Welcome to the 2026-27 school year! 

Our staff have been working very diligently to prepare for our students' arrival, and we are excited to welcome your children on Monday, August 31st. Our grade 1-6 students will begin at 8:00. Kindergarten students will have a staggered entry. Detailed “Back-to-School" information can be found here and our school hours are posted on our website. 

By now, you should have received an email from your child's teacher to let you know who to look for on the first day. If not, just find a staff member outside in the morning and we will help you find your way. Please let your child’s teacher know what your regular pick-up routine will be and update them if there are any changes throughout the year. Email is the best way to communicate this information. 

The Week Ahead: 

CBE Dates of Significance 

Click here for the Riverbend School calendar page. 

Staffing Updates: 

You may notice that we have a few new faces on staff. We are pleased to welcome teachers Mireille Klaver, Jennifer Wiebe and Rune Breckon as well as lunch supervisor Heather Humble to Riverbend School!  

We say farewell to Mrs. Cedergren, who recently accepted a position at another school. She will be missed at Riverbend, and we wish her well in her new role! 

This fall, the CBE has hired hundreds of teachers, education assistants and other school staff to support student learning. These positions have been funded by the Government of Alberta with the intention of addressing classroom complexity and class sizes. 
 
We are pleased to announce that Ms. Lauren Clarke will fill this role in our school as additional teacher support for grades 3 and 5 for the 2026-27 school year. 

This additional staff allocation will help ensure students benefit from: 

• Increased teacher attention 
• Improved classroom learning environments 
• Greater support for diverse learning needs 

Communication: 

We aim to make communication from the school office concise by sending one comprehensive weekly update, which will be scheduled to arrive in your inbox each Sunday morning. Please make sure that you have subscribed to receive both general and commercial email from CBE to receive all messaging.  

Your first point of contact is your child’s classroom teacher. Please reach out to them directly for questions or concerns, as they know your child and the classroom context best. 

What to Bring (and not bring) to School: 

Supplies such as notebooks, paper, pencils, etc. are supplied by the school through a parent fee. There is no need to send any supplies from home. Students should have a pair of indoor shoes to be left at school. A backpack large enough to hold a picture book, a water bottle, lunch and recess snack are all that need to be brought from home. 

We would like to remind families that Personal Mobile Devices (PMDs) are not permitted to be used at school. These include, but aren’t limited to, smartphones and smart watches. Student devices brought to school must be out of sight and either powered off or set to silent between 8:00 am and 2:30 pm. They should be left in backpacks or better yet - simply left at home. The school is not responsible for loss or damage. 

To further promote respectful and safe practices and limit unnecessary learning distraction, we will be discouraging hats/hoods from being worn indoors. This is in line with safety protocols as well as policy at the middle schools our students transition to. If your child requires wearing a hat indoors for medical purposes, please let the teacher know. Students are welcome to wear hats/toques outdoors as they wish. 

Lunch Program – Grade 1-6 only

Each year, students in grades 1-6 who are staying for lunch need to be registered for Noon Supervision. Please register your child(ren) through your MyCBE account as soon as possible so we know who to expect for lunch. 

We kindly request that students who will not be staying at school for lunch be picked up at the office on the first day. Please share your lunch routine (students walk home, parent pick-up, etc.) with your child’s teacher and Ms. Allen. Students not utilizing the noon supervision service should return to school no earlier than 12:20. Lunch recess ends at 12:24. 

School Expectations 

Our work is guided by a set of rules, expectations and guidelines identified by the Chief Superintendent that support and align our operations. They assist in identifying boundaries, parameters and guides for action that inform decision making within our school. Please take a few minutes to review these two items: 

AR6031 - Welcoming, Caring, Respectful and Safe Learning and Work Environments.pdf  

AR6006-Progressive-Student-Discipline.pdf 

Further information can be found on our CBE website. 

We look forward to a fantastic year of learning together. See you on Monday!