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

Sunday Night Update February 23, 2014

Good evening Deb Legault with your Sunday Night Update for February 23. We begin the week on Monday Day 4. Please return all hot lasagna order forms tomorrow for Thursdays birthday party. The Health unit will be around for dental screenings at the Kindergarten and grade 2 levels. On Monday and Wednesday the boys basketball team will practice around 8:00am. On Tuesday our Girls basketball team are off for their tournament. On Wednesday it is pink shirt day. Students are encouraged to wear something pink to show their commitment to putting a stop to bullying. On Thursday Grade 8's have their Graduation photo. It is General Lake birthday and we would like students to wear their General Lake colours of purple and yellow proudly for spirit points. After school everyone is invited out at 4:30 for our big birthday bash. Valour Principal Baird will be on hand to showcase our new school and your friendly neighbourhood spiderman may make an appearance. On Friday we have our character assembly as well as our hot lunch pita. Students can wear their favourite Hawaiian wear for spirit points as many missed the event due to the snow day. Another great week at the Lake. Don't forget to send in the bottom portion of the report card to indicate if you would like an interview. I look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday evening.

Transportation Cancelled

All school transportation service for the English speaking Catholic & Public District School Boards in Renfrew County has been cancelled due to very treacherous driving conditions, freezing rain is now or imminently going to affect driving conditions in some cases where rain is falling when it does hit the ground it is slowly freezing because of the frost still in the ground, it is noted that the driving conditions are deteriorating throughout the region presently. If you do have to be out drive with extreme care!

Borden Ave Closed February 19

Good evening. An important announcement from General Lake regarding the closure of Borden Ave on February 19. To assist in the delivery of modular houses guardians will not be able to access the main entrance to General Lake off of Wolfe Ave. Buses will be the only vehicles allowed access to the lay by in front of the school. We ask that parents not drive on Borden Ave in front of the school to either drop off or pick their kids. Instead please use the entrance at the back of the school by the play structure and parking lot numbered 1690-1711 Borden Ave. Parents should also be advised that there may be a slight delay in drop off times in the afternoon. Thank you

Weekly Update from General Lake February 17

Good evening. Deb Legault here with your weekly update from General Lake and wishing everyone a Happy Family Day. First I would like everyone to mark your calendar for Feb 27 4:30 -6:00 as we celebrate the birthday of our namesake General Lake. Families are invited to the school for an evening of fun and celebration. Valour Principal Bryan Baird will be on hand to showcase our new school. A number of our community agencies will be available to answer questions including Brian Brohart from the Renfrew County Health Unit. Birthday cake will be available for all at 5:00PM and a hot meal is available from our School Council for $5.00. Order forms are due back to the school by this Friday, February 21. Come on out for an hour, have some food and celebrate our namesakes's birthday. It is sure to be fun festive event. This week we start the week on Tuesday, Day 5 General Lake is off to the Olympics with our school wide Olympic adventure. Mme Bernardin and Mrs Martinat's class will be off to Shaw Woods Outdoor Education Centre for some snowshoeing. All students should dress appropriate for the weather with layers, as both the snow showing and Olympic events will take place outside. Students are also encouraged to wear their Canada colours to show support for our Canadian Olympic athletes. Also on Tuesday I am pleased to announce the Petawawa Library will be starting a homework support group from 5-6. More information on the blog Basketball continues every morning Monday through Thursday for our intermediate students. Wednesday report card will be sent home with the students. It is also our School Council Meeting at 6:00pm. On Friday students can dress in their favourite hula wear for spirit points. It is our hot lunch pizza and our Boys basketball Tournament. It is the month of caring and 'We care' pins will still be available for $2.00 from the We Team. Proceeds from the sales of the pins goes towards Free The Children organization supporting our Global initiative to build schools in Kenya. Another great week at the Lake

