Upcoming Dates
Oct. 12 - Thanksgiving - No School
Oct 14 - Grade 1 and 2 Field Trip to Richmond Hill Performing Arts, IWALK- International Walk to School Day
Oct. 21 - Picture Day
Oct 26 - PA Day
A Message from Mrs. Schreider and Ms. Petinarelis
One of the most common questions we hear from families is, “How can I help my child with learning at home?”
We know how much you care about supporting your child’s growth, especially in math! To help make learning at home engaging and accessible, our school board has put together a collection of activities and helpful resources tailored by grade level:
- 📐 Activities & Resources (Kindergarten and up): Supporting Math Learning at Home
- ❓ Answers to Common Questions: Frequently Asked Questions About Math
Whether you're playing simple counting games with your youngest or exploring concepts with older students, every little bit helps build confidence!
How can I support my child with Literacy?
Parent Guides and resources to support your child’s literacy at home can be found on this Ministry of Education website.
The Language Grades 1-8 Guide for parents gives information about the revised grades 1-8 curriculum. The guide includes:
- A summary of the changes in the revised curriculum
- And outline of the knowledge and skills students need to learn at each grade
- Strategies to support your child’s literacy learning
TVO Learn provides resources for students in Grades 1-8..
- A Parent's Guide to Literacy and Mathematics in Full-Day Kindergarten
- Supporting Multilingual Language Learners in Kindergarten through Home Language
We hope these resources give you some fun ideas to try together.
Wishing you all a wonderful and restful long weekend!
Sincerely,
Heather Schreider Georgia Petinarelis
Principal Vice-Principal
Action Items
Picture Day
Bring on your best smile BHES! Picture Day will be on Wednesday October 21. Please see photo day tips.
IWALK - Oct. 14 
In partnership with York Region Public Health, BHES will be participating in International Walk and Roll to School Day on Oct. 14. Please see more information here.
Halloween
We look forward to celebrating Halloween with our students this year. Please remember the following:
- Costumes should be respectful of others. Symbols or objects representative of a person’s race, culture, ethnicity, or religious beliefs should not be worn as another person’s costume, nor should costumes that caricature social identities through stereotyping. Please be sensitive to images and media use.
- In the spirit of Truth and Reconciliation, please ensure costumes do not trivialize and devalue the lives of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.
- Students do not need to dress up. If they would like to do so, they may wear orange and black or autumn colours.
- No Halloween masks are to be worn.
- No replica weapons of any kind are allowed.
- Students should only use single-use make-up (sharing of make-up is not recommended)
Specific information will be sent home by your child’s teachers.
Information Items
October 26 PA Day
Length | Topic | Entity Hosting | Presenter/ Facilitator | Description |
Full Day- | Special Education and Individual Education Plans, Bullying Prevention and Artificial Intelligence | All Elementary Schools | Online modules developed by Board staff, facilitated by school administration | School teams will investigate how assessment information helps educators understand student learning, the impact of processing on learning, and the supports needed for student success. They will focus on students' strengths, Individual Education Plans (IEPs), and family engagement to enhance achievement and well-being. School teams will participate in professional learning highlighting the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in education and its responsible use under cyber safety guidelines. Educators will receive training for Keeping Students Safe, focusing on topics such as anti-sex trafficking, bullying prevention, and the Police and School Boards Protocol, as well as fostering discussions to improve student safety practices. |
Cyber Safety: Generative AI
What Has Changed?
Traditional cyberattacks were easier to spot. Poor grammar, generic greetings, and suspicious links were reliable red flags. Generative AI has largely eliminated those tells.
Attackers now have access to tools that can:
- Generate fluent, personalized phishing emails by analyzing publicly available writing samples, social media activity, or even prior email chains obtained through a previous breach.
- Clone a person's voice from as few as three seconds of audio using commercially available AI tools, then use that clone to impersonate a principal, superintendent, or board executive in a live or pre-recorded call.
- Produce deepfake video in real time during a call, overlaying a trusted person's face and voice onto an attacker's feed to deceive staff into approving transactions or disclosing credentials.
- Automate targeted attack campaigns at scale, allowing a single threat actor to run thousands of customized attacks simultaneously at a fraction of what it previously cost.
How to Protect Yourself
- Verify unusual requests through a second, independent channel.
- Treat urgency as a warning sign. Attackers deliberately create time pressure to prevent verification. Legitimate internal requests will withstand a brief delay.
- Never approve payments, reset credentials, or grant system access based solely on an email, phone call, or video, regardless of how convincing the request appears.