TDSB Community Consultation - Sept 21, 22

May school newsletter

The school newsletter is available here. If you would like to receive this by email in future, write to Ms Carson in the office; include your children's names, grades and teachers.

School Newsletter (May)

The May school newsletter has been posted. Past newsletters are listed at right. 

Snipping off buttons

The most fun I had all week was snipping off buttons.

I usually read once a week with the children in my son's grade one classroom. Yesterday I arrived early, so the teacher asked if I'd help her by snipping buttons off their cardboard backing.

I sat at the back of the class and snipped while watching the children learn. It was truly fascinating to observe the intricacies of the classroom, the answers the students gave and the way they responded to one another and to their teacher. I'm now able to ask more probing questions to find out about my son's day. I also have a better sense of what he's learning and how, and of what's expected in the classroom.

I'm telling you this because sometimes I think parents don't quite know whether they're welcome in their children's classroom, or what they would do if they were to spend the morning there. So when you're having your parent-teacher interviews this week, ask the teacher if it would be ok for you to visit sometime, and help in some way. I'm sure the response will vary from grade to grade and from teacher to teacher, but if you are interested in being there, it doesn't hurt to ask. Have a conversation with the teacher to find a convenient time.

If you're working full time, you might not have time to volunteer on a regular basis...but even if you go just once, there might be some little task to keep you busy while you observe the classroom in action. Becoming more engaged in your child's education is more than worth the effort. (Classroom volunteers will require a police check.)

By the way, I'm pretty sure the buttons are for math. These days math is taught using grouping, patterning and logic, and sorting buttons is one way for visually-oriented kids to learn. And it happens to be way more fun than memorizing times-tables, like in my day. (I'm still not very good at the 7 times table; I must have been sick that day.)

Parent-Teacher Interview Tips

Our School Council chair and vice-chair recently attended a conference given by People for Education. The conference organizers shared a series of useful tip sheets, which we'll reprint here from time to time. As Clairlea's parent-teacher interviews are coming up soon, we thought we'd start with this one.

(Click on image for a larger version, or on your language for versions in English, Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, French, Korean, Punjabi, Russian,Somali, Spanish, Tamil, or Urdu.)

Questions, concerns?

Here's a step-by-step guide from the Toronto District School Board on who to turn to with any questions or concerns about school or the school system. Thanks to Tami for the link!