Programs available at Petawawa Library

Check Twitter and Facebook for updates. http://petawawapubliclibrary.blogspot.ca/ For more information or to register for events, call the children's and teen librarian at 613-687-2227 ext. 2204 or the children's and teen technician at ext. 2203.Registration Required Wild Card! Show up and vote on the movie we’ll watch – Feb 21st – 7 p.m. All Ages Storytime Sign your preschooler up for this 12-week program, full of stories, songs, group games, and crafts! Tuesdays – Jan 28th-Apr 22nd – 10 a.m. Ages 2-4. R eading Buddies We pair your child up with a high school volunteer and the buddies will meet for one hour per week at the library. You choose the time and they choose the books and literacy-based games. Feb. 3-Apr. 25th Grades K-8 Forest of Reading Book Club (Formerly “Page Eaters”) Read some of the best Canadian books of 2013 from Feb 3rd – Apr 11th and attend fun parties throughout. Register according to your age group: Blue Spruce – Gr. K-2 Silver Birch – Gr. 3-6 Red Maple – Gr. 7-8 Children’s Department News Petawawa Public Library Just Drop-In No need to call ahead for these programs and events! Simply show up and have a great time. Playdough – Jan. 29th & February 26th – 6-7 p.m. Homework Help Bring your homework to the library every Tuesday and get some help understanding those extra-tricky problems. Starts Feb 4th – 4-5 p.m. – Grades K-8

General Lake Birthday Celebration February 27, 2014

You're Invited to General Lake's Birthday Celebration Thursday February 27th 4:30-6:00 The whole family is invited to come out and enjoy classic party games complete with clowns. Our friendly neighbourhood Spiderman may be making another special appearance at his favourite Elementary School. Birthday cake will be available for all free of charge sponsored by our School Council. All proceeds to go towards General Lake's final yearbook. Order Form for Lasagna Dinner February 27th **Due Date: February 21st, 2014** Family Name: __________________________________________ Each meal will include your choice of Meat OR Vegetarian Lasagna, Caesar Salad, a white or whole wheat roll and your choice of drink (milk, chocolate milk, juice or water) # of MEAT Lasagna Meals _________ @ $5.00 = _______________ # of VEGETARIAN Lasagna Meals _________ @ $5.00 = _______________ Total $=_______________ Payment may be made by cash or cheque payable to General Lake Public School. Please return this form with your child by Friday February 21st, 2014 in a sealed envelope. No change will be given, so please send exact amount. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact a member of General Lake School Council at (613) 687-2404

Sunday Night Message Feb 9

Good Evening, Deb Legault here with your Sunday Night Message from General Lake Public School. We begin the week on Day 5 on February 10. Intermediate students ar reminded of the basketball practices early in the morning. Tuesday at 12:15 we will be holding our Annual Primary Public Speaking at 12:15. Students participating in the event will be notified by their teachers. On Thursday beginning at 12:15 we will be holding our Junior Intermediate Grade 4-8 Public Speaking. On Friday it is Valentine's Day and students are encouraged to wear pink, red and white to celebrate the day. It is our hot lunch pizza day. Just a reminder to those sending in treats that we are a Peanut aware school so please look carfully to ensure the food is labelled clearly peanut free. A reminder tomorrow is the last day to complete the survey about the before and after school program for Valour and Friday is the last day to complete survey about the French Immersion program. Both surveys located on the Board website. Remember to mark your calendar for our Big General Lake birthday bash on February 27. More information will be sent out this week. Enjoy the rest of your evening.

