Principal’s Message 

August 18, 2021

Good afternoon to the students and parents of Big Island Lake Cree Nation. As you are aware, the new school year is upon us. We are excited to announce that we will be reopening with students for the 2021-2022 school year! This years theme is “Every Child Matters”. We want to create an environment where students know that they matter and that their educational needs and personal needs of learning, acceptance and love are what matter most! We will be introducing some new programs this year that help to compliment our supports. New this year will be; an in house Mental Health Therapist, a Hockey Skills Academy Program, Outside Looking In and Right to Play program. Check out the attached links to learn more about these upcoming new programs. We have made some other improvements to our school. The gym floor is being painted, new lighting is being installed with a brighter LED system, a new security system has been installed and classroom windows have been replaced with new windows to provide for proper ventilation and we have created new outdoor learning spaces.We are bringing in mobile classroom units for high school classes to eliminate split classrooms and to ensure smaller classroom sizes wherever possible. Eliminating split classrooms will ensure concentrated teaching at student grade level.Land base education continues to be a key focus of our education system. New this year will be the addition of treaty education as a key pillar to land base education to provide students the background and knowledge of their history and contemporary and relevant information. Knowing ones history and roots instills pride in oneself and will help to incorporate the theme and main concept of “Every Child Matters”. These enhanced programs and improvements to the school are geared to providing a safe and caring learning environment for our students at CNMS. We want to continue to provide a welcoming and inviting place where children feel loved and where their education is valued. Unfortunately, Covid is still around us. As a school we want to create the safest school environment for our students. We have had the school professionally steam cleaned to get rid of the remnants of the gym being used as an isolation center. The school will no longer be used as an isolation center. We know that Covid can still impact our community. As a result, we will be implementing our Reopen Plan of masking, heightened cleaning procedures, and social distancing as much as possible. Our school nurse, Dwan Simard will be on hand to provide support and ensure that we create a safe school environment and follow health protocols as required. We are concerned about Covid and I am sure that you as parents share this concern. Please be assured that we will work to provide a good healthy environment whereby students can learn and excel educationally to the best of their ability. We look forward to seeing the students! We have missed them tremendously. Please come in on August 30th or 31st to register your child(ren). We look forward to seeing you!
https://righttoplay.com/en-ca/national-offices/national-office-canada/get-involved/indigenous-programs/?_ga=2.142838833.540733747.1629230907-51838828.1629230907
https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/hockey-programs/schools/hcsa
https://www.olishow.com/copy-of-our-programs

Hiy, hiy.

Helen Ben

Thank you for visiting CNMS website!