Dundas Central School News

Dundas Central School News 73 Melville Street Dundas, Ontario L9H 2A2 Phone (905) 627-3521

Fax (905) 627-3522

Education is “Central”

October 2009 B. Morlog, Principal J. George, Vice-Principal www.hwdsb.on.ca/centraldundas

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK A Good Start! It was nice to experience a good “start-up” to the school year. Our timetable has run smoothly and our staffing predictions were accurate so we “dodged” school re-organization at the end of September. It was great to meet and greet our school community at “Meet the Teacher” Night. Thanks must be extended to our Home and School for organizing the evening and arranging for Dundas’ own “Super Submarine” to attend and provide the food and drinks. Q.S.P. – Magazine Fundraiser Once again our Home and School Association has organized this annual fundraiser. This project is beneficial to our school community. It serves as our major fundraiser and the proceeds are utilized for classroom and school needs. It assists families with the emphasis on literacy and most households purchase magazines. The prices offered are very favourable. We are concluding this project by the Thanksgiving weekend so send your orders in promptly. The longer you keep the order forms at home the easier it is to lose them. Thank you for your participation in our major fund raiser. School Community Meetings Our next Home and School Meeting will be hosted on Wed. Oct. 7th in our staff room. This organization serves as a major support to our school by organizing fund raisers and providing support to our school. At our last meeting on Sept. 15th, the group discussed the organization of Meet the Teacher Night, QSP, other fund raisers, school initiatives and was introduced to our Vice-Principal, Ms. George. The next meeting will address the selection of the executive and the initiatives for this year. Our current chairperson Michelle Chin is looking to her reduce her role (thanks for your efforts Michelle!) so the organization is looking for people to “step up”. See you there! Our first School Council Meeting was held on Tuesday Sept. 29th in our staff room. This organization serves as an advisory body to the school. The meetings serve to be information sessions on school, Board and Ministry initiatives. Mr. Mike Downs has served as our Chair for many years and he is planning to step down. (Thanks for all your efforts over the years Mike!) Mike will remain to assist with transition and Jeremy Abrahams will serve as our new chair person. Thanks Jeremy! Our next meeting will be Tues. Nov. 3rd. Plan to attend this session and bring a friend! 4.

Student Teachers

Our school once again has been selected for the Internship program with the Faculty of Education at Brock University. Student teachers will be paired with an Associate Teacher on our staff. The teacher candidates will be working with their Associate for 10 days throughout September, October and November. Their first teaching block will run from November 17th to December 11th. We welcome them to our school and we hope they enjoy all the opportunities available to them. Teacher Candidate

Associate Teacher

Ms. Dodge Ms. Walker Ms. Elphick Ms. Moulden Ms. Young Mr. Fraser

Mrs. Bloom Mrs. Bennett Mrs. Waller Mr. James Bennett Mrs. DiDonato Mr. Bell

Ms. Learner from Lakehead University has been working with Mrs. Groves since school started . We will also have 9 student teachers from Nipissing Teachers College in Brantford working on Mondays with staff from October to until April and then teach for a week that month. In addition, we have 6 co-op students from Parkside High along with our parent volunteers helping us. It’s nice to have so many people assisting in delivering program and improving student / teacher contacts. I believe our students will benefit from the “extra hands”.

EQAO Preliminary Results The preliminary results from the grade three and six testing from last Spring have been released. In October, parents will receive their child’s individual results. We are very pleased with our results, especially with the primary scores. Enclosed is a brief synopsis of the school’s scores. Dundas Central School Results for All Students at or Above Provincial Standard (Levels 3 & 4) Grade 3

08/09

07/08

06/07

05/06

04/05

Reading Writing Math

80% 90% 78%

75% 80% 84%

52% 52% 70%

59% 68% 78%

72% 78% 75%

64% 62% 60%

73% 67% 87%

65% 51% 73%

78% 63% 75%

88% 82% 87%

Grade 6 Reading Writing Math

The testing results provide a “snapshot” of student progress and staff will analyze all the data to address student needs and program delivery.

