Pierre Berton Public School

Principal Wendy McVicar-Lew Office Staff Jane Purdy Zabrina Fraser Superintendent Susan Logue 905-764-6830 Trustee Anna DeBartolo 416-898-9653

Inside This Issue:

Pierre Berton Public School 470 Via Campanile, Vaughan, ON

905-303-4540

Administrator’s Message September, 2013

On behalf of the entire staff, I would like to welcome everyone back to school for the 2013 -2014 school year. We hope that you have had an enjoyable summer and ready for an exciting school year. We look forward to working together to support student achievement and well -being. At Pierre Berton, we are committed to ensuring that each of our students has the opportunity to grow and learn in a positive, safe, caring and inclusive environment. Preparing a school for the beginning of a new school year takes the hard work and commitment of many people. I would like to thank our caretakers, Mr. Richardson, Mr. Tansley and Mr. Acchione for their hard work throughout the summer to ensure our school is in great condition to begin a new school year. Mrs. Purdy and Mrs. Fraser, our secretarial staff, were extremely busy last week coordinating new student regis-trations and preparing for the upcoming school year. Your child’s teachers have also worked at various times throughout the summer in the set up of the classrooms and planning of programs to ensure a suc-cessful year for students. We would like to extend a special welcome to our new Pierre Berton staff members: Ms. Tan, Ms. Kalmuk, Ms. Greenwald, Mr. Abitbol, Mr. Bonello, Mr. Derakshandeh, Ms. Boltuc, Ms. Fimognari, Ms. Cascone and Ms. Stephenson. We know they will enjoy being a part of the Pierre Berton team. This year, we will also continue to pay thoughtful and focused attention to student and parent engagement. We know the importance of ensuring students have voice, choice and leadership both in the classrooms and the school. We also know how important it is to have strong home and school communication. When parents, teachers and students view one another as partners in education, a caring community is formed and student learning is supported. Parent involvement may include a range of activities from helping with homework, serving on School Coun-cil, communicating and meeting with teachers, volunteering in classrooms or on school trips. Please take some time during the first few weeks to establish homework routines (time, location, materials) with your child. In addition, we encourage you to read your child’s agenda daily and ask your child about their learn-ing each day. Last year, we launched a new school website. We will update the calendar and news events throughout the year. Please take the time to familiarize yourself with the website as it contains important information regarding school events. Finally, we will continue to use email to share information with fami-lies. If your email address has changed, please inform the office. A ‘School Start Up Package’ has been sent home with your child outlining some school routines and expec-tations. In addition, there are several forms to be signed and returned. If you wish to become a member of the Pierre Berton School Council, please complete the nomination form and return it to school by Friday, September 20. In accordance to our PBPS school council constitution, there may be a maximum of ten parent members on council. If more than ten parents are nominated, we will hold an election at our first school council meeting on Tuesday, October 8th. We look forward to a great school year!

Important Dates:

Admin. Message Page 1

School Organization Page 2

Important Information Pages 3—4

Safe, Caring and Sup-portive Schools

Pages 5—6

Student Drop-Off and Pick Up

Page 7

Positive Climates for Learning

Page 8

Sept. 6 Return Start Up Forms

Sept. 19 Grade 7/8 Immuniza-tion

Sept. 27 Terry Fox Walk

Sept. 28 P.A. Day

Sept. 30—Oct. 4

Safety Awareness Week

Oct. 3 Curriculum Night

Writing the Pages of our Future!

Tentative School Organization

This is our tentative school organization for the 2013-2014 school year. Please note that due to enrolment changes, we may need to reorganize classes later in September. We appreciate your support.

