Paisley Road Public School Newsletter
November
2014
Principal, Andrew Creighton
Vice-Principal, Marina Harrison
Principal’s News
Dear Parents and Guardians,
We have been lucky to have had wonderful weather in October and were
able to get outside and take advantage of the sunshine and warm
temperatures!
Contents
Principals News
1
Outdoor Recess
2
School Safety
2
Progress Reports
2
Remembrance Day
2
Safe Arrival
3
Parent Council
3
Driveway Safety
3
Library News
4
Upcoming
Events
*Daylightsavings
Turn clocks back
November 2nd
*Earthkeepers
November 3rd & 4th
*Remembrance
Day
November 11th
*School Council
November 18th
6:30 p.m.
*PA Day
November 21/14
November is promising to be a busy month with progress reports going
home November 13th and parent/teacher conferences scheduled for the
PD day November 21st.
The purpose of the progress report is to give parents and students
early feedback on student achievement. The reports are designed to
give parents specific information about learning skills and work habits,
as well as subject specific details. Hopefully the reports will lead to
good discussions between teachers and parents about how we can all
work together to support our students. Open lines of communication
between home and school are vital to student success. Parents are
always welcome, at any time, to talk with or meet with their children’s
teacher to discuss academic progress or other school-related issues.
Here’s to a great November!
Andrew Creighton
Page 2
School Newsletter
OUTDOOR DRESS
It is getting chilly out and the snow may fly soon! Please remember to
assist your child in wearing the proper clothing to school. This includes a
warm jacket, hat, mitts and waterproof footwear. Thanks for sending
extra socks in your child’s backpack just in case! All students are
expected to participate in outdoor recess, as this important, active
break aids concentration and success in the classroom.
SCHOOL SAFETY
Praising what
is lost makes
the remembrance
dear.
“William
Shakespeare”
In the interest of student safety, the Upper Grand District School
Board has directed all schools to conduct 6 fire drills, 2 lock down drills
and 1 tornado drill each school year. Students have become quite
accustomed to our different drills, including the lock down drill. During
our lock down drill we strive to minimize anxiety by reassuring students
that the activity is a “pretend” situation and we are only practicing just
like we do with fire drills and tornado drills. Detailed drill procedures
have been developed in conjunction with our local police services and are
provided to all schools as part of our emergency procedures manual.
Every teacher has a copy of this manual in their classroom, and all
emergency procedures are reviewed throughout the year. You will be
notified in advance of our first lock-down drill.
PROGRESS REPORTS
We are entering our fourth year of progress reports. The report will go
home on November 13th, 2014. Please recognize that a progress report is
non-evaluative. The report is intended to give you feedback about your
child’s progress toward the expectations which will be evaluated for the
term one report card in January. You should expect to get clear
information about your child’s strengths, as well as some important next
steps for improved student learning. Teachers will be contacting you
shortly to arrange for parent/teacher interviews.
REMEMBRANCE DAY
Our Remembrance Day services for students will be held in the
gymnasium on Tuesday, November 11th at 11:30 am. Poppies will be
handed out prior to the assemblies. Money donations for the poppies will
be gratefully accepted by homeroom teachers on November 7th and
10th.
Thank you for remembering our past and present members of the armed
forces and Peace Corps.
School Newsletter
Page 3
SAFE ARRIVAL - BOARD POLICY
Parents and guardians are responsible for their children’s safety. Since the Board is also concerned
about the safety of students, it operates safe arrival programs for parents and schools to use to
account for the unexplained failure of students to arrive at school. However, the Board’s Safe
Arrival Policy does not release parents from their responsibility for their children’s safety. Please
ensure you contact the school every time your child will be absent or late from school, we have an
answering machine available 24 hours a day to receive these calls at 519-822-0675 ext 100. We
have noticed that our office staff is spending a great deal of time every morning trying to connect
with families to determine the reasons for student absences. Your assistance with this process
would be greatly appreciated.
PARENT COUNCIL
École Paisley Road School Council welcomes everyone to our monthly meetings. We meet the third
Tuesday of every month. Parental involvement is critical to ensure that we meet the needs of our
students. The October meeting was well attended. We discussed recent school events, such as the
Open House, and upcoming school events. These include Direction Teams, District School Support,
Celebration Assemblies and Tribes. School Council Budget Goals and Fundraising initiatives to
support these goals were also discussed. School Council supports school needs such as Scientists in
the School, buses for class trips, technology, library books and Arts curriculum. Our next meeting
is November 18th at 6:30 pm. Childcare is available.