Dear Dundas Central Families: I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you all back to a new school year and hope that everyone had a safe and happy summer. This letter is to inform you about the care that the Umbrella Family and Child Centres provides, right here in your home school. We are excited to be able to offer your school aged child a “seamless” day, one full of opportunity without worry. Your child can be dropped off as early as 7:30 a.m. to take part in quiet activities and have a healthy snack. They can then go straight to their classroom when the bell rings. At dismissal time, your child will meet the Umbrella Staff member outdoors at a designated place. They will take part in active games and free play activities outdoors, weather permitting. After outdoor play, they will come inside to have snack, interact with their friends, start homework, and take part in selfdirected creative activities, etc. until 6 p.m. when the program closes. We offer part-time, (min. 3 days per week) and full time spots throughout the school year. Feel free to contact me, Kathy Pryde, Centre Supervisor at 905-628-2680 or [email protected] or pop into the drama room and ask Linda for more information. Our centre phone # is 905-973-7472. We look forward to meeting your child care needs! Sincerely, Kathy Pryde Centre Supervisor Umbrella Family and Child Centres of Hamilton

Are you building a home-school team? Research shows that when home and school form a strong team, kids learn more and do better in school. Answer the following questions yes or no to see if you’re doing your part to build a home-school team: ___1. Have you met your child’s classroom teacher at least once this year? ___2. Do you talk with your child about school each day? Do you talk about the importance of working hard and doing your best? ___3. Do you have a regular time for homework each day? Is the TV turned off during that time? ___4. Do you make sure your child gets to school on time each day? ___5. Do you read to or with your child every day? How did you do? Each yes answer means you are building a strong homeschool team. For each no consider taking an idea from the quiz.

Senior Girls Baseball

Terry Fox Run

Congratulations to our Senior Girls' Baseball team for their fine efforts in the HWDSB Division 1 3-pitch tournament. The team faced some tough competition throughout the day, but always exhibited a strong competitive spirit and sense of fair play. We had fun and were proud to represent Dundas Central. I would like to acknowledge the following players: Nicole Brown, Amanda Harvey, Emily Shaw, Erica LeBlanc, Hope Bartley, Rhyleigh Hopkins, Salma Mobasher, Haley Kenna, Jessica Derrick, Alex Lloyd and Jadye Malek-Laidlaw.

In the last two weeks of September, Student Council representatives made daily announcements to generate support for our annual Terry Fox Run/Walk on October 2nd. Students were encouraged to research an answer for a daily trivia question about Terry Fox and his Marathon of Hope. Thank you to all of you who have supported this event by donating to the Terry Fox Foundation, by offering to supervise this event, and by helping your child learn more about Terry Fox and his commitment to combat cancer and help others.

Baseball News

Well done girls! S.Lyall Coach Junior Girls Baseball The Junior Girls Baseball team won their championship pennant on Tues., Sept 22. The girls went undefeated throughout the tournament and won the championship game by a score of 16-4. Congratulations girls! I would like to acknowledge the players: Marscha Kingsley, Charlotte Rose, Lauren Bell, Nicole Cashin, Sierra Succar, Megan Smith, Callista Stavnitzky, Jessica Diamond, Sarah Wilkinson, Natasha Vlietman, Destiny DeKock, Hannah Kinghorn.

A very special thank you goes to Mr. Morlog, who, because of his commitment to this cause and to the spirit of our school, has agreed to "face" a cream pie should our school succeed in raising more than last year's collective donation of $1250.00. Thanks as well to Fortinos on Main St. W. who have donated freezies for all of our students to enjoy following the run/walk. We are very grateful for the contributions everyone is making to support cancer research! Kindergarten News and Dates SMILE! Picture day will be on Oct 14 for the “B” day SK classes and on Oct 15 for the “A” day JK and JK/SK class. Trip to Yee Haw Adventure Farm will take place on Thursday Oct22 in the morning for the JK and JK/SK class and on the morning of Friday Oct 23 for the SK class. Hallowe’en parade: JK and JK/SK will be going on a Halloween parade through all classes Thursday, October 29th in the a.m. and the SK's will be doing it on Friday, October 30th -same time.

