January 23, 2026
Principal’s Message – January 23
Dear École Herbert Spencer Community,
Another exciting week! Please see the following gallery, reminders, updates and information!
Robbie Burns Day Assembly!
Mme Senyk is not just an amazing Kindergarten teacher – she is also a very accomplished Highland Dancer!
Today Mme Senyk organized an assembly for our Primary Grades to celebrate Robbie Burns Day coming up this weekend!
Lego Builders!
So appreciate the PAC that brought us this awesome activity for our grade ones today!
Our Intermediate Classes began an intensive Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies (ADST) program this week with the amazing Murtaza Velji, our District Technology Curriculum Facilitator. The ADST curriculum is based on experiential, hands on learning through design and creation. The core approach is to define a problem, generate ideas, create a prototype, test, refine, retest and share! They worked with robots and a green screen and they were super excited about it! Thank you Murtaza for all your time and expertise!
Save the Dates!
Axé Capoeira!
Grade 3 and 4 students will be participating in a Brazilian Dance Artist in Residency, March 10 – 12 with a performance for parents on March 13th at 1:30 PM. Grade 3 and 4 families please save the date! We anticipate this event will be well attended so we will need to restrict spectators to 2 family members per student. More details to come as we near that week.
Hoop Shoot Club! – Grade 4/5
Grade 4 and 5 students have the opportunity to join Hoop Shoot Club on Wednesday and Friday mornings from 8:15 – 8:45 AM. Hoop Shoot is a game with a team of 3 players. Each player on the team has 45 seconds to take as many lay-up shots as they can (with the other two team members rebounding and passing back to the shooting player). The teams compete against other teams, trying to score the greatest number of baskets as a team. Hoop Shoot was at one time a very popular District wide event … stay tuned it may be back in the future!
As a member of the Herbert Spencer Hoop Shoot Club students will hone their dribbling, passing and layup skills, and participate in a mini Hoop Shoot Tournament during the last week of February.
World Read Aloud Day – February 4th 1PM – 2PM – Check out this Free Online Event!
June Dates
We have booked a few of our important June Dates and we know parents appreciate these as soon as possible!
Grade 5 Graduation – June 12th – Ceremony at 11AM
Sports Day – June 19th
Yearbooks!
It is that time of year again and our PAC yearbook committee is looking for more photos for this year’s edition! Rest assured that Staff and our Grade 5 Leadership team have been busy in the first term capturing all our events and activities, but we are also asking families to send any photos you may have of your child on the school grounds, in their classroom or on school field trips to yearbook.herbertspencer@gmail.com Please ensure before you share any photos that have other children in them, that you have the permission of those families first.
Yearbooks are now available for preordering! Order here: https://www.jostens.com/apps/store/customer/2528611/Herbert-Spencer-Elem-School/
2025/2026 Grade 4 – Student Learning Survey
An email was sent this week to the families of all Grade 4 Students sharing the link to the Student Learning Survey provided by the BC Ministry of Education and Child Care. Parents and Guardians of Grade 4 students are asked to please complete the survey, open now until May 1st.
Grade 4 students complete a similar survey in school during this same period of time. Your feedback is very important to help us shape our strategic planning and provide feedback on how we are doing. We appreciate your support!
Community Happenings!
Hyack Football Spring Programs – Programs run from April to June for students Aged 5 – 14 – Registration Open Now!
Calendar Dates:
Jan 27 Early Dismissal/Collab Day
Jan 29 Dance Performance @ 1:15PM – Whole School Assembly
Feb 4 PAC Meeting
Feb 6 McDonalds/Sushi Fun Lunch
Feb 11 Early Dismissal/Conferences
Feb 12 Early Dismissal/Conferences
Feb 16 Family Day
Feb 17 Pro D
Feb 20 Pizza Fun Lunch
Feb 25 Fire Drill @11AM
Mar 2, 3 Les Petits Chefs (crepes)
Mar 3 Mike’s Critters – Div 19, 20 and 21
Mar 4 District Ball Hockey Tournament – FRMS (Afternoon and Early Evening)
Mar 6 McDonalds/Sushi Fun Lunch
Mar 9 – 13 Axe Capoeira – Grade 3/4
Mar 13 Axe Capoeira Final Performance PM (Open to Grade 3 and 4 parents – details to come)
Mar 12 Second Report Published
Mar 16 – 27 Spring Break
Mar 30 School Reopens
Useful Links:
École Herbert Spencer Website
École Herbert Spencer Parent Advisory Council Website
PAC Events Calendar
École Herbert Spencer 2025-26 School Calendar
School Cash Online Information
Family Portal Instructions for Parents
My Ed BC Parent Portal instructions