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Report Cards The end of term 1 is Friday, No-vember 27th. Any outstanding work should be submitted prior to this date. Please be advised that Term 1 report cards will be going out on Friday, December 4th. Inter-views are scheduled for Thursday, December 10th beginning at 12:50 pm.—5:00 pm, and 6:00pm—8:30 pm. Interviews are limited to three teachers but appointments can be made for alternate times. As need-ed. Appointments are booked online through Optis and instruc-tions will be provided in the report card envelop. The system will be operational from beginning at 4:00 pm on December 4th, 2015 to De-cember 10th @ 12:00 pm. Early dismissal for students on Thursday at 11:40 am. Please note: School is closed for students on Friday, December 11th and will be a pro-fessional day for teachers.
Parent Newsletter
Dates to Remember:
Term 1 Reports—Friday, December 4th, 2015
Parent-teacher Interviews— Thursday, December 10th, 2015
PD Day (School closed) - Friday, December 11th, 2015
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Advanced Polling
Please be advised that we are hosting two advanced polling sta-tions for the provincial election. Ad-vanced poll on Monday, November 20th, 2015. Stations will be hosted in Room 109A and the general public will be using the student en-trance.
Regular voting day: Monday, No-vember 30th in the school gym. Main entrance to be used. Please be extra cautious when driving on school property with the increase traffic expected on site during those days.
Share Successes Does your child have a recent ac-complishment of which you are proud? Here at MDJH we want to celebrate the efforts of our stu-dents - all efforts not just the aca-demic. So, if your child has an out of school activity or program where they have made a significant con-tribution, we want to know about it for our Green Apple Alliance Wall of Celebration. We will post a cer-tificate with the student's name, activity and contribution/ achieve-ment for all to see and celebrate. LET US KNOW! E-mail Ms. Quann [email protected], for details.
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Breakfast Program
Did you know that 270+ students enjoy breakfast in our cafeteria every morning.
MDJH has a Kids Eat Smart Breakfast Club! The KES Club is available every day from 8:05 - 8:20am. It is located in our school cafeteria. There is no charge and all children are welcome to attend! We know healthy kids with a full stomach, learn better and are more engaged in school. We hope to see our Breakfast Program thrive again this year through the support of volunteers that make it hap-pen every morning. This worthwhile Kids Eat Smart program is making a significant difference for many students at the start of their busy day. Teachers and parents alike make this program the success that it has been thus far. We are currently seeking support through volunteering, food or monetary donations. All donations should be submitted to the school of-fice, Re: "MDJH Breakfast Program". Please con-tact Mary Van Thiel: [email protected] or Caleb Thorne: [email protected], if you wish to participate.
Throughout the entire year we are in need of food items but we are going to ask one grade level at a time, to limit the demand on individual families.
This Fall/Winter, up until Christmas break, we are asking GRADE SEVEN parents to help with dona-tions.
Accepted items include: Kelloggs Mini-Wheats, Post Honey-Combs, Frozen yogurt tubes, Cream cheese, Orange Juice, Apple Juice, and Granola Bars (nut -free).
Please support our program and our kids!
Europe Easter 2017 Any student interested in par-ticipating in the European Tour during Easter 2017 can pick up an information form from Ms. Quann. The parent infor-mation meeting that was scheduled for Tues-day, November 17th will be rescheduled at a later date.
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Yearbook Photo Many school groups and activities have started. Anyone having a team or group photo to submit to the yearbook can please email their photo. The photography club can also take a variety of pictures. All we need is some notice and a schedule of events or games. Please email Ms. Quann: [email protected] or Mr. Trevor Wragg at [email protected] to advise of practice times, events or games.
VOCM Coats for Kids Again this year, we will be collecting all winter cloth-ing, such as coats, hats, scarfs, mitts, snowsuits etc. If you have any of these items that are no long-er of use to you, we would appreciate your dona-tions. Any items can be dropped along to our school. Please add your child’s name and home-room to the bag. Names will be entered for prize draws and a pizza party will go to the winning hom-eroom.
Macdonald Drive Community Market The Social Studies Department is proposing a com-munity market to take place in the Spring. In order for this to take place we need the support of our school community. Please contact Krista Houlihan if you are interested in participating as either a ven-dor, a volunteer, or a performer. Our goal is to cele-brate and display the talent and culture of our school community.
Krista Houlihan - [email protected]
Student Absences/Tardiness If your child is absent from school for any rea-son, please contact the office via phone or your child’s homeroom teacher via e-mail, prior to the start of the school day on the day of the ab-sence and have your child bring a note explain-ing the absence to his/her homeroom teacher when he/she returns. Attendance is very im-portant for your child’s academic success. If he/she is out for an extended period of time due to illness, please contact your child’s teacher to get any missed work and check the homework site regularly. Students need to be in school by 8:20 at the latest to ensure they are ready for their morning classes. After lunch they need to be back in school by 12:33 to ensure they are ready for afternoon classes.