Staff Name Assignment Jacqueline Tan JK/SK Aisha Khan JK/SK Annie Kalmuk JK/SK Vanessa Tedesco JK/SK Laura Paglia Grade 1 Hayley Zaretsky Grade 1 Tanya Greenwald Grade 1 Karina Starobinsky Grade 2 Chris Pennino/Andrew Bonello Grade 2 David Abitbol Grade 2/3 Mandip Hallan Grade 3 Melissa Rosato-Bagheri Grade 3/4 Kyle McRoberts Grade 4 Stephanie Bezaire Grade 4/5 Tisha Nelson Grade 5 Nadine Cheddie Grade 6 Kristina Leslie Grade 6/7 Jacqueline Stone Grade 7 Farshad Derakshandeh Grade 7/8 Derek Herbert Grade 8 Jessica Oliveira French Laura Stolf French / Reading Recovery Kevan Li Music Danya Lantz Primary Prep / ELL Kalpana Vaze Primary Arts / Health / Drama Diane Cipollone Library / Literacy Anna Bruno Reading Recovery / SERT Ann Matheson SERT Debbie Boltuc SERT Lindsey Cottes SERT Amanda Cascone D-ECE Shumaila Perwani D-ECE Christina Fimognari D-ECE Nickisha Stephenson D-ECE Ambreen Agha Support Staff Barb D’Urzo Support Staff Cynthia Hayhoe Support Staff Taruna Nayyar Support Staff Joan Ramlogan-Maraj Support Staff Jane Purdy Office Admin. Assistant Zabrina Fraser Office Admin. Assistant Mike Richardson Lead Caretaker Mark Acchione Caretaker Daniel Tansley Caretaker Wendy McVicar-Lew Principal

Pierre Berton Public School Staff List

School Day Organization: Kindergarten—Grade 8

8:30 a.m.—2:50 p.m.

8:28: Warning Bell 8:30: Entry

8:30—10:10: Instructional Time 10:10—10:30: Recess

10:30—12:10: Instructional Time 12:10—1:10: Lunch

1:10—2:50: Instructional Time 2:50: Dismissal

School Day Organization

Monday, September 23, 2013

Friday, October 11, 2013

Friday, November 15, 2013

Friday, December 20, 2013

Friday, January 17, 2014

Friday, March 7, 2014

Friday, June 7, 2014

Professional Activity & Training Days

Labour Day Monday, September 2, 2013

Thanksgiving Day Monday, October 14, 2013

Christmas/ Monday, December 23, 2013 -

Winter Break Friday, January 3, 2014 inclusive

Family Day Monday, February 17, 2014

Mid-Winter Break Monday, March 10, 2014 - Friday, March 14, 2014 inclusive

Good Friday Friday, April 18, 2014

Easter Monday Monday, April 21, 2014

Victoria Day Monday, May 19, 2014

School Holidays

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Important Information

Student Agendas Included in your first day package is a form for pur-chasing the agenda planner for students in grades one to eight. The student agenda contains important proce-dures to be followed at Pi-erre Berton. Work and study habits are an important part of becom-ing an independent lifelong learner. Students learn valu-able organizational skills such as recording home-work, tests and assignment dates. The agenda also pro-vides an excellent communi-cation tool between school and home. We hope you choose to pur-chase an agenda as it is an effective way to help your child to develop homework routines and organizational skills.

Message from our Trustee I am very pleased to welcome our new and returning families as we start another school year. I hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable summer, and feel refreshed and ener-gized. There is a lot to look forward to in the first few months of school, and I hope you will find an opportunity to get involved in some way. Partnerships with families are essential, not only to student achievement and well-being, but also to creating a positive, caring and supportive school environment in which students can thrive. There are many ways you can get involved and support your child’s education from com-municating with your child’s teacher and asking your child about what they are learning to volunteering in the school or participating in the school council. Thanks to your support and the hard work and commitment of our staff, students, families and community partners, we continue to be one of the top performing school boards in Ontario. As an elected trustee and an advocate for high quality public education, I am committed to ensuring the highest quality public education possible for our students and their fami-lies. In the coming year, we will continue our focus on the priorities set out in our Multi-Year Plan: student achievement and well-being, the delivery of effective and appropriate educational programs and the responsible stewardship of Board resources. I hope you have a great start to the school year and wish you all the best for 2013-14. Sincerely, Anna DeBartolo Chair and Trustee YRDSB Vaughan

Electronic Devices Please do not send your child to school with expensive electronic equipment. The students should not have MP3 players, iPods, etc. in class or during recesses at school. These devices will be taken from the student if they are found in a class-room. The school will not assume responsibility for these valuable items. Other items should not be brought to school as well. This list includes, but is not limited to, skateboards, roller blades, heelies, scooters or laser pointers. These items are best used at home and are not to come to school. For personal safety and security, some parents want their children to have cellular telephones. We understand that desire and support it. Please note that cell phones are not allowed in classrooms nor are they to be used at school. Students must leave their phones in their lockers or backpacks. If we see (or hear) a cell phone at school it will be confiscated and given to the office. The phone will be returned to the student at the end of the school day. Please note that cameras and cell phone camera functions are not permitted to be used on school property without explicit permission from the principal or teacher. The inappropriate use of cell phones, especially camera phones can become a problem in schools. Let’s work together to ensure that it is not a problem at Pierre Berton Public School.

