The Village Voice
(staff news you can use)
Our First Meeting of 2015-2016
It's been a long time but we are finally getting to meet on Monday December 16th - our first staff meeting of the year. Our meeting will be an informal, seasonal celebration with an opportunity to reflect on the best things that have happened this year and to look forward to things to come in the new year, including moving into our new school.
Please think about the things that you would like to begin to do to support our students and community in the new year and bring your ideas to the meeting. We will share our ideas and try to set a plan of action as we start the new year. Some ideas might be to host a parent information night to share our inquiry-based model of teaching and learning or to go on another school-wide hike, or to host fund-raising events such as parent-child movie nights etc. We are only limited by the extent of your imagination. All ideas are worthwhile and will be considered.
Attendance
In order to comply with the expectations in the Education Act, it is important to accurately complete attendance each day. Please remember that your attendance should be in the office immediately following the announcements so that we can begin the safe arrival procedure. An announcement will be made about busses that arrive late. Students on these busses should not be marked absent or late.
If you have confirmation from a parent that a child will be absent, please indicate the absence on the attendance with a T. If a parent indicates to you that a child will be absent due to illness, please indicate this by using a Z.
If a child arrives late, the office will provide him/her with a neon green laminated admit pass which indicates to you that the child has visited the office, the attendance has been changed and the late recorded. If a child does not have an admit pass and you have marked him/her absent on the attendance, please send him/her to the office to sign in, have the attendance folder changed and obtain an admit pass. Please return the admit passes to the office on a regular basis.
There is nothing worse for a parent than to get a call from the school to say that their child is absent when that is not the case. Please make sure that you carefully record who is absent so that we don't put parents through any unnecessary worry.
Calls to Parents
The office is a very busy place at various times throughout the day. Please help us to ensure that we are able to respond to all events that happen in the office in an efficient manner by doing the following:
- Always leave a voice mail message when calling a parent so that the office staff can accurately direct the return call when it is made.
- All calls by students to their parents should be from the classroom. This allows you to control when and why students are contacting parents. Office staff are not aware of the circumstances around the need for a student to call their parent. In the past, some students have tried avoiding classroom activities by feigning an illness. Teachers do not need to make the call to the parent but should be aware that the call is being made and the reason for the call.
- In the event that you have a student who is vomiting, please send that student to the office with their belongings after you have called the office to let the staff know to expect the student. The office staff will call home to have the student picked up.
- If students call parents because they have forgotten lunches, homework, gym clothes and the like, please have them come to the lobby at Nutrition Break to pick up items that have been dropped off for them on the hallway table. Office staff will not be interrupting teaching time to announce the arrival of forgotten items.
Money in School
Money collected from students is money being held in 'trust' and must be treated as such.
Pursuant to the Board's Effective Practices Policy, monies collected in the classroom must be accompanied with the class list provided. Monies cannot be deposited to the bank without a completed class list as per the sample posted above the photocopier. Deposit forms must be completed by the teacher and monies deposited before checks can be written.
Do not leave money in your classroom and please make sure that you hand money to Deb, Trish or Kate. Never leave money at an empty desk.
It may contain nuts or other allergens
Sabrina's Law
It may have been prepared in an environment with nuts or other allergens
Food in School
NO FOOD should be sent/delivered to school to be shared. As you are aware, many of our students have serious allergies to a variety of substances. You will be liable if you allow food to be shared by students in the event that there is an incident. The only time food can be shared is if you are making the food as part of your curricular work and the ingredients have been purchase by you and the preparation takes place under your supervision in the staff room.
Parents have been advised of this Board policy through the school handbook and are reminded throughout the year, when appropriate, by a SynerVoice message.
Clean Up Cloths
Please ensure that you are returning your clean up cloths to the office on a regular basis and that you have rinsed out the paint/dirt and rung out the water in them so that they are ready to be put into the washer.
If you are returning your used/dirty clean up cloths on Friday, please make sure that they are to the office by the end of NB#2 so that they can be washed and dried before we go home for the weekend.
Thanks for helping us to continue to save money and be environmentally conscious.