25 Mountainberry Rd, Brampton, ON L6R IJ3 Phone: (905) 789-1741 Fax: (905) 789-1958 “Achieving, Believing & Caring” Principal: K. Dolan Vice Principal: S. Chambers Secretary: P. Tomei http://www.dpcdsb.org/FCTIP St. Marguerite D’Youville Parish (905) 792-7497 Pastor: Fr. P. O’Dea Associates: Fr. S. Dickson/Fr. J. Tobin http://dyouvilleparish.ca/contact/ Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (905) 890-1221 Trustee: S. McLauchlan Superintendent: L. Storey http://www.dpcdsb.org/ SCHOOL PRAYER PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE O, heavenly Father, You have once more brought the year full circle, through planting and growing and ripening to harvest time, and autumn. Help us to see, in the marvelous succession of seasons, and in the growth and ripening of our crops, the merciful, generous hand of Your divine providence. Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for all the wonderful things we have in our lives. Let us take this time to be thankful for our children, our families, our local community and the peace and harmony we enjoy in our country. It is in these things that God’s graces are often revealed. On behalf of the staff of Father Clair Tipping Catholic School, we hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those parents who were able to take the time to come out to the school for our Barbeque/Open House in September. This sends an important message to all children about how important school and education means to you. Here at Father Clair Tipping Catholic School, we are always trying to find ways of further strengthening the important relationship between the home, parish and the school. Ongoing and open communication is essential to the success of your child. May God Bless you and your family this Thanksgiving weekend! We thank you for food and remember the hungry. We thank you for health and remember the sick. We thank you for friends and remember the friendless. We thank you for freedom and remember the enslaved. May these remembrances stir us to service, so that Your gifts to us may be used for others. Amen. K. Dolan - Principal Inside this Edition Virtue of the Month FCT Catholic School Council Members School Safety and Security Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Please support our Thanksgiving Food Drive October 2 -15, 2013 Students and families are invited to bring non-perishable food items. Items will be donated to the Knight’s Table in Brampton to help those in need in our community. Achieving, Believing & Caring September – A month in review Thanksgiving Food Drive The month of September was a very busy and exciting time for our students and staff at Father Clair Tipping. We introduced full day Kindergarten at our school to our J.K. and S.K. students. We celebrated our Opening Mass with Father O’Dea on September 26th. Our students took part in our annual Terry Fox Run to support cancer research on September 27th. Our bus patrollers received their training at Peel Safety Village to ensure that our students stay safe as they travel to and from school each day. We also had our Open House/Barbeque which was very well attended and our Scholastic Book Fair in September! These are just a few of the highlights of the many activities that took place during our opening month of school here at Father Clair Tipping! Father Clair Tipping School is holding its annual food drive from October 2nd-15th. Thanksgiving is a very special time of the year when we as a school community collect non-perishable food items to help those who are in need in our own local community. We will be collecting these items over the next week. Please be generous with your donation of canned/dried goods and soaps/general hygiene products. All donations will be sent to the Knight’s Table in Brampton. Adjusting to the daily routine of setting time aside to complete assigned work has nudged out the carefree days of summer. Students should be tracking their work daily in their agendas. Parents are reminded to please check the agenda daily for important information from their child’s classroom teacher. During our professional activity day, staff were involved in faith development and setting goals and expectations for this school year. At our first Catholic School Council meeting on October 2nd the school council brought closure to last year, elected a new council for the 2013-14 school year and looked towards setting another active agenda for this upcoming school year. Terry Fox Walk A big thank you to parents, students and staff for your active involvement in making our Terry Fox fundraising effort on, September 27th such a great success! We are thrilled with the response of our community to such a worthwhile event. It was truly an inspirational day for all as we joined together as a school community to support this very worthy cause in the fight against cancer. Virtue of the Month - Empathy The Virtue that we will be focusing on for the month of October is empathy. We understand empathy to mean the ability to identify with and feel other people’s concern. An empathetic person believes that we all share one Spirit; that we are many parts of one body because we are all created in the image and likeness of God. An empathetic person: Listens attentively & watches people’s body language Notices and responds when someone is upset Can name her/his feelings Can see a situation from a different point of view Knows that different people may feel differently about the same thing. Opening Mass Our opening school mass was held on Thursday, September 26th. Our celebrant was Fr. Patrick O’Dea. It truly was a special celebration shared by our students, staff and parents who attended. A special thank-you to our school liturgical team (Mrs. Pelaia and Mrs. Kane) who organized our mass with our Parish Pastoral Team, our school choir under the direction of Mrs.Bowles and Mrs. Grabowski, our altar servers, readers and technical support. WORLD TEACHER DAY – OCTOBER 5, 2013 Over 100 countries around the world celebrated