BRANT AVENUE PUBLIC SCHOOL 64 Brant Avenue, Guelph, Ontario N1E 1G2 519-824-2671 Fax: 519-824-6159 Mair Ann Gault, Principal Raffella Alton , Office Co-ordinator SEPTEMBER 2014 Welcome Back! Dear Brant Parents and Guardians: Once again this year I would like to take this opportunity to hear from you. Our school is a wonderful place to be and your input helps us keep it that way! If you could take a moment to fill in the following survey and have your child return it to his/her classroom teacher by September 5, 2014, I would really appreciate it. The classroom teacher will return the survey to me for reading. Thank you! Mrs. Gault (Brant Ave. P.S. Principal) 1) What is great about Brant Avenue Public School? (Feel free to be specific.) _____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ 2) Name one thing you would love to see happen at Brant Avenue Public School. Is there anything you would like to do to help support this change? _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ 3) Is there anything else you would like me to know? _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ School Day 8:55 - 9:35 9:35 - 10:15 10:15 - 10:55 10:55 - 11:35 11:35 - 12:05 12:05 - 12:35 12:35 - 1:15 1:15 - 1:55 1:55 - 2:35 2:35 - 3:15 Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 First Nutrition Break Period 4 Period 5 Period 6 Second Nutrition Break Period 7 Period 8 School Organization 2014 - 2015 The staff assignments at this time are listed below. KA Mrs. Filippakis – LTO for Mrs. Dodsworth-Garvey KB Mrs. Bond Grade 1 Mrs. Pye-Clifford Grade 1/2 Mrs. Anderson Grade 2 Mrs.Covack –LTO for Mrs. Park Grade 3 Mrs. Lightfoot Grade 3/4 TBA Grade 4/5 Mr. Neil Grade 5/6 Ms. Gojmerac Library Mrs. Licastro Planning Mrs. Graham Ms. Moyer Mr. Johnson Mr. Grieves Resource Mrs. Mitchell Mrs. Moyer Core French Mr. Gerges – LTO for Mme. Gill Education Assistants Ms. Leyland Ms. Shelleau Mrs. De Geer Ms. Dunbar Ms. deVries Ms. Snook ECE Mrs. Marx Ms. Zorzi CYC Mrs. Fonte Custodians Mr. Schenk Office Co-Ordinator Mrs. Alton Principal Mrs. Gault Forms Coming Home A number of important forms are coming home along with this newsletter. Please ensure that you read them carefully! If you have any questions regarding these forms, please contact the school office. Please complete and return these forms to your child’s teacher no later than Friday, September 12th. • • • Student Verification Form – please make any changes directly onto the form and sign the bottom Community Walk Permission Form Freedom of Information Letter and Consent to Share Personal Information We have also included for your information re: school organizations which includes the Ministry of Education Parameters and a School Calendar for the 2014 – 2015 school year. Milk and Pizza Order Forms will follow later this month. Volunteers Forms We truly value the volunteers in our school. Parents and community members are encouraged to help in the classroom and on school trips, assist in the library or with extra-curricular activities and participate on the School Council. Please be sure to pick up a volunteer form from the office. Being a volunteer is a wonderful way of participating in your child’s education. Visitors To Our School We warmly invite parents and guests to visit our school and encourage volunteers in our classrooms. For safety reasons, all visitors must report to the office, sign in and obtain a visitor/volunteer badge before proceeding to classrooms or onto the yard. Picking up Students From School To ensure student safety, if you are taking your child from the school during the school day, you must come to the office and sign your child out after talking to the secretary. This will assist us in ensuring the safety of your child. Home Safe After being dismissed from class at the end of the day, students are requested to go directly home or to a caregiver before proceeding to other activities. Safety First During the school day, your child’s safety is of the utmost importance to us. It is imperative that you call the office before 8:50 am if your child is going to be absent or late. For your convenience, we also have voice mail which allows you to contact the school at anytime during the night, over the weekends and early in the morning. The phone number is 519-824-2671. When you leave a message, please be sure to note the child’s full name, teacher and reason for absence. If a child is absent and we have not heard from a parent/guardian, we will attempt to contact the parent/guardian to ensure that the child is “safe”. If a parent can not be reached, we will contact the emergency number provided. It is very important to let the school know if there is any change in personal information: home or work numbers, cell numbers, address changes etc. In the event of an unexplained absence or emergency, we will then be able to contact your immediately. If your child’s dismissal arrangements change in any way, please send a note in the morning. It is extremely busy in the office at the end of the