Parents and Students

Bus Status

You want to stay on top of any busing delays or cancellations, and we want you to, too. Northern Lights Public Schools uses the Box Clever Bus Status App to give parents and caregivers a simple and accessible way to make sure they're notified of any changes in the status of their students' bus routes immediately. The app is available on the App Store for Apple devices and the Google Play Store for Android devices. 

The Bus Status App allows you to keep track of any busing delays or cancellations, and receive push notifications for just the bus routes that matter to you. 

What if I don't have a smartphone?

Not to worry, we don't rely on a single tool to communicate with you!

Bus drivers will attempt to contact parents directly when buses are cancelled.

You can also check real-time bus statuses and view any delays or cancellations on the homepage or Bus Status page of the Northern Lights Public Schools website, or you can check your students' school website for a filtered list of busing information. 

We also send out messages to parents using School Messenger. This may include an automated phone call, email or text message.

We may also post information about bus or class cancellations on the Northern Lights Facebook Page and the Northern Lights Public Schools Bus Updates Facebook group, so be sure to like and follow us on Facebook or join the group.

Northern Lights Public Schools also sends out emergency busing notifications and other important messages from the Division and school levels via School Messenger. School Messenger allows schools, and teachers, to send messages to parents and/or students using the contact information they provided to the school when they registered. This includes automated attendance notifications when students aren't at school and their absence hasn't already been reported by a parent or guardian. It can also include general messages from your child's teacher, school or division such as newsletters and information on upcoming events. The messages can be sent as voice messages to your phone(s), as email messages or as text messages. 

To learn more about how to use School Messenger, visit the School Messenger section of the Northern Lights website.

The PowerSchool Parent Portal allows parents to access all of their child's information in one place, including grades (for students in Grade 5 and up), report cards, and attendance.

NLPS uses School Engage to handle all of our online registrations. School Engage can be accessed through the Parent Portal and will be the place you need to go to fill out registrations for preschool, K to 12, Transportation, and Out of School Care, as well as our annual Student Update and Verification Form, which Alberta Education requires to have on file for every student annually.

Parents and guardians can also access School Messenger through the Parent Portal.

Parent Portal Sign In

More Information

School Council

Parent Advisory Committee (School Council) 
Iron River School welcomes the participation of parents in the PAC.   The PAC is organized in September.  Parents wishing to serve the school are encouraged to attend the meetings and to become involved. The Parent Advisory Committee meetings will be announced in the newsletter and are attended by the principal.

The PAC serves as an advisory body to the administration of the school. Minutes from the meetings are available in the office. While every parent is a member of the PAC, there needs to be a core group of three parents that hold positions on the committee.  These positions are:

  • Chairperson – responsible for overall maintenance of the parent council, chairing the meetings and has signing authority on the accounts of the society. 
  • Vice-Chairperson – chairs the meetings in the absence of the Chairperson and assists with other duties.
  • Secretary / Treasurer – records and maintains the minutes from the meetings; responsible for the accounts of the society (deposits & cheques) and presents a financial summary at each meeting; has signing authority on accounts.

Bell Schedule (K-9)

Period Times
1 8:35-9:13
2 9:13-9:51
Recess 9:51-10:06
3 10:06-10:44
4 10:44-11:22

Lunch

Recess

Reading

11:22-11:42

11:42-12:02

12:02-12:22

5 12:22-1:00
6 1:00-1:38
Recess 1:38-1:53
7 1:53-2:31
8 2:31-3:08

 

Iron River School has an awards ceremony on the last day of school. Each student in grades K-3 is presented with an individualized certificate that highlights each student’s strengths. Each student in grades 4-9 is presented with a certificate that highlights their successes in academics, athletics, fine arts, and life skills. Individual awards are presented for highest academic marks in the four core subjects, fine arts, and courtesy and cooperation.

We are proud to have a wonderful collection of books in our library as well as classroom libraries.  We inspire our students to pursue a life-long love of reading.  Students have easy access to the library and are encouraged to sign out all the books that they want.  Our students gain knowledge of library and research skills as they use the library. At Iron River School all classes have a scheduled library program each week and may also access the library during the day. Books are to be renewed or turned in on time.

Book Fairs are held every November and March during the week of parent teacher interviews and student-led conferences.  The book fairs offer a wide range of books, suitable for everyone in your home.

Throughout the year students bring home Scholastic book orders so that they may purchase new books at an affordable price.  This helps develop a life-long love of reading and books, and encourages reading at home.

Celebrate Reading!

Motivating students to read is a priority for the staff of Iron River School. Throughout the year we will have literature based activities and motivational celebrations focused on encouraging students to read. We want our students to become independent readers who will read for fun, pleasure and information.