What’s Happening at MacDonald Drive Junior High?
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Parent School Council Parent School Council will meet on Monday, December 7th to discuss the breakfast pro-gram, School Development Process, PD ses-sions for teachers, Social Media Awareness sessions, and fundraising. The meeting will take place at 7:00 pm in the Conference Centre. If you are interested in additional in-formation, please contact the office.
Activities/Clubs Time Teacher Sponsor Room
Chess Day 7 @ 12:10pm Ms. Kinsella /Ms. Parsons 205
Math Homework Haven Monday @ 2:30pm-3:30pm Math Department LRC
Knitting Tuesday @ 11:40 am-
12:33pm. Bring lunch. Ms. Osmond/ Ms. Penney 227
Lego Robotics (Fall) Tuesday @ 2:30pm to
4:00pm Mr. Smith
Mr. Thorne
123
ROV (Spring) Tuesday @ 2:30pm to
4:00pm Mr. Smith
Mr. Thorne
123
LGBTQ Day 3 Ms. Brunet /Mr. Dyer 124
French Tutoring Tuesday @ 12:05pm 109A Ms. Glynn
Drama TBA 109A Ms. D. Mills
Art Club Day 3 in@ 11:50 Room 227
at lunch time 227 Ms. Penney
Arts and Letters TBA 215 Ms. E. Mills
Math League Wednesday @ 12:05pm 208 Ms. Doyle
Photography Wednesday @ 2:30pm 220 Ms. Quann /Mr. Wragg
Year Book TBA TBA Ms. Quann
LRC 12:05-12:33pm LRC Ms. Power
Student Council As needed 219 Ms. Quann
Intramurals TBA (on-going) except Wed. Gym Mr. Mercer
Recycling After School 108 Mr. Devine
Call for Book Fair Volunteers
The Scholastic Book Fair will be arriving soon, and we’re excited about sharing the joy of reading with our students. We invite you to participate in this year’s Scholastic Book Fair from, December 7th to the 10th, by volunteering.
Scholastic Book Fairs gives our school the opportunity to bring families, teachers, students, and books together. It’s the ultimate book event! Additionally, a portion of the sales benefits our school. It’s the best way to raise funds while encouraging kids to read.
Being a part of something special is easier than you think. There are lots of ways to volunteer. We need people in a variety of areas, including:
Helping with promotion, hanging posters and banners, and spreading the word about our Book Fair.
Merchandising our Book Fair and table displays to create a terrific bookstore environment.
Greeting customers at the door and working at our Cashier Table.
Helping students and shoppers select just the right books.
If you are interested in volunteering or learning more about our Scholastic Book Fair, please contact:
Beth Power
or 753-8240 ext 231.
Or if you know of someone who would make a fabulous addition to our volunteer team, please feel free to call with that recommendation as well.
Thank you in advance for helping to make our students lifelong readers – we couldn’t do it without your participation.
Sports Grade Level Intramurals - lunch time in the Gym. Includes soccer, basketball, ultimate frisbee, ball hockey, etc.
Teams for Grades 7-9 Boys and Girls
Soccer
Volleyball
Cross Country Running
Basketball
Ice Hockey (grade 8 & 9 only)
Check school website for practice times.
mdjh.info
Fire Drills/Secure Schools / Lockdowns
Please be advised that there will be additional practices over the next few weeks. Our students need further practice about the significance of lockdowns and the need for i) refraining form use of all technology, ii) remaining quiet in a secure area of the classroom. We will continue to prac-tice aforementioned drills and ensure staff and students are fully aware of procedures and proto-cols.
Field Testing
Please be advised that our Grade 7 English and Grade 7 EFI classes will participate in a Math field test for the Department of Education on Monday morning. This will not have any impact on student grades. The Department of Education is seeking some feedback in preparation for pro-vincial assessments.
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. Soy Butter Products Parents and students are advised that soy butter products/peanut butter replacement products are not permitted within our school environment. Due to the presence of stu-dents with anaphylactic allergies to pea-nuts/peanut products and the difficulty for teachers on duty to distinguish between the products we ask for the cooperation of stu-dents and parents to pack an alternative snack/lunch items. And while we recognize that peanut butter replacement products do not present risk of an anaphylactic allergy, the presence of these products in our school will undermine our capacity to enforce our restriction on peanut butter.
There is much difficulty for teachers on duty to distinguish between these products. Thus, we ask for the cooperation of students and parents to pack an alternative snack/lunch items. While we recognize that peanut butter replacement products do not present risk of an anaphylactic allergy, the presence of these products in our school will undermine our capacity to enforce our restriction on pea-nut butter.
