Website: http://www.dpcdsb.org/TMORE
Welcome One Another As Christ Has Welcomed You, Romans 15:7
St. Thomas More Catholic School
LEST WE FORGET
St. Thomas More
Catholic School
3270 Tomken Road
Mississauga, ON., L4Y 2Y7
(905) 279-6472
Fax: (905) 279-3205
Principal
M. Nicoletti
We remember them kindly,
We remember them tenderly
Their memories bring tears to our eyes.
They were brave, they're our heroes.
They fought for their country.
And too many paid with their lives
They were seamen and airmen;
They were nurses and soldiers.
They fought so that we could be free.
Some died, some were wounded in horrible battle,
in the air, on the land, on the sea.
We remember to honour, we remember to cherish
those brave souls who fought for our freedom. Our
respects and our tributes we gladly pay to them; we are
grateful that we are still free.
We wear poppies proudly, our praise echoes loudly,
so world wars will not come again. To forget would be
fateful, let us all be so grateful and remember these women
and men, who fought for our freedom.
Vice Principal
R. Furtado
Secretarial Staff
A. Rago
L. Antilope
Superintendent
C. Blanchard
(905) 890-1221
Trustee
Mario Pascucci, Chair
Mississauga Wards 1 & 3
(905) 302-3096
(905) 890-0708 x20161
mario.pascucci@dpcdsb.org
School Council Chair
S. Olmedo
Pastor
Rev. John Facey
St. Patrick’s Church
(905) 270-2301
Follow us on Twitter:
@DPCDSBSchools
OFFICE REMINDERS
Attendance:
Please call (905) 279-6472 (press 1) to let us
know your child will be late or absent. This
information is important to the safety of
your child.
Visitor’s Protocol:
In keeping with Dufferin-Peel Catholic
District School Board Policy, all visitors to
the school must report to the office.
We are asking for your cooperation to ensure that there are
no visitors on the schoolyard other than those adults
who are staff at the school and can be identified by
wearing an orange safety vest. Parents are welcome to
wait outside fenced areas.
Appointments:
Any student leaving the school during the day due to
appointments, etc., must be signed out at the office. Please
ensure that you send a note in this regard to your child’s
teacher.
Newsletter Inserts: Letter from Archbishop Thomas
Collins, StopR Inclement Weather Notification, STM
Catholic School Council Wreath, Cyber Ambassadors
Network, French Immersion Information, Math @
Home and PLASP.
PLEASE ARRIVE ON TIME
Start Time
9:00 a.m.
AM Recess
11:11 a.m.
Lunch
12:06 p.m.
PM Recess
2:29 p.m.
Dismissal
3:30 p.m.
BUS STUDENTS
ELIGIBILITY
DISTANCE
JK/SK-Gr. 1
Gr. 2-4
Gr. 5 - 8
1.0 KM
1.6 KM
2.0 KM
COURTESY SEATING
We have received many requests for courtesy seats. Every
effort has been made to accommodate requests on a case
We applaud students who are on time for class and ask all by case basis, in adherence to the Board’s “Courtesy Seat
students to make a concerted effort to come to school Policy.” Parents have been informed whether their child/
in a timely manner, with all homework completed,
children have been granted a courtesy seat for the 2014ready to learn. Punctuality and preparedness are valuable 2015 school year. All students riding the bus have been
life skills. In the workplace deadlines must be respected.
assigned a bus tag which must be visible at all times.
Parents/guardians will be notified of students who are
repeatedly late.
INCLEMENT WEATHER
FOOD REMINDERS
We would like to remind parents that there
are a number of students in the school with
life threatening allergies to various food
products. Birthday celebrations and
festivities for special occasions are part of
the educational experience, but we are
requesting that parents not send food items and consider
alternative treats to send into the class. Please consider
stickers, loot bags or other non- edible products to ensure
the safety of all of our students.
During the winter months inclement
weather may cause disruption of bus
transportation and regular school
operations. A decision to cancel
school transportation and/or to close
schools is usually made by 6:00 a.m. and will be announced on the following radio and television stations:
For further inquiries, such as cancellations, pick/drop-off
VIRGIN RADIO FM99.9, CHUM AM1050, FTR
AM680, CFNY FM102.1/AM640, CJCL AM590,
CHFIFM98.1, CFRB AM1010, EZ ROCK
FM97.3, CJBC (FR) AM860, FM Z103.5,
FM93.1, FM Q107 CHIN FM100.7/AM1540,
CBC99.1, CITYPULSE, GLOBAL NEWS, CTV
CANADA AM
Please drop lunches at the table in the
hallway outside the office and remind your
child that his/her lunch is being dropped
off at the school. We will not interrupt
classes to notify students that their lunch has arrived.
times and locations, please see INSERT and/or visit the
Parents are also encouraged to leave after dropping off
transportation website at: www.stopr.ca.
their child’s lunch and not to open the door for other
parents. We are asking for your cooperation in this matter
to enhance student safety and ensure that your child(ren)
will have enough time to eat their lunch.
