Website: http://gbs.ednet.ns.ca
SEPTEMBER, 2014
SAFE ARRIVAL # 464-5266
MAIN # 464-5184
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
LUNCH PROGRAM
It is extremely important that all parents fill out the
lunch registration form (if you haven’t already done so
from last June) and return it to the homeroom teacher.
For the safety of all students, if your child is registered
to stay for lunch every day, but he/she will not stay on
a specific day, we require a note or phone call to the
office. Registered lunch students will not be
dismissed without communication from parents.
As well, if your child is not registered for lunch but
would like to stay on a specific day, we require a note
or phone call to the office.
Please note that we can’t microwave any lunches for
students. Students also need to provide their own
spoons and forks for lunch.
Welcome back everyone and welcome to our new
students and parents to the George Bissett Community! I
am happy to be back for a 7th year and look forward to
working with you and your children for the 2014/2015
school year.
If you have noticed our front foyer bulletin board, the
GBES slogan this year is ‘Raising Respect’. On the
board we will have a respect tree. Student names will be
added to the tree by having their names on the leaves that
will grow as respect grows in the building. We will need
all the school community to help us with the growth of
respect at George Bissett Elementary.
This is year 4 of the CSI (Continued School
Improvement Plan). The staff will continue to work very
hard with the students in completing curriculum
outcomes as well as showing growth with our goals
which were seen as important for our school.
Goal #1: Students will demonstrate improved reading
comprehension
Goal #2: Students will develop improved understanding
of Number Sense with a focus on partitioning
Please be involved in the growth of our tree and the
respect for all at George Bissett. It is going to be a great
year!
Dwight Lucas
2014/2015 STAFF LIST
Principal
Vice Principal
Grade P
Grade 1
Grade 2
Grade 2/3
Grade 3/4
Grade 5
Grade 5/6
Music
Band
French
Phys. Ed.
Librarian
Resource
School Psychologist
Speech Pathologist
Behaviour Pychologist
Learning Ctr.
Program Assistant
Program Assistant
Excel
Excel
Lunch Monitor
Lunch Monitor
Administrative Assistant
Caretaker
Custodian
Mr. Lucas
Mrs. Scoville
Mrs. Muise
Mrs. Knowlton
Mrs. McCluskey
Ms. Coskun
Mrs. Henderson
Mrs. Scoville
Ms. Coskun
Ms. McKelvie
Mrs. Younes
Mr. MacDonald
Mr. Saulnier
Mrs. Mark
Mrs. Moreash
Mr. Rutledge
Mrs. McIsaac
Mrs. Morrison
Mrs. Moriarty
Ms. Kervin
Mrs. Cochrane
Mrs. Ackert
Mrs. Hollingshead
Mrs. Schnare
Mrs. Aucoin
Mrs. Warnell
Mrs. Clarke
Mrs. Warnell
Mrs. Wright
Mrs. Clarke
Mrs. MacFarland
MILK PROGRAM
The milk program will start on Monday, September
22nd. A form will be going home shortly to sign up
for the milk program. The cost is 3 payments of
$22.00 for a total of $66.00 for the year. The 1st
payment will be due on Monday, September 15th the
2nd payment will be due on January 5th, 2014 and the
final payment will be due on March 31st, 2015.
SPEED LIMIT
IN SCHOOL ZONES
To help make school zones safer, the speed limit has
been reduced to 30 km/h in areas where the
approaching limit is 50 km/h, when children are
present. If the speed limit in an area approaching a
school zone is higher than 50 km/h, the school zone
speed limit will remain 50 km/h. For more
information, please visit
http://gov.ns.ca/tran/roadsafety/schoolzonesafety.asp
SCHOOL POLICY
We are requesting that students please leave all
electronic devices at home, ie, walkmans, MP3
players, cameras, cell phones, etc. We are not
responsible for any lost or stolen items.