Allergy Alert
We have a number of students with life-threatening allergies to various prod-ucts. See the list below:
No nuts No peanuts
No latex No Fish
No perfume/cologne No vapor cigarettes
No Shellfish
MUN Interns
We will be having three MUN education in-terns joining us in January 2016. They will be with us for twelve weeks.
The Green Apple Tree
As per in past years, we will be collecting donations to help out needy families during the Christmas holidays. We will be placing collection containers in all of your homerooms and students are urged to help decorate our Green Apple Tree in the lobby across from the office. For each $5.00 donated a green apple ornament will be placed on the tree. Please help fill our tree with green apples and at the same time help some families enjoy a happy holiday season.
Along with our fundraiser in school, we would like to appeal you, our parents for your support as well...donations big or small are gratefully accepted and can be dropped off at the office for Ms. McCue, School Counsellor. Thanking you in advance for your continued support.
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Student Council MDJH students are adopting a senior this Christmas sea-son. Seniors are a group who are too often forgotten this time of year. Sadly, there are many seniors in homes in our city who have no family to visit them and no one to give them any-thing at Christmas. We have 28 seniors who we would like to be able to be able to provide with gifts. The seniors are resi-dents of St. Pats and each homeroom is responsible for providing gifts for one of the seniors. St. Pats will provide us
with a wish list for 28 seniors. Each homeroom will be assigned a senior and will be provided with a wish list for that senior. Please make every effort to donate to this worthwhile cause. If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Quann at [email protected]. Student council members who signed up for the video project are reminded to meet Wednesday, November 25
th in room 220.
Medications If your child requires medication while at school you must complete the necessary forms and have them signed by your family doctor before we can administer any medi-cation at school. If your child requires over-the-counter medication, please complete the required forms. Students are not permitted to have medication on their person.
Parent Portal Information for PowerSchool By now all parents should have access to their child’s daily attendance and marks. If you have not received your Portal Information please contact the Main Office—[email protected]
Please be advised that the following Pow-erSchool Mobile Apps have been enabled for the NLESD PowerSchool server:
• PowerSchool Mobile App for Parents
• PowerSchool Mobile App for Students
Parents and students will need to log into their PowerSchool accounts to view the District Code. This code is required when using the Parent and Student PowerSchool Apps.
See the screenshot shown.
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Photography Club
Next Photography Club meeting will be held Wednesday, November 25th.
Band Jazz Band will be performing in the NLTA Christmas Suite on Wednesday, December 2 @ 7:00 pm at St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre. Full details will be given to the stu-dents involved MDJH Christmas Concert will be Tuesday, December 15 @7:00 pm in the school gym. All bands will be performing. The Choir will also perform. See band schedule: available online.
Choir
The MDJH School Choir will be performing at the Sheraton in their annual Christmas Carol on Wednesday, December 9th.
MDJH Outreach Group
Macdonald Drive Junior High Outreach
Group had their first meeting of the year.
This group will be working within the St. John’s
local community over the upcoming year.
Some community support will be done with our
monthly soup kitchen; fundraising for charities,
visits to senior’s home and Ronald Macdonald
House. This group hopes to provide charitable
support to various groups in our community
throughout the year and allow for students to
gain valuable volunteer experiences.
Internet Safety
Our Grade 7 classes will be attending a session on internet safety and awareness in December-January this year. Our RNC Community Liaison, Jason Coombs will be providing these sessions in the LRC.
Eastern Health
Every year, cases of head lice are reported to Eastern Health. As a precautionary measure, we remind all parents that you should be proactive and regu-larly check your child’s head.
Grade 9 Students
Please ensure that the forms that were sent home for all Grade 9 students are returned to the school as soon as possible. Immunizations will take place after Christmas.
What every Parent should know about Social Media
Read This Before Posting Photos of Your Chil-dren Online
Have you ever posted a photo of your child on social media? When parents capture a sweet or humorous moment on their smart phone, they may get the urge to share it immediately. They are doing online what their own parents did over the garden fence a generation ago, just in a dif-ferent context. So many people live far away from their circle of family members and friends, social media is a really nice way to watch people close to you grow up.
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Have you considered taking a moment to re-flect on if your son or daughter is okay with this image? As silly as it may seem, did you ask permission to use their image? Whenev-er a parent posts a family photo, it becomes part of their child's digital identity. Anyone at any point can search for it and find it. A post-ed photo of your child eating messily may seem adorable to you but your 13-year-old might find it humiliating.
Stop and think about how your son or daugh-ter might feel down the road. Once they hit the tween or teenage years, you may need to allow your child to make some decisions about how they want to be presented online. If they ask for a photo to be taken down, par-ents may need to respect this right for priva-cy.
If you are giving them the responsibility of monitoring what they post online, you also need to be respectful of them and ask them what they want to be put out there. The 21
st
century reality is that the Internet never for-gets about anything anyone posts online. Even posts from loved ones.