Solving the math-phobia problem – for both parents and kids

ERIN ANDERSSEN The Globe and Mail Published Thursday, Jan. 23 2014, 5:00 PM EST To read about Christopher Danielson’s math chats with his six-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son, is to immediately feel inferior as a parent. While grocery shopping with his daughter, a discussion about whether she can carry four cans of pumpkin to the cart becomes a lesson in two plus two. “What did we learn?” he writes of that exercise. “Decomposing numbers is fun.” A debate about how old his son will be when he can stay up to midnight on New Year’s Eve, turns into an algebraic algorithm based on the calculation that his bedtime gets later by half an hour each year. One morning, they guess the temperature, and then calculate how far they were off – presto, integers 101! In my home, the last thing that bedtime negotiations afford is an algebraic math conversation. (Although, it might put them to sleep.) “Decomposing” numbers, for many math-phobic parents, will raise the spectre of a gone-but-not forgotten nightmare, otherwise known as high-school calculus. Clearly, Danielson has an edge. He is a Minnesota college math teacher and curriculum developer with a PhD, whose online blog (talkingmathwithkids.com) is aimed at helping parents bring math into everyday conversations. For those less-credentialed, algorithms are often best consigned to class, or, only when necessary, the kitchen table, where the “new math” textbooks baffle parents who never really got the “old math” the first time around. (One late-night homework session at my house led to a humbling dispute with my 13-year-old about how to multiply mixed fractions; he was right.) Is it any wonder, under such duress, that so many families dread the subject? But while the half-dozen math experts interviewed for this article were sympathetic, they also make a logical point: Our math-phobic culture is a factor in our children’s falling scores in international tests. Parents worry about math marks – and are even petitioning for a return to basic skills and rote memorization – because, as research shows, knowing your numbers is linked not only to success in school, but also to good jobs in a high-tech age. A 2007 study, for example, based on U.S. longitudinal data, found that early math skills were a stronger predictor of future academic success than reading. Parents who would never trash talk reading, freely diss math, as a subject they either loathed or flunked. “If you are afraid of a spider and you run around talking about your fears of spiders,” says Jo-Anne LeFevre, a psychology professor who specializes in math research at Carleton University in Ottawa, “should you be surprised that your kid is afraid of spiders?” Starting even before their kids can speak, parents buy into the public education campaign that reading is an essential foundation for learning. But, she asks, how often does math enter into everyday life? “Some families even turn off the TV, and say, ‘Now we are going to have reading time.’ But do we do it with math?” Besides inadvertently passing down their own anxieties, parents also overemphasize the pencil and paper work, the root of so much tension at home. “We have trained rule followers, and some us become good at memorizing the rules, and some of us don’t,” says Danielson. “But that’s not what we want. That’s the equivalent of someone who can read words, but can’t understand the story.” A key to math success is what researchers call fluency – being able to work out calculations in your head, think critically about problems, make reasonable estimates, and assess whether the results on a calculator actually make sense. Surprisingly, perhaps, fostering that kind of thinking at home looks a lot more interesting – and easier – than trying to jam those