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Hello Silver Springs School Families, 
The staff at Silver Springs School, are so very excited to welcome you and your children to the new school year. We want to take this opportunity to share some important back-to-school information to help alleviate any worries that you or your child might be experiencing at this time of new starts and changes. 
Our staff is committed to creating a safe, welcoming, and caring learning community for our students. We are also committed to providing students with multiple opportunities to grow and learn, to knowing them as both a learner and a person, to cultivating wonder and a love of learning, and making this school year fun and engaging. Our teachers will work with each student to ascertain where they are in relation to the grade level curriculum and will take each student forward from where they are at. 
School Organization:We look forward to welcoming back students and meeting and welcoming many new students this year.  We are hoping that all registered students will return to school by the first week and that we will not need to make any changes to class configurations or school organization.  Please see below our list of classroom teachers and room numbers. We are excited to welcome some new staff members to our teaching team this year. Note that we have shifted some classrooms to organize for an additional grade 1/ 2 classroom and a team teaching situation.  
Grade 
Teacher 
Room 
Kindergarten 
Mrs. Meredith Wilkes 
7 
1 / 2 
Mrs. Nicole Ballinger 
2 
1 / 2 
Mrs. Tammy Neufeld 
5A 
1 / 2 
Mrs. Rebecca Ibbotson 
5B 
1 / 2 
Ms. Melissa Milton 
4 
3 / 4 
Mr. Chris Teixeira 
1 
3 / 4 
Mrs. Dana Downey 
3 
3 / 4 
Ms. Candice Szczepanski 
8 
5 / 6 
Mrs. Jackie Bates 
10 
5 / 6 
Mrs. Lianne Dechant 
6 
5 / 6 
Ms. April Brown 
9 
Music 
Mrs. Coreen Blenkhorne 
 
Class Placement: Teachers will be emailing families by Tuesday afternoon to introduce themselves and provide first day of school information to their students and families. Additionally, we have assigned entry doors for all grades. 
Start of Day: New Start Time- 8:26 am! Supervision will be provided starting at 8:11 each morning. Students are asked to line up at their entry doors. The entry bell will ring at 8:23 and students will be welcomed into their classrooms. Instruction begins at 8:26. Any student arriving after 8:26 are considered late and must check in at the main office. 
Supervision: School staff will be on supervision every school day beginning at 8:11am and will be visible in their yellow vests. We encourage as many parents as possible to drop their students at the edge of the school grounds (once they become familiar with their entry doors) each day. Similarly, at the end of the day, we encourage families to create a meeting spot to receive their child after school. 
Entry and Exit Doors: 
Door #1 Front door– Kindergarten, Room 1 
Door #2 Front door (compound) by bike racks– Rooms 2, 3 and 4 
Door #3 West door facing school playground– Rooms 6, 9 and 10 
Door #4 Back of school – Rooms 5 and 8 
School Hours: 
Grades 1-6 Monday- Thursday  
8:23 AM Entry Bell 
8:26 AM Instruction Begins   
3:00 PM Dismissal  
Grades 1 - 6 Friday  
8:23 AM Entry Bell 
8:26 AM Instruction Begins   
12:35 PM Dismissal  
Kindergarten AM 
Monday - Thursday 8:26 AM - 11:16 AM 
Alternating Fridays 8:26 AM - 12:35 PM 
Kindergarten PM  
Monday - Thursday 12:10 PM - 3:00 PM 
Alternating Friday mornings 8:26 AM - 12:35 PM 
Recess for all Students: 
Monday – Thursday: All Grade 1-6 students 10:30 – 10:45 
Friday: Flexible recess 
Lunch Break:   
Monday- Thursday:  
Grades 1 to 4:  12:00 - 12:45 (Eat 12:00 -12:22, Outside 12:22 - 12:45) 
Grades 5 & 6:  12:22 - 1:07 (Outside 12:22 - 12:45, Eat 12:45 - 1:07) 
Friday: No Lunch break as 12:35 dismissal 
Student School Supplies: Students will be provided with their own set of basic school supplies. The Learning Commons/ Library will be open and students will be permitted to sign out books to use both in class and take home. 
Parking and Traffic: At this time of year, we want to be mindful of our driving and parking habits to ensure all of our students arrive safely and depart safely from school each day. Please honor the 'No Parking Zone' in front of the school spanning from the crosswalk to the staff parking lot, as this area is designated for our school buses. Please note that there is no student drop-off or pick-up in the staff parking lot. We understand that many parents want to ensure their child knows where to go in the first few days of school and we expect increased traffic flow around the school this coming week. Please pack your patience!  
There will be so much more to share in the coming days and weeks. Individual teacher communication as well as communications from the school will come via School Messenger, so please ensure you are signed up to receive school emails (including those with commercial content) and are checking your email regularly. 
We wish everyone a restful last few days of summer holidays and look forward to seeing you Thursday, August 31, 2023 beginning at 8:11 am! 
 This is going to be a great year! ​​Sincerely, 
Michelle Ryskamp, Principal and Danica Burrows, Assistant Principal ​