Week Activities

School Improvement Plan

Last week our Leadership team (grade reps) met to continue work on our writing plan. One of our goals in our School Improvement Plan, was to work collaboratively within grades to look at how we teach a variety of genre. Even though the Ontario Curriculum dictates our Expectations at each grade level, we want to be consistent with our content, resources and assessment and evaluation. The first genre we worked on was the narrative, followed by report writing. This week staff will also be working together in grade teams and assessing narrative pieces produced in the various grades. This exercise allows us, as educators, to become more consistent in our assessing and evaluating.

Week at a Glance

21st-Literacy Day; Sr Hockey @ George Bell; Scientists in the School with Ms. Moser and Ms. Kim; Junior Sharing Assembly @ 9:00
22nd-LKS Junior Girls VB @ John G.; Scientists in the School with Mr. Blais
23rd-Jr Boys Hockey practise @ 7:00; Jr. Boys BB @ LKS (vs Rockcliffe)
24th-Boys BB @ LKS (vs Portage)

Staffing

Just to let you know that we have been told that we can hire a full-time teacher to replace Dr. Grant, who is on maternity leave. We have had to replace Dr. Grant with a few LTO positions over the last four months, but we can now hire a full-time teacher until June. We will be interviewing and hiring over the next couple of weeks, and hopefully start for January 28th, if not sooner. We will inform you when we "officially" hire. Thank you.

New Superintendent

We would like to wish Kathleen Meighan, our superintendent, best wishes in her new position in the Board. She will be working with the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat. Usha Finucane will be taking over as Superintendent for the South West Family of Schools until the end of the school year.

January Parent Meetings

The Final Safety Report for TDSB was released in the media last week. If you are interested, please go to our website, under Safe Schools, and download the parent letter from the TDSB. The letter indicates a website you can go to if you are interested in reading the whole report.

Here at LKS, the students in grades 4-8 completed a bullying survey in the fall. The data has been collected and it will be shared with our safety committee and class reps during the month. The committee, including parents, students and staff will now analyze the collected data. We will present our findings at the next parent council meeting and we'll also put the results on the website. Our committee will also be hosting a poster contest for the kids related to anti-bullying or TRIBES and also, our community police officer will be in over the next month or two to present to the classes. We will give details later.

Just a reminder to our grade 5 parents that there is an information session on January 29th at Norseman if you are interested in learning about the new South West Arts School that will be opening in September 2008. More information is on our website, under Curriculum.

Also under Curriculum, on the website, is a flyer indicating a Special Education information night on January 22nd.

Welcome Back!

A warm welcome back to all the students and parents. After visiting the classrooms, it seems that most of the kids really had a great holiday visiting with family and friends. Some seemed to get in lots of skiing, shopping and/or just "hanging out". That's what it is all about! I'm glad they are learning to relax and enjoy life early.

We do have a few things on the go for second term. Mr. Page is busily organizing our ski trip and skating, now that the rink is open. More details will follow regarding both events. We are also busy with hockey and basketball.

We had a special presentation for the grade 4-8 classes on Wednesday. Representatives from Kids Help Phone came out to the school to talk about their service. Just a reminder to the kids that their counselling service can be accessed by telephone @ 1-800-668-6868 or by website: kidshelpphone.ca Thank you to Ms. Forte for arranging this presentation.

Ms. Forte also wants to remind all grade 8 students and their parents that High School course selection sheets are due to Ms. Forte on Feb. 6th. Please advise her of your choice of school whether it be in the TDSB or any other Board. Her number is 416-394-7890 if you need to contact her.

The office was also moved over the holidays into our new home. We've been unpacking boxes and putting all the rooms together over the last three days. The construction crew will now begin work on renovating the new classroom in the old space. We are hoping that all construction, including moving the computer lab into the new space will happen before March Break!

We look forward to a wonderful second term. Thank you for all the warm wishes over the holidays. Kelly Caddel

Lunchtime Routines

Recently, we have heard that some pretty inappropriate behaviour has been occurring in the Shale Pit at lunch; namely snowball/iceball fights and some physical fights. As you all know the Shale pit is not supervised at lunch, leading to alot of these issues. We again ask that you have a conversation with your child/ren about these issues. We are dealing with them at the school as the kids come and tell us, but it seems to be a bit more frequent recently. We thank you for your support in this matter and we will continue to monitor the situation.

Holidays

Thank you to everyone for a great first term. We have had a wonderful last week of singing carols, making crafts, dancing and perfomring! We hope everyone has a fun and relaxing holiday with your friends and family.

We have a busy month of January again:
14th-Student Teachers begin placement; Author visit: Susan Doask
16th-Sr. Hockey Practise
17th-Kindergartens visit Brentwood Library
18th-Sharing Assembies; Sr. Hockey Game
21st-Sr. Hockey Game; Scientist in the school for Ms. Moser and Ms. Kim
24th-Sr. Hockey Practice and Jr. Hockey Game
30th-Kids on the Block Presentation for Grades 1-3