April 2015
On March 6th, the staff at Glenbrook
Elementary School participated in a
District Support Visit. Upper Grand
District School Board Superintendents, Principals and Program Department personnel visited the school to observe students as they engaged in their learning. All schools within the Upper Grand D. S. B. participate in a District Visit every 5 years.
The purpose of the visit was to identify best practices happening within the school and to identify areas to consider for future growth. This information is utilized by staff when developing a School Improvement Plan and setting direction for professional development.
The District Support Team is in the process of developing a report for the school. Staff will meet to discuss the implementation of recommendations made in this report at our April, May and June staff meetings.
In 1974, 1 in 5000 people, or 4400 Canadians, had Autism Spectrum Disorder. Today, 1 in 88 , or almost 400 000 people have been diagnosed with
ASD. What will the next 40 years look like?
The seventh annual World Autism Day is being held on Thursday, April 2nd,
2015. Every year autism organizations around the world celebrate the day with unique fundraising and awareness raising events. By bringing together autism organizations all around the world, we give a voice to the millions of individuals worldwide who are undiagnosed, misunderstood and looking for help.
Please join the Upper Grand District School Board in our effort to inspire compassion, empowerment and hope by wearing BLUE on
Thursday, April 2nd, 2015.
The next Glenbrook
School Council meeting will be held on
Wednesday, April 8th,
2015, at 6:15 p.m. in the school’s staff room.
We encourage all parents of students at Glenbrook to attend this meeting.
We invite you to come to hear about all of the wonderful things that are happening at Glenbrook Elementary
School. We look forward to seeing you at this meeting. New members are always welcome.
Traffic congestion in the front and side parking lots at the school continues to be a concern. Concerned parents, staff members and Board personnel are working with a School Travel Planning facilitator from the Wellington-Dufferin-
Guelph Health Unit to identify key traffic challenges that are being experienced and are examining possible solutions to the traffic problem at the school.
On Tuesday, March 24th, the committee met to observe the pedestrian and traffic flow at the school. A number of possible solutions were generated during this meeting. Town of Shelburne staff and the Shelburne Police Service will be consulted as we move forward with the recommendations being made by this committee. We will keep our community informed as we attempt to ensure that all students travel to and from school safely.
The school’s Playground Committee has been extremely busy over the last few months. The committee met with Board personnel and a playground consultant in order to develop a conceptual drawing of the Junior/Senior Kindergarten natural and interactive play area.
The committee then met with a representative from Earthscape in order to have the conceptual drawing transformed into a technical design.
The committee plans to review the playground technical design during the month of April so that the playground could be installed during the summer months. The committee will keep the Glenbrook community updated as this project progresses.

Our Junior Sideline Basketball Team is participating in the Sideline
Basketball Tournament on Tuesday, March 31st at Island Lake Public
School. We thank Mr. Grin for coaching our team this year.
The boys’ and girls’ basketball teams are in the process of preparing for a series of pre-tournament basketball games. We wish our students well as they participate in these games. We extend a special thank you to Mr.
Schooley for coaching the boys’ team and to Ms. Gammage for coaching the girls’ team. Our students are very excited about being able to compete this season and are working hard to represent Glenbrook to the best of their abilities.
Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. Earth day was a day founded as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. While this first Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations. Earth Day activities in 1990 shone a spotlight on important environmental issues like species extinction, water and energy conservation and pollution on the worldwide stage. Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network,and is celebrated in more than 180 countries every year. Numerous communities also celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental initiatives.
Earth Day is a very special day that allows us to participate with millions of other people all over the world in reflecting on the importance of protecting our planet. We can show our creativity for this event by coming up with posters to promote Earth Day or by writing a journal reflection about what Earth Day means to us personally. We can write a poem about our favourite thing in nature or we could write a letter to the government asking for better environmental laws. We could come up with more creative ways to conserve energy, or reduce, reuse or recycle items we personally use. We can show our enthusiasm for our planet by researching topics that interest us and create new ideas on how to spread the word about the environmental issues about which we are passionate.
Make Earth Day last all year! - Let’s go green, everyone!
Now that the spring like weather has returned, we are noticing that parents and community members are choosing to exercise pets on school property. We ask that parents clean up after your dogs if you choose to exercise your dog on school property after school hours. Students should not have to be concerned with dog feces on school property. We appreciate your cooperation with this issue.
April 7 to April 10th will be “Sharing Is Caring” week at Glenbrook. Our
Beyond the Hurt student team is planning to have teachers and special guests from our community hand out “sharing is caring” cards to those students who are observed doing nice things at the school and who are being respectful.
This is our 2nd annual event. We are looking forward to having a number of adults in our school and on the yard to recognize the good deeds that our students do. We thank Mrs.
Bernard-McCabe and Mrs. Horsley for organizing this event.
On April 7th, Richard Scrimger is coming to talk to the grade 6, 7, 8 students about the writing process and being an author. Richard Scrimger is one of the seven authors of the Seven Series and Sequels. His books include Ink Me, Zomboy,
The Wolf and Me, and The Nose from Jupiter, as well as many other titles. Richard Scrimger, Eric Walters, Sigmund Brouwer, Nora McClintock, Shane Peacock, and Ted Staunton will ALL be at Credit Meadows School from 7:00 pm—8:30 pm. Some of these authors are also part of this year’s Red Maple Book Club!
Win a Football:
After your family has read this newsletter, please sign and detach this coupon. “Our family” must include at least one parent/guardian who has read the newsletter. This coupon must be placed in the yellow mailbox in the front office at
Glenbrook school. A ballot will be drawn from the yellow mailbox each month indicating the winning family for the month. This month’s draw will be held on Friday, April 24, 2015.
Our family has read the newsletter corresponding to this draw.
Family Name: ___________________________Parent’s Signature: ____________________________