United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Teacher’s Day. The Board of Trustees for Dufferin-Peel resolved the following: “Our board is proud to recognize the professionalism and dedication that our teachers show in their classrooms,” says Mario Pascucci, chair of the board of trustees. “We encourage all our students and school community to thank our teachers for the extraordinary contributions they make to the development and success of our students.” “Teachers have an incredibly important role in our communities,” said John Kostoff, director of education. “Most of us can point to a teacher who has influenced us in a very positive way. The contributions that our teachers and Catholic educational teams make in preparing our students to become successful in their future careers, as well as good citizens, should be recognized and celebrated.” Special thanks to the teaching and support staff at Father Clair Tipping for your on-going commitment to student learning. You truly make a difference in the life of our children. Achieving, Believing & Caring 2 Book Fair Update School Hours and Supervision Thank you to all parents and students who helped make our book fair a great success. The school raised $1,871.39 in net profits for the Book Fair. This money will be used to purchase additional books and supplies for the library. Your generosity and support will also help purchase many needed resources for our school. A special thank you to all those who donated their time to help organize and run this most worthwhile event. Supervision in the school yard begins at 8:15 a.m. Please do not drop your children off at school prior to that time as they will not be supervised. The school day ends at 3:00 p.m. Parents are asked to ensure that arrangements are made for their children to leave school at 3:00 p.m. Students are not supervised after 3:00 p.m. unless they are involved in a planned supervised activity that has parental permission. Please do not rely on the school to supervise children after 3:00 p.m. The doors of Father Clair Tipping are open to parents who wish to visit or confer with staff, however, an appointment is necessary, as the classroom teacher’s first responsibility is teaching the class during regular school hours. Please report to the office upon entering the school. Thank you for your support in keeping classroom interruptions to a minimum and maintaining a safe environment for our students C. Di Federico Teacher/Librarian FCT School Council Thank you to all the members of the 2012-2013 School Council. Your hard work and dedication to Father Clair Tipping Catholic School was truly appreciated by all the staff and students. Our first Catholic School Council meeting for this school year was held on Wednesday, October 2nd at 7:00 p.m. in the school library. Congratulations go out to the following elected School Council Members for the 2013-2014 school year: Chair Treasurer Secretary Parent Representatives Staff Representative Vice Principal Principal J. Gordon G. Miranda M. DaFonte N. Brown R. Rowe E. Britton Z. Dosanjh R. Munroe S. Chambers K. Dolan Tips to Prevent Cyberbullying Today, students have access to a variety of digital devices such as cell phones, computers and iPads where they can access instant messaging, chat rooms, video games, social networking places such as email, My Space, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Parents and educators have a responsibility to ensure that students use this form of communication in a safe and responsible manner. Cyberbullying is the practice of posting or sending harmful images or electronic text via the Internet or other digital communication tools. The following are some tips to help keep your kids safe. 1. 2. Our Next Catholic School Council Meeting is Wednesday, November 6, 2013 @ 7:00 pm in the school library. Future meeting dates for the school year have been posted on our school web site. All meetings begin promptly at 7:00 p.m. and end at approximately 8:30 p.m. Please come out to help make Father Clair Tipping School the very best it can be for all the children. 3. 4. 5. 6. Peel Police Partnerships with FCT School We are very pleased to partner with Peel police to support our safe school’s initiatives. Constable Lyons will be coming to our school on Monday, October 7th to present to our intermediate students about the dangers of Cyberbullying. Other topics that will be addressed this year are as follows: JK/SK Community Helpers, Gr 2 – Streetproofing, Gr.1, 3, 4, 5 – Bully Prevention and Grades 7-8 Cyber-bullying. 7. Tell your children to never pass along harmful or cruel messages or images. Never post or share your personal information online (this includes your full name, address, telephone number, school name, parents’ names, or Social Security number) or your friends’ personal information. Train your child to delete suspicious email messages without opening them. Teach your child how to use technology to block communication with cyberbullies. Speak to your child about the importance of telling a parent or trusted adult about any cyberbullying they’re witness to. At home, supervise and monitor your child’s time online. Putting the computer in a common area, such as the kitchen, is a good idea. Communicate with your child’s school if any bullying issues are brought back to the school environment. For More information Contact: www.canadiansafeschools.com O Achieving, Believing & Caring 3 Safe Schools: School Security Indoor Shoes/Extra Clothing As many of you are already aware, a security camera and buzzer system have been installed at the front entrance to our school. Parents/visitors are expected to press the button on this system and identify themselves by name and also include their child’s name and reason for their visit prior to entry into our school. Please continue to be patient as staff in the office will attend to the door monitor as soon as possible. There may be a delay in answering the door as our first priority is students in our school office. We have asked our students if they see adults at the front door