BUS RULES
SCENT FREE ZONE
St. Thomas More has implemented
the Dufferin-Peel initiative “WE
SHARE THE AIR.” This is a
scent awareness campaign for staff,
students and the school community,
that will help keep our students with
severe allergies and sensitivity to
scents safe in the school environment. We are asking staff, students and visitors to our
school to kindly avoid using perfumes/colognes in our
school environment.








be at the bus stop at least 10 minutes ahead of
pick-up
follow all directions from the driver, especially
when getting on and off the bus
go directly to a seat and stay seated until the
driver opens the door for drop-off
keep all belongings inside the bus
sit quietly at all times
speak only in conversational tones
no eating on the bus
do not speak with the bus driver while the bus
is in operation, unless necessary
LIBRARY NEWS
HOMEWORK HELP
Over 130! That's the number of books that the library
purchased from proceeds from
This is an excellent resource for students
the Book Fair that was at STM
in grade 7 and 8, who may need a bit of
last month. Students are
extra help with their math homework.
encouraged to come in and "read
Please see attached flyer and visit:
what you didn't buy". Students
Ontario.ca/HomeworkHelp
are reminded that they can also
put any of these books on "hold"
PEEL REGIONAL POLICE PROGRAMS
if they are out of the library.
STM is the only elementary
library in the board that does holds! Watch for more
Neighbourhood Police Unit
exciting books from Scholastic that will be ordered using
Every school year, all schools are assigned
Book Fair proceeds in the upcoming months.
NPU officers (Neighbourhood Police
Unit). Once again, our NPU officer is Constable Steve. His role will be to promote
positive relationships by visiting our school
regularly and to participate in our lockWE NEED VOLUNTEERS!!!
down and fire drills. Please join us in welThe All Star Reading Program consists of
coming Constables Steve and Paul to St. Thomas More.
one-on-one reading sessions to help students Constable Steve and Paul will be joining us during the
National Anti-Bullying Week to present to grade 5–8 stumeet grade level reading benchmarks. The
dents and during our
first Lockdown practice (recoaches are parent volunteers who read to
scheduled)
to
students each week, ideally for a minimum of
November 21st @ 1:30pm.
two 20 minute sessions per student.
ALL STAR READING
Please consider volunteering 1-2 hours a week to assist
with the STM All Star Reading Program. All volunteer
coaches will receive training about the program and the
different strategies that can be used by students to help
improve their reading skills.
If you would like to volunteer some time to help our
young readers, please leave your name and contact information with our main office. A reminder that all volunteers require an updated CRC.
Thank you to Mrs. Bielecka for overseeing the program.
VOLUNTEER POLICY
Peel Regional Police Youth Education Department
In collaboration with the Dufferin Peel Catholic District
School Board, many informative programs are offered to
positively engage and influence youth from Grades 1 to
Grade 8. Our Youth Education Officer, is Constable
David and he will be speaking to classes on March 5th,
April 23rd and May 6th, 2015. We look forward to his
visits!
HOMEWORK POLICY
Following consultation with system
stakeholders, a Dufferin-Peel homework policy document (Kindergarten
to Grade 12) was adopted to foster
consistency across the board in this
area.
In accordance with Board GAP policy 801, all parent volunteers, even those attending a one-day only school trip or The policy addresses the following:
event, are required to have a Criminal Reference Check
 definition of homework
(CRC). Applications are available at the school office.
 characteristics of effective homework
 types of commonly assigned homework
NATIONAL ANTI-BULLYING WEEK  timing and quantity of homework
 general and specific procedures
To mark Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week from  reporting of homework
November 16-22, and to continue this awareness in our
 roles and responsibilities of administrators, teachers,
schools all year round, Dufferin-Peel has once again
students, and families.
launched the Stand Up! Against Bullying poster campaign.
In September, over 200 submissions were received from The homework policy may be viewed in full at
secondary students and five designs were chosen. These
dpcdsb.org/homework. A summary of the key features of
posters will be distributed to all schools, and be displayed the document is available in the student agenda.
prominently throughout the year to serve as a reminder
that we can all “Stand Up! Against Bullying.”
KISS & RIDE
Our Kiss & Ride ensures a safe
arrival for your child at school
while providing the convenience of drop-off. It is
open at 8:45am every morning.
