PMPS Weekly Update May 4th

Posted May 4, 2023

Good Evening Mustang Families,

It’s been another great week at PMPS. Our School Council met this week on Monday evening (we are thankful for their continued support of our school initiatives), our school basketball teams went to tournament and played their best games of the season,  students successfully completed two more of our spring drills: lockdown and evacuation, our Special Olympics team is busy practicing and preparing for their upcoming day of activities,  and our students are excited for our Bike Rodeo- we have 70 students registered!  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 Upcoming Dates:

-May 12th: Bike Rodeo (permission form needed for  interested students to participate) 

-May 17th: Special Olympics (our team has been selected and are training hard)

-May 19th: Author Visit 11am

-May 24th, May 25th, and May 26th: Primary EQAO (letter coming home with more details)

-May 26th: Jr and Int Students: Get Real Presentation (Parents/ Guardians welcome, more details to come)

-May 30th, May 31st, and June 1st: Junior EQAO  (letter coming home with more details)

-June 2nd: PD Day (no school for students). 

-June 8th: Compass Run at School/ More details to come about a food drive

-June 26th: PMPS grade 8 grad

-June 29th: Last Day of School

-June 30th: PD Day (no school for students)

Upcoming Spirit Days: 

Friday, May 5, 2023 Red Dress Day – Wear Red 
Wednesday, 

May 17, 2023

 Wear Rainbow Colors – International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia
Friday,May 19, 2023 Dress in a different decade – Decade Day
Friday,May 26, 2023 Plaid Day

 

Free Workshops: Dufferin Parent Support Network is hosting some amazing free parenting workshops in May. These include:

Safety on Climbers: A reminder that running shoes must be worn while on all play equipment and while playing a sport in the sports fields.

News from the Minister of Education ( Free Activities for King’s Coronation):

 To commemorate the King’s Coronation, the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Premier Doug Ford, Speaker Ted Arnott, and Indigenous leaders will hold a flag raising ceremony, a 21-gun salute, and drum circle at 11:15 a.m. on Saturday, May 6 at Queen’s Park. The ceremony will also include a special presentation of the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers. Members of the public are invited to attend. The event will also be available to view province-wide via livestream on the Government of Ontario YouTube Channel.

Following the ceremony, ‘Coronation Celebration: A Fun Royal Fair’ will be held on the South Lawn of Queen’s Park from noon to 6 p.m. Free family fun activities will include carnival rides and live entertainment. A ‘Taste of Ontario’ will provide complimentary food and beverages from Ontario farmers and processors. The Coronation Celebration is open to the public, free of charge.

Extending the celebrations across the province, 10 major cultural attractions will offer free admission for day use on May 6:

In addition, 39 provincial parks across Ontario will be open and offer free admission to the public. Find the list of open parks at Ontario Parks.

 Sincerely, Stephen Lecce- Minister of Education

Parent Council Minutes for Monday, May 1st: 

Present: Andrea, Jessica, Kim, Tracey, Sabrina, Shannon, Ida, Kelly, Becky, and Emily 

  • Welcome new member Rebecca (Becky)! 
  • Andrea – Land Acknowledgement and Anti-Racism statement
  • Emily – Review of last week’s UGDSB Parent Involvement Committee’s “Building Engaging School Councils” event at Centre Wellington High School in Fergus. Purpose of the event was engagement in Parent Councils – parent involvement is at an all-time low for past 2-3 years – how do we re-engage the parent and guardian community in our schools? o Shared strategies to increase parent engagement at PMPS: Discussed having Council reps attend school events and create small business-card style handouts with meeting info (Shannon and Emily to attend Kindergarten Information event on June 2nd), create a bulletin board dedicated to Parent Council in the front window at the school, increase engagement through social media (Emily to link Facebook page to a new Instagram page, mirroring the posts on Twitter), printed newsletter specific to Parent Council. Shared ideas on how to improve functionality of Parent Council: Use a timeline for meetings, create a set of Bylaws/Constitution (Emily has samples from other schools as well as a link to provincial guidelines for Parent Councils), elect Council members at the end of the school year vs. first meeting of a new year. 
  • Kim – Teacher’s Report and status of vegetable garden repair work this coming weekend. Kim, Emily and family will be working in the garden on Saturday, May 6th, from 8:30am until we are finished. We are building six new garden boxes. Additional volunteers are welcome! Parent Council approved $200 for Kindergarten Garden project. 
  • Ida – Review of hanging basket flower sales – we sold 109 units. Ida will discuss sales for next year with Nishan at 10&10 Garden Centre. 
  • Tracey – Family Fun Night: Event to be held on June 15 th from 5:30-7pm. Run down of proposed activities, discussed ways in which Parent Council can help. Art Show will be hosted in the library. Shannon will purchase watermelon as a snack option that night and will attend to cut up the melon as needed. Emily will assist where needed. 
  • Jessica – Review of vendor application forms for next Holiday Craft Fair. Discussed ways to best utilize space in the gym for the next event and how to review vendor applications. Confirmed that we will have either early-bird pricing this year or first-come first choice on tables. 
  • Andrea – Principal’s Report (see below). Review of inclusivity presentations that have been approved by PIC funding (see link in Principal’s Report). Discussed content of the presentations. Reviewed Welcome Sign project. 
  • All – Selected next meeting date and first meeting date for September, so that it can be printed on handouts. 

