Principal’s Message – October 24, 2021
Dear Parents/Guardians,
As October comes to an end we are starting to see the leaves fall and the weather turn colder. Please remember to send your children to school in layers. We continue to learn outside when we can and will only stay in for recess if there is a driving rain or thunderstorm. Jackets, mitts and outdoor shoes help.
THANK YOU
We wanted to extend a huge thank you to our Primrose community, staff and students. Last week definitely had some challenges as we were dealing with Covid cases, fire alarms and a power outage. I am so grateful to be working in such an amazing community and staff. We all rallied together and were committed to making sure all the children were safe, well and looked after.
———————————————————————————————————————–
COVID
We thank you for continuing to complete the Student Screen https://covid-19.ontario.ca/school-screening/ each day and keeping your children home when they are sick. Please follow the advice that is given when you receive your child’s self-screening results. Staff are doing a great job monitoring the students. If staff have a concern that your child has fallen ill at school or they appear to be getting worse we will be calling you for a pick up. Our goal is to keep all students and staff in the building healthy. All COVID related updates are always posted to our school website.. Any questions can always be directed to Public Health.
———————————————————————————————————————-
NEW STAFF
We would like to welcome our new staff members to Primrose for the 2021-2022 year. They have made a great addition to our school.
Perly Hajjar – Assistant Office
Amy DeLuca – ECE in KA
Paulvinder Baidwan – KB Kindergarten Teacher
Sammie Stevenson – KC Kindergarten Teacher and Kindergarten Planning Teacher
Jaclyn Hay – KD Kindergarten Teacher
Michelle Jones – ECE in KD
Nancy Gellalty – Grade 1 Teacher
Emily O’Grady – Grade 1 Teacher
Sara Tollefson – Grade 2 Teacher
Nkese Charles – Grade 4/5 Teacher
Neil Ananthan-Horning – Grade 5/6 Teacher
Ashley Pullen – EA
Joy Ouellette – EA
————————————————————————————————————————
PICTURE RETAKE
Unfortunately, due to the power outage and many children away due to our COVID cases a lot of our students missed picture day. School Photo Retake Day will be on Tuesday November 30, 2021. All students that were absent on our original photo day will have an opportunity to have their photo taken. If your child has already had a photo taken and you feel that it does need to be retaken please contact your child’s classroom teacher by Tuesday November 23, 2021. Only children that have had parental/guardian requests for a retake will be invited to get a second photo taken. There will be another retake day when Grade 8 Grad pictures are taken in the new year.
————————————————————————————————————————
KISS AND RIDE
A reminder to all parents that are picking up students at the end of the day that there is NO PARKING in our Kiss and Ride loop. If you need to pick up a primary (K-4) child from the gym you must park in a designated parking space. Our Kiss and Ride is well used by parents of our older students and having parents in this area poses a safety risk to our older students and causes congestion. Please respect the signage and the routine of the school and use parking spots if you need to park. Thanks for your attention in this matter.
STUDENT PICK UP AT THE END OF THE DAY
We ask that if you are picking up your child at the end of the day that you call in by 2:30 pm. Since we are a fully bused school the office is very busy at the end of the day and your call may not be answered and returned right away. Thank you for understanding.
————————————————————————————————————————
SCHOOL COUNCIL
Thank you to all our parents who attended our last 2 virtual School Council meetings. We are fortunate to have this amazing parent community. They have already started our first fundraiser this weekend selling pumpkins at Maple Grove Farm.
I would like to congratulate our new executive members:
- Co-chair – Karen Kennedy
- Co-chair – Carly Ferris
- Vice chair – Amber Gallaugher
- Treasurer – Monica Watson , Colleen Kee
- Secretary – Melissa Irwin
Our next meeting will be Wednesday November 17th at 6:30 pm. It will be posted on our website with the link that evening and also tweeted out. We hope to see many community members there.
————————————————————————————————————————
PIC (Parent Involvement Committee) MEETING OCT 25 6:45 pm – 9 pmStarting in January 2011, all school boards in Ontario must establish a Parent Involvement Committee. The Parent Involvement Committee (PIC) participates at the board level and is a key vehicle for enhancing parent involvement in support of student achievement and well-being. It operates as a direct link for parents to the director of education and the board of trustees.
- providing the board with advice on parent engagement and how to communicate with parents
- developing strategies and initiatives the board could use to engage more parents to support their children’s learning at home and at school
- sharing information with, and supporting the work of, school councils.
