elementary School Society (FEEVESS): FEEVESS is the fundraising arm of Elbow Valley Elementary. They are a non-profit charitable society run strictly by parent involvement. All funds raised by this society benefit Elbow Valley Elementary and students. All parents are encouraged and welcome to join this society.  

School Council: School Council is an opportunity to learn more about the school, your child’s education, and have a voice. School Council ensures that parents and our school are working in partnership to enhance student learning. All parents are encouraged to join us on the second Tuesday of every month.   

Volunteering

• Parent volunteers make our school a better place; we appreciate the contributions of our volunteers! Parents are always welcome at the school. Please make prior arrangements with the teacher if you wish to visit a classroom or become involved as a volunteer. 
• If you would like to volunteer at our school, a completed Criminal Record/Vulnerable Record Check must be on file at the school. Please contact the school office for the required letter, you will need to bring this with you to an RCMP/Police Detachment. When completed, the office requires a copy on file and will be considered valid for 5 years. 
• If you have a current Criminal Record Check on file with us, the Annual Declaration form and the Volunteer Confidentiality form must both be signed and submitted to our office each year to keep your Criminal Record Check current. 
• We ask that all visitors and volunteers visiting the school sign in and out at the office, this enables us to verify who is in the school, and who to account for in the building in the event of an emergency. This is to ensure our students’ and your safety. 

• Elbow Valley Elementary has an Emergency Preparedness Plan to ensure the safety of all students and staff in the event of an emergency.
• We have clear procedures in place to respond quickly and effectively, and we practice emergency drills throughout the school year to ensure everyone is prepared.
• A copy of the plan is available on the Rocky View Schools website for parents who would like more information.