Home & School News

Mr. Dean Coach

Hope everyone has had a good start to the school year and the routines are starting to kick in.

Junior Boys Baseball

Thanks to everyone who made the Meet the Teacher BBQ such a success. We raised about $300 for the school.

Congratulations to the Junior boys baseball team on winning their tournament. The school would like to thank Mr. Corsini and Mr. Grisdale for their help. Thank you to the following students for their excellent effort: Alex Tomlinson, Jonathan Grisdale, Ben Birkby, Spencer Butts, Harrison Corsini, Matt Flaherty, Brodie Lennox, Cam McConnell, Jordan McNeil, Joey Monds, Joe Thompson.

QSP Magazine Drive: The campaign deadline is the end of day October 13th. Thanks for helping make this our biggest fundraiser for the school year! We have started a Mabel's Labels campaign that ends in December. Mabel’s Label’s have a website called ww.dundascentral.mabel.ca and this is where you can directly place your orders and receive them in the mail to your home.

Mr. Jamie Bennett Coach

There will probably be one or two H&S events in October and November, which we'll advertise closer to the dates.

St. Donat January 13-16, 2010

Our next H&S meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 7th 7:00 -8:30 pm. We are approving our list of events and initiatives for the school year, and also ringing in the new H&S exec and event leaders, so if you're interested ... Child care is available ...hope to see you there!

Dundas Central registration form and Perspectives registration form plus $50 deposit is due October 2, 2009.

Michelle Chin Dundas Central Home & School http://www.hwdsb.on.ca/centraldundas/

Pizza! Pizza! Pizza! Get ready for Pizza! Our Pizza Thursdays will be starting up again on Thursday, October 15th. We will be offering cheese or pepperoni slices from Domino's Pizza, for $2 per slice. Primary/Junior students please give your order to your teacher by Wednesday mornings. Middle School students, you do not need to order in advance; you may purchase slices during the second part of Nutrition Break on your way up to your lunchrooms, after recess.

Don’t forget to turn your clocks back one hour on Saturday, October 31st. NSF Cheques Last year we had a number of NSF cheques. A friendly reminder there is a $7.00 charge for all NSF cheques. All cheques must clear before the trip date, therefore we will not be accepting post dated cheques.

From the Office Please report to the Office: Dundas Central School has a safe school policy—we kindly request that all parents and visitors to the school (no matter how familiar) sign in and out of the office. While this may seem like an inconvenience to you, it is one of the required steps we take each day to keep your child(ren) safe.

We have several students arriving at school as early as 8:00. Please be aware that there is no supervision on the playground until 8:25.

O Our Newsletter has gone GREEN!

Attendance: Please help us out by calling the school if your child will be absent. You can call ANYTIME with this information (name, class and reason, please speak slowly and clearly). This will ensure the absence is recorded properly. Please try to call before 9:00am on the day of the absence 905-627-3521.

As our attempt at reducing paper, we now send out our monthly newsletter and calendar by email.

The office at Dundas Central is a very busy place - as you can imagine with over 500 students. How parents can help:

www.hwdsb.on.ca/centraldundas

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If you have information that needs to be given to your child’s teacher, it would be very helpful if you could write a note to the particular teacher and have your child hand it in. By having child care arrangements made well in advance and ensuring your child(ren) know who is picking him/her up at dismissal. The office phones are extremely busy at the end of the day and we cannot ensure that your child(ren) will be notified of last minute changes.

Thank you for your co-operation with these matters.

For those families that have not already registered for this mailing, please go to our school website at :

In the bottom left hand corner there is a box marked SUBSCRIBE HERE. Just enter your email address and the newsletter/calendar and all important updates from school will be mailed directly to you. No more searching through backpacks for important school information! ***We realize that not everyone has access to a computer at home so we will have paper copies available in the office at your request. The newsletter and calendar generally are distributed on the last day of the month.