Next meeting: Monday, June 5th at 6pm. 

September meeting: Monday, September 18th at 6pm. 

Parent Involvement Committee Application for Additional $2,000 in funding: Approved for two initiatives (thank you council for your support) : Welcome sign in front foyer, above entrance and additional logo in gym to replace old one  and to help pay for the Get REAL movement to come to PMPS on May 26th first and middle block grades 4-8. Parents welcome to attend.  (School staff had applied for grants, that already paid $400 for the program). 

Grade 4-5 Workshop Overview: Gr 4-5 Inclusivity .png.pdf 

Grade 6-8 Workshop Overview: Gr 6-12 Inclusivity Workshop.pdf

Steps of Strength: Latanya – “Combatting the idea of an uneducated Black person”

“Building Bridges” Supporting LGBTQ+ youth and Creating Allies in schools across Canada

 

Reminders: 

Emergency Response Training & Spring Drills: The safety and well-being of our students is our highest priority. Although we hope that an incident that requires response from emergency personnel will never occur in our school, we must be prepared to respond quickly and effectively in case it does. Each year our school must conduct drills to ensure staff and students are prepared in the event of a real emergency. The following number of drills are required in the spring time

  • 3 fire drills (2 completed/ 1 left to complete) 
  • 1 lockdown drill (completed) 
  • 1 tornado drill (still to come)  and 1 evacuation drill (completed) 

For each of these drills, there is an education component to explain why they are necessary. All drills are conducted in a manner that is sensitive to the needs of our students. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Mrs. Papavasiliou. Our drills will be starting again in the next couple of weeks. 

 

Dogs on School Property: Please remember that dogs are not allowed on school property. Some of our students have a fear of dogs. Please wait with your dog off school property for your child(ren). Thank you for your support. 

Milk Sales: Our wonderful Student Council continues to sell milk.  The milk costs $1.00 each. Milk sale profits support our Student Council. 

Emergency Lunch and Recess Supervisors Still Needed: If you love working with wonderful children, who are enthusiastic, fun and engaging, Princess Margaret wants you as a Lunchroom/Yard Supervisor. We have an urgent need for supplies while our regular staff are away. We are currently hiring for this position for the 2022/2023 school year. We require individuals who are caring, energetic, and have the ability to ensure the safety and security of our students.  The position requires a commitment of approximately 80 minutes per day (two 40 minute nutrition breaks:  20 minutes eating and 20 minutes outdoor recess time). This is a paid position, minimum wage per hour.  Your responsibilities include: monitoring lunchrooms and outside recess. Our two nutrition breaks/ yard times are from 10:20- 11am and again from 12:30-1:10pm. Lunchroom supervisors are required to have a vulnerable sector criminal record background check. If you want to be part of a great school community with wonderful students, please call Principal, Andrea Papavasiliou at 519-941-3731 ext 223. Similarly, if you know someone who would be fantastic in this role, please pass this information along to them. Thank you. 

We will see everyone tomorrow for another great day of learning  and then we hope everyone has a great weekend. The weather is supposed to be beautiful. 

Andrea Papavasiliou, Principal 

Categories: News