New Student Info

Rocky Lake Junior High

670 Rocky Lake Dr., Bedford NS B4A 2T6

School Hours

Our school hours are:

7:50am – 1:50pm

Students should be at school

no later than 7:50am.

Students are sent home at 1:50pm

Late Arrivals

All students must sign in at the

office if they arrive after 8am.

If arriving by bus on the first day, please
report to the office upon arrival. If you are
bringing your child the first day, kindly
arrive at 8:05am to avoid the initial early
morning rush. If something happens and
you are not attending on the day we
expect you, please call 902-832-8952 ext
0 to report the absence and reason.

Lunch Times & Cafeteria

Lunch for Grade 7s & 8s is 11:00-11:50

Lunch for Grade 9s is 12:00-12:50pm

Students are not permitted to leave the school property

during the lunch hour.

We do have a cafeteria that serves hot lunch every day.

A lunch is generally between $6-8 range.

Access our cafeteria menu here.

Important Note About
Picking Up Students during
their Lunch Hour

We kindly request that if you are picking up your
child during his/her lunch hour, that your child is
aware of the time you will be arriving and knows
to be ready.

While the 7th and 8th graders are at lunch, the
9th graders are in class, and vice versa,
therefore PA announcements calling down
students for appointments are disruptive to the
school’s routine.

We appreciate your understanding and
cooperation.

Student Fees

Our school student fees are $25 this year and can be paid in
the office on the first day they attend classes. Prior to Covid,
collecting student fees was a practice at junior high schools
and high schools. The practice of collecting student fees
was put on pause as the pandemic years restricted what we
could offer to our students. We are getting back to the
normal junior experience. The RLJH School Advisory Council
(SAC) approved the collection of student fees based on the
following breakdown of expenditures:

• Rocky Lake Respect positive culture initiative (all
  students will receive a

RLJH t-shirt with positive messaging)

• Movie trip and transportation subsidy
• Annual field trip and transportation subsidy
• Live Differently Presentation to all students
• Leadership Group Spirit Week Initiatives

School Bus

If your child will be traveling to school via school bus,
you will be notified of the morning and afternoon bus
numbers for your child to take.

Students are not permitted to ride on buses they are not
assigned (for example, wanting to go on a friend’s bus to
hang out after school, or to go to a relative’s house that is
nearby, or to go to a recreation event.)

Any such play/social arrangements must be made after
students have returned home on the bus. This is to
ensure that buses can accommodate the students who
are scheduled on their roster and in the event of an
emergency, we know which students are on the bus.

Neither the school - nor parents - can give permission

for students to ride a bus

to which they are not properly assigned.

Please ensure that your student knows

their bus route numbers.

On the first day, students should come with basic
supplies (pen, pencil, binder, paper, calculator). They will
be instructed by their teacher what they

will need going forward.

Your child will be assigned a locker and lock to keep their
belongings safe. Students are reminded to keep their lock
combination to themselves, and to ensure their
belongings are always kept in their locked locker.

We have a program where students can sign-up for a
Chromebook computer that they can use for the year.

At this time there is a waitlist for Chromebooks but please
sign up on this link to be placed on the waitlist.

Sign Up for a Chromebook here.

Please note that the Chromebooks cannot leave the province
if you are travelling as they will not work. If going away for
more than 30 days, they must be returned to the school.

School Supplies & Lockers

Chromebook Computer

Safe Arrival

https://www.hrce.ca/families/general-information/safe-arrival

What is School Messenger’s Safe Arrival?

School Messenger’s Safe Arrival is an absence-management system that
improves student safety and makes it easy for you to let the school know about
your child’s absence. You are asked to report your child’s absence in advance
whenever possible using one of these convenient methods:

Interactive Toll-Free Phone

· Call the toll-free, interactive telephone system at 1-833-582-6940

· If the system does not recognize your caller ID, you will be asked to enter a
phone number that the school has on record for you

· Follow the instructions to report an absence

School Messenger Through PowerSchool

· Log into the Parent Portal of PowerSchool: https://sishrsb.ednet.ns.ca/public/

· If signing in for the first time, follow the instructions at the bottom of the page

· Select the School Messenger link from the left-hand menu

· Select Attendance from the menu, then select Report an Absence

· Follow the prompts

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Absences can be reported in advance, until 8:20am of the school day on the date of your child’s absence:

· 24 hours/day

· 7 days a week

· For any school day during the current school year

When an absence is reported or updated, you will receive a confirmation notice by email.

If you don’t report your child’s absence in advance, the automated notification system will try to contact
you. This may include an email, text message, and phone call. You will be asked to confirm your child’s
absence.

If you try to explain an absence using School Messenger, but are then told that it is past the cut-off time,
please contact the school directly.

If you do not want to receive notifications when your child is absent, be sure to report their absence in
advance.

App

· Download the School Messenger app for Android and iOS devices

· Sign up using your PowerSchool username (full email address) that the school has on
record for you

· Click on Attendance

· Follow the prompts

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Appointments

All students must be signed out before they leave for an appointment.

We only call down students once their parents arrive for pick up, please only call when you arrive.
You may call the office 902-832-8952 extension 0 or come in to report their absence.

We can only dismiss students to people who are on their contact lists and we cannot dismiss
students with other parents without prior pre-arranged permission.

Communication

We send out (via email) a weekly newsletter each Sunday evening called “Week at a Glance” to let
you know of upcoming events and dates. Please make sure to take note of these emails and make
sure we have a working email address on file for you.

You can also visit our school website: rlj.hrce.ca

PowerSchool

PowerSchool is the part of the iNSchool system which
manages core student information - such as
demographics, attendance, behaviour, achievement
and schedules.

You can log in to PowerSchool for the first time using
your email address as a username and password.

Your child will be given logins for PowerSchool when
they start school and will be given their own distinct
log in on the day they start school. This will be the
same until they graduate in grade 12. We
recommend this be put in their phone if they have
one or be kept in a safe place for future reference.

This is particularly important when they want to know
their teachers each school year in September for
earlier grades. In later grades, they will use this tool to
see their marks, attendance, assignments passed in
and due.

New to PowerSchool?

Click here for a user guide to help you navigate the Parent
Portal.

Did you know your student has their own account in
PowerSchool’s Student Portal? Their teachers have ensured
they have access, and if they need to reset their password,
they can find instructions here or ask their ILT teacher for
assistance.

The Parent Portal is a powerful tool for tracking trends in
your student’s attendance and academic progress. Use it
to facilitate conversations with your student about their
learning needs and goals.

If you have concerns about your student’s progress after
reviewing PowerSchool and talking with them, reach out to
the teacher of that subject to discuss strategies for
improvement. You can find teachers' email addresses in
the staff directory on our school website.

There is a new Provincial Cell Phone Policy in place in
which students can bring their cellphones to school, but
they must be kept in their locker until lunch time and
after school. If students are caught with their phones
outside of these times they will be sent to the office
where the phone will remain until the end of the day.

Be sure to sign up for automated text messages to be
alerted of any school cancellations.

Click here to sign up for school cancellation alerts.

Cell Phone Policy

School Cancellations