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Important Information

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Pizza Lunches Our School Council will continue to coordinate pizza lunches this year. A letter will be sent home shortly outlining the process for ordering. The first order form will include pizza lunches up to the break in December. Please note the dates for pizza Lunches:

September 25, 2013 October 2, 2013 October 9, 2013

October 16, 2013 October 23, 2013 October 30, 2013

November 6, 2013 November 13, 2013 November 20, 2013 November 27, 2013 December 4, 2013

December 11, 2013 December 18, 2013

If you would like to help with the pizza lunches, please con-tact the school.

Milk Program at Pierre Berton P.S. The milk program was a great suc-

cess last year. We will continue to

offer a milk program this year at

PBPS. Please watch for ordering

information in the near future.

School Start Up Package A number of important forms have been included in the ‘School Start Up Package’ sent home today. Please take the time to read this material carefully and return the forms that require a signature to your child’s home-room teacher no later than Friday, September 6, 2013.

Terry Fox Run

This year marks the 33rd annual National School Run for Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope. Schools all across Canada will be paying tribute to Terry Fox by participating in a school-wide walk and the staff and students of Pierre Berton Public School will be participating. On Friday, September 27th, we will be holding our third annual Terry Fox Run. We will be sending home more information in the coming weeks.

General Interest Courses YRDSB General Interest Courses have experienced a steady decline in client registrations for the past six years. As a result, YRDSB General Interest Courses have operated at a financial loss in 2011-12 and 2012-13. This information was brought forward and discussed at the Board Standing Committee Meeting on May 21. At the June 4, 2013 Board Meeting, the decision was made to discontinue General Interest Courses. Thank you for your past support of YRDSB General In-terest Courses, Continuing Education Services

Safety Awareness Week—September, 30—October 4

The York Region District School Board is committed to providing safe learning environments for all students. To support that endeavour, the week of September 30, 2013—October 4, 2013 has been designated YRDSB Safety Awareness Week. All public elementary and secondary schools across the region will be featuring activities and events that highlight various facets of safety at school and in the community. Students will be participating in a wide variety of activities intended to increase awareness of safety hazards and how to avoid them. We look forward to welcoming our community partners, York Regional Police and Vaughan Fire and Rescue Services to Pierre Berton to share valuable safety messages with our students. We will also have bus evacuation and internet safety presentations.

In addition, as part of the Safety Awareness Week activities, all schools in the York Region District School Board will be conducting emergency preparedness exercises. To ensure that all members of the school community are familiar with the emergency procedure, we will be conducting a practice Lockdown drill. In advance of the drill, we will review proto-cols and expectations during an emergency with all students, staff and affected partners.

Safe, Caring and Supportive Schools

Keeping Our School Safe In accordance with the Principal’s responsibilities under the Education Act to ensure a safe and orderly learning environment, the school has a right to search school property, such as lockers and desks, without notice to or permission of any person. From time to time, the police may be invited onto school property to conduct their own searches, and these searches may be conducted without notice or permission of any member of the school community as per our Joint Board and Police Protocol. When conducting a search of school property, per-sons or personal property, the police are responsible for conforming to all legal requirements with respect to searches.

Medication Either on a regular basis or at times throughout the year, some students may need to take medication at school. Parents are required to complete a Re-quest for Administration of Medication Form signed by the parents and approved by the principal before the medication can be given or stored in the school. Written permission is required for ALL medications including inhalers, Aspirin, Tylenol, etc. All medica-tion is kept locked in the office and students are supervised as they take any medication. Students are not permitted at any time to bring medication to school and keep it in the classroom, lunch bags, backpacks or lockers.

Safe Arrival Our check of your child’s attendance is an important part of our daily rou-tine. In the interest of ensuring that your child’s safety we ask you to co-operate with us by following the steps below if your child is absent or is expected to be absent in the near future: If a future absence has been planned, please inform your child’s

teacher by note, giving the date and length of time of the expected absence.

In all other cases, please call 905-303-4540 to inform the office or leave a message concerning your child’s absence on the answering machine.

If a child is not in school, and the school office has not received any notifi-cation from the parents, the school will take the following steps: 1. Call the student’s home. 2. If we do not reach you at home, we will call your work and/or cell

phone numbers. 3. If we cannot reach you at work, we will call your emergency contact

numbers. 4. If we are not able to obtain information from your emergency contact

regarding your child’s whereabouts, we will speak to a sibling, if one is in the school.

