September, 2017
Dear Parents/Guardians,
This letter is to inform you of our back to school routines on the first day of school, September 5, 2017.
To assist children with the first day of school, we had a school wide Meet and Greet on Tuesday, June 27th. Students had an opportunity to meet the variety of teachers that will be teaching the grade your child is moving into. They also saw the classrooms for those teachers. They had time to talk about any new changes that they might experience in their next grade or different areas of the school they will begin to use. For example, some students might have to start using a new washroom or play on a different area of the playground due to moving from Kindergarten to grade one or from grade three to grade four. Students and teachers also talked about first day routines, leadership opportunities that they can become involved in and programs that will continue to be offered such as the Breakfast program. Please note that the Breakfast program will begin later in September so any students signing up for next school year should have breakfast at home until it begins. Our hope is that this Meet and Greet will help students learn any changes that will be new to them and ease any anxiety that might occur due to these changes.
Students also talked about the routine for the first day of school. Here are the major points:
- Students will get off of the bus and head around the school to their designated area for their new grade (Kindergarten go directly into the FDK yard at the front of the school, grades 1,2,3 is primary wing at the back at far end, grades 4,5,6 is junior middle wing. If you are bringing your child and staying with them until the bell rings, please park at the arena if the parent parking lot becomes congested and kindly walk with your child across the road to the school. If you are dropping off your child, please use the kiss and ride area of the parent parking lot and follow the traffic flow signage for safety reasons. Once the bell rings due to congestion and safety, parents are asked to say goodbye and wish their child a fabulous first day.
- There will be staff on duty at the front of the school in the bus zones and on the various playground areas directing students to where they need to go. Extra staff will be available to assist with new students and new registrations occurring on the first day.
- Once the bell rings at 9:15, children will line up by grade. There will be pylons indicating where to line up.
- Teachers will greet the students and inform them of their homeroom teachers.
- Students will go inside to homerooms and begin their school day.
- We will have a whole school assembly later in the day to officially welcome everyone back to school for the 2017-2018 school year!
Rainy day plan:
If raining, students will walk around to their appropriate corridor and enter in as they would usually do in the event of rain. Once again due to safety and congestion, parents will be asked to say goodbye at that time.
Yours in helping with transitions,
Mary Anne Patterson and Paul Gilbert
