Our Heroes Bulletin Board

As part of our Remembrance Day Activities, we encourage students to complete a 5 X 4 card with the following information related to a family member or friend who has served in the military to be placed on our bulletin board. You are welcome to add a photo or decorate as you wish. Please return by Friday November 4, 2011. Thank-you Ms. Legault
This Remembrance Day I wish to honour:

______________________________________
(person's name)

Student’s Name:

_____________________________________

Remembrance Day Contest

Remembrance Contest: Entries due to Ms. Legault by November 3
For many, many years, The Royal Canadian Legion has sponsored the Annual Literary and Poster Contest that is open to all Canadian school children. The youths that participate in the contest assist the Legion in one of our primary goals – fostering the tradition of Remembrance amongst Canadians.
The contest is divided into four categories:
Primary (Poster Contest only) – grades 1,2 and 3;
Junior – grades 4, 5 and 6;
Intermediate – grades 7, 8 and 9; and
Senior – grades 10, 11, 12.
Initial judging takes place at the community level by volunteers at local Legion branches and the winning entries progress to judging at the Provincial level. The winning entries at this level are forwarded to Ottawa where they are judged and the National winners declared. The names and work of all the National winners are published.
The Poster Contest has two divisions — Colour and Black & White. The winning entries for the four categories (school grades) are displayed at the Canadian War Museum from 1 July to 1 May of the following year. The second place winners and any receiving an Honourable Mention are displayed in the foyer of the House of Commons during the annual Remembrance period in November.
The senior winning entries in the Essay and Poetry contests are also displayed at the Canadian War Museum during the same period.
The Legion also sponsors a trip to Ottawa for the Senior Winners in the four contests (two poster, essay and poetry) to attend the National Remembrance Day Service where they place a wreath on behalf of the youth of Canada. They also have an opportunity to meet and visit with the Governor General.
Students may enter as many contests as they wish to but may submit only one entry for each category.


Fo more information see Ms. Legault or www.legion.ca/Poppy/contests

Bullying Awareness Week November 14-18

Bullying Awareness Week

HELP FOR HALLOWEEN

General Lake needs your help. In the past Mrs. Marquardt and her grade 7/8 class have organized a wonderful Halloween Haunted House for all the students to enjoy. Unfortunately this year, after she made plans with the students, they discover decided to spread the word to gather the much needed items to make this event possible. If you can donate/lend any of the following we would really appreciate it:

witches brooms 3

tombstones

spotlights

extension cords

scary lights

witches cauldron

assorted extra costume pieces -capes, hats, wigs

Easy set up tents to make a tunnel

sheets for draping and coverage

lighting strings of halloween lights

various halloween decorations skeletons/pumpkins/bats/cobwebs/scary pictures (the kind that show bones when you walk by)

anything else you can donate would be appreciated

All items must be into the school by Tuesday/Wednesday. Students will set up on Thursday. The haunted house will take place on Friday. Thanks for your help.

Photo Orders Due

PHOTO ORDERS DUE OCTOBER 20. LATE FEES APPLY FOR LATE ORDERS. PHOTO RETAKES ON NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Fund raising orders due

Just a reminder all fund raising orders are due back to General Lake on Tuesday, October 18, 2011. Thanks for your support.

Fundraising Meeting Tomorrow

Parents,

Just a reminder the Parent Council Fundraising Committee Meeting is tomorrow, Monday, October 17, at 6:00pm.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE 2011 WASTE-FREE LUNCH CHALLENGE GENERAL LAKE?

On October 17th to the 21st General Public school will be participating in the Waste-free Lunch Challenge. Students at General Lake are encouraged to bring their lunch in recyclable containers to help promote awareness of reducing, reusing and recycling. The challenge is sponsored by the Recycling Council of Ontario in partnership with Metro Ontario and Tetra Pak Canada. Thanks to Mrs. Ferguson for bringing this initiative to our school. Listen for more details to follow about this exciting adventure.

