(Victoria, Ministry of Education and Child Care) - Empowering students and educators to identify and take action against racism and discrimination in British Columbia schools is the aim of a new provincial K-12 Anti-Racism Action Plan launched on Monday, Jan. 23, 2023.

When the music students from Abbotsford School of Integrated Arts travel down to New Orleans for the French Quarter Jazz Festival, they get noticed.

The jazz ensemble, Abby Flats, has taken part in the festival twice and will be heading there again in April, along with thousands of musicians and music lovers. Teacher and program directer Paul Luongo says the group is excited to make a return to the annual fete.

Last time they were there, before the pandemic, they were stopped on the street with people saying: “Hey, aren’t you that group from Abbotsford?”

Earlier this month, students from Auguston Traditional Elementary made some core childhood memories after firefighters from Abbotsford Fire Rescue stopped by with their infamous red fire truck. As part of Fire Safety week in October, the school executed an organized and responsive fire drill, which impressed the team at Abbotsford Fire Rescue. They were given the opportunity to enter a contest in hopes of receiving a special visit to their school from a fire truck for Grade 2 and 3 classes and were one of eight schools in Abbotsford that won.

A pair of Robert Bateman secondary students have been nominated for a significant honour at the annual Sport BC Athlete of the Year Awards.

Wrestler Rupinder Johal and football player Logan Thiessen received nominations for high school female and high school male Athlete of the Year awards respectively for their outstanding 2022 athletic years.

Johal started off 2022 with gold in her division at the B.C. School Sports Provincial Wrestling Championships in Vancouver in February.

Earlier this month, a group of Indigenous students at Chief Dan George Middle school had the unique opportunity to visit with Brady Keeper, a professional ice hockey player who serves as a defenseman with the Abbotsford Canucks. His visit provided students with an insight of what it can be like growing up as an Indigenous person entering the hockey world.

After the passing of a beloved classmate earlier this year, grade 5 students at Terry Fox Elementary decided to develop a new leadership club to support the needs of their school, with a focus on fundraising and giving back to the community. With the help of their teachers, Amy Baker and Jeremy Wiebe, over half of the grade 5 students from Terry Fox Elementary formed the leadership club Terry’s Team.

This holiday season, Abbotsford residents may receive a heartfelt, personalized reminder to drive "safe and sober" on our community's roadways. According to ICBC, on average, 64 people die every year in crashes involving impaired driving within British Columbia.

This holiday season, students from Sandy Hill Elementary gave back to their community and became sponsors for the “Sponsor-a-Family” program through Archway Community Services and the Christmas Bureau. The initiative began mid-November, and for several weeks the school worked towards sponsoring families and seniors in need in Abbotsford over the Christmas season. With an original goal of sponsoring two families, the school quickly surpassed their target thanks to the generosity and donations from the Sandy Hill school community.

On the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, flags at all Abbotsford schools and district sites are lowered at half-mast.

On this day, over 30 years ago, an act of violence shook our country and led Parliament to designate December 6 as The National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. As we mourn the ones we lost and remember their lives, we reaffirm our commitment to creating workplaces and schools free from gender-based violence.

40-38 – for an entire year that score haunted players on the Robert Bateman Timberwolves senior varsity football team. On Dec. 4, 2021, Bateman lost by that score in overtime to the Carson Graham Eagles in the coastal championship game. That crushing loss was all the returning players thought about.

For quarterback Nolan Watrin, he looked at the score every single day. Watrin taped 40-38 to the ceiling above his bed. A day didn’t go by where when he went to bed or woke up, opened his eyes and spotted that score.