Safety First when dropping students off at school
The safety of all children and staff must be considered as
paramount at all times when dropping students off at
school.
WONDERFULWEDNESDAYS
Wonderful Wednesdays are back! Every Wednesday
students can purchase healthy snacks which complies with
the Food & Beverage Policy for $1.00. Snacks include
Frozen Yogurt and various flavours of popcorn. Snacks
are nut free. Please call the office for a list of the ingredients in these snacks.
COLD & FLU SEASON
As cold and flu season approaches,
the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District
School Board continues to be vigiThe number of serious incidents related to traffic circulalant in ensuring that our schools
are clean and that our school comtion at the front of the school and in the Kiss & Ride area
munities are educated regarding
during morning arrival and afternoon dismissal has risen.
good hand hygiene and cough etiThese incidents include vehicles entering the site in the
quette. These practices are promotwrong direction, parking and pulling out of no parking
ed on an ongoing basis, but as the
zones, parking in bus lanes, to name a few.
prevalence of colds and flu increases, our board increases the cleaning of contact surfaces, as
It is imperative that all parents and guardians who drive
well as reminds schools to review cold and flu prevention
with students and staff. Many resources are utilized from
their children to school adhere to the traffic circulation
our regional health units.
plan and comply with the traffic and parking signage on
the site. It is equally imperative that all drivers follow the
A reminder, as well, that communicable diseases can be
direction of staff managing the traffic circulation on the
contracted in public places throughout the year. For exschool site. Thank you for your consideration and coample, cold-related viruses, such as Enterovirus, are transoperation with this important matter.
ferred from person to person through hand contact. Cold
and flu viruses typically peak from December through
February, but can start as early as October.
KINDERGARTEN DROP-OFF
The “Blue Curb” adjacent to the Kindergarten Yard is
meant for quick drop off only. If you intend to remain
at the kindergarten gate, you must park your vehicle in a
legally designated area and walk your child to the Kindergarten Yard. When using the Kindergarten Drop-Off
zone, wait your turn in the Kiss & Ride Lane then proceed
to the front of the designated “Blue Curb” area.
Regional Health Unit Resources
Please assist us by reviewing good hand washing procedures, as well as other preventative measures, as outlined
in the various Peel Health and Wellington Dufferin
Guelph (WDG) resources available to you through their
websites. As always, children who are unwell, should be
kept at home.
DO NOT PARK VERTICALLY, as this puts students’
safety at risk when you back out into oncoming traffic.
Flu Clinics
Also available on the Peel Health and WDG websites, are
the schedules of local Flu Clinics.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation in
enhancing student safety.
For more information, visit the health unit websites:
Peel Health website:
CANADA’S ANTI-SPAM LEGISLATION http://www.peelregion.ca/health
CASL prohibits the sending of electronic
communications such as electronic Newsletters. If you would like to give consent to
receiving electronic communications, please
complete the attached consent form and
return it to our main office at your earliest convenience.
Wellington Dufferin Guelph Health website:
www.wdgpublichealth.ca
Direct links to the above information can be found in the
Parent Section of the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District
School Board website at www.dpcdsb.org
VIRTUE OF CONSCIENCE
STUDENT ACTIVITIES
During the month of November we
will focus on the Virtue of Conscience.
We invite parents/ guardians to join us
at our Virtues Liturgy and Assembly
each month.
A person with Conscience…
Cross Country:
 listens to the voice of the Holy On Wednesday, October 22nd the STM Cross Country
Team made history when they participated at Erindale
Spirit inside
Park. During the meet, 23 out of 58 runners qualified to
 can see how their actions can help or hurt others
the Board meet at Centennial Park. Schools usually take 6
 chooses to do what Jesus would do
or 7 students while STM had 23 participating!
Congratulations to all the medal recipients. Thank you to
 admits their sins and feel badly about poor choices
Mr. Grogan, Ms. Pellizzari and Mrs. Giacobbe for coach says sorry and tries to make up for hurtful actions
ing. Written by: Lauren, Mikaela, and Juliette.
God wants us to know the difference between right and
wrong choices, and how your choices can impact others STM Choir:
The STM choir has started up for another busy year!
around you.
Mme Di Ilio and Mrs. Kolenko are very excited at the
level of enthusiasm! Over 100 students have signed up to
On November 11th we will reflect
on the Virtue of Conscience during sing at masses and concerts. Practices will usually be during Wednesday and Thursday lunch recesses. Thank you
our Remembrance Day assembly as
to Mrs. Kolenko for organizing our choir.
we remember those who have made
the ultimate sacrifice for our freeYouth Faith Ambassadors (YFAs)
dom.
