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