Board Logo Contest

New RCDSB Logo and Motto Information Sheet

Students at General Lake are invited to submit ideas for a new Board Logo and motto. Winner will receive an IPAD.

Currently, our board logo is a composition of our geographical area, graduation diploma and mortarboard (academic cap).

We would like you to come up with a new board logo that represents the attributes of our school board’s new vision and mission statements.

Our vision statement describes our goals and our values: “The Renfrew County District School Board celebrates the unique contributions of each individual and cultivates an environment that values imagination and innovation. We guide and support our students as they consider the evolving opportunities of the 21st century and discover their own pathways to success.”

Our mission statement describes our purpose: “The Renfrew County District School Board works together to create outstanding educational experiences that honour the uniqueness of each individual.”

Be creative and use images that reflect educational values that will last well into the future.

Motto:

“Education for life, opportunities for all” is the current board motto.

Some ideas are: “Where the future begins” “Dream, Learn, Succeed!”

Create a phrase that is catchy, not too lengthy, and reflects our new mission and vision statements (see above).

The winners of the competition will be awarded a 16GB iPad 2 and the competition will close on December 23, 2011. Please submit all entries to the Director’s Office, 1270 Pembroke Street West, Pembroke, Ontario K8A 4G4 or by email to mcintyres@renfrew.edu.on.ca. We wish all competitors luck and thank students for their participation.

Newsletter October 6, 2011

Learn, succeed … etudier, grandir

General Lake Public School

October 5, 2011

Excellence in Teaching and Learning

The Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) tests students’ skills in reading, writing and mathematics at key points in their elementary-school education. The following results indicate this year’s percentage of students at, or above, the provincial standard as well as those at the board level.

	Reading	Writing	Mathematics
	School	Board	School	Board	School	Board
Primary	68	60	75	65	66	66
Junior	76	68	66	62	62	51

Safe, Respectful, Responsible and Caring Environment

Every year we follow a number of strategies designed to keep our students safe. For example we have three fire drills before Christmas and three fire drills after March Break. The whole will be starting to practice the fire drills. We also have a “Lockdown” practice twice a year. During this time teachers are directed to “secure their classes”. The children sit on the floor, the doors are locked and every one has to be silent until administration announces “all clear” and we go back to our normal routines. Fire drills and lockdowns are part of our normal safety precautions and have been part of our routine for several years. Policies such as limiting access to the school through the front entrance and not allowing adults other than staff in the yard are also part of our concern for the safety of our students.

Our fall fundraiser has begun and once again we will be selling gifts from Lamontagne. Lamontagne has once again raised our profits to 50% in support of our troops. Remember to check out the other catalogues for other ideas at HYPERLINK "http://www.lamontagne.ca" www.lamontagne.ca under the order-taker catalogues button. We raised $6000.00 last year and are hoping to meet this goal once again. All orders and monies are due Tuesday Oct. 18 th.

A reminder to send in your Moncion receipts over $25.00. ~ Moncion’s will donate 1% of sales to the school from the receipts. The receipts must be stamped at the time of purchase and be from the Petawawa store location.

We would ask that all parents wanting to pick up their child at the end of the day to wait in the front foyer in order not to disturb the instructional time.

What a Team!

Under the direction of Coach Mme Bernardin and Coach Mme Gibson, students from General Lake are tearing up the track as they train hard for the 2 km run on October at Hugli's Blueberry Farm. General Lake supports the True Sport Movement, declaring that we say Yes to the principles that promote good sport and No to negative attitudes and actions such as bullying, cheating, and violence. Our Cross Country athletes display these positive attributes daily by encouraging and cheering on their team mates, training hard, being fair and having fun. Congratulations to all the athletes for always striving to be their best and special thanks to the teachers for their support. Go Team Go!!!!

