Blog Posts

As we navigate the fourth wave of the pandemic, with an eye to post-pandemic teaching and learning, it has dawned on me that two of the lessons learned from the pandemic might be at odds with each other. With physical distancing being one of the best ways to keep ourselves and kids safe from COVID-19, we saw many classrooms migrate outdoors, at least for part of their instructional experience. This was sage advice given to us by public health, and many classroom teachers were all over it.

This will be a year to remember. I think all of us are happy to put 2020-21 in the rearview mirror. While we did a truly heroic job of navigating the pandemic last year, I think it’s fair to say that none of us wants to do it again. But let’s take a minute to reflect on our efforts. Not only did we live through a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, but we were also able to keep our schools open, take care of each other and – most importantly – fulfill our mission to provide the best possible education to our students.

Over the past school year, the staff at Rick Hansen have been hard a work creating course-based Learning Maps.

With the recent Ministry announcement that our schools will be returning to Stage 1 (“near normal”) operations for the coming year, I cannot help but reflect on the enormity of what we have accomplished this year in our province, and particularly here in Abbotsford. Put simply, our staff – all of them – have done a phenomenal job of keeping our schools open and functioning during a global pandemic, the likes of which none of us have ever experienced. This is worthy of celebration and profound gratitude.

In this week's installment of our Equity for Humanity Project - take a quick peek at the work of various educators around the district at different levels as they tackle what Equity means in their brave space. 

Over the last year, educators across the Abbosford School District have been part of the equity discussion.  It is our pleasure to highlight their work in our Equity for Humanity Project.   The word "equity" has many different connotations when applied to the framework of education.  It has been our joy to witness teachers entering into brave spaces and navigating the challenge of providing equity with the classroom and beyond.  

Take a quick peek at what we've been working on.... 

Kudos to our own Pari Khanna, Grade 11, who took on the community issue of Abbotsford Homeless in her leadership PBL unit.  As as result of her driving question, she put together 55 care packages for the Salvation Army.  We'd like to thank the local business community for answering her calls and donating merchandise and funds in order to supoport the  project. 

Kudos to Jeevan Grewal who for her District Dogwood Scholarship looked around her campus and decided the tackle the Torch logo on our upper field.  The Torch was overgrown with grass and other weeds.  Jeevan investigated a number of different options to bring the Torch back to life from gravel, to concrete, or different vegetation.  Her researched looked at cost analysis, time to design and implement and environmental impact.  In the end, she decided on various perennials to bring in the colours of the torch year after year.  Last week, she began the large task of w

This is a  special week for many of our students and their families. Vaisakhi which celebrates both a faith and cultural aspect is on April 13th.  At Rick Hansen Sec. we have arranged for every student and staff member to receive a fresh, warm samosa delivered to their class.

A member of our District's Pandemic Response Team recently congratulated us on our "one year anniversary" of the weekly meetings we have been hosting since COVID-19 took its place in our collective consciences. It took a while for it to sink in, but it dawned on me that we have been working at this for what seems like several years. This time last year, the World Health Organization declared that we were amidst a "global pandemic." We hosted a meeting with all school district leaders at the Abby Arts Centre to map out how we would tackle this emerging threat after Spring Break.