ARRIVAL TIME AND DRIVEWAY SAFETY
Dear parents and Guardians, as I look out of my office window in the morning, I see many students
who arrive late on a regular basis. Please remember that school begins at 8:55 a.m. and it certainly
helps your child start the day more positively when he/ she arrives on time so they can follow the
same entry routines and start of day procedures with their classmates and avoid missing key
information that will help their learning. Your support with this is very much appreciated.
On a similar note, please do not pull into the school driveway, between 8:55 and 9:30 to drop your
child(ren) off if you are running late. We ask that you drop students off at the "kiss and park" in
front of the school on Paisley Road. We ask this for the safety of our students and for your
safety. As the weather gets colder, we find that the circular driveway in front of our school gets
quite busy. This creates a dangerous situation for everyone. Thank you for supporting us in our
efforts to keep our students safe.
SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
PAGE 4
November Library Contest
Our October Library Contest inspired some great jokes being shared and many joke books being
checked out of the Library. This contest takes you out of the school and into the public library! All
you need to do for this contest is go to the public library this month beginning Monday November 3rd.
Both the West End Library and the Main Branch will have Paisley Ballots that you can pick up starting
Monday. Ask at the public library counter for a PAISLEY BALLOT. Bring the ballot into our school
library and you are entered in this month’s draw. The Bookshelf Bookstore on Quebec Street has
kindly donated a $20 gift card for our prize this month. A big thank you to this
great bookstore. The draw will be held November 28th during the morning announcements.
School Wide Community Building
This Month our students will participate in our first School Wide Community event of the year. Last
year students enjoyed opportunities to work as a part of a Tribe to learn principles of character
education, work to reduce bullying, get to know students in other classes and have fun. This year our
students will continue to be engaged in fun activities while we focus on celebrating diversity, building
character and fostering our Paisley sense of community. By creating a culture of understanding we
also help reduce bullying. This year our students will have opportunities to work with various groups
of students from different classes in their grade or adjacent grades. We look forward to these
special days where the students can see how the actions of each individual add up to do great things
in our community while having fun together.
We Day Waterloo and Social Action Club
November 20th some of our students in Grade 6 will attend We Day Waterloo. This will be our third
year attending this inspiring event. We Day is the first step in getting kids excited and passionate to
support local and global initiatives. This event will be a live webcast. For more information on this
Youth Movement for Change organized by Free the Children explore www.weday.com .
Social Action Club has begun. Our club meets throughout the year to plan events to help others.
Students in Grade 1-6 are able to join and they may join for some initiatives and not others. Our first
initiative was the WE SCARE HUNGER challenge in October. This month we will look at the many
ideas students have generated and get started on our next action.
Last year our school worked to make a difference in Haiti and St. Lucia by doing a Book Drive, worked
with the Bracelets of Hope to support work in Lesotho Africa, supported MacMaster Children’s
Hospital and supported local Shelters and Seniors’ Residences. I look forward to seeing what our
students do this year! Together we can make a difference!
Grade 3 Knitting Club
Cast on...knit...purl...untangle...fix stitches… If this sounds like fun to you maybe you would consider
helping out. Knitting club will begin with Grade 3’s and depending on numbers we may be able to invite
students from Grade 4,5, and 6 who are interested as well. Knitting club is a chance for students to
learn a valuable skill to create something that will be given as Christmas gifts to seniors in the
Community. If you are interested in lending a hand, please contact Ms. Richer. Knitting club will be
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday’s from 1:20-1:45 beginning in November.
NOVEMBER
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
1
2
Time change
3
Earthkeepers
Grade 5
4
Earthkeepers
Grade 5
5
6
7
8
Frozen yogurt
sale
Grade 3+Knitting
Club begins
9
10
11
12
17
18
Liz Sandals visit
grade 5
14
15
21
22
Progress Reports
go home
School assembly
11:30 a.m.
16
13
19
20
PA DAY
Popcorn sale
School Council Mtg.
6:30pm
23/30
24
25
Grade 6 VIP
26
River Run
Bardens/Hall
27
28
29