ELECTRONIC DEVICES

It is strongly recommended that all electronic devices (such as, but not limited to cell phones, cameras, mp3 and video players, and e-games) remain at home. Should a child choose, at his/her own risk, to bring such a device to school, it should be powered off and and placed in the student’s backpack upon entering the school and remain unused . When the school day is complete, the device should remain powered off until the student has left the school property. Any improper use will result in confiscation by the office. It will be returned to the student at the end of the day. Repeated offence will result in confiscation and will be returned to the parent/guardian ONLY. Due to Safe Schools, privacy and anti-bullying legislation, taking pictures, videos or text messaging with any device is strictly prohibited on school property.

Student Verification Forms

Your child’s student verification form has been sent home. We would ask that you kindly review the emergency contacts listed on the form and make any necessary changes. The office requests that all forms be returned by October 15, 2010 so we can update our records. If no changes are needed, please indicate that on the form as you are returning it.

A CLASS FULL OF CHARACTER CHAMPIONS AT GENERAL LAKE

Congratulations to Mrs. Ferguson's Grade 4/5 class for demonstrating good character particularly in showing responsibility in our school. Every Friday students from this class patrol the halls undertaking the enormous and sometime messy job of emptying, sorting and disposing of all the blue bin contents in our school. To have good character, we have to do more than say we are responsible. We must take action. Responsible people take care of themselves as well as others and can always be counted on to do the right thing, even when the right thing is hard to do. Thanks to Ms. Ferguson's class for being such responsible leaders in our school.

Visitor’s Protocol

As a safety precaution, and to avoid the disruption and interruption of the learning environment, we will continue to follow the protocol below for all visitors to the school, including parents.

All visitors must report to the office. Visitors who need to go beyond the office into the school population will be given identification badges to wear and will be required to sign the visitor’s log and indicate the reason for the visit.

Parents picking up children at the school will be asked to wait at the office, lobby area, or outside where students exit.

Appointments to visit a classroom or meet a teacher should be made ahead of time at a mutually agreeable time.

Entrances, except the main entrance will be locked at all times.

Habit of Mind for October is:

Optimism

If you can imagine it you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.

William Arthur Ward

Ned Show Fills General Lake with Laughter

On October 12 at 12:45 the gymnasium at General Lake was filled with laughter as performer Melanie entertained the students with both her talented yo-yo tricks, balloon tying, and hilarious antics. Her message was very positive inspiring the students to Never give up, Encourage others, and Do your best. The performance was offered free of charge with the understanding that the school offer their products for sale for five days following the performance. More information about the performance is available at www.theNEDshow.com. Definitely a wonderful way to end a particularly busy day at General Lake.

Caribou Math Competition

On Wednesday, October 12 many students at General Lake participated in an on-line Math competition called Caribou Cup brought to us by Brock University. The Caribou Mathematics Competition is a Canada wide free online contest that is held on six days in a school year, 2011/12 in its fourth year. On each of these days a contest is offered for each of the age groups of grades 3/4, 5/6, and 7/8. Contests are provided in both English and French. The goals of the program are a/ to provide challenging math activities for interested Grade 3-8 students in Canada and b/to show that mathematical puzzles can be fun and that competing in mathematical contests can be exciting. Under the supervision of Mrs. Stencil, Ms Legault and Mme Lacelle students completed a range of questions. The results were tallied and the top four students in grade 4-6 division were 1st Jenna Gaumond, 2nd Gabe Layden, 3rd Kale Robins and 4th David Caron. In grade 7/8 division, Matt Hare came in 1st, Brianna Pomeroy 2nd, Erin Stacey 3rd, and Jada McInnis 4th. In the grade 3/4 division first place went to Connor Stencil, second place to Nikko Easter, third place to Abigail Dyer and fourth place to Bethany Marquardt. Thanks again to all the students for participating and special thanks to Mrs. Stencil for organizing this event. The next competition is scheduled for Wednesday, November 16th. Any other students interested in participating may sign up. Forms available on the Math bulletin Board by the office. Practise tests are available at the website http://www.brocku.ca/caribou/

Student Vote Results

On Wednesday, October 5 , the Gr. 4/5/6 students in Mme Yakabuskie and Mme DeAbreu’s classes held a student voting day at General Lake. Almost 150 students in our school voted, and John Yakabuski of the PC Party won with 44% of the vote.

