Principal Report February 2014

Principal's report February 2014 General Lake Public School Our first term has been an extremely successful one with students and staff engaged in many exciting events, as well as learning opportunities. Term 1 report cards were sent home today. Literacy Day was extremely successful as students were excited to be receiving ‘new’ books. In total we raised over $260.00 for our Breakfast for Learning program between the donations for books and the raffle for the Brainy Smurf. Grade 2 student Chloe Reid was the winner of the raffle. Public Speaking went extremely well as always at both the school level and at the Petawawa Legion on Sunday Feb 16. Tyler Sparling came in 3rd place in the Primary, Fiona MacPherson came 3rd in the Intermediate and Bobbi Lavoie came in first in the Junior. She will be continuing in the next round in March in Eganville. Science Fair is scheduled for Grades 1-5 on March 27 and for Grades 6-8 on March 25. Intermediate students will judge the primary event. Scientists from AECL will be coming to judge the 6-8 division. Winners at this level will move on to the Renfrew County Science Fair on April 5, 2014. February 27 has been declared the official General Lake Day as it coincides with our namesake’s birthday. General Gerard Lake was born in 1744. Plans for the evening are shaping up. Valour Principal Bryan Baird will be on hand to showcase the new school. Superintendant Brent McIntyre has sent along his acceptance as has Board media person Jake Davies. Renfrew County Health Brian Brohart, Therapy Dogs and Children’s and Teen Services Technician for the Petawawa Library, Stephanie King have confirmed. We are awaiting other community agencies including piano teacher, Phoenix Centre, PMFRC, CPAN, Kamrie for Kenya, WE Care WEDAY, PALS program representatives. We will be setting up free books for students to take, as well as a display of the General Lake memorabilia. We also will have a prize table for students to claim a surprise on there way out. We have another staff change since the beginning of the school year. Mme Wagner will fill the itinerant ARTS position. Mme Wagner has been a Supply teacher many times in the school and she is quite familiar with both staff and students. We are really excited about having her join the team. Mme Yakabuskie continues on a modified work week. Unfortunately Mme Bessette was unable to continue with the class on Tuesday and Thursday, but Mme Martinell has accepted the position. Mme Martinell has worked extensively in our school and she is experienced in kindergarten. Graduation photos for our Grade 8 students have been scheduled for February 27. Graduation date for our Grade 8’s is Monday June 23 at 12:15 The Grad Committee will meet shortly to discuss the upcoming plans. We will be asking for funds to support the event, including cost of cake and disc jockey. WE Team has sold buttons for their global initiative of building schools in Kenya. They are looking to go to WE day coming up in Ottawa on April 9, 2014. WE day t-shirts will be available shortly for $20.00 each. They need at least 10 shirt orders to make an order therefore they will be opening it up to the school to take orders during our birthday party event. The WE team is also planning a mini WE day during Education week on May 8, 2014. There was a students bicycle stolen from our front lobby a couple months back. Police were called and unfortunately no leads. Board policy is not to cover stolen property, but as a school we feel we must help in some way. Students are organizing a plan to show that they care. More details to follow. We are still looking at dates for our Jump Rope for Heart Event. Looking into having the PALS possibly leading this event. Teddy Bear Picnic K-2 Event on April 17 for our Kindergarten to Grade 2 students. Military hospital personal will be on hand (either outside or in our gym depending on the weather) to give a check up to all Teddy Bears. . Our EQAO for our grade 3 and grade 6 students occurs this year from May 26 until June 6. We are pleased to announce we will be having a before and/or after school booster program to focus on the needs of our grade 3 and grade 6 students. A note will go home shortly with more details about this program. Also parents are invited to a regional parent forum in Ottawa on Saturday, March 1, 2014. The forum will take place 9:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. at The Westin Ottawa. The forum is composed of two sessions. During the first, the Outreach Team will deliver information about EQAO’s province-wide assessment program. Then, author and renowned educator from Queen’s University Dr. Lynda Colgan will talk about the importance of mathematics and how parents can encourage their children to see the value of mathematics in everyday life. Interested participants are asked to e-mail their name, role and board of education to ~ParentForum@eqao.com. Mme Ouellette, Ms Slepica Stewart and I have begun organizing our annual April Volunteer recognition event. National Volunteers Week falls between April 6-12, 2014. Date has been set for Wednesday April 9 for our Volunteer Recognition event. We are hoping all of our Volunteers will be able to join us for that day. During the week it is also customary for us to hold a pizza party for our student volunteers. We have set this date as Thursday, April 10, 2014. I would like to ask for Councils support in providing pizza and drinks to our students to recognize their valuable work for the school including our PALs Kindergarten helpers, Open House, General Lake Birthday, Character assemblies, We day Team, Committees, Playdays, Olympic Day etc. We would also need some parent volunteers to assist with distributing the food and supervising the students in the gym for their party. Finally there is lots of excitement is being generated as we look to moving to Valour. Mr Baird met with staff individually today and Thursday to get to know the staff members. Valour is still on track for the September 2014 opening. A partnership agreement resolution has been passed by the Petawawa Council paving the way for the construction of a new outdoor athletic stadium near the future Valour K-12 school. We have over 50 new junior kindergarten registrations for the new school with 41 of those being for our French Immersion program. You can follow the Valour school on twitter @valourschool