seven times tables into an eight-year-old’s brain. Scrabble isn’t just a word game, it also involves adding and multiplying scores, and mental math. Your son builds a Lego house. Can he guess how many pieces he will need to build a fence – “a perimeter” – around it? Your daughter needs to get to a 7 a.m. hockey practice; what time does she estimate she’ll have to get up? A 2012 study published in the journal Psychological Science linked student success in high-school algebra to how well they understood fractions and division in elementary school – skills that can be developed by teaching your kids to cook . “Our job [as parents] can really be about talking about number relationships and the shapes we see in the world,” Danielson says. Thankfully, that doesn’t require always finding the answer – that’s where school comes in. Sometimes it simply means asking the questions. If you are already racing to hockey, or playing Lego, there’s a math story (time estimations, spatial reasoning) in there somewhere, waiting to be told. What four Globe writers learn when they try doing their kids’ homework for a week After being pushed to the limit herself, this author examines why moms get maxed out

French Immersion Survey

The Renfrew County District School Board French program is under review. Parents of current and potential French Immersion students are being asked to share our thoughts of the current program. Please take a moment to complete a short survey. You can access it from the link at the bottom of this page or by accessing the board website, clicking on “Programs”, then click on “French Immersion” and then click the link for the survey. It is a short survey and shouldn’t take longer than a few minutes to complete. The survey will only be available until February 15, 2014. Survey Link: http://www.rcdsb.on.ca/en/programs/frenchimmersion.asp

Sunday Night Update January 26, 2014

Good evening. Deb Legault here with your Sunday night update from General Lake. An exciting week at General Lake beginning with our school wide pyjama day on Monday. Monday, Day 1, is Family Literacy day and General Lake will be having a book swap. Students can still bring in there books at 9:00 am. At 10:00am students who have brought in books will come down to choose a book from the donations to bring home. Individual classes will have a chance later in the day and into Tuesday to visit the swap and 'buy' a book. All donations will go to our Breakfast for Learning Snack Fund. We also have an exciting raffle taking place for a Brainy smurf and books. Tickets will be on sale at lunch in the front entrance 1 ticket for $1.00; 3 for $2.00; or 5 for $3.00 until Thursday. The Petawawa public library will also be on hand to talk about an exciting reading opportunity called the 'Forest of Reading' Program. More details are posted on the blog. Throughout the week classes will take a break at noon for 15 minutes of school-wide reading. Monday and Wednesday we have basketball for our intermediate boys Tuesday and Thursday we have basketball for our intermediate girls. Thursday General Lake celebrates the Chinese New Year by wearing red or traditional Chinese inspired clothing. Students are also encouraged to bring fans, paper lanterns and noisemakers for our annual dragon parade through the school. We will also have our monthly character assembly beginning at 12:30. Friday is a PA Day as the staff will be working on assessment. Thanks to the wonderful group of parents that joined us for our School Council Meeting. Plans are underway for a big birthday bash for General Lake on February 27. More details to come. Please contact a School Council Member if you are interested in assisting with this party. Thanks and have a Happy Literacy Monday. We encourage all our families to spend 15 minutes of reading fun together.

