May newsletter

Learn, succeed … etudier, grandir General Lake Public School May 2014 www.generallakenews.blogspot.com Principal : Ms. D Legault Vice Principal : Mme M Robillard legaultd@rcdsb.on.ca robillardm@rcdsb.on.ca Twitter@debbielegault **** IMPORTANT DATES **** April 30 Grade 7 Badminton Tournament May 2 Grade 8 Badminton Tournament May 2 Jump Rope for Heart Pizza Day Character Assembly May 5-9 Education Week-Book Fair begins May 5 Music Monday May 6 Valour Night 6:00pm with Principal Baird May 8 Mini We Day May 9 Pizza Day May 11 Mother's Day May 13 First Nation Drumming for Junior students May 15 Volunteer Appreciation Lunch 10:45-12:00-last day for morning booster May 19 Victoria Day May 23 Pizza May 27 EQAO first block language May 28 EQAO first block language May 29 EQAO first block language June 1 Armed Forces Day June 2 EQAO first block math June 3 EQAO first block math June 4 EQAO first block math School Council 6:00pm June 9 PA Day June 23 Grade 8 Graduation 12:15 Report Cards go home June 27 Last Day of classes Teddy Bear Clinic Visits Lake Teddy Bears Get Check-up at Lake The Teddy Bear Clinic provided by military personnel on April 17 for our Kindergarten to Grade 2 students was a resounding success. Medics were on hand to examine and treat boo boos from a variety of stuffed friends. Students from Kindergarten to grade 2 visited events both inside and outside of the school. Members of the media were on hand to take pictures of the fun-filled interactive event. Both students and staff were extremely pleased with the event. Special thanks to our troops for providing such a great event for our school. Special thanks to Grade 7 student Julie Deschambault for all her help coordinating the day as well as for suggesting Lake host. this event Reminder Re: Equipment on Bus Now that spring has arrived, we would like to remind students that any equipment they choose to bring with them during transportation to/from school must be properly secured. If not, it becomes a safety hazard for other students on the vehicle as well as the driver. Please see the following excerpt from our policy regarding equipment on vehicles: 7A.1 Equipment related to regular school programs may be transported by the pupil on the vehicle provided that the items can be held comfortably on the pupil’s lap and are encased or protected by guards. The driver may also designate a safe location on the vehicle for such items. The driver shall refuse to transport items deemed to be unsafe. For example, a basketball should be safely enclosed in the student’s bag so that it doesn’t roll around on the floor, etc. Thank you as always for your continued dedication to safe student transportation! Twitter @valourschool Valour News Join us ...May 6 Our General Lake parents are cordially invited to our up and coming Valour Information Night with Principal Baird at 6:00pm in the General Lake gymnasium. The night will include an update of construction, committees and timelines as well as a chance to ask questions. We encourage everyone to come out to hear about our great new school. Construction Update According to the minutes of the last construction meeting held on April 16th, 2014, completion date is on time and we will start our year in Valour. The construction meeting, held every second week, reviews the schedule of project finishing and reviews progress to date. All schedule projects are on time and the substantial completion date of August 4th, 2014 is on time. At this time the school then has the ability to schedule work inside the building to ensure that the move of equipment, delivery and installation of furniture, and the delivery and installation of IT equipment is ready for the first day of school in September. The move of teacher materials is scheduled to begin August 4th, 2014 with teachers having access to their rooms and the school beginning on August 15, 2014. Schools will have classrooms packed and ready to move when they leave in June. Our plant and IT department will begin the work of installing smart boards in our classrooms in early June. All of the existing smart boards in General Panet, Pinecrest and General Lake will be taken over to Valour and installed. Our IT plan has allowed for the purchase of more smart boards to ensure that every classroom will have a smart board for September. IT will also be moving over all of the needed desk top computers for each smart board. IT Devices at Valour Students at Valour will have state of the art devices to use in class as tools to enhance their learning. Valour will have 150 Google Chrome Books– lap top like device that connects to google via board servers to ensure safety when using the internet. Each student at Valour will have a board generated google account that will allow them to use all of the education aps available. Valour will also have 180 Ipad minis to use in the grades 1-12. The Kindergarten program will have 60 ipad minis dedicated to their unique inquiry based leaning. Each teacher in the K program will also have an ipad mini to capture pedagogical documentation that will illustrate the growth of their students and provide information to plan new learning activities to enhance learning. Valour Mission Statement At Valour, we take pride in developing the whole child. Education for our community has high academic expectations in a bilingual culture with character education embedded in all that we do. We provide a learning atmosphere that has entry levels based on student readiness with a focus on collaborative learning in an inquiry based classroom. Rich learning activities will support the development of higher order thinking skills in a 21st century technology environment. Staff collaboration and learning will guide the journey of each child toward the successful completion of a Secondary School Diploma. We will encourage our students to be creative, empathetic, compassionate and caring in all aspects of their life. We will model Valour as our core character trait and celebrate and nurture our community to live a life that is courageous. Valour as a name and character value will be the essence of all that we do each day in our school. It will guide and give purpose to our lessons, our spirit and our activities. Together, we will create citizens that will shape our community to be one of respect, care, empathy and activism. Together we will help all of our students meet success in our world. Together, we will create our future. General Lake School Closing Plan As part of our school closing plan, General Lake Apparel and yearbooks have been made available for sale. Thanks to the support of the School Council we were able to keep the cost of the yearbook low at $6.00 each or 3 for $15.00. Sales will continue until early May. In the yearbook only Grade 8 graduates and staff names will be identified. We will also be looking at plans for a final assembly in June to officially close the school. We welcome any ideas or suggestions for the closing ceremony from our General Lake community. Our last day of class is June 27, 2014. Parents, Staff and Students Enjoy Annual Science Fair Our Annual General Lake Science Fair was extremely successful with a tremendous show of support from both our parents and our students. Intermediate students judged over 50 projects submitted by the Grade 2-5 students with Valour hats going to the first place students and certificates to the 2nd and 3rd place entries. Scientists from AECL came to judge the Grade 6-8 divisions. Winners Abby Jupp. Miranda Lockley, Sheridan Skanes, Paige Niles, Emily Norman and Clayre White continued on to participate in the Renfrew County Science Fair on April 5, 2014 at the Civic Centre. Volunteering for the Year end School Trips A Criminal Background Check(CBC) is required for all parents to assist with different activities in schools.. If you are planning on helping in the school or assisting at the end of the year, please plan ahead. Forms are available at the front office Message from School Council http://www.generallakeschoolcouncil.blogspot.ca/ Please keep sending 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 Location. We are also collecting Canadian Tire Money to help fund new outdoor toys, every bit helps! Our next full Council meeting is scheduled for June 4 at 6:00 PM in the school library. All parents are welcome to attend. We will be finalizing plans for our End of Year Celebration!