Why We LOVE Family Day
Dear Cordova Bay Parents/Guardians,
At Cordova Bay, our social contract states:
· Take care of yourself.
· Take care of others.
· Take care of this place/world.
As a family of 305 students strong and a staff of almost 40, we acknowledge, every day, the importance of how to be together in community, by weaving the teaching of the above values through all we do. In fact, in getting to know our families, we see that these beliefs are equally important at home. Thank you for being such incredible “first teachers” for your child(ren).
At Cordova Bay Elementary, we love Family Day because it is a day to focus on taking care of ourselves and taking care of each other. We also love this day because it is inclusive. Family Day celebrates every possible member of a family on one day! This special day allows us to acknowledge the diversity of family structures in our community (e.g. two dads, two moms, single family homes, step-moms, step-dads, foster parents, etc.). We truly believe that every “first teacher,” regardless of their title in a family, is vital to the positive growth of each student in our school.
For Family Day 2021, I would like to encourage our community to consider the last piece of our social contract - “taking care of this place”. To do so, I offer perhaps a very different way to spend all or part of a day or your weekend. See if you can identify your bioregional address, by exploring the natural areas around your home, doing an internet search and chatting with other locals.
What is a bioregional address? Well, to start, bioregionalism is an idea and a movement that recognizes, nurtures, sustains and celebrates our local connections with land, plants, animals, springs, rivers, groundwater, oceans, air, families, friends, neighbours, community, native traditions and Indigenous systems of production and trade. So, your bioregional address tells the story of all that you are inextricably connected to in the place that you and your family call home. As Robert Bateman, naturalist and artist, states in his essay Paying Attention to Place –
“paying attention to our place, knowing it well and feeling for it deep in our hearts. We can recognize our places as “too sweet to lose” and with any luck we can make them even sweeter” by protecting them, not just on Earth Day but every day.
With Valentine's Day around the corner, perhaps we can celebrate and foster not only our love of family this weekend but also a love of this region. Check out my bioregional address below...it is not complete, but as you’ll see, I have a lot to explore and protect in my bioregion!
Happy exploring everyone.
Mrs. ML Heron, Principal
Bioregional Address: Brentwood
Bay, Tod Inlet (SṈIDȻEȽ,
(pronounced ‘sneed-kwith’), Tod Creek, Saanich Inlet, Great Blue Heron, Gowlland Tod Forest, Rickinson
Creek, Butchart Creek, Adam Kerr Wetland, Trevlac Brook, Maltby Lake, Gore
Park, Oak Haven Park, Tsartlip Village….