Castor Valley Elementary School Council

* LITERACY AT HOME * – A PARENT INFORMATION EVENING

castorcouncil — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:35:22 +0000

As part of our *Castor Connections* series, CVESC is holding a parent information evening entitled *Literacy at Home* on Monday, February 27th. This session is for parents of children in Junior Kindergarten through grade 3 and offers information on French and English reading comprehension, as well as a variety of strategies to support building literacy at home.

This is the 4th year we’ve held this particular information evening as parents who have attended in past years have found it very useful, especially because our kids are learning to read in both English and French, and this can present a few challenges helping out at home, especially if parents are not bilingual!

Stay tuned for more information coming in the next few weeks.

* * * * * * * Welcome to the CVES Council Website! * * * * * * *

castorcouncil — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:00:33 +0000

WHAT’S NEW and COMING UP!





*		We will be holding a Castor Connections information evening entitled Literacy At Home on Monday, February 27th at 6:30pm. Childcare provided – see our flyer!
*		Don’t forget you can order discounted Sens Tickets through CVES! Click here for more details or click on the Sens widget on the right
*		Talentfest is back! Mark your calendars for May 9th and 10th. Please read our flyer here and print the Audition Form and return it to the school by Friday, February 24th.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Ensure you’re always up to date with CVES events and activities by either being on our distribution list and/or by subscribing to our blog (top right) to get email notification when we’ve added a blog post.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Thanks to the fundraising efforts of our Castor Valley community, our 2 new play structures have been installed! Please come and take a look at the fruits of our labour and efforts when you next visit the school!

* The primary play structure has passed inspection and is being used by grades 1 to 3 students.

* The junior/intermediate play structure has passed inspection and is now being used by grade 4-6 students!
(a more current picture without fence will be uploaded soon!)

CRITICAL NEED FOR PAID LUNCH/RECESS MONITORS for nutrition breaks/recess (11:45-12:30 and 2:10-2:55)!

castorcouncil — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:00:46 +0000

UPDATE: We are no longer accepting applications for these positions. I believe we had one person apply (THANK YOU!), so we have a bit more coverage, however unfortunately not enough to keep all our funding, which has now been scaled back for this, and future years.

*****************************

As you may know from previous newsletters, CVES was given funding this year from the OCDSB to hire Lunch/RecessMonitors for our nutrition breaks/recess. Unfortunately, because we have been unable to fill all the positions, the OCDSB is prepared to pull this funding in 2 weeks (and allocate it to other schools), and chances are, we won’t get it back next year!

Currently, there is one duty teacher who supervises the grade 1/2 hallway – that’s 7 classrooms! The duty teacher checks in periodically with each class during the 20 minute nutrition break, and there are also 3 studentnutrition break monitors from grade 6 in these classrooms. The reason there are 3 is to ensure safety in the event of an emergency – 1 to stay with the student in distress, 1 to get the duty teacher, and 1 to supervise the class.

The grade 3 students, most of whom are in portables, also have the 3 student nutrition break monitors and there are 2 duty teachers who supervise the 7 portables.

Grades 4 – 8 do NOT have student nutrition break monitors, and rely solely on the duty teacher in their hallway or outside in the portables for supervision.

As a parent, I’m sure that the supervision and safety of your child is very important, and that’s why it’s so crucial that we have paid Lunch/Recess Monitors to help supervise the classrooms. Having them means we have TWICE the supervision, and wefeel it’s very important to have an extra visible adult to ensure routines and rules are being followed. It also helps ensure our anaphylaxis policies are being followed, and in general, helps ensure the health and safety of our students, both during the nutrition breaks and outside at recess.

We have funding to hire TWO Lunch/Recess Monitors for both nutrition breaks 5 days a week, however currently we only have 1 paid monitor who covers Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and 1 who works on Fridays, both in the primary hallway.

The role involves an hour and a half commitment per day, split between the 2 nutrition breaks (11:45-12:30 and 2:10-2:55), and although we realize the schedule is not entirely convenient for parents of a rural school, the administration is prepared to very flexible with the schedule – they will work with you to try and make the role fit for you! One of our monitors just works on Fridays and last year one monitor came in only for the afternoon break.

If you’d like more information on the position and what it entails, please email Laurel Perry-Hapli, a CVES parent who has been a paid Monitor for the past 2 years, and is very passionate about what she considers a very necessary and rewarding role in our school.

If you are interested in applying for one of these positions, or know ANYONE who would be – a friend or grandparent (it does not have to be a CVES family), please contact the office either by emailor phone (821-1272).

We feel so fortunate to have been given this funding and this is our last chance to keep it. If we don’