NEWSLETTER - Arch Street Public School - OCDSB

							                                                   NEWSLETTER
                                                    June, 2008

Principal: Bambi Ross                                      Office Administrator: Karen Hall
Superintendent: Neil Yorke-Slader                          School Council Chairs:Deb Ransom,Erin Francis
Trustee: Bronwyn Funiciello                                Volume 10



PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE                                        hold a play day, say farewell to our Grade 6 students
Well the end of my first year as Principal of Arch         and hold our final celebration assembly.
Street is quickly arriving. It seems like yesterday
that I was meeting so many of you for the first time.      At this time of year we are often excited about the
Thank you to everyone who has made my year here so         adventures that summer holds, but sad too, as we say
wonderful. I am looking forward to next year and           goodbye to so many good friends. We bid a fond
working with all of you.                                   farewell to our grade 6 students and students in
                                                           other grades who will be moving to new schools in
We have had a great year at Arch as we have                September. We hope you will remember us at your
continued to work hard at improving our academic,          new schools.
social, athletic and artistic skills. We have had a
variety of special events and activities to help create    We are looking forward to a few changes next year.
a wonderfully varied learning experience this year.        Welcome back Jennifer Dey, who will be returning
Thank you to everyone who has volunteered their            from her maternity leave in September. Welcome
time to help our students be successful. Thank you         also to Manjula Gupta who will be joining our team as
also for supporting our School Council, in particular,     an educational assistant. We are also very excited
Deb Ransom, Erin Francis, Matilda Gill, Jan Downing,       about the new Autism Kindergarten class that will be
Abest Nambra, as they have hosted a wide variety of        running for one year here at Arch.
fundraising and social events and they have funded a
wide variety of academic opportunities for our             On behalf of the students I would like to thank all of
students. Thank you to all of our Council members.         the staff at Arch for the dedication and effort they
                                                           have extended to all of our students this year. We
Over the last several weeks, the staff has been busy       look forward to seeing everyone again in the Fall.
preparing final report cards and beginning to plan for     Happy holidays!
next year. I am pleased to inform you that all of our
staff will be back with us next year along with a few      Sincerely,
new faces still to be announced. We are very excited
about the addition of a pilot project at Arch Street.
We will become home to six new students as we open
a kindergarten autism unit. I am pleased to announce       Bambi Ross
that both Katherine Azar and Debbie Macrae will be         Principal.
leading this delightful group of first time students.