We’re on the web!
http://
www.mdj.k12.nf.ca
Page 10
School Clothing is Here
NE WS LE TT ER TI T LE
HEAVYWEIGHT BLEND HOOD SWEATSHIRT Style18500 Cost: $30.00 Tax included
Colours: Burgundy and/or Sport Grey Print: Property of MDJH est. 1972 on full front
https://www.technosport.com/sites/EN/WEnglish/Enterprise%20Portal/itemView.aspx?WCMP=tsc1&Item=18500
ADULT BASEBALL T-SHIRT Style 5540 Cost: $15.00 Tax included
Colours: Sport Grey w/black sleeves Print: Property of MDJH est. 1972 on full front in burgundy
https://www.technosport.com/sites/EN/WEnglish/Enterprise%20Portal/itemView.aspx?WCMP=tsc1&Item=5540
LONG SLEEVE T-SHIRT Style 2400 Cost: $20.00 Tax included
Colours: Burgundy or Sport Grey Print: Property of MDJH est. 1972 on full front
https://www.technosport.com/sites/EN/WEnglish/Enterprise%20Portal/itemView.aspx?WCMP=tsc1&Item=2400
MOISTURE WICKING MESH 9” SHORTS Style TS140 Cost: $20.00 Tax included
Colours: Black Print: Property of MDJH est. 1972 on leg in grey
https://www.technosport.com/sites/EN/WEnglish/Enterprise%20Portal/itemView.aspx?WCMP=tsc1&Item=TS140
VINTAGE CLASSIC FULL ZIP HOODED SWEATSHIRT Style 18700 Cost: $40.00 Tax included
Colours: Midnight (deep maroon) Print: Property of MDJH est. 1972 on left chest in grey
https://www.technosport.com/sites/EN/WEnglish/Enterprise%20Portal/itemView.aspx?WCMP=tsc1&Item=18700
TOQUE Style 0030M Cost: $15.00 Tax included
Colours: Black Embroidery: MDJH GRIZZ on front
http://www.ajmintl.com/ajmmain.aspx?ajmsection=S
Orders will be taking place all this week at lunch time in the main entrance. Friday is the deadline. All money for clothing must be paid up front prior to ordering. Any cheque must be made payable to MDJH.
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PARENT NEWSLETTER
Macdonald Drive Junior High
110 Macdonald Drive
St. John’s NL
A1A 2K9
Phone: 709-753-8240
Fax: 709-753-1243
E-mail:
Another successful weekend in Clarenville. The grade 9 Boys’ Volleyball team were successful in securing a bronze medal for MDJH. They played some nail-biting games forcing the gold and silver medal teams to 3 sets in a best 2/3. They were amaz-ing ambassadors for the school both on and off the court. Well done boys and to their coach Mr. Pike. The grade 9 Girls’ Volleyball team played some tremendous ball this past weekend as well. Remaining in Tier 1 throughout the tournament they took teams to the maximum of sets and gained valuable experience while placing 4th. Great job girls.
Aiden Drover-Mattinen has just returned from playing tennis as part of team Cana-da. Aiden had been invited to train at the national training centre in Montreal from November 2 - 3. From November 4 - 7th, Aiden and 7 other stu-dents (all from Quebec) travelled to New York to play in a tourna-ment against a U.S. team. He played at Flushing Meadows, the site of the US Open. Big Congrats to Aiden on this great accom-plishment!
The “Property of MDJH Since 1972 will appear on school clothing in either grey or burgundy depend-ing on the clothing type that is ordered.
The MDJH GRIZZ will see “MDJH” in grey and the GRIZZ embroidered logo in burgundy.
École Intermédiare
Macdonald Drive Junior High School
110 Macdonald Drive, St. John’s, NL A1A 2K9
T: (709) 753-8240 F: (709) 753-1243
Dear Parents/Guardians:
We would like to provide you with some further information on the work occurring to the exterior of our school.
Renovation work is taking place on the building envelop, which essentially entails replacement work on windows, brick, etc. which make up
the exterior of the building. Most of our school buildings of this age may have asbestos located in areas of the school. The asbestos is safe if
left undisturbed and if proper abatement procedures are used during removal. As per legislative and removal requirements, an enclosure has
been established over the abatement area outside the school and there is no public access to the area; signage has also been posted as re-
quired.
The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District has also had an inspection of the abatement area take place by an Occupational
Health and Safety Officer of Service NL who has indicated there is no risk to students, staff, or visitors to the school. As you know, this is
always our priority.
It is our expectation that this work will be completed in the spring and we will ensure that appropriate precautions remain in place during
this time. We look forward to completion of this project and the improved exterior of our school.
Should you have any further questions on this matter please do not hesitate to contact the school administration.
Sincerely,
Sarah Osmond
Principal
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