This week we will have a presentation from Jenny Marino, the UGDSB’s Mental Health Lead
regarding the supports and programs available to assist students who may be struggling in
this area. Please see attached link for more information and access to the virtual link.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DQCCssaJilK2PRbs6LojDOXQ8o_cIMIu/view?usp=sharing
Learn more about the UGDSB’s Parent Involvement Committee (PIC) at https://www.ugdsb.ca/pic/
————————————————————————————————————————-
ECO SCHOOLS
We are working hard to get our Eco-Schools Initiatives going this year. Our goal this year is to be a Platinum Certified Eco School. Students will be participating in various initiatives to help us earn our required 101 points. To begin our year, students participated in Take me Outside Day (on October 20th) – a day that encouraged outdoor learning and experiences – and working towards bringing Waste Free Lunches. Our campaign for Waste Free Lunches will continue this week. Ask your child about ideas shared in their class about how they can minimize the waste in their lunches. We will continue to share more about all of our great initiatives and how students and families can get involved throughout the year to help us achieve our Platinum status!
————————————————————————————————————————-
BREAKFAST PROGRAM
With the support of our School Council, our community and community partners, we are excited to share that we are continuing to offer the Breakfast Program for all students again this year. Each morning, Breakfast bags containing a dairy option (typically yogurt or cheese), a fruit or vegetable option and a grain option (usually a bagel, muffin or biscuit) are delivered to each classroom and available to any student. These bags remain available in each classroom in the morning and then again at the second nutrition break for students. Students are encouraged to bring their own snacks that they can enjoy during these times as well. If you feel your child would benefit from their own individual snack bag please do not hesitate to reach out to our Vice Principal, Mrs. Hopkins, for more information.
————————————————————————————————————————————
Christmas Angels
As you can imagine, the need in our community this year is greater due to Covid-19 and many families have already been asking about the needs in our school and how we can support each other in trying times. We wanted to let you know that our school will be running the Christmas Angels Program again this year.
This is a program where families in the North Dufferin community let the school know, and staff, families, and community partners work to fill their wish list at Christmas time. Last year we helped over 100 students (40 families) in the North Dufferin community and would love nothing more than to be able to support those in need again this Christmas season.
If you are interested in helping to purchase an item off the list, please send me an email at [email protected]. For people wanting to make larger donations to Christmas Angels, the Upper Grand Learning Foundation will offer a tax receipt to those who donate to this program.
If you are in need of support, please email me ([email protected]).
We do keep this information confidential, and no one knows who they are purchasing items for. Together as a community we will get through this.
—————————————————————————————————————————-
Primrose “Care Cupboard”
We wanted to let you all know about a great program our school CYC Katelyn Charbonneau is beginning called the “Care Cupboard”.
You might be wondering what the Care Cupboard is?
In short, it is a cupboard that is going to be placed in a safe and private space in our school, where students can “shop” for personal care items, for themselves or members of their families. Maybe it’s a fresh toothbrush or body wash they can take home. Maybe it’s an emergency stick of deodorant for someone in need; anything a child needs to feel comfortable and confident at school. The ultimate goal is to provide whatever a child needs to be able to focus on learning as opposed to worrying about personal hygiene.
If you would like to donate or know of a business in our community that would like to contribute, please let us know. We are also happy to answer additional questions at any time.
Katelyn can be reached by email at: [email protected].
Thank you in advance for your support with this wonderful program we are trying to get up and running.
———————————————————————————————————————————-
WEAR PURPLE OCT. 27 TO RECOGNIZE CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
Our next spirit day will be Wednesday October 27th, 2021 and students and staff are encouraged to wear purple to recognize children’s rights. Every October, Children’s Aid Societies across Ontario raise awareness about the important role that individuals and communities play in supporting vulnerable children, youth, and families through the provincial Dress Purple Day campaign. The campaign is more important than ever, since the COVID-19 pandemic has created additional stressors for families, and in some cases has increased risk for the well-being and safety of children and youth.
————————————————————————————————————————–
WEAR FALL COLOURS OCT. 28
As a community, we are always striving to make our schools more inclusive and welcoming for all students. Part of this work is looking at our practices around holidays and celebrations. With Halloween around the corner we have been doing some work with our students to understand that some people are unable to participate due to religion, culture and/or socio-economic status. Halloween can be a day that excludes others from school. We have been engaging in conversations about cultural appropriation, recognizing that a person’s culture is part of their identity and not a costume. Costumes based on cultural appropriation reinforce negative stereotypes. We also realize that this is a day that many of our students who do celebrate look forward to. These discussions have been rich and insightful. As a result of these conversations and COVID our staff has decided that on Thursday, October 28th, we will be having Fall Colour Day instead of dressing up for Hallowe’en. We can’t be sharing candy/drinks/treats, so this means no class treats are to be brought in. We are having a regular school day with any classroom activities planned around the theme of autumn, rather than Halloween.
————————————————————————————————————————
PA DAY OCTOBER 29
We also want to remind parents that Friday, October 29th is a PD in the UGDSB. This is not a school day for students. Staff however will be busy engaging in professional development about numeracy and literacy and completing progress reports.
We hope all families are having a great weekend!
Marianne Millsap
Categories: News