All families have strengths, and all families have challenges. The Dufferin Parent Support Network is offering a number of parenting workshops during the months of April, May, and June 2015. These workshops are a safe place to learn and build on existing parenting skills.
All D.P.S.N. workshops are free of charge and are open to men, women and couples. Registration is required. For more information, or to register for a workshop, please contact DPSN personnel at info@dpsn.ca or call 519-940-8678.
Topics Include:
Relationship Dynamics: Honouring Ourselves and Others: May 4th & 11th (7:00 —9:00 p.m.)
Skills For Single Parents: April 14th (7:00—9:00 p.m.)
Anger, Parenting and You: April 8th and 15th (6:00—7:30 p.m.)
Raising Your Spirited School-Aged Child: May 25th & June 1st (7:00 to 9:00 p.m.)
Schoolwork Strategies for Parents: Help Your Child Find Success At School April 23rd (7:00 —9:00 p.m.)
Additional workshops are also being offered. Contact DPSN (www.dpsn.ca) for further details.
On Thursday, May 7th, the parents of students who will attend our full day Junior Kindergarten in September 2015, are invited to attend an information night in the library at Glenbrook Elementary School. The parents of students who will be attending Senior Kindergarten and are new to Glenbrook are also invited to attend as well.
School staff will provide parents with information about Glenbrook Elementary School and the Kindergarten program that
Junior Kindergarten and Senior Kindergarten students will be engaged in during the 2015—2016 school year. Parents will also have the opportunity to get to know the layout of the school and will visit the Kindergarten classrooms.
Invitations to this meeting will be mailed out to parents within the next two weeks. We encourage all parents of JK students (and new SK students) to attend this information meeting. We are still accepting registrations for September 2015. Please contact Ms. Mitchell, our Office Coordinator, if you plan to register your child for Kindergarten for next year.
The students at Glenbrook Elementary School have been preparing for the Education Quality and Accountability Office’s
(E.Q.A.O.) Provincial Assessment of Reading Writing and Mathematics throughout the school year.
During the months of May and June, students in Grades 3 and Grade 6 will take part in the Education Quality and Accountability Office’s (E.Q.A.O.) Provincial Assessment of Reading, Writing and Mathematics. This assessment has been scheduled to take place between May 25th and June 4th, 2015. During the month of April we will be providing further information about this assessment to parents of the Grade 3 and 6 students who complete this assessment.
Students will engage in two 1 hour assessments each day for a three day period. The assessment is designed to be completed within 6 hours. The Grade 3 students will complete the assessment from May 25th to May 27th. The Grade 6 students will complete the assessment on May 28th, May 29th, June 1st. All assessment materials must be returned to
E.Q.A.O. on June 6th, 2015.
We ask that the parents of our Grade 3 & 6 students make every attempt to have their child(ren) at school on time for each of the assessment days in order to ensure that your child has the opportunity to complete the assessment. Results of this assessment will be returned to the school in the fall of
2015.

April 2015
Sun
5
12
Mon Tue Wed Thu
1 Grade 3 Swim to
Survive
2 Scientists In The
School “May The
Forces Be With
You” Mr. Grin &
Mrs. Voigt
FTP—Mrs. Schafer
& Ms. Gammage
Fri
3 Good Friday
(No School)
Sat
4
6 Easter Monday
(No School)
7 Sharing Is Caring
Week at Glenbrook
Richard Scrimger
Author Visit to
Glenbrook
8 Sharing Is Caring
Week at Glenbrook
Pink Day
Grade 3 Swim to
Survive
School Council Mtg.
(6:15 p.m.)
9 Sharing Is Caring
Week at Glenbrook
Pizza Day
FTP—Mrs. Schafer
& Mrs. Gammage
10 Sharing Is Caring Week at Glenbrook
13 14 15 16
FTP—Mrs. Schafer
& Mrs. Gammage
17
Dufferin County
Waste Presentations
11
18
19 20
26 27
21
Playground Committee Mtg. (6:15 p.m.)
22 Earth Day 23 Pizza Day
FTP—Mrs. Schafer
& Mrs. Gammage
24
Professional Development Day
(No School for
Students)
25
28 Kindergarten A
Library Trip
Jump Rope For
Heart Kick-off Assembly
29 Kindergarten D
Library Trip
30 Gr. 7 HEP B &
Gr. 8 Girls HPV
FTP—Mrs. Schafer
& Mrs. Gammage
Chris D’Souza
PIC Presentation
(Fergus 4:00)