Happy New Year! and Bonne Année! are greetings that get exchanged throughout the month of January. We do so to offer our best wishes to those around us for a happy and healthy 2025. Soon we will also recognize Lunar New Year, which begins on January 29^th. According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2025 is the year of the snake, which is associated with transformation, wisdom and renewal. Make it be a year of learning and growth for all!

Since our return to school on January 6th, we have been reconnecting with colleagues and preparing for the second half of the year. School visits are an important part of my role as Director General, and one that I especially value since it means I get to meet staff, talk with the Principal, and learn more about issues particular to that school community. This month I was fortunate to visit Beechwood Elementary in Pierrefonds and two schools in LaSalle, Children’s World Academy and LaSalle Jr. Elementary. It was a pleasure to tour each school and see students happily engaged in their learning. Thank you to those schools for your warm welcome. 

January is also the season for Open Houses for our elementary schools. This month our elementary schools were busy planning and hosting events to proudly showcase their programs and activities. Many schools offered daytime and evening information sessions as well as an opportunity to tour a particular elementary school. Many thanks to our Principals and school teams for organizing these Open Houses. We are very proud of the services our elementary schools have to offer, and we are eager to begin meeting and  learning more about the new students who be coming to us next school year. 

In the youth sector, registration for the 2025-26 school year has also begun. We are busy promoting this to ensure that we can begin tracking our student numbers and planning for the next academic year. Sibling registration and new student registration has been underway since shortly after our return, and the deadline for re-registration of current students in Kindergarten to Secondary 4 is fast approaching. Thank you to all parents who choose a Lester B. Pearson school and seek to exercise their right to follow a bilingual education path that is open to the English-speaking community. 

May 2025 be off to a great start for you!