March 26th, 2023

Good morning everyone.
Happy last week of March!! Here are your reminders and updates for this week.

Reminders:
1. There is one more Lunch and Learn for March.

Topic: When Your Child Says “No”: Strategies to Increase Collaboration and Connection
When: March 29, 2023 from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m.; https://zoom.us/j/5441930058?pwd=bFBqMmY2L2VwMzlPVERwOEZGUXRhZz09#success

2. Tomorrow, Monday March 27th, there is a Board Meeting at 7:00pm. Here is your link: https://www.youtube.com/c/WRDSBVideo/live

3. The deadline for pizza orders has passed. There will be another opportunity to order pizza for May. Please be patient with our renewed endeavour on pizza ordering, as we work out any kinks.

Updates:
1. There are a few contests your children can participate in and they will be posted on our school’s Contest and Riddle board and announced to students.

a) 50th Anniversary Police Contest …… the police “want to hear from children (aged 4 to 10) across Waterloo Region.” If interested in participating, please send a drawing of what policing means to you and enter to win a prize! Entries can be sent via email (publicinfo@wrps.on.ca), mail, or dropped off in person (200 Maple Grove Road, Cambridge).Entries will be displayed at our Open House in May. Submission deadline: May 6, 2023

b) Colouring Contest for Oral Health Month is a contest for kids 13 years and under. This contest is to help celebrate Oral Health Month.
:If you’d like your child to participate, you can access the colouring page here (https://www.cdha.ca/cdha/News-Events_folder/National_Dental_Hygienist_Week/Colouring_Contest/CDHA/News-Events_folder/NDHW/NDHW_Colouring_Contest.aspx?hkey=ce0794ee-e698-4f70-88fb-d63b2c656096), and find more information on the contest. The deadline to enter is May 1, 2023.

2. The board has implemented a new French Immersion procedure and grade start. There will be no grade 1 French immersion this fall but there will be increased French periods to all grade 1s.

Here is the link to read more on this…
https://www.wrdsb.ca/french/

3. As front office staff and administrators, we continue to prepare for next year. There is an opportunity for you to email me regarding next year with respect to information we may need when placing your child. Please remember that staff work extremely hard to place your children in a classroom that benefits their learning. These decisions are based on school observations, peer relationships, academics, conflicts, strengths, needs, groupings and more. As a staff, we want your child/children to be in a class that works for them, their peers and the teachers.

School/In-class is a place for students/children to LEARN how to make new friendships, work with different educators, practice collaborating with others, practice problem solving, practice conflict resolution, and so much more. Saying that, we do try to ensure there is someone they know and enjoy being with based on this year’s observations. Recess time is when children can find other friends to play with, e.g., friends that they play community sports with, in their neighbourhoods with, etc. As they are children, we understand that this can be scary for them or challenging, and that there will be good and not so good days. Part of learning is to face unknowns, problem solve and adapt with the guidance and help of educators/adults. Again though, we want your children to be successful and do our very best to create environments to allow for this to happen.

Should you have a request though, it should not be a request for a certain teacher or combined/straight grade as again, students need to learn how to adjust to different teachers and expectations and we are limited by the class structures we get. Should you have a request based on a medical/mental health scenario and have some guidance to offer, please email me (linda_cotnam@wrdsb.ca)and explain the situation and why you are suggesting a certain scenario.
Please note – If you have an incoming first year K child, we do try to place them with the K teacher their sibling had this past year and feel free to email on this.

Finally, all suggestions are considered but are never guaranteed.

4. Teachers who are teaching your children the Human Development and Sexual Health expectations found in strand D of the Ontario Curriculum: Health and Physical Education in the next few months will be providing you with a letter identifying the expectations and options if you want your child/children exempted.

5. Our grade 1 to 6 students walk to their extended day rooms at the end of the day if in the extended day programming. Teachers ensure that they are lined up according to type of dismissal. Please remind your children about what they are doing at the end of each day, e.g., bus, extended, walking, and for the younger students, if in the extended program on a non-regular basis, e.g., a couple of days a week, it may help to write if they are going to extended or not in their agenda books for each day of the week. This helps the educators if the students are saying something different to what the teachers have noted.

Quote to Ponder
“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” – Margaret Mead