Important Safety Reminders
Yard Supervision
Yard Supervision for Grades JK to 6 begins at 8:35 AM and ends at 3:45 PM. Afternoon Kindergarten supervision begins at 12:45 PM. Parents are responsible for their children’s safety and conduct in the yard before and after these times.
Visitor Sign-In Book
Visitors are requested to sign in at the main office and wear a ‘visitor sticker’. This is a safety measure to ensure that visiting adults are recognized and encouraged to feel welcome in our school. Thank You!
Kiss N' Ride
Do not use the Avenue Road driveway as this is the school bus pick up and drop off area for our students. Please pick up and drop of your children at the Kiss N’ Ride designated area on Poplar Plains.
Community Issue
Our neighbours have recently been concerned about cars blocking their driveways during drop off and pickup times. Please ensure that you are not parking in front of anyone's driveway, as they need to be able to get in and out of their own driveway safely and promptly.
There is one-hour parking on Balmoral in the event that you have to come into the school. We do everything we can to cooperate with our neighbours and would appreciate this is taken into consideration.
Safe Arrival Program
The Safe Arrival program is used by parents/guardians and schools to account for any student’s unexplained failure to arrive at school. Please call the school safe arrival number 416-393-1557 before 8:55 AM or 12:30 PM (for an afternoon absence) if your child will not be attending school or plans to be late. This line is available 24 hours a day with voice mail. If your child is absent and we have not heard from you, we will make every effort to contact you using the information provided on the Emergency Form. The name and telephone number of an emergency contact is absolutely essential.
Kiss N Ride Etiquette
The Kiss N Ride program is now in its fourth year. It began out of a need to ensure that student safety was maximized during the drop-off period. Not just for those in vehicles, but also for those walking.
In recent months some of those safety concerns have resurfaced as unsafe practices have re-emerged. Before there is an injury or accident and to ensure parents are not ticketed when the area is visited by police, here are some important safety reminders we ask everyone to respect and adhere to:
1. DO NOT park in the designated drop off area between 8:30am and 8:50am for ANY reason. This causes traffic back up and is just plain rude.
2. If you MUST park and enter the schoolyard, then park on one of the side streets where parking is permitted, or one of the few 15min spots on Poplar Plains, north of the second school driveway exit. NOTE, the first “space” immediately north of the entrance to the underground parking lot is not a legal parking spot. It is too close to both the crosswalk and the driveway.
3. DO NOT PARK OR WORSE, LET YOUR CHILD OFF IN THE UNDERGROUND PARKING. This is designated staff parking and it is VERY poorly lit. Letting children off here is dangerous, just check the poles for paint marks if you think otherwise.
*PLEASE NOTE: THE PARKING LOT IS FOR STAFF ONLY*
4. When using Kiss N Ride, DRIVERS PLEASE, STAY IN YOUR VEHICLE. Volunteers are wonderfully capable of opening doors on the passenger side. If you must exit the car, consider parking.
5. Do NOT let your children exit on the driver’s side of the vehicle into oncoming traffic. Again, this is dangerous. If an infant car seat is on the passenger side, consider moving the passenger front seat up to allow for an easier exit.
6. Please KEEP ALL BAGS, etc in the car with your child, NOT the trunk.
7. Keep the flow moving; PULL UP TO THE FRONT of the line.
Please remember the motto of this program is: CHOOSE SAFETY OVER CONVENIECE.
The Kiss N Ride program is now in its fourth year. It began out of a need to ensure that student safety was maximized during the drop-off period. Not just for those in vehicles, but also for those walking.
In recent months some of those safety concerns have resurfaced as unsafe practices have re-emerged. Before there is an injury or accident and to ensure parents are not ticketed when the area is visited by police, here are some important safety reminders we ask everyone to respect and adhere to:
1. DO NOT park in the designated drop off area between 8:30am and 8:50am for ANY reason. This causes traffic back up and is just plain rude.
2. If you MUST park and enter the schoolyard, then park on one of the side streets where parking is permitted, or one of the few 15min spots on Poplar Plains, north of the second school driveway exit. NOTE, the first “space” immediately north of the entrance to the underground parking lot is not a legal parking spot. It is too close to both the crosswalk and the driveway.
3. DO NOT PARK OR WORSE, LET YOUR CHILD OFF IN THE UNDERGROUND PARKING. This is designated staff parking and it is VERY poorly lit. Letting children off here is dangerous, just check the poles for paint marks if you think otherwise.
*PLEASE NOTE: THE PARKING LOT IS FOR STAFF ONLY*
4. When using Kiss N Ride, DRIVERS PLEASE, STAY IN YOUR VEHICLE. Volunteers are wonderfully capable of opening doors on the passenger side. If you must exit the car, consider parking.
5. Do NOT let your children exit on the driver’s side of the vehicle into oncoming traffic. Again, this is dangerous. If an infant car seat is on the passenger side, consider moving the passenger front seat up to allow for an easier exit.
6. Please KEEP ALL BAGS, etc in the car with your child, NOT the trunk.
7. Keep the flow moving; PULL UP TO THE FRONT of the line.
Please remember the motto of this program is: CHOOSE SAFETY OVER CONVENIECE.
Preserving the Learning Environment - from the Office Staff
In the event of an emergency, we always do our utmost to relay messages to students; however, we will not disrupt classes and interrupt instruction time to give messages to individual students. Our Office Administrator, Dorothy Hunt and Clerical, Lisa Burk are very busy during the day. To minimize the numerous phone calls they are currently receiving, we kindly ask for your cooperation to please make arrangements for special pick-ups prior to your child’s coming to school. The agenda is an excellent tool for communication between home and school for dental and medical appointments when your child needs to leave early.
