*Bullying Prevention & Awareness Week*

Monday, November 22nd, 2021 (Day 2)

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2021 (Day 3)

Wednesday, November 24th, 2021 (Day 4)

Thursday, November 25th, 2021 (Day 5)

• Gr.1/2/3 and 3/4/5 Trip to Gould Lake
• Hot Lunch Orders Due

Friday, November 26th, 2021 (Day 1)

• Pink Shirt Day

November - Indigenous Education Month

November - Hindu Heritage Month

December 10th - Jingle Bell Walk

Dear Families,

We are excited to begin offering hot lunches as of December. Orders can be made at school-day.com - the due date is November 25th and no late orders can be accepted after that.

This week is Bullying Prevention & Awareness Week in LDSB. Throughout the year we promote kindness and inclusivity, and celebrate diversity. This is just one week where we try to amplify those ideas in our schools. Everyone deserves to feel safe, accepted, included and valued.

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Aaron West

Principal

Our new fundraiser, FlipGive is online! Our school earns cash back on every purchase we make using FlipGive, all year long! All you have to do is shop anytime with the brands you already love, like Home Depot, Walmart, Sport Chek, Indigo, Old Navy, Apple, Esso, and Loblaws. No more going door-to-door selling chocolate bars - it’s completely virtual and contactless. You can even order Gift Cards!

Join our team now and you’ll get a $5 bonus the first time you shop: https://flipgive.app.link/teams/join?joincode=KGGCMG

Or enter this code: KGGCMG

Once you've signed up, make sure to select "support the team" when asked. Any questions, just ask!

Want to learn more? Check out this 2 minute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vTO_Qg4n80

Students are encouraged to bring in a non-perishable donation for the foodbank before December 10. On the day of the Jingle Bell Walk, students will receive a jingle bell. Students will remain within their classroom cohorts as we all walk around the school yard. Bells will be rung, music will be played. It will be a fun and festive event!

Earlier this year, our school began a small environmental project to help keep writing tools out of landfills. Each room in the school now has a container for collecting old pens, markers, highlighters etc. These items are then sent off to our local Staples were they get recycled.

In December Mrs. Boyce’s and Mrs. Bailey’s class will partner with our local Earthub organization to start an environmental project that also has a community caring connection. The class will be collecting milk bags which will be washed and flattened then reused to weave into sleeping mats for the homeless. Milk tags and plastic bottle caps can also be sent in as Earthub collects these and repurposes them as well. So, start saving those outer milk bags and tags to support their project!

There have been some questions about siblings who are at school when a student has COVID symptoms and needs to be picked up. To clarify - any siblings in this case ALSO need to be sent home. The siblings may return when the student with symptoms has obtained a negative COVID test. The only exception to this rule is if the siblings are fully vaccinated.

Also, whenever you've kept a student home because they have COVID symptoms (fever and/or chills, cough, shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting/diarrhea, loss of taste or smell) siblings should not attend school until you've received a negative test for the symptomatic child.

If you haven't had a chance yet, please make sure to register for our online payments and permission program at www.school-day.com. You can also access this site by visiting our website, and clicking on the School-Day button along the leftside.

We are still looking to add to our list of people who might be available to fill in for our paid yard duty position, on an emergency basis. If this is something that interests you, please email Aaron West (Principal) at westa@limestone.on.ca. Anyone interested in doing so will need a recent Criminal Background/Vulnerable Sector check, and must be fully vaccinated. This position pays minimum wage.

We greatly appreciate your diligence in screening your children for Covid symptoms each day before sending them to school. This screener can be accessed online at https://covid-19.ontario.ca/school-screening/. It is important you understand the process for how we manage situations where a student displays symptoms at school. This process can be seen in the image below. Again, these protocols come from Public Health, not the school, but we are obligated to follow them. Thank you for your understanding.

How to report a student absence using SafeArrival

There are three ways you can report your student’s absence in advance:

1. Using your mobile device, download and install the SchoolMessenger blue app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store or from School Messenger website or you can select it from within the LDSB mobile app. The first time you use the app, select Sign Up to create your account. Make sure you use the same email address your child’s school has on file. If you do not use that same email address, you will not be able to create an account. You may have already created an account when we introduced the Communicate broadcast system. Select Attendance, then Report an Absence.

2. Use the School Messenger website. The first time you use the website, select Sign Up to create your account. Please ensure you use the same email address your student’s school has on file. If you do not use that same email address, you will not be able to create an account. You may have already created an account when we introduced the Communicate broadcast system. Select Attendance then Report an Absence.

3. Call 1-855-257-9349 toll-free to report an absence using the automated phone system.

***Please do not call the school directly to report your student's absence***