Across the province, over 2,800 schools and 320,000 students voted. The NDP won with 41 seats and 27% of the vote, followed very closely by the Liberals with 39 seats and 26% of the vote.

The results for the official election were both similar and different from the student vote. Just like in our school, John Yakabuski of the PC Party was elected in our riding with 71% of the vote. He will be representing this area as the MPP at Queen’s Park in Toronto.

On the other hand, unlike the students across Ontario who voted in the NDP, it was the Liberals who got the highest number of votes in the actual election. The Liberal leader, Dalton McGuinty, will continue to be Ontario’s premier.

Thank you to all of the classes who participated in our Student Vote day. We hope that everyone had fun and learned something about elections in Ontario. A special thank you to Mme Yakabuski and Mme De Abreu for leading our school in this initiative.

HALLOWEEN FOR HUNGER

Food Drive at General Lake

Hunger is the most extreme form of poverty where individuals and families cannot meet their most basic need for food. In an effort to think globally and act locally through our Free the Children We day promise, General Lake Public School has joined this worldwide effort to alleviate hunger and to support our local food banks. On Halloween, October 31st, students from General Lake Public School will be asking for non perishable and canned goods instead of candy. Students, parents and members of the community are also encouraged to begin bringing in donations of canned goods before Halloween. The Halloween for Hunger food campaign gathers community efforts and strengthens the capacity of local food banks. Together we can make a difference. Thanks for your support. Ms. Legault

Halloween for Hunger

As part of the 'We day' experience Grade 7 and 8 students are organizing a Food Drive. Instead of trick or treating for candy, students will be collecting canned good for the local food bank. Parents can help by either sending canned foods to the school before Halloween or by being ready with their non-perishables when the students come to their door. Our backyard is filled with leaders of social change. Through passion and shameless idealism, young people are always on the forefront of social change. General Lake students are part of this change. Thanks for your support in this initiative.

Parent Symposium October 22, 2011

General Lake School Council Monday October 3, 2011

Parent Symposium – October 22, 2011

The RCDSB Parent Involvement Committee is hosting its 5th Annual “Achieving As One” Symposium on Saturday, October 22nd at Fellowes High School starting at 9:00 am. The Keynote Speaker will be Dyan Eybergen. Dyan is a renowned clinical psychologist and motivational speaker and her keynote address will be on the adolescent journey in today’s fast-paced world. The symposium will offer parents a variety of workshops including: restorative justice practices for students, Homework Help Program for secondary students, and Healthy Eating: A Public Health Perspective.

Registration coming soon at: http://pic.renfrew.edu.on.ca/

RCDSB Launches Logo / Motto Contest

The Renfrew County District School Board has launched a logo and motto contest to its students effective September 26, 2011. Superintendent Debra Rantz - a key facilitator in the development of the new vision and mission statements for the board - stated,“We believe in the talents of our students and look for their inspirations in creating a new image for the board”. Recent changes to the geographical boundaries of the Board as a result of the amalgamation of the former school authorities (Whitney Public School and Madawaska Public School) as well as a new strategic plan for the Board has resulted in the need for a new corporate image for the RCDSB. The competition is open to students of all ages and entries must be submitted to the director’s office by December 23, 2011. The winner will receive a new 16GB iPad 2. Students can receive more information about the contest at their respective schools and on the board website.

Board Hires New Communication Officer

Board Hires New Communication officer named Jake Davies who will start his employment with the board on Tuesday, October 11, 2011. This is a new position for the RCDSB and is a part of its strategic plan to help with communication between staff, students and parents.

Waste Free Lunch October 17 -21