Sept 23 School Council meeting

Please forgive the length of this post, but there is lots to share... The first School Council meeting of the school year took place on Wednesday night. About 20 people were in attendance, with the first order of business being the election of a new Council executive (chair, vice chair, secretary and treasurer). Congratulations and thanks to Ginnie Zaromitidis, Tami Oudendijk, Christina Mark and Ann Silver for filling those roles again this year. Some parents expressed their wish to become voting members of School Council, signalling their commitment to attend all or most meetings, while others preferred to attend meetings as non-voting members. Whether voting or non-voting members, all Clairlea parents and guardians are welcome at all School Council meetings and everyone's voice will be heard. Please contact the Chair to add an item to the agenda. Principal Persaud presented her report, which touched on the creation of a Safe and Caring School Action Committee (parent representatives are welcome). This committee will supervise fire drills, lockdown procedures and equipment safety and will also take on the task of ensuring that the school is a welcoming and inclusive environment and forestalling any sense of division that may come from being a dual-track (French and English) school. Ms. Persaud mentioned that school staff, service providers, volunteers and visitors must wear ID cards at all times. Parents are reminded to check in at the office before going anywhere else in the school. If you see anyone on site who is not wearing ID, please inform a staff member or escort the person to the office. Ms. Persaud reported that the former Design and Tech room has been converted to a new Visual Arts classroom under the supervision of Mme Demeter, who now teaches art to all grades in both French and English. Other site improvements are also being considered, including a possible Robotics program for intermediate grades. Funding for this proposed program has yet to be secured. A question was asked about whether there is a list of additional programs that could be considered for Clairlea. Ms. Persaud indicated that although no comprehensive list exists, she would see if she could direct us to a source for such information. In addition, Ms. Persaud will be introducing the Roots of Empathy program to Clairlea. This program seeks to build students' social and emotional competence by introducing them to a newborn baby, who will visit the classroom every three weeks throughout the school year. In observing the baby's development and feelings, students learn to "identify and reflect on their own feelings and the feelings of others." Mme. Dungo's grade 2 class will the the first class to participate in the program. More information is available here. Vice Principal Frenette reported on classroom placements. Some adjustments have been made in the French Immersion stream to accommodate class sizes, which are capped at 20 in primary grades (K-3) and at 35 in junior grades. The adjustments have resulted in an additional split class, but have reduced certain class sizes considerably. A number of university students and co-op high school students will be assisting in the classrooms over the course of the year. Mr. Frenette also reported that a student nurse will be in the school two days a week, working with primary grades on good eating habits, handwashing, infection control and other healthy habits. Remember, proper handwashing is the best way to stay healthy! There was a discussion at the Council meeting about engaging families of diverse backgrounds, and various opinions were expressed as to how best to do that. Anyone who wishes to lead a Diversity Committee, share ideas, or be otherwise involved in this effort is encouraged to contact Ginnie Zaromitidis or Ms. Persaud, or attend the next Council meeting. Mme. Speed, who teaches grade 1 French immersion, was the teacher representative at yesterday's Council meeting. We thank her for giving up her evening to be with us. She brought the teachers' thanks for the lanyards, t-shirts and welcome breakfast provided to the teachers on the first day of school. She also expressed the teachers' enthusiastic support for their new principal and vice principal, who she said are already making a positive impact on the school. The following funding requests were approved: - $240 for one-size-fits-all aprons for the teaching of art - $80 for the purchase of roti for the Diwali lunch, which will be presented by two parent volunteers - $140 for t-shirts for the Student Leadership Team, which helps and supports School Council in many ways, including the serving of snacks at tonight's Curriculum Night - $875 to run a cable to bring a television signal to the gymnasium. This will allow students to watch coverage of world events such as the Olympics. A question was asked about whether there was a big-picture spending plan for money raised by Council, and it was agreed that this would be addressed at a future meeting. Thanks to everyone for their participation. I hope you all enjoyed Curriculum Night too!

Day 1, Day 2...

Confused by the new Day 1-5 system at school? This was introduced in response to the concern that certain classes would miss too many of the same subject or activity if it always fell on a Friday or Monday. It also allows the school to assign a "Day Zero" when there is, for example, a track and field day or some other activity that will take students away from their regular schedule for the day. Student agendas should help, and the day numbers are also marked on the school's online calendar, here. Thoughts, comments? Voice them at the School Council meeting on Wednesday evening! 7pm at the school, all welcome, childcare provided.

Welcome back!

Welcome back, Clairlea! The School Council provided breakfast for the teachers this morning, as well as a small welcome-back gift, on behalf of all the kids who benefit from their teachers' hard work, energy and dedication. Teachers, we know you are going to be working hard all year and we want you to know how much we appreciate you. Thank you! (Thanks also to the parents who spent Monday evening getting everything ready and were up early this morning to deliver the treats.) There are many ways to stay on top of what's going on at Clairlea:

• Read this blog, plus the school blog at http://clairlea.blogspot.com.
• Send an email to clairleacouncil@gmail.com to be added to the School Council email list.
• Attend Council meetings - all parents & guardians are welcome to attend, whether or not they choose to be voting members of Council. First meeting is Sept 23, 7pm.
• Check to see if your child's teacher has a blog - a special shout-out to Miss Lowen and Ms Vincent for being the first to update their blogs this year. :-)
• Check your child's bag for notices home - I believe the plan this year is that notices will be sent home weekly in a large envelope that should be returned the next day for re-use. I'm sure we'll be learning more about that this week.
• Important notices are also posted on the school web site, http://schools.tdsb.on.ca/clairlea, along with plenty of other useful information.

Have a great year!