NOT to open it. Please do not knock on the door and call students to open the door for you as this defeats the purpose of our system. Also, once parents have entered the front door of the school they MUST report to the office immediately. Parents/visitors are NOT permitted to walk down the hall to their child’s classroom. If you wish to speak to your child please come to the office and office staff will arrange to accommodate your request. For parents who are dropping off lunches, there is a lunch table set up in the front hallway for lunches for grades 1-8 and also a separate table for lunches for our Kindergarten students. Kindergarten parents are not permitted to deliver lunches to their child’s classroom to ensure the safety and security of our students. With the arrival of colder weather, and increased precipitation, we would like to ensure all students are dry and comfortable when indoors. We ask that you ensure your child has a pair of shoes that he/she wears only when indoors at school. You may wish to have your child keep a change of clothing at school, including extra socks and mittens. Be sure such clothing is labeled and easily identified by your child. HALLOWEEN SAFETY GUIDELINES School Halloween celebrations will be organized by classroom teachers and will take place at the school on Thursday, October 31st. Students are encouraged to select costumes that are in good taste, bearing in mind our Catholic setting. In keeping with our School & Board Catholic Code of Conduct Guidelines, we ask that parent/students follow these guidelines for appropriate dress and safety: No masks No replicas of weapon or artifacts of a violent nature (e.g. toy guns, toy swords, toy knives, etc.) No costumes and/or attire that would be considered demeaning or offensive to others We ask that you follow our school guidelines for NOT sending any products with peanut/nut products and to follow any information from your child(s) classroom teacher regarding specific food allergies (no home baked items). We encourage parents to send in nonfood items such as pencils, stickers, etc. If you have any questions, please contact your child’s classroom teacher or the school office. Attendance and Punctuality The Ministry of Education states that it is the responsibility of each parent to ensure that his/her child be in attendance and at scheduled activities on time and with the proper materials required for full participation. At Father Clair Tipping Catholic School, we teach children to be on time for their scheduled classes. Regular and punctual attendance on the part of the student is vital to the process of learning. Students who are habitually late or absent for class will miss essential parts of the program. Also, when a child is late, the entire class is disrupted and the program is affected for all. It is essential that your child be punctual in order to achieve maximum success. Please reinforce the importance of promptness with your child. Should your child have a legitimate reason to be late or absent at any time, please provide them with a written note to assist us in appropriate followup. Frequent late arrivals or absences without appropriate reason from parents/guidance will result in letters home, and if necessary an attendance conference. Leaving At Lunchtime Parents/Guardians please be advised that ALL students must have written permission from a parent/guardian to leave the school at lunch. Verbal permission (over the phone) will not be accepted. A signed and dated note with a parent/guardian signature is required for each occurrence. The note must come to the office and students are required to sign out and to sign back in when they return for afternoon classes. School Driveway/Kiss N’ Ride Safety We respectfully ask that drivers refrain from stopping or parking in the bus lane at the front of the school. This area is a Fire Route and fines for a violation are high. Also, parents are asked NOT to park in our Kiss N’ Ride lane next to our Kindergarten yard as this stops traffic from moving and is a danger to the safety of our students. Please note that students are to exit their parent’s vehicle on the passenger’s side (right side) of the car NOT the driver’s side. The driver’s side is directly next to our drive thru lane and it is extremely unsafe for children to exit on this side of your vehicle. Achieving, Believing & Caring 4 Lastly, parents are asked to take caution when picking up and dropping off their child in the Kiss N’ Ride lane. Please Do NOT speed through this area and please obey the Stop Sign at the Crosswalk as students use this area to walk to school. School staff will continue to monitor this area and remind parents to follow these very important rules. NOVEMBER Nov 1 All Saints Day Nov 2 All Souls Day Nov 5 Progress Reports Sent Home Nov 6 School Council Meeting – 7:00 p.m. Nov 7 Progress Report Card Interview Evening upon request for Grades 1-8 DATES TO REMEMBER: OCTOBER Oct 11 Oct 14 Oct 16 Oct 17 Oct 18 Oct 24 Oct 25 Oct 28 Oct 29 Oct 30 Oct 31 Professional Activity Day – No school Thanksgiving Day – No school Board Catholic School Council Mtg @ St. Francis Xavier Secondary School @ 6:30 p.m. Family Cross Country Meet Jr. Volleyball Tournament at FCT – all day PALS Training in A.M. Confirmation retreat at St. Marguerite d’Youville Parish Region of Peel Immunization Clinic – Grade 7’s & Grade 8 girls St. Thomas Aquinas Arts Presentation to Grade 8 students Photo Re-take Day Bring a Toonie Halloween Dance TOONIE HALLOWEEN DANCE!! Thursday, October 31, 2013 Our School Council is hosting a “Toonie Halloween Dance.” Students are invited to wear their costumes and bring a toonie and have fun dancing to great tunes! Funds raised by this event will help support the needy families at Christmas Time for the Helping Hands Program with St. Marquerite d’Youville Parish and be used to purchase prizes for our major fundraiser in February (Valentines Dance-A-Thon). HOT LUNCH MONDAY’S AND PIZZA DAY FRIDAY’S ARE COMING SOON! MORE INFO. TO FOLLOW. Achieving, Believing & Caring 5