The last few weeks of school promise to be exciting
as we celebrate the end of the Turnaround Project,
host our new kindergarten families to welcome them
to Kindergarten, have special presentations by Hydro
Ottawa, Cantebury HS, the Ottawa Public Library,
UPCOMING DATES                                       MOVING?
June 19 Talent Show                                  It is very important that we have your current
June 21 National Aboriginal Day,                     address. If you are planning a move over the summer,
June 22 Grade 6 Leaving Ceremony 10 a.m.             please advise us of the change of address so that
June 22 Report cards                                 files are updated. A change of address may affect
June 22 Kindergarten Teddy Bear Picnic               designated schooling as boundaries can change even
June 25 Celebration Assembly, Last Day               on the same street. If you are unsure of the school
June 26 PD Day *no school for students               boundary please check with us by calling the Office.
September 1 First Day of School
September 17 Meet the Teacher                        DON’T FORGET:
September 24 Photo Day                                Medication: If we have medication for your child at
September 29 School Council                          school we would appreciate you picking it up by
October 9 Professional Activity Day *No school for   Thursday June 25th. We have sent blank medication
students                                             permission forms home to parents of these children
October 29 Photo Retakes                             and would ask that you have them completed over the
                                                     summer, ready to hand in when school starts in
SCHOOL ORGANIZATION                                  September. If the forms(s) is not appropriate, or if
At the present time, the school organization for     you require one and didn’t receive one, please let us
September is as follows:                             know. A permission form is required whether we
                                                     administer the medication or it is self-administered.
Please be aware that as always, this is subject to
change depending upon new students arriving in the   Last Day of School: The last day of classes for
fall who are not yet registered.                     students this year is Thursday, June 25th with a
                                                     regular dismissal time of 3:30 p.m. Friday, June 26th
JK: Ms. N. Divito                                    is a Professional Activity Day (no classes).
SK: Ms. J. Maxwell
Grade 1: Ms. C Mangone                               SPECIAL REMINDER
Grade 1/2: Ms. S. Monaghan                           Please take a moment to contact the school if you
Grade 2/3: Ms. J. Dey/ To be announced               will be moving over the summer
Grade 3/4: Ms. K Bailey
Grade 4/5: Ms. K. Penney                             RETURN TO SCHOOL IN SEPTEMBER
Grade 6: Mr. G. Penton                               Regular classroom teachers will meet students in the
LD System class: Mr. M.Short                         yard with class lists. When the bell rings, students
ESL: Ms. J. Maxwell, Mrs. C. Gencher                 will line up with the teachers and proceed to their
SELC: Ms. N. DiVito, Ms. V. Buko                     classrooms. We kindly ask that parents say farewell
LST: Ms. K. Azar, Ms. V. Buko                        at the yard door as students enter the building.
Autism System class: Ms. K. Azar                     Support staff will be available to assist and escort
French: Mr. D. Bissrat, To be announced              students to their appropriate classrooms.
Support: Ms.V. Buko
                                                      Home time arrangements will be verified with all
Educational Assistants: Mrs. D. Macrae, Ms. M.       students throughout the course of the day. At the
Gupta, To be announced                               end of the day, bus students will be taken out to the
Cyclical Assignment Teacher: Mr. G. Boustead         buses and loaded on to the appropriate bus. Students
Principal Designate: Ms. K. Azar                     who are walking will wait in the main lobby to be met
Principal: Ms. Bambi Ross                            by their parents or babysitters. Please take time to
Office Administrator: Ms. K. Hall                    carefully review your expectations with your child.
Custodian: Mr. R. Breton                             This can be a stressful day for many children and we
Evening Custodian: Mr. B. Christoff                  hope that outlining this process in advance will help to
                                                     ensure a safe and relatively calm first day of school
                                                     for your child.
SCHOOL FEES FOR SEPTEMBER 2009                            SCHOOL COUNCIL
Procedure PR.648.SCO establish procedures for the         Thank you for supporting all of our fundraising
administration of school fees in all OCDSB schools.       activities this year. Council was able to support many
This procedure outlines the nature of voluntary           arts performances and field trips. Fundraising dollars
school fees, what those fees may be used for and          paid for the Scientist in the Schools program,
what process is involved in contemplating any             transportation to Macskimming, gifts for the
additional subsidies that may be deemed needed at         Welcome to Kindergarten program, freezies, and
the school. The procedure is available at:                resources for use in the classroom.
http://www.ocdsb.edu.on.ca/Policies_Procedures/Proc
edures/Procedures.htm                                     These wonderful additions to our curriculum are
                                                          made possible by the dedication of the parent
In consultation with our school council, Arch Street      volunteers on our Council. Thank you to Deb Ransom,
Public School will be requesting a twenty dollar          Erin Francis, Jan Downing, Matilda Gill, and Abest
voluntary school fee to subsidize the cost of field       Nambra. Many of this amazing team will be moving on
trips. This fee will be collected as needed               to other schools with their children next year and we
throughout the school year. Please note that no           will be losing this incredible resource. Please seriously
student shall be denied an opportunity to fully           consider becoming part of next year’s council so that
participate in any activity for which the school fee is   we can continue to support our school.
used for subsidy. For confidential assistance with
any matter tied to school fees, please contact Bambi      Please join us for our School Council meeting. All
Ross at 733 - 0205.                                       parents are welcome. The first meeting is in
                                                          September on the 29th at 3:45 p.m. in the staff
School fees are voluntary and, as outlined above, help    room. This is a great way to get involved in your
to support a number of specific initiatives. There is a   child’s school. Elections for next year’s council will be
general expectation that students will come to school     held at this meeting. See you there!
with traditional school supplies for their work in
class. A list of these supplies will be sent home with    Council suggests that if you would like to recognize a
your child’s report card. Once again, if there is any     staff member at the end of the year that donations
difficulty in providing school supplies, we would be      to the Library in the name of a teacher are always
pleased to offer confidential assistance in this area.    appreciated by everyone.