SCENT AND NUT AWARE SCHOOL
George Bissett School is a scent reduced and nut
aware school. Please note that students cannot bring
peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and cannot bring
anything with nuts for recess snacks. However,
WOW butter is acceptable.
When visiting or volunteering at GBES, please do not
wear scented products.
TWITTER
The Halifax Regional School Board is on Twitter! The
account is managed by HRSB Communications and is
used to share important information about the HRSB,
school cancellations, great stories about our schools,
etc. HRSB can be found at Twitter.com/HRSB
Official. You don’t have to have a Twitter account to
view what’s been posted. You can visit
Twitter.com/HRSB Official, or view latest postings on
the right hand side of the HRSB website.
STUDENT AGENDAS
Agendas have been purchased for students in Grades
2-6. The cost is $5.00. Please send in your payment
to the homeroom teacher as soon as possible.
SAFE ARRIVAL
LATE SLIP PROCEDURE
If your child will not be attending school or will be
late, we request that you call the Safe Arrival line @
464-5266 or the main office @ 464-5184. A message
may be left on the answering machine. If your child
becomes ill during the day, we will call you or the
person designated by you. For this reason, it is very
important that we have the most up-to-date telephone
numbers on record. Please update the School
Cancellation form that has been sent out, and
return to the office as soon as possible. A student
demographic form will also be sent home to be
updated and returned.
George Bissett has a “Late Slip” procedure in place
for those students who do not arrive by 8:30 am or
12:30 pm. Students will be asked to obtain a late slip
from the office to be given to the classroom teacher. If
your child will be late in the morning or afternoon,
please write an excuse or phone the school @ 4645266 to let us know.
BELL TIMES
Please note, the morning bell rings at 8:25 am with
classes starting at 8:30 am. The afternoon bell rings at
12:25 pm with classes starting at 12:30. Please
encourage your children to be punctual.
Primary-Grade 2
8:25 - 11:30 am
12:30 - 2:00 pm
Grades 3-6
8:25 - 11:30 am
12:30 - 2:30 pm
Recess
10:05 – 10:20 am
SCHOOL SNACKS
Please remember to have your child bring a recess
snack every day. On occasion, if a student forgets
their recess, we will provide a small snack at the
office.
CURRICULUM NIGHT
All parents are invited to visit the school on
Thursday, September 18th, from 7:00–8:00 p.m.
Please come to the gym first for a brief period so that
we may go over some important issues. Parents are
then invited to go to their child’s classroom to receive
more specific information regarding the academic
school year.
BREAKFAST PROGRAM
We are very excited to offer a Breakfast Program at
George Bissett Elementary for a third year! We plan
to start the Breakfast Program on Monday,
September 15th. The Breakfast Program is looking
for volunteers to help in a variety of ways: helping
with set up, serving the children, and helping with
clean up just to name a few. Student registration
information and volunteer requests were sent home
last week. We look forward to working with you and
serving the students at GBES a nutritional breakfast!!
SAFETY ISSUES
LITERACY NEWS
The following are reminders that will ensure the safety
of all members of our school community:
Visitors – For the safety of our students, we request
parents who are visiting or volunteering to please
sign in at the office and wear the appropriate tag
while in the building, and sign out when you leave.
As well, if you are picking up a student for an
appointment during the day, we request that you come
into the office and sign the student out. The sign out
book is located in the office.
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Playground – Please remember that there is no
supervision on the school grounds until 8:10 in the
morning. Walkers are allowed to come back on the
school grounds at 12:20, but must come directly into
the school, unless there is parental supervision, as
there is no staff supervision outside at that time.
Please, do not have your child arrive before these
times. With no supervision before these times, we can
not be held responsible for any incidents or injuries.
********************************************
Parking Lot – We request that parents, sitters, etc. not
bring their cars into the parking lot at any time during
the day. If parents are picking up students from Excel
or extra curricular events, you may park in the parking
lot any time after 2:45 pm.