day, and messages left on the machine may not be retrieved in time to pass onto the teacher. Agendas Once again all students will be receiving a school agenda. The agenda is an important organizational and communication tool for the student, and provides excellent communication between home and school. The cost is $4.00 for each agenda. Please send the money to your child’s classroom teacher. Brant Avenue School Dress Code At Brant Ave we promote a respectful and professional student image. Appropriate dress is defined as attire that is free of symbols of hate, gang membership or images that portray violence, death, abuse, cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, racial slurs, obscene words and political or sexual statements explicitly or by implication. Clothing that is revealing and shows an excessive amount of skin such as muscle shirts, low scooped necklines, tops with spaghetti straps, bare midriffs and open backs are unacceptable. Shirts must not be excessively tight. Shorts and skirts must be longer than finger tip length on the legs. Undergarments should not be visible. Hats must be removed upon entering the school. Lates The curriculum is rich and extensive so teachers need to use every period to enable students to learn all they can. Lessons need to start on time. Late students disturb the lesson flow, because teachers have to re-teach to ensure the late student is brought up-to-date. The consequence increases to the class when students are repeatedly late for class. Please help by getting your children to school on time. Everyone benefits! Bus Behaviour Students are expected to follow the rules of the bus, listen to the driver, remain in their seats, refrain from eating and drinking anything while on the bus, and follow the directions of the bus patrols when entering or exiting the bus. School Handbook For more information concerning school policies and procedures please refer to the school website where you will find the updated school handbook. The address is: http://www.ugdsb.on.ca/brantave/index.aspx (Just look to the left of the screen to click on the “School Handbook” link.) Safety Patrols Student patrols are on duty for fifteen minutes before classes begin and after classes end. Patrol Time: 8:40 - 8:55 am 3:15 - 3:30 pm Allergies Many students suffer daily from allergies. Reactions to allergic substances vary from relatively mild irritations to potentially fatal conditions where the sufferer experiences breathing problems and/or anaphylactic shock. As a result, we are asking students to not bring any products containing tree nuts, peanuts or WOW butter to school. Please be aware that there may be additional restrictions in your child’s class to protect a student with other such allergies. We ask that you abide by any restrictions that may be imposed in these cases. Parents of students with potentially life threatening allergies are asked to inform the office. Child and Youth Counselor Mrs. Fonte will be here Monday mornings and Tuesday to Friday afternoons. Mrs. Fonte can be reached at 519-824-2671 ext. 227. The Child and Youth Counselor’s role is to support students, staff and parents. Some of the topics include social skills development, anger management, bereavement, family separation or divorce, self-esteem, conflict between friends, bullying, anxiety and family issues. Support for the students will be focused on social, emotional and behavioural concerns. Support can be individual, classroom or group. Student Accident Insurance Parents or guardians are responsible for expenses related to student injuries on school premises during school activities. Accidents can and do happen and the costs involved might not be fully covered by Provincial Health Care or employer group insurance plans. The Upper Grand District School Board is empowered under the Education Act to offer Accident and Life Insurance for students. Information will be sent home early in September with respect to Student Accident Insurance offered by Reliable Life Insurance Company. You should receive the Director’s letter, an Acknowledgment to be signed by parents (and returned to the school) and a Student Accident Insurance application form (to be mailed directly to Reliable Life). Please do not return your application to the school office. Reliable Life Insurance Company offers a variety of options, including family rates and multi-year plans, at affordable prices. The cost must be paid by the parents or guardians. Subscription is directly through Reliable Life by mail or on line. Questions should be directed to Reliable Life at 1-800-463-5437 or www.insuremykids.com. For today’s active children, especially those who participate in field trips, co-curricular and other school activities outside the school day, Student Accident Insurance is valuable. You can find additional information on the Board’s website at www.ugdsb.on.ca. Dates to Remember September 25 Bring Your Parents to Breakfast/ Open House 9:00 am – 10:00 am September 26 Terry Fox Walk – 2:00pm October 