Letters are required for our office staff and classroom teachers to notify us that your child is leaving the school early for an appointment or other matter. Parents who are picking students up must sign out the student at the office. Please help us with this process and make this a best practice at Brown P.S.
Swim Attire
Many students are forgetting their swim gear and having to call home. This is another disruption for the office staff and to instruction time. Please check your child’s timetable and ensure they have their swim attire on a regular basis. Possibly send the swim attire a day before the actual swimming class.
Many students are forgetting their swim gear and having to call home. This is another disruption for the office staff and to instruction time. Please check your child’s timetable and ensure they have their swim attire on a regular basis. Possibly send the swim attire a day before the actual swimming class.
Hallway Safety
We kindly ask that parents and caregivers drop off their children in the school yard as a best practice and allow the students to go to their classrooms on their own upon the entry bell. Our hallways are narrow and when too many people congregate in the hallways, it creates a great deal of congestion. To ensure the safety of our students, please help us make this a best practice also.
Principal’s Message from the Office of G. Christakis & S. Litner
February was an incredibly busy and fun month for our Brown P.S students!
Our Outreach Committee organized a number of events to raise money for Free The Children in Kenya. From Popcorn day to crazy hair day, candy grams and the Dance-a-thon, there was plenty of excitement in the air during the month. Great thanks to our teachers Mme Breslin and Mme Sulymko for their fine efforts in organizing the events, and to our students, staff and all of our parents who volunteered their time for this great cause. We raised money to build schools and other sustainable initiatives in Kenya.
Term 1 Report Cards went home on February 14 and 15. If you were not invited for an interview, but would like to meet with a teacher, please contact the teacher for an appointment.
Lost & Found
We will continue to put all Lost & Found articles out for display in the hallway on Mondays. Items not claimed by the end of the month will be sent to Goodwill. Please note that the Lost & Found is on the first floor in the meeting room near the office and available to students and parents to look through for their lost personal items.
Lunchroom Routines
We need your help in promoting an enjoyable lunch experience at school. In the lunchrooms, our supervisors are facing some ongoing challenges. We ask for parents’ support in reinforcing etiquette and routines with their children. Our lunch supervisors are noticing that many children do not finish their lunch, and instead of taking it back home or eating it at recess, they throw their uneaten food in the garbage. There is a great deal of food waste.
Lunchroom supervisors try to encourage the children to eat or save what they bring for lunch, but often food ends up in the garbage anyway. It is certainly a waste of money for parents, and most importantly deprives children of their nutritional requirements. As an ECO school we are promoting “BOOMERANG LUNCHES” which means that students are to return all food items, garbage and containers back home at the end of the day. No garbage is to be left behind as we continue to monitor our garbage and recycling waste to reach our ECO PLATINUM goal.
Lunchroom supervisors try to encourage the children to eat or save what they bring for lunch, but often food ends up in the garbage anyway. It is certainly a waste of money for parents, and most importantly deprives children of their nutritional requirements. As an ECO school we are promoting “BOOMERANG LUNCHES” which means that students are to return all food items, garbage and containers back home at the end of the day. No garbage is to be left behind as we continue to monitor our garbage and recycling waste to reach our ECO PLATINUM goal.
“Honesty is the best policy” (Mark Twain)
The character trait for March is Honesty. Our students were invited to our monthly assembly on March 1, to learn about this character trait and how to demonstrate honesty at home and at school. During the assembly we also conducted a lottery for student ambassadors. We had an overwhelming number of students from Grades 2-6 apply for this initiative. We will continue to add more students to the ambassador list as we approach the end of the year and hope that many of the applicants will have an opportunity to represent our school in the years to come.
Playground Activity Leaders
Our Playground Activity Leaders Initiative is well underway. Our students continue to organize games in the playgrounds and help resolve conflicts as they arise. We still need parents to support this initiative by discussing the importance of being respectful to all students and adults in and outside of the school.
We are allowing students to borrow playground equipment such as balls, and skipping ropes. Students sign out the equipment and return it after recess.
Our Playground Activity Leaders Initiative is well underway. Our students continue to organize games in the playgrounds and help resolve conflicts as they arise. We still need parents to support this initiative by discussing the importance of being respectful to all students and adults in and outside of the school.
We are allowing students to borrow playground equipment such as balls, and skipping ropes. Students sign out the equipment and return it after recess.
Neighbours and Ball Retrieval Issues
We try very hard to be amicable with our neighbours whose homes border onto the perimeters of our school. Unfortunately, some of these neighbours do not appreciate parents or students knocking on their doors to retrieve balls that have made it over the fence and into their back yards.
Please refrain from going to the neighbours. One of the neighbours has agreed to help us retrieve the balls and return them to the school once a month. (This was the best negotiation I could make).
We will do our best to stock our equipment box with balls for borrowing as best as we can. Students should be reminded to be more aware of their surroundings when playing to avoid these mishaps.
Anti-Bullying Awareness continues at Brown P.S
Every TDSB school focuses on Bullying Prevention. We are very fortunate at Brown P.S. to be able to offer great presentations to our students that help communicate the importance of understanding what bullying is, what a bully and target looks like and what it means to be a bystander.
Soren Benick’s The Power of One visited our school on February 10 with a powerful performance about how the power of one person can stop the bullying. Each student represents the power of one. The presentation ended with each student taking 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
Our students had the opportunity to watch The Ultimate Class Trip featuring Q-Mack and his anti-bullying presentation in December. Unfortunately, many of our students and teachers had an obstructed view and were not able to enjoy the performance. Upon our return from this trip, I made a few phone calls and wrote letters expressing my disappointment. As a result, Q-Mack and his crew offered to do a show for our school without charging us. This presentation happened here at Brown on March 7 for our grade 1-6 students. We kindly appreciated this gesture.
