Thursday 6 March 2014

News from the Office - March 2014

PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

Changes to our School Hours 2014-2015
Increased enrollment has created space issues at our school.  Sadly, our Daycare partners will be giving up one of the Daycare rooms to accommodate the school’s growing needs. While we continue to work with our Daycare to ensure the changes are seamless, we also recognize and appreciate that Unicorn Daycare will continue to offer Before and After care services to our students including their hot lunch service.  Many rooms in our school are permitted by Daycare throughout the day. The Primary and Junior school yards are permitted by Daycare starting at 3:30 p.m. each day.

To support our growing needs, our Safe and Caring Schools Committee comprised of teachers, parents and administration have examined our school hours.  The following entry and dismissal changes will be made for the 2014-2015 school year.

Grades 1-6 Entry and Dismissal   
New hours starting September 2014














The Kindergarten hours will be announced in June once all registrations have been confirmed and we have our final numbers for September 2014. We will be aligning the hours as close as possible to the Grade 1-6 hours to accommodate our parents with Kindergarten, primary and junior siblings.

Enrollment and Kindergarten Registration
Our enrollment numbers for 2014-1015 have increased.  Over the next few months, our office will be calling parents to re-verify address information and asked to bring in proof of address information once again.

Brown P.S is a “closed” school.  We are only accepting students that live within our boundaries (catchment area) for English and French currently. Families that move out of district must attend the home school that corresponds to their home address.

Parents that recently pre-registered their children at Brown are awaiting acceptance from our office after address verifications have been completed. Addresses will be checked again during the 2014-2015 year. This will be a best practice at Brown P.S as our numbers continue to increase.  We appreciate your patience and understanding during this process as we ensure only students within our catchment area may attend Brown P.S.

French Immersion
We have not received the names of the students who have been accepted into our Early French Immersion Senior Kindergarten Program yet. Our office will contact parents for a registration appointment once the names have been received and confirmed.

Kindergarten Tours
Parents new to our Brown P.S community are invited to our Kindergarten tour on June 17.  There will be a 9:30 a.m. session and a 1:30 p.m. session.  Parents will be contacted by our office to RSVP.

Anaphylaxis
To All Parents/Caregivers

There are several students at our school who suffer from life-threatening allergies to nuts, this includes sesame seeds. Prevention is the best approach. Therefore, we ask your co-operation in not sending any snacks or lunches containing peanuts, nut products or foods that may have been cross contaminated with nuts with your child.

Students who have severe allergies to such food substances are exposed to a severe health risk when nut products are consumed in their environment or shared with them. Please speak with your child about not sharing their snacks or lunches with other students.

The Board has procedures for the prevention and management of anaphylactic reactions. If you are interested, contact me, the Principal for further information. Further information is also available through Anaphylaxis Canada (416-785-5666).

If your child has health problems of any kind that have not been reported yet, please inform your child’s teacher or office staff immediately so that the necessary health protection steps may be taken.

Your understanding and co-operation in ensuring the safest environment for all our students and staff is appreciated.

*Literature is available on several websites that provide suggestions for  healthy and nutritional alternatives to nuts, their by-products, and other potential allergens. For more information go to: http://www.anaphylaxis.ca/en/anaphylaxis101/index.html

Grade 6 Graduation Trip  
Montreal/Ottawa May 5-7, 2014            
Permission Forms and Itinerary with payment information were distributed to Grade 6 students.  Permission forms are due on March 6, 2014.  Parents are asked to follow the payment schedule as requested by the excursion operator.  We promote 100% participation for this Grad trip for educational purposes and for the great relationship building and memories these excursions are known for.  Parents that would like to discuss this opportunity are asked to kindly call Principal Christakis.

World Changers
Our World Changers organized a wonderful WE ARE LOVE campaign in February to raise money for Free The Children. These LOVE pins/buttons were distributed on Valentine’s Day and we thank all of our students and parents for helping raise funds and most importantly, awareness. In this day and age, it is important for all of us to help families around the world to have safe sources of drinking water and shelter to live in. We are also helping build schools to allow all children to have access to education around the world. Great thanks to Mme Breslin, staff, students and parents for their tireless efforts in organizing the campaign and volunteering their time for this great cause.

Scholastic Book Fair
The Scholastic Book Fair is scheduled for May. We will be sending information about the Book Fair in April’s Brown Bulletin.  There will be French books available also.  Thanks to Mme Gagnon for organizing this annual book fair at Brown P.S.