1 Picture Day October 13 Thanksgiving Holiday – NO SCHOOL October 24 Ministry Mandated Day/NO SCHOOL From Brant Healthy Living Peer Leaders: • • • Recruiting Brant Healthy Living Peer Leaders! Help us plan and offer programs for family and community health. Examples include: Zumba, Community Gardening, Brant Family Chefs. Contact Peggy at 821-6638 ext. 367 or pnickels@guelphchc.ca Brant Yoga – Come out to our free weekly drop-in Yoga Program, Monday nights, Brant School, 6:15-7:15 pm. Starting in the gym Monday September 15. Offered by Guelph Community Health Centre. Contact Peggy at 821-6638 3st. 367 or pnickels@guelphchc.ca We will be starting Zumba back up again too, the time and date will be finalized soon! ~ Sun September 2014 Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 Holiday – NO SCHOOL 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Spirit Assembly – Blue & White Day 9am – 10am 21 22 23 28 29 30 24 25 26 Bring Your Terry Fox Parents to Walk – Breakfast/ 2:00pm Open House 9:00 am– 10:00am Notes/ Reminders: 27 October 1st – PICTURE DAY Created with WinCalendar Calendar Creator More Templates: 2014 Calendar, 2015 Calendar Learning? Thinking? Or Learning to Think? Everyone sends their child to school to learn. Or do we? Do we send our children to school to become programmed robots who simply regurgitate facts and formulas, or do we send them to school to learn to think? Learning is not about committing ideas to memory. Learning is about exploring ideas and building on our understanding of the world. Remember your two year old child who never stopped asking “why”? They were learning to make sense of the world around them. Learning is about problem solving, generating ideas, analyzing facts, critically evaluating decisions and asking questions to make sense of things. David Perkins in Smart Schools (1992) says that “learning is a consequence of thinking”. Scores on a test (depending on the test) are not evidence of learning. I know as a parent, I often said to my children; “think about it”, “think for yourself, or “what do you think?” For those of you with pre-teens and teens, I’m sure, like me, there were plenty of times you wished you knew what they were thinking (well, maybe not all the time)! As parents we need to model thinking and learning for our children. Instead of saying “I don’t know” or “because I said so”, we need to share our perspectives, insights, ideas and misunderstandings with our children. We need to share how we plan, organize, make a decision and seek clarity at home or at work. We need to share our thinking with our children so they can develop their own ideas and learn how to think. When our children offer a differing opinion, we need to value what they have to say, instead of allowing it to become a “because I said so” power struggle. We need to ask our children this simple question; “what makes you say that?”, and listen – really listen. We need to have them explain and share their thinking with us. Even when their ideas are very different from ours, we need to give them their voice, and then offer ours with an explanation as to why we think that way. Tonight when your children come home from school don’t ask them what they learned today or what they did. Instead, ask them what made them think today. When they look at you as if you have two heads and have completely lost it, ask them more questions. Push them to think. Together, we need to encourage them to question what they see and read on the internet, we need to model for them how to make informed decisions, and we need to prepare them for jobs not yet created. Excited, interested energy is learning, because that’s when thinking occurs; that’s when children own their learning, and that’s what going to school is all about. Cheryl Van Ooteghem Principal of Program Our board has a wonderful resource for all of our students that can be accessed 24/7 from school or from home. It’s called UG2GO and includes Learn360 (educational video streaming), Student Link (a site children use at school that gives them access to web sites that are kid friendly and relate directly to their current units of study), Tumblebooks (a site that has hundreds of books children can click on and have read to them), Overdrive (eBooks and audiobooks), and much more. When students are at home they can go to this URL: https://www.ugdsb.on.ca/ug2go They will be prompted to enter the same Windows username and password that they use at school to get onto the school network. Once they enter their Windows username/password they will enter the site and they can then click on any of the resources and be taken directly to the individual resource without the need for any additional passwords. Please take a few minutes to explore the site with your child. It is an important tool that will aid them in their education, and may make your life easier when it comes to homework and projects. We are excited that students will be able to access information from anywhere and at anytime in this information age!