This has been my first fall as the principal of NIDES since taking on the job last January. It has been truly exciting to see the school come "alive" as August rolled into September and time took on its own warp in the learning world as the weeks passed. The Hornby Island Retreat for families and the Camp Homewood Retreat for our secondary students were truly wonderful community building events that reaffirmed for me the value and integrity of this very unique place of learning. The emergence of the secondary leadership group under the guidance of teachers John Gair and Stew Savard has revitalized the connection of many of these students to this school. The Halloween Dance that this group organized was truly a first rate family event and a wonderful expression of the desire of these students to build community.

There are many new initiatives that are changing the face of NIDES. Our new relationship with Bettermousetrap Marketing has drawn us to the digital era and social media as a primary means of communicating with our clientele. We now have a NIDES Facebook page which posts resources and events and connects our parents and students to the broader family NIDES network. Our International Languages Team have developed grade 12 courses using Rosetta Stone software at levels 4-5. Rosetta Stone TOTALe has recently been launched, an enriched interactive learning and live tutorial platform that is truly the cutting edge in language acquisition for the dedicated student. A pilot project in Rosetta Explorer for our Grade 4-8 students is currently under way thanks to the work of teacher Jamie McCance, that allows the children to try out four different languages in six week cycles. 

In January we will be launching a new dynamic website and changing the name of the school to navigate (powered by NIDES). Like the new school name, the website will allow our students to locate and access information with greater ease, efficiency and effectiveness. The change of name for the school reflects the need to bring NIDES into the modern distributed learning environment, one which is increasingly global. We believe it truly captures the spirit of the shifting learning enterprise that this school is a part of.

The launch of the Fine Arts eCademy and ENTER (eCademy of New Technologies, Engineering and Robotics) - scheduled for September 2012, is taking on a life of its own at the school. Community Information Presentations are scheduled for December 7 and 8, January 16 and 26, are designed to provide parents with the essential information needed to assess the value of these cutting edge blended learning programs for their children. Please contact the school for more information or go to the website information blog. 

Thank you to our parents, students and staff for helping drive these changes. Your support, input and participation is truly improving the way we learn and connect between parents, students and educators.

Jeff Stewart

Principal - NIDES  

The photo contest will run from November 30th to January 30th. 

Categories are:

• Feathers and Fur
• Mobile Devices
• Looking Up, Looking Down
• Time

Look for more information coming soon to the front page of D2L (online.nides.bc.ca). Start taking your pictures!

For the past several years NIDES has made a submission to the Odlum Brown Gingerbread Contest hosted by Crown Isle. For this year, those interested, can meet at NIDES Tsolum Campus on Thursday, December 1st from 10:00-12:00 (during choir time) to create their piece (we will have supplies).

Then, meet back at NIDES on Friday, December 2nd from 11:00-2:00 to put the project together. There will be a potluck lunch on the Friday so bring a contribution to share with others. Please let Amy know if you will be joining them  amy.lavoie73@gmail.com.

Grade 8-12's are encouraged to join in the fun at our WildPlay field trip happening in Nanaimo. Busing will be provided. Waiver forms will need to be completed before learners may take part in this activity. For more information, please contact John Gair at john.gair@sd71.bc.ca.

The NIDES Leadership Group would like to thank all of the people who helped to make this event an unforgettable evening. Our Principal, Jeff and Vice Principal, Alissa, we appreciate your enthusiastic support. Kemp, for the awesome slideshow & sound system setup. Tamara, for generously loaning us all the decorations and use of her camera. Mike, our most amazing DJ. The PAC for financial support. Thank you for your generous Food Bank donations. And thanks to the clean-up crew!