Assemblies
We welcomed the Power of One – Anti-bullying production back by popular demand for our K-6 students on February 7.  The Power of One has an important message that resonates well with students about bullying defining terms and responsibilities.  Students participated in the presentation and took the Bully Prevention Oath:
I will not bully others
I will not stand by while others are bullied
I will report and deal with bullying whenever I see it…
…because I have
the POWER OF ONE

African Heritage Month
Beneath Springhill: The Maurice Ruddick Story came to Brown P.S. on February 18.  This moving story about the Mining Disaster in 1958 was retold to our Grade 4-6 students with an entertaining and educational musical twist.

Ms. Holland and our students presented at our African Heritage Assembly on February 25.  Students learned about prominent black leaders and their contributions to the world regarding fighting for freedom and justice for all.  Students also entertained us with their dance and musical talents as they took us through the history of music and prominent black entertainers of yesterday and today. We thank Ms. Holland, Ms. Turner and our students for this assembly.

February Highlights
Our students had a very busy February. Some of February’s highlights included:
- Junior Girls Volleyball Tournaments
- Chinese New Year Parade hosted by our Kindergartens
- Director’s Cut visited a couple of our Grade 3 classes and prepared our primary students for their Red Carpet presentation
- Field trips to the ROM, TSO, Science Centre
- Scrabble Tournament
- Junior swim meets
- Junior choir sang at the Marlies Game
- Kindergarten Registration

March highlights include:
- Swim meets
- field trips to TSO, TUSC Pioneer School, Junior Choir Music Festival
- Ballet Creole
MARCH  7  PA DAY                        
MARCH BREAK   March 10-14
School resumes on March 17, 2014 at 8:50 a.m. for Grades 1-6 and 9:00 a.m. for Kindergartens

The character trait for March is Honesty   
Our students participate in monthly assemblies to learn about the TDSB Character Attributes.

What is Honesty?
• Being truthful in word and action
• Showing trustworthiness
• Being reliable in carrying out commitments, obligations, and duties
• Telling the truth
• Admitting wrongdoing

Quotations
“Speak only the truth. Act with only the best intentions. Once you get into the habit, you can live by
this code.” ~Unknown
“There are times that when truth and kindness conflict, one ought to choose kindness, especially
when a little honesty is better than a lot.” ~Leroy Jack Syrop
“A lie has speed, but truth has endurance.” ~Edgar J. Mohn
“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.” ~Elvis Presley

What does honesty look like/sound like?
• Telling parents/guardians/caregivers or a teacher about a mistake and facing the consequences
of the action
• Telling on someone if it will make the situation better, but not telling on them just to get them into
trouble
• Expressing real feelings without anger, without blaming others, without exaggerating, and
without hurting the feelings of someone else
• Turning in something that is lost (e.g., money or a personal belonging) and encouraging others
to do the same
• When someone wants to copy an assignment, explaining politely that it would be dishonest and
that it’s best to do one’s own work
• Doing schoolwork honestly and not cheating during a test
• Being truthful with friends and thanking them for being truthful with you
• Not getting angry at someone when they are honest with you in a respectful manner
• Refraining from gossiping, spreading rumours, or talking behind someone’s back
• Standing up for your beliefs, even if others might not agree

Character Development: A Partnership with Families
We continue to develop character in all students and this is a shared responsibility between home and school. There is a need for family, community and schools to engage cooperatively to encourage students' learning and maturing as social beings.

Throughout the year, we continue to focus on the 10 attributes identified at the TDSB and we encourage parents to reinforce these attributes at home whenever possible: Respect, Responsibility, Empathy, Kindness and Caring, Teamwork, Fairness, Honesty, Co-operation, Integrity and Perseverance.
Some tips for supporting Character Development in the home, include:
- Use the language of character development and be clear about your values
- Model and teach respectful manners
- Listen to your children and spend time with children in shared activities
- As a family, take part in community service projects or civic activities
- Establish family traditions and enjoy family celebrations together
- Teach your children to be responsible and discerning with their choices in media and entertainment and online activities
- Teach your children how to resolve conflict in a peaceful, respectful way
- Become involved in your child's school life from Kindergarten to Grade 12
- Live character every day
For more information, please visit www.tdsb.on.ca/character

On behalf of our staff, we would like to wish everyone a Healthy and Happy March Break.

Gina Christakis, Principal and Norbert Costa, Vice-Principal

Daylight saving time starts on Sunday March 9 at 2:00 a.m.