Principal Message
Thanks to all of our families who are accessing fee payments online through myCBE account, as your child's fees should be uploaded now. We are a cashless school, as it is a faster and more secure way for parents/guardians to make payments. If you ever have trouble accessing your account, please don't hesitate to call the office and we would be happy to help out.
Effective communication practices ensure that parents are regularly informed about how their child is doing at school. In addition to the report card, schools communicate with parents about student progress in a variety of ways, such as student learning conferences. Ongoing communication between teachers, students and parents informs and supports our students' learning. On Thursday, November 25th and Friday, November 26th we will be hosting our Student Learning Conferences (online) so there is no school for students on Friday of that week. Some other ways to learn how your child is doing are informal conversations with your child and your child's teachers, virtual celebrations of learning, student learning conferences, and online tools such as Google Classroom. Don't hesitate to contact your child's teacher if you are concerned about their progress between student learning conferences and/or report cards.
There is a strong positive correlation between regular attendance and a student's success in school. Regular attendance at school maximizes student learning and success, as well as teaching children how to be part of a community and that school is a priority for your family. While it is recognized that enrichment activities or travel present unique learning opportunities for students, excessive or frequent absences can create gaps in student learning and social development. Consequently, it becomes the parent's responsibility to ensure their child is meeting learning expectations during extended absences; the school is unable to provide learning support (ie extra homework) while students are away on a family holiday.
If you are one of our families considering travel out of the country to visit friends or relatives for extended periods of time, please be sure to let the office know in advance of your trip. We will write a letter to document the absence in the student's file, and will update their attendance record. These absences are recorded as “unexcused" in the student's attendance record. Should your extended absence coincide with the start of the school year, this can have an unexpected impact on your child's school placement. As we are an alternative program, and have a large number of students wishing to attend, we must follow the CBE guidelines specific to the lottery process. If a student does not arrive to school in September due to a family holiday, and will be returning at some point after September 30, 2022, the student may be withdrawn from Dr. J.K. Mulloy School. Your family will be redirected to your designated school. You will be able to reapply to the TLC Program at Dr. J.K. Mulloy the following year. We know that many families book travel plans well in advance of their departure date, so we like to let families know this early on in the school year.
We have been working on tweaking our safety measures and protocols as we strive to create and maintain structured and healthy environment in our school during this pandemic. We have noticed that our staggered entry from 8:55 is working to avoid congestion in the doorways and mudrooms. It has also been a great addition, as we are able to start teaching & learning right at 9:10, so it is very important that your child arrives to school on time. We also have implemented a lunchbreak where some students will play first, then come in to eat and some will eat first and then go out to play. These measures are added to help limit the number of students entering and exiting the building at one time.
Drop off and pick up can be busy times around our school. In an effort to keep our students safe, please ensure that you are following the rules of the road regardless of if you are a pedestrian or a driver of a vehicle. Children do not perceive traffic like adults do, so extra caution is needed in and around playgrounds and schools. Remember that it is important to not double park or park facing the wrong direction as this is a dangerous practice especially near a school and could result in an expensive ticket! Please also consider using our 'drop off' location on 10th Street, just to the north of the parking lot. Be careful NEVER to walk between parked buses as that is a very serious safety issue. Take the extra minute to cross at the corner. Remember to prioritize safety over convenience, and help students to learn this lesson as well.
We are proud to report that from our Terry Fox Run event, we were able to donate $ 6200 to the Terry Fox Foundation to fund cancer research this year, and now we have shifted our attention to helping our veterans. We will be collecting donations for the Veterans' Foodbank starting November 1st. If you are interested in donating items, please send in a non-perishable item with your child, to be donated on behalf of our school! On November 10, when we host our virtual Remembrance Day assembly, we also encourage your child to bring a quarter (25¢) to donate to the Poppy Fund. Through your generosity, the Legion helps Canada's Veterans and their families. All donations to the Poppy Fund are placed in trust to be used for the care and benevolent support of Veterans and their dependents.
There is no school on Thursday Nov. 11th as it is Remembrance Day, and Wednesday, November 10th is a formal uniform day, as we will have our Remembrance Assembly Day!
We are currently working on developing our School Development Plan for this year. The data has informed us that we should to continue to focus on literacy, and more specifically building, and focusing on high impact speaking, reading & writing strategies this year. We will also focus on helping our students communicate more clearly and efficiently when solving problems in mathematics. Our wellness goal will focus on helping students gain the skills & vocabulary to attempt to solve problems independently. We will share our plans at our next School Council Meeting on November 18 @ 6:30pm. All parents are automatically members of our School Council & Parent Enhancement Society and we encourage and welcome all parents to attend our monthly meetings and have a voice in what happens at our school!
Anne Markovich
Principal