ARCH STREET BBQ UPDATE
Thank you to Erin Francis and her team of dedicated       PARKING AT SCHOOL
volunteers for coordinating this year’s family            If you are visiting the school during school hours,
barbecue. It was a wonderful evening with great           please park in the far parking lot. There is no
food, games, raffles and even a parade. Best of all       student pick-up or drop-off in the main lot for safety
there was no rain this year! Final tallies for the        reasons as we have walkers and bikers who leave the
amount raised at this year’s barbecue were not yet        school at the end of the day.
available at the time of printing this newsletter. A
huge thank you goes out to all of the staff, in
particular Debbie Macrae, for all of their efforts to     SUN SMART
make this such a memorable event.                         By taking a few simple precautions, skin and eyes can
                                                          be protected from over-exposure to the sun’s
                                                          harmful rays; sunburns can be prevented and the risk
LOST AND FOUND                                            of developing skin cancer or cataracts can be
There are a large number of items in our lost and         substantially reduced.
found. Please check to see if there is something          Practice the skin-saving slogan – SLIP, SLAP, SLOP.
belonging to you or your child before leaving for the     SLIP on a shirt, SLAP on a hat and SLOP on some
summer holidays. Unclaimed items will be donated to       sunscreen.
charity.
PM READING ASSESSMENT                                            appropriate speed, correctly, and with nice
Primary and junior teachers assess reading on a                  expression.
regular basis. Ministry and Board expectations are        Keep reading aloud
for students in Grade 1 to reach a level 15/16.
Students in Grade 2 should be reading at a level          Reading aloud benefits all children and teens,
21/22 and students in grade 3 are aiming for level        especially those who struggle. One benefit is that you
26-27. The books are progressively more difficult         can read books your child can't, so he/she will build
and the content becomes more complex. In junior           listening comprehension skills with grade-level and
grades, teachers use another assessment method and        above books. This will increase knowledge and expand
look at reasoning, organization, conventions and          experience with text.
communication. Home reading is essential for
                                                          Check out www.readingrockets.org for more helpful
maintaining reading levels, particularly over the
                                                          ideas.
summer months.
                                                          Here is another website with lists of highly
SUMMER READING                                            recommended books.
Many children, especially struggling readers, forget
some of what they've learned or slip out of practice      http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/alscresources/summerre
during the summer months. Try these strategies to         ading/recsummerreading/recommendedreading.htm
help your reader improve her reading during the
summer and beyond.
                                                          The following links are easy to use from the Student
                                                          Resources section on the OCDSB main webpage:
Six books to summer success
                                                          www.ocdsb.ca
Research shows that reading just six books during
the summer may keep a struggling reader from              ELEMENTARY STUDENTS
regressing. When choosing the six, be sure that they
                                                          FunBrain
are just right – not too hard and not too easy. Take
                                                          http://www.funbrain.com/kidscenter.html
advantage of your local library. Ask for help selecting
                                                          FunBrain is the Internet's premier location for
books that match your child's age, interests, and
                                                          interactive, educational games (math, grammar,
abilities. Libraries often run summer reading
                                                          science) for children and kids of all ages.
programs that motivate kids to read, so find out
what's available in your area. Also check our booklists   Funschool
for recommendations.                                      http://www.funschool.com/
                                                          Educational games sorted by school grade. Play online,
Read something every day                                  download, or print out games.
Encourage your child to take advantage of every
opportunity to read. Find them throughout the day:        Primary Games
                                                          http://www.primarygames.com/games.htm
       Morning: The newspaper – even if it is just
                                                          Fun site for elementary kids that features
       the comics or today's weather.
                                                          educational games, printable colouring pages, holiday
       Daytime: Schedules, TV guides, magazines,          activities, free musical postcards, crafts, puzzles,
       online resources, etc. For example, if your        and more!
       daughter likes the food channel, help her look
                                                          Amazing Space
       for a recipe on the network's Web site – then
                                                          http://amazing-
       cook it together for more reading practice.
                                                          space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations/trading/direc
       Evening: End the day by having your child read     tions.html
       to you from the book he is currently reading       Play this great space game and collect cards each
       (one of the six books, above). Have him            time you get an answer correct.
       rehearse a paragraph, page, or chapter
       before reading to you. Rereading will help him
       be more fluent – able to read at an
NEWSLETTER CARRIER OF THE MONTH



My child ______________________ delivered the
June newsletter.
Please enter their name in the draw.

_________________________________
Signature of parent




       Arch Street Public School, 2129 Arch Street, Ottawa, Ont. K1G 2H5 Tel: (613)733-0205 Fax: (613)733-5862