Hand Sanitizer – For visitors or volunteers coming
into the school, we request that you use the hand
sanitizer outside the office door before signing in.
SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL
The School Advisory Council is a provincial
Department of Education mandated group of parents,
staff and community members who meet on a regular
basis. We are there to provide opinions and support
and to be a sounding board for School Administration,
the Regional School Board and also the Provincial
Department of Education.
George Bissett’s Council meets six times per year at
6:30 p.m. in the school library. These meetings are
open for parents to come as observers and listen.
SCHOOL CLOSURE
INCLEMENT WEATHER
School closures will be announced on the radio by
6:30 am unless, of course, school is closed through the
school day. If school is closed through the school day,
the announcement will be on the radio by 11:00 am.
Any closures will be announced by feeder school: we
are a “feeder school” for Cole Harbour High, or by
designated area: our designated area is Halifax
County – Bedford. Listen carefully to the
announcements.
A School Cancellation form has been sent to you to
update and return to us. Please ensure you do this
ASAP, as this information is what we rely on in the
event that school is cancelled throughout the day.
The TumbleBook Library is an online collection of
animated, talking picture books which teach kids the
joy of reading in a format they'll love. TumbleBooks
are created by adding animation, sound, music and
narration to existing picture books in order to produce
an electronic picture book which you can read, or have
read to you.
TumbleBooks are a great addition to any reading
program. The TumbleBook Library also has bookrelated puzzles and language games to play.
The TumbleBook Library collection can be accessed
online from every computer in our school, or from
home through a direct link on our school website.
SANTA GIFT MART
We will once again be holding our Santa Gift Mart
the last week of school in December. For those of you
new to us, this is where our children get to do their
own shopping for Christmas presents. Our families
send in donations of new or gently used gift items as
well as gift wrap. The gym is set up as a market and
the classes go through two at a time to select their
presents and have them wrapped by volunteers. A
child can usually purchase for a family of five, plus a
treat or two for themselves, for about $5. It is
remarkable how much pleasure the children get out of
carefully deciding what to select for each family
member as well as the independence of doing it
themselves.
Watch for further notices detailing when to send in
items (usually end of November for those) but start
gathering your special donations now. Gently used
household items, things for dads, for moms, for
kids (puzzles, outgrown toys, books), family rated
movies, children and teen books...all manner of once
treasured items can find new life in a new home at
Christmas time. Set them aside now and send them in
when requested closer to the date.
Also, please set aside gift bags for gift wrapping and
send them in the first week of December! We will also
require tissue for stuffing the bags.
GEORGE BISSETT CORRESPONDENCE
For the month of September, we will be sending home
a paper copy of the newsletter to parents. For all other
months, we will be putting the newsletter on the
school’s website for your information. If you have
any questions or concerns, please contact me at
lwright@hrsb.ca.
PICTURE RETAKE DAY
Please note that picture retakes will take place on
October 27th.
DATES TO REMEMBER
September 9 Picture Day
September 10 Anti-bullying guest speaker @ 8:40
September 11 Anti-bullying day – WEAR PINK!
September 15 First milk payment due $22.00
September 18 Curriculum Night (7:00 pm – 8:00 pm)
September 22 Milk program begins
September 22 Terry Fox Walk @ 10:30
September 25 Terry Fox Walk (Rain Date)
September 29 PD Day – No School
October 8
Noggins Farm Field Trip
October 13
Thanksgiving Day Holiday
October 24
NSTU Provincial Conference Day
No Students
October 27
Picture Retakes
November 3-7 Book Fair
November 11 Remembrance Day Holiday
November 17 School Based PD – AM – No School
November 17 Parent/Teacher Interviews - PM
1-3 pm & 6-8pm
December 1 Assessment and Evaluation Day (P-9)
December 8 Term 2 Begins
December 11 Report Cards go home (1st of three)
December 19 Last day of school before Christmas
January 5
First day back after Christmas
January 5
2nd milk payment due $22.00