January 2014 Principal REport

Principal's report January 2014 General Lake Public School Happy New Year to all of our General Lake community and welcome back. Our school is extremely excited to be back as we plan exciting school wide events and move forward with our academic, character and healthy school goals for 2014. Among some of the up and coming events planned we have our Literacy Day book swap and pyjama day next week on Monday, January 27th. We are also raffling off a Brainy Smurf stuffed toy and some books. Tickets will go on sale for $1.00 each or 5 tickets for $3.00. All funds raised will go toward our ‘Breakfast for Learning’ program. On Thursday, January 30 we will be having our Chinese New Year Parade where students will parade through the school with noisemakers. In February we are looking forward to our Public Speaking events and in March we anticipate our extremely popular Science Fair. We have also identified February 27 as the official General Lake Day as it coincides with our namesake’s birthday. We hope to have a fun filled activity on this day. Valour plans are coming along and Mr Baird has reported we are still anticipating a September 2014 opening. Next Friday, Lake staff has been invited over to General Panet for lunch and to preview plans for classrooms. The PA day has been designated for assessment purposes, with our TERM 1 report cards going home on February 19. New Junior Kindergarten Registration begins on January 27 and a survey went home looking for parental input regarding an extended day program. Surveys are due to the office by February 10 and are available online on the Board website www.rcdsb.on.ca under programs. Mr. Baird has sent over Valour hats for us to distribute randomly at our character assembly, as well as at various special events. Another survey also will be going home asking for feedback into the French Immersion programs and is also available under programs on the Board website. We have experienced several more staff changes since the beginning of the school year. Mme Bessette joins us in our JK/SK immersion kindergarten until Mme Yakabuskie returns and Mr. Blimkie joins us in the English junior senior kindergarten. Mme Butler has accepted a position in Renfrew and we are hoping to have her position filled shortly. We have added two new positions including .5 library and .4 special education resource which has been filled by Ms Conway and we have two more Educational Assistants working with our kindergartens Ms Moreau and Ms Charboneau. General Lake continues to make student safety its number one priority. We are happy to report people have got used to the locked doors and the front bell to ring in. Parents are signing in and wearing their passes when visiting the classes. We have had a couple of lockdown drills (November 8, 2013 , January 17, 2014) with the help of Constable Darcy Nicol from the OPP and MP Karen Renaud. Everything went smoothly. The police were impressed with how quickly the staff and students responded and how well protocol was followed. Our EQAO for our grade 3 and grade 6 students occurs this year from May 26 until June 6. The Education Quality and Accountability Office annually tests reading, writing and mathematics skills throughout the province and allows student achievement to be assessed in relation to a province-wide standard. Our new SERT teacher, Mrs Conway has begun working with our level 2 students at the grade 3 and grade 6 level to give them extra remediation to ensure their success. More information about the testing is available on the EQAO website at www.eqao.com. As part of our Champlain Healthy Schools initiative action plan, students were trained in December for the PALS playground leader program. Valour Principal Baird participated in the learning day with the students. Students have been scheduled for their duties and we are extremely pleased at the progress of the program. We look forward to expanding this training to Pinecrest and bringing this initiative to Valour. Fitness continues throughout the school to be a number one priority with Grade 3 students participating in swimming programs; junior students participating in skating; dancefit continues for students in grade 5-8 and a school wide 30 day fitness challenge for k-8. Intermediates are now involved in basketball practices. Mrs Green, Mrs Robillard and Ms Hansen have been providing intramurals to our grade 2-8 students. We are currently expanding this program to every day as we have seen a marked decrease in office referrals from playground issues on days the intramurals are taking place. Staff have also taken up the challenge and they are organizing staff walks, runs and dance fit after school hours. We are pleased to announce that the number of Kindergarten office referrals have decreased significantly, as we have adopted a number of strategies from the Calm, Alert and Learning book by Stuart Shanker. The school has purchased four more walkie talkies to ensure our Educational Assistants can be contacted and can respond immediately to an issue. We are using strategies including quiet areas in the classrooms as well as a large box to be carried to the office to give students a body break. As part of the Board wide plan to increase technology in our schools we are happy to announce we have 67 new IPADs in the school. Teachers can sign-out a class set of IPADS or they can sign out on an individual basis . We continue to train our staff in its use and find creative ways to use within the classroom. We have been doing a lot of work on triangulation of evidence when assessing our students. That is using conversations, observations and product to assess our students. The IPAD is proving to be beneficial when documenting the work of our students, particularly the conversations. Our Anti-bullying plan has been updated for the 2013-2014 school year and is available from the office or online. Our focus is on promoting positive behaviours, rather than focusing on the negative. We continue to be part of the Stop-A Bully online reporting system and we look forward to rewarding five of our students in February for their positive contributions as part of the True Colours initiative. We continue to have our monthly character assemblies and daily quotes promoting the character virtues of the month. Our overall theme for the year is RESPECT and we promote respect daily in our interactions with all. A focus for our up and coming anti-bullying week will be on respect and using online respectfully. During our work with the Stuart Shanker book we focused on the Indicators to Distinguish Play fighting from Bullying which we now have included in our anti-bullying plan, as well as in our conversations with students to determine if bullying is taking place: Play Fighting: Positive facial expressions (smiling); Voluntary participation; Alternated roles (being chased, then being the chaser); Tempered force; Children stay together after playing Bullying: Negative facial expressions (angry looks); Involuntary participation; Fixed roles (being either the aggressor or the victim); Aggressive force; Children separate after an encounter Finally we had tremendous support for our holiday concert as it was standing room only as parents delighted in the performances of our students. Plans are underway for another couple of school-wide performance based events including a Mini ‘WE’ day to occur during Education week in May and our Talent show in June, which we will be inviting our parents to attend. As always we welcome our parents into our school and we look forward to keeping everyone up to date with our blog, weekly synervoice and now our new Twitter Feed @debbielegault. Thank you Deb Legault