The St. Thomas More YFAs continue to be involved in
many social justice initiatives as well as promoting our
school-wide WITS initiative throughout the year.
10:00-10:30am (JK/SK, Grades 1, 2, 3, 4 and 4/5).
WITS is a strategy that will be used by students and
10:35-11:05am (Grades 5, 6, 7 and 8).
school staff to support students and help them reduce
and resolve conflicts. Students use their WITS when they
Please join us as well at our monthly Virtues Assembly on
remember to walk away, ignore, talk it out or seek help.
November 27th to celebrate the Virtue of Conscience as a
Empowering students to resolve their conflicts is an imschool community.
portant step in conflict resolution and to follow the values that Jesus showed us on how to treat each other.
9:30am (JK/SK, Grades 1, 2, 3, 4 and 4/5).
10:15am (Grades 5, 6, 7 and 8).
In addition, during the month of November YFAs will be
the National Anti-Bullying Week Campaign
THANKSGIVING FOOD DRIVE promoting
(November 16th-21st). During the week the YFAs will
make daily announcements to promote Anti– Bullying
Thank you to everyone who donated non-perishable food
leading up to our school wide “Pink Day” and roof top
items during our Food Drive to help the less fortunate
photo on November 21st.
members of our community .
CROSSING GUARD
Parents and Guardians are reminded that the Tomken Rd.
crossing guard duty times are as
follows:
8:30-9:00am
12:06-12:21pm
12:41-1:06pm
3:30-3:55pm
Please keep in mind that school yard supervision
commences at 8:45am.
The YFAs would like parents and guardians to review
WITS with their children.
“W.I.T.S”
(Walk Away, Ignore, Talk it Out, Seek Help)
DUFFERIN-PEEL CDSB PROGRAMS
IMPORTANT DATES
Full Day Kindergarten:
Registration for the 2015-2016 school year will take place at St.
Thomas More School during the following dates/times:
Monday January 26, 2015 (7:00 pm – 9:00 pm)
SNOW DATE ONLY: Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Wednesday, January 28, 2015 (9:00 am – 3:00 pm)
Thursday, January 29, 2015 (9:00 am – 3:00 pm)
Friday, January 30, 2015 (9:00 am – 3:00 pm)
Extended French:
Information Meeting, January 15, 2015
St. Thomas More School @ 7:00 p.m. (Small Gym)
Deadline for EF applications is 3:00 p.m.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
French Immersion:
Parents are invited to attend information sessions on
November 25th, 26th and 27th. Please refer to insert for
additional information including locations and times.
November 1
All Saints Day
November 2
All Souls Day
Daylight Savings Time
November 6
Gr.8s Visit Philip Pocock SS
November 11
Remembrance Day Assemblies
Progress Reports Go Home
Wreath & Votives Orders Due
November 12
Philip Pocock SS Open House
@ 7:00pm
November 13
Progress Report Parent-Teacher
Conferences
Parent Reaching Out Initiative
“Zumba Day” (Grades JK-8)
November 14
PA Day (Provincial Priorities)
CATHOLIC SCHOOL COUNCIL NEWS
Our last Catholic School Council meeting was
held on October 20th. Our very enthusiastic
council members have many exciting events
planned for the school year; including, looking
into funding additional clubs and events for the
school. The teachers have submitted their Wish List of items
for the students that they need to have funded. With your help,
WE can do this for our children!
Pizza day helpers are always needed as many of our parents
have “graduated”. You must have a completed and updated
Criminal Reference Check. A copy of the approved CRC must
be kept on file in the Main Office.
Items Discussed:
Many ideas were put forward, and members unanimously
agreed on exposure to various musical instruments and events
and activities.
Fundraising:
1. Pizza Lunches – Ongoing
2. Christmas Wreaths & Votives (Due: Tuesday,
November 11, 2014). The Wreaths and Votives
are fresh and made by our Ontario farmers.
What’s New:
As part of our Parent Reaching Out initiative, we have two
exciting Zumba events planned for November 13(during the
day), and November 19 (in the evening).
Our next meeting is on November 24th at 7:00 p.m. in the
school library. We hope that you can attend.
November 16-22 National Anti-Bullying Week
November 18
Anti-Bullying Presentations by
Constables Steve and Paul (Grades 5-8)
November 19
Parent Reaching Out Initiative Zumba
Night for Parents and Students @
7:00pm
November 20
Holy Name of Mary SS Open House @
7:00pm
November 21
Pink Day
Roof Top Photo (JK– Gr. 8)
Lockdown Practice (re-scheduled)
November 24
Catholic School Council Meeting
@7:00pm
November 25-27 French Immersion Parent Information