PMPS Weekly Update for January 25th
Dear Mustang Families,
It has been another busy, but great week here at PMPS. I sent the weekly update out early this week, because I wanted to remind families of some important things for tomorrow:
January 26th: Grade 8 grad photos (more information has been sent home)
January 26th: Class Picture Day ( pictures of classes, not individuals will be taken)
January 27th: PD Day: No School. Teachers will be working on report cards. Report cards will be available on February 16th
***Please note our spirit day (favourite character day) is canceled tomorrow because it conflicts with picture day. I apologize for the confusion.
As February begins next week, we are recognizing Black Heritage, Black Brilliance, and Black Futures month here at our school. We are learning about influential black role models on our daily announcements, during classroom activities, and through school displays. We are proudly flying the Pan African flag for the month of February to recognize this month. We’d also like to share with our school community our board’s equity statement as well:
Anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism is deeply rooted in our country, society, institutions and our history, and much work needs to be done to address this systemic racism. As an educational community we have a responsibility to identify and describe racism and oppression and then work to dismantle it. The Upper Grand District School Board is committed to disrupting systemic racism and oppression in all of its forms. We will implement ongoing mandatory anti-racism and anti-oppression training for all staff, review our protocols and policies, including our hiring practices, and be fully transparent and accountable to all Upper Grand students, staff, families, and stakeholders in an ongoing manner.
Our Twitter account is full of updates, please check it out: @margaret_ps. I update our website regularly as well: www.ugdsb.ca/PrincessMargaret/ . Please take a moment once and while and check out all of our great news!
Important Reminders:
Reporting incidents at school: Over the last few weeks, we have had parents call about peer incidents that involve their child (ren) that no staff member was told about during the school day. Please encourage your child to report to an adult here at PMPS when the incident happens. We want to support our students and stop inappropriate behaviour immediately. As you can imagine, this is hard to do when we are not told about the behaviour. We are having these conversations with students about the importance of telling a staff member right away and we would appreciate your support in reinforcing this message at home as well. Thank you.
Grade 7/8s Late from Lunch: If your child goes home for lunch, please remind them that they need to return on time. Recently, we have many of our intermediate students who do go off property for lunch , arrive late and as a result are missing valuable learning time. If this continues, teachers/admin/parents will need to reevaluate permission to leave property at lunch.
No Bus Days: We Are Open for Learning: A reminder that on no bus days, we are here for learning. A very small percentage of our students are bussed, so teachers carry on with a normal learning day. Our school is open for all who can safely make it here. If your child (ren) will not be attending school, you need to call in their absence please. This helps Mrs. Mckenize with her safe arrival procedures in a timely manner. Thank you for your help with this.
Parent WorkShop: Please join Women In Crisis Educator Cindy McMann and Jaseth Purcell, Human Trafficking Counsellor for an informative webinar which will provide information to parents and guardians about human trafficking: what it is, how traffickers operate, red flags and risk factors and ways to talk about this issue with young people. January 31st 6pm-7pm on Zoom. Registration link
School Volunteers: The UGDSB recently updated their School Volunteers Policy (205). If you are volunteering in our school or plan to in the future, it is important to note that the following is required: a volunteer application, a volunteer agreement, an interview, a reference check and a vulnerable sector check (VSC) /offense declaration. A VSC will be required for field trip supervisors, volunteer drivers, classroom volunteers working with students, volunteer coaches/advisors. Please note: all volunteer drivers will need to complete a 508-3 Transportation of Students in Privately Owned Vehicles, a signed volunteer agreement, and a VSC/ Offense Declaration. This means that the school can no longer coordinate rides to sporting events unless we have parents/ guardians who have completed the VSC and other paperwork. Parents/ Guardians and family members must transport to games. The school will be able to provide letters that parents/guardians can use to apply for a VSC. We understand that this is a significant change but the school needs to support the policy set out by the UGDSB
Updated Screening Tool:
The School and Child Care Screening Tool has been updated to align with recent recommendations from the Chief Medical Officer of Health. The link to the tool is above and can be found on Public Health’s website. Families and staff are encouraged to self screening before coming to work/school each day.
Milk Sales: Our wonderful Student Council continues to sell milk. The milk costs $1.00 each. Milk sale profits support our Student Council.
Popcorn Sales: Our intermediates continue to sell popcorn on Tuesdays and Thursdays for $2.00. This goes towards their year end trip. Thanks for supporting our intermediates.
Have a wonderful evening. We will see everyone back for another great learning day tomorrow.
Mrs. Andrea Papavasiliou, Principal
Categories: News