5. Should we still not be able to obtain information regarding your child’s location, we may check with a friend of your child.

6. If we are not able to obtain any information, we will consider your child missing and will contact the York Region Police.

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Punctuality is Important! Punctuality is a life skill that is valued by school, employers in the workforce, and society. Regu-lar attendance ensures continuity of program and assists students in achieving academic suc-cess as well as maintaining social ties. The bell rings at 8:28 a.m. for students to enter the school to prepare for learning. The instructional day begins at 8:30 am sharp. Please note that supervision will be in the yard beginning at 8:15 am. Please help your child start each school day prepared to learn! Last year, there were a tremendous number of students arriving to school late on a regular ba-sis. At times, we had approximately fifty stu-dents receiving late slips in the morning. We ask all families to put morning routines in place to ensure that children arrive on time for school. They should be in the back of the school by 8:25 a.m. to enter the school with their class. Several strategies will be used to help students who are repeatedly late to school. Students will be ex-pected to make up lost time during recess or af-ter school. We will inform parents if a student’s attendance is a matter of concern. Severe cases will be referred to the York Region District School Board’s Attendance Counselor.

Safe, Caring and Supportive Schools (continued)

Visitors and Volunteers Visitors, including parents and volun-teers, are welcome at Pierre Berton. For safety reasons, all visitors and vol-unteers are asked to sign in at the office and wear a ‘visitor’ or ‘volunteer’ tag (available in the office). This helps us to know who is in the building for security reasons. Parents/guardians/visitors are not to be in the school hallways without checking in at the office first. If you do not have a visitor or volunteer tag on, staff members are required to redirect you to the office. When you leave the school, please return the tag to the office and sign out. Volunteers assume an important role within a school. A requirement of the YRDSB to assist in ensuring a safe envi-ronment for students and staff is the completion of a voluntary sector screening and the signing of a confi-dentiality agreement.

School Yard Safety In order to prevent physical injury and because of our concern for student safety, students at Pierre Berton Public School are expected to avoid activities that in-volve aggressive play and touching. Activities that are not acceptable include wrestling, piggy-backing, tripping, pushing, shoving, body-checking, poking, punch-ing and other forms of play in stairwells, hallways and playgrounds. On the play-grounds students are expected to play safely without the use of rough play (wrestling, piggy-backing, punching/shoving, body-checking, tripping, play fight-ing). Please take the time to review these expectations with your child(ren).

Creating a Safe and Healthy School for Students with Allergies This is an additional challenge for schools attended by children with allergies, especially life-threatening allergies. While we take every step to create a risk-free environment, school staff and par-ents can take important steps to minimize potentially fatal aller-gic reactions as there are implications for the whole school, not just individual classrooms. It is especially important that parents communicate a life-threatening allergy to the school as soon as they are aware of it. Please notify the principal and your child’s teacher so that we take the steps to create accurate records and inform staff of the established protocol. We ask that you avoid sending any foods that may contain peanuts and/or nuts. Please check the list of ingredients for peanut oil/butter/sauce/flour/meal, mixed nuts, ground nuts, goober peas, and artificial nuts. Examples include: cookies, chocolate, granola bars, some cereal bars and some chocolate nut spreads. Avoid products that say “may contain peanut/nuts”. Imported products have different labelling requirements, please read the labels carefully when sending these prod-ucts to school. A substitute peanut butter product is being marketed to consumers as a safe alter-native for children to bring to schools in place of peanut butter. We ask that par-ents refrain from including these kinds of products in your child’s lunches or snacks. These products tend to look, taste, and smell very much like peanut butter. While the product is nut free, it mimics a known allergen that causes anaphylaxis in some children to the degree that it is indistinguishable from the allergen. It is a convincing substitute, opening up the possibility that it can be confused as peanut butter, or worse yet, peanut butter could be confused as this soy-based product. The safety and well-being of our students is our first priority, which is why our schools have procedures in place to minimize risk of anaphylaxis reactions in our students. We sincerely appreciate your cooperation in avoiding the use of these products to assist in our continued efforts to create a safe, caring and inclusive

learning environment for all students. We thank you for your cooperation. Re-member …. we must all work together to keep our children safe!

Physical Education Classes Students will participate in physical education classes twice a week. All students from grades four to eight are expected to have a change of clothing for gym classes. Students are required to wear shorts or track pants, t-shirt, and indoor running shoes. Younger students will not be required to change, however they will need to wear clothing appropri-ate for gym classes on these days.

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It is important for us to outline the Kiss and Ride expectations to ensure that all of our students, parents and staff are safe. As you know, the Kiss and Ride can become very congested in the mornings and after school. We ask for your cooperation in reducing the congestion. This is possible if we work together as a school community. We ask that families arrive prior to 8:25 a.m. in the morning to alleviate the last minute rush. Students should be in the school yard to enter with their class. If you are driving your child to school, please consider parking on Via Campanile to drop off your child. If you choose to use the Kiss and Ride, please ensure that you drive your vehicle up to the FRONT of the drop-off zone before allowing your child to exit the car. When parents stop their car closer to the school yard it creates an unsafe situation for our children and frustration for families who are trying to follow the established drop-off routines. A reminder that YOU MAY NOT STOP AND LEAVE YOUR VEHICLE in the Kiss and Ride. If you wish to walk your child to the yard, please park on Via Campa-nile or in a designated parking spot.

Bus Loop: Only board transportation vehicles are permit-ted in this area. Please use the Kiss and Ride at all times of the day, including lunch. We want to ensure the safety of all of our students.

Kiss and Ride Drop-Off: Only drop off in the area marked in white (not the pass-ing lane). Please move up to the front of the marked area to allow other cars to stop.

PLEASE DO NOT STOP AT THE BOTTOM OF THE LOOP BY THE YARD.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS:

Please ensure that if you are using the Kiss and Ride that you proceed SLOWLY AND CAU-TIOUSLY through the parking lot. We want to ensure that everyone is safe.

When pulling out from a parking spot or the

curb, please ensure that you check for stu-dents/parents crossing and oncoming traffic.

Also, please note that staff supervising at the

front enter the school at 8:30 am as they need to be in class with students.

When picking up at the end of the day, the

only area permitted for stopping is the Kiss and Ride lane by the curb. Please DO NOT stop behind the parked cars.

Let’s Work Together for a Safe Student Drop-Off and Pick-Up!

Positive Climates for Learning

EcoSchools The Ontario EcoSchools Program is an environmental education program that incorporates environmental education with environmentally-responsible action. The program is designed to help schools take an organ-ized approach to improving environmental performance. We know that protecting the environment for future generations is everyone’s responsibility. We are committed to continuing a strong school focus to ensure we implement environmentally friendly practices and procedures each and every day. As part of this responsibil-ity, we will continue:

Boomerang lunches (using reusable lunch containers & bringing all left over food/garbage home);

Recycling program;

Energy conservation (turning lights and computers off when not in use)

How Can You Help? By packing a litterless lunch each and every day you will be modelling the importance

of protecting the environment and supporting our school focus. It is important that we all work together. How to pack a Litterless Lunch:

A reusable lunch bag or box (not a throw-away, single-use plastic or paper bag).

Reusable containers for packing food (no plastic wrap, foil, plastic bags, single-serving containers, pre-packaged foods). Hard plastic food containers or re-use of plastic tubs are suitable options.

Reusable drink containers e.g. thermos, or reusable bottle.

Non-disposable cutlery and a cloth napkin.

To support our ‘boomerang’ lunches, everyday any uneaten food and any waste material produced must be returned home and not become part of the school’s waste collection. This supports our EcoSchool initiative and helps parents monitor what their child is eating during the day.

Healthy Schools We are committed to ensuring that we support Healthy Schools initiatives for the health and well-being of our stu-dents. Throughout the year, we will be participating in Healthy Schools initiatives, including walk to school days. In order to support this endeavour, we ask that you do not send any food in recognition of birthdays or holidays. This not only supports the health of our students, but it also protects valuable instructional time. We greatly appreciate your support with this initiative.

Student Transportation Student Transportation Services (STS) is a joint venture be-tween the catholic and public school boards in York Region. The mandate of STS is to provide a safe, efficient and on-time transportation for students. Transportation officers de-sign and manage bus routes based on Board approved crite-ria as set out in policy #680. The school staff does not create bus routes or determine who is eligible to ride the bus. Par-ents and students can access a variety of information on the STS website www.schoolbuscity.com, including eligibility for bussing and pick up locations (if eligible). Click on MapNet-WEB to enter your address. Please note that only students who are eligible for bussing will be permitted to ride the school bus.

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