Link for Extended day program

Here is the correct link for the extended day program survey in pdf form (for Valour). http://www.rcdsb.on.ca/en/programs/resources/Extended_Day_Program_Family_Survey_-_Valour.pdf The link to the extended day website is here. http://www.rcdsb.on.ca/en/programs/ExtendedDayProgram.asp

Principal Report November 2013

Principal's report November 2013 General Lake Public School We have had a wonderful event-filled first term leading up to our Progress Reports that went home on November 12, 2013 A few changes in staff Mme Yakabuskie is on a Leave of Absence. Mrs Gratton is replacing Mme Yakabuskie and Mrs Martinell has been temporarily replacing Ms McKay. We also welcome Mrs Van Hoof as an Educational Assistant working in the English Sk-1 class. After looking closely at our school data using a variety of sources including triangulation of evidence (observations; conversations; product; EQAO data; our reading assessment data (PM Benchmarks K-3; Casi 4-8; and our mathematics assessments: Prime) we have developed our School Improvement plan. The plan focuses on oral language development at the kindergarten level; reading and writing development in the primary grades and math at the junior intermediate level. Team divisions have been involved in Professional Learning meetings and workshops to look closely at their student profiles and to explore strategies to inform their practice and improve student achievement. Using the ‘Tell Them From Me’ survey, the ‘Champlain Healthy School’ survey, our Learning Skills data from the report cards, and data from our behavioural reports we are focusing on increasing physical fitness levels of our students by providing a range of activities. We have met several times with the representatives from the Healthy Schools initiative to develop an action plan. This plan includes training in a Peer Mediation plan Grade 4/5 students (PALS program); increased physical fitness activities swimming, dance fit, and DPA challenges. We also look forward to participating in the Jump rope for Heart Challenge. Ms Robillard and Ms Green have begun an intramural program for students in all grades. Intermediate students have been practicing for the up and coming volleyball tournaments with Mme Malette and Ms Green. Finally one area of need reflected in our office referrals data is self-regulation in our kindergarten students. Students are presenting challenges including engaging in aggressive play; difficulty during transition periods or unstructured play; or adapting to changes in personnel. We are exploring ways to better prepare the students for Kindergarten; strategies to address some of the playground issues and finally strategies to assist parents at home. One change we are implementing is a change in the lunch and recess time for some of the classes to cut down on the number of students in out kindergarten yard. Therefore three classes will be eating lunch in classrooms while others are outside for recess. A new Concussion protocol has been introduced by the Board. In a case of a suspected concussion, parents will be called and instructed to pick up their child and bring immediately to hospital. We have a new tool to help us assess the likelihood of a concussion and a copy will be given to the parent in all suspected cases. We continue to have our friendly spirit days designed to create student engagement. We have had four motivational speakers Power of One Anti-bullying Speaker; We day Speaker; Right to Play Olympic Athlete and Ned show motivational speaker and yo yo performer. Craig Keilburger, founder of Free the Children, was the keynote speaker at the recent Parent Involvement Committee symposium. Some General Lake students were in attendance. General Lake continues to be inspired by the work of Free the Children as we participated in the We Starve Hunger collecting over 500 cans for St. Joseph’s Food Bank. One student, Grade 8 Kamrie Lavoie is looking to go on a humanitarian trip next year so she will be putting together a plan to fundraise for her cause. We will be supporting a raffle for a gingerbread house she will bring to General Lake beginning in December. Ms Hansen’s WE club have begun the We Make Change initiative designed to raise money to help build schools. As always, we continue to take bullying seriously documenting and investigating all reports and trying to find ways to address this issue. Parents, Staff and students are invited to meet next week Tuesday Nov 26 at 8:30 to examine our current plan and update. Jer’s vision came to the school today and addressed the classes. Jer’s vision is an organization designed to educate students on the issues of bullying and discrimination. We have also formed a partnership with Kelsey’s restaurant. They have given us 5 certificates to award to students for demonstrating both a positive attitude and making a positive difference in our school. Students who receive the award will receive a t-shirt and a free meal from Kelseys. Students will be able to nominate their peers for this award. Nominations will continue until January. Valour planning is on schedule. During the Joint Staff meeting September 21st the new mascot was unveiled. (‘Valour Voyageurs’) We also participated in planning activities as well as creating a common vision for the school. Many Committees have been formed and the excitement is building as we assist with the selection process of uniforms. Our celebration of General Lake is coming together as we plan a yearbook. We continue to look for other ways to honour the closing of the school. Finally thanks to our Parents and staff, the Scholastic Book fair was a great success. Fifty percent of all the proceeds go back to the school in product for the classrooms. Thanks to Educational Assistant Robin Van Hoof, Jen Gerroir, Lorrie Lavoie, Lindsay Allen, Angela MacKay, Molly Dempsey and Andrea Robb for their work and dedication bringing this to our school. We look forward to another sale in the Spring.

Principal Report September 2013

Principal's report September 2013 Welcome to the 2013-2014 school year. Welcome back to our families who are joining us again and a warm welcome to our new families at General Lake Public School. We had a wonderful opening with our enrolment numbers just over 400. We have 141 students in our Kindergarten with four JK/SK Immersion classes; one JK/SK English; one SK/1 immersion and 1 SK/1 English. We have 164 students enrolled in our English program, and the remainder of the students are in our French Immersion. Our average class size is 20.74, and we continue to be committed to keeping our Kindergarten to Grade 3 classes under 20. We welcome several new teachers to our team Ms Martinat at Grade 3-4; Mrs Bennett in the Core English; Ms Angela Stone Butterworth in the Kindergarten and Ms Macphee in the 4/5 Immersion. We welcome several new EA's to our team: Mrs Armstrong in Ms Mackay’s Kindergarten and Ms Dominey in Grade 3/4 with Ms Martinat. In the office we welcome Mrs Bouden and to our custodial staff we welcome Ms Wendy Heans. Finally, we also welcome our new Vice Principal Ms Robillard. During this month we have already had several spirit days designed to create a positive school climate and student engagement in school. Our school wide theme for the year is RESPECT. We have divided the students into one of six spirit colour teams and throughout the year we will award points to students who take part in the activities. One of our initiatives is supporting the ‘Free the Children’ Organization begun by Craig and Marc Keilburger. This initiative is designed to inspire leadership in students, as well as inspire students to take action to make a change in the world both locally and globally. We have applied for ‘We day’ tickets and two teachers, Ms Marquardt and Ms Hansen, have committed to taking on this ‘Free the Children’ initiative with the Grade 7/8 students. Last June we had our own Mini ‘WE day’ which I hope to build on for the coming year. In October we will begin our Food Drive initiative called ‘We Starve Hunger’, where for the month we will collect food for the St Joseph Food Bank. Students can also sign up to trick or treat for canned goods. Another new initiative we are taking part in is the Champlain Healthy Food initiative. Last year students in grade 4-6 took part in a survey about their healthy lifestyle. We will get the results of this survey shortly. I have already begun talking about focusing our efforts on increasing physical activity. I would like to have a meeting with a Committee to include a parent representative, student representative, staff and the Champlain School Program Representative on September 26th at 10:00 am to look at our results and come up with an Action Plan. As part of our commitment to physical fitness, we have two different running clubs this year. Mme Cathy and Mme Rattray report over 40 students are taking part in her competitive running club. They would like to take all students to the run therefore imposing a $5.00 cost to reserve a bus. I have about 15 students registered for my Fun Run. Ms Robillard and Ms Green will be beginning intramural program for students in all grades shortly. Our Annual Terry Fox Run will take place Sept 26th. We are asking all students to bring in a Toonie for Terry. Our goal is to raise $800.00 for Cancer Research Foundation. Last June our grade 4-7 students took part in ‘The Tell Them From Me’ climate survey. Results are available. I am looking to put together a committee to include teachers, students and parents to look closely at the results and develop an action plan for our next steps on Tuesday, September 24 at 11:20. Our Current plan is also posted on the blog and on the Bulletin Board outside the computer lab. We continue to work on anti-bullying and at our Mini we-day we launched an on-line reporting system ‘stop-a -bully-ca’. For this year we have booked ‘Jer's Vision’ to come to the school in November during anti-bullying week which coincides with our Scholastic Book Fair. Our GLPS Volunteer brochure has been created to help make General Lake volunteering role easier. We have a number of opportunities for our parents including organizing the volunteer forms and making contact with parents; library coordinator, and bookfair coordinator. A box of supplies for our volunteers is located by office, as well as some information package including staff list ,map and other important information. Today our EQAO results were officially released and I am extremely proud of our results. EQAO stands for Education Quality and Accountability office which develops and oversees standardized testing at the Grade 3, 6, 9, and 10 levels across the province. The percentage of students at General Lake in grade 3 achieving at or above the Provincial standard in reading was 78% , in writing 86%, and in Mathematics 89%. The percentage of students at General Lake in Grade 6 achieving at or above the Provincial standard in reading was 95%, in Writing 85% and in Mathematics was 70%. We are above both the Board percentage, as well as the Province. Teachers will be looking at the data as we prepare our 2013-2014 School Improvement Plan which I will share at an up coming meeting Construction of Valour is coming along nicely and currently is on time for our opening in September 2014. As many know this is our last year at General Lake as we anticipate the opening of our new K-12 school. Last year General Lake students participated in the naming and choosing the colours of green and white. This year students from General Lake are encouraged to enter the Mascot contest introduced at the beginning of the school year. Entries are due Sept 20th and the winning entry may have their artwork used on Valour merchandise. I am anticipating many more activities to engage the students as we prepare for the Opening. Finally, as a tribute to General Lake, staff member Ms Priebe is looking into developing a yearbook. She is has been collecting photos and she is looking into the details from different sources. We will report back to the School Council next month ways parents can be involved, as well as funds she may request to support this venture. In closing it has been a wonderful beginning to the 2013-2014 school year. I am extremely proud of the work students, staff and our families do every day to make this school a warm, welcoming and safe place to be. I am happy to be part of this great school and I look forward to a wonderful partnership with our School Council, as together we guide and support our children. We have achieved so much together in the past for our children, and I look forward to a wonderful year filled with exciting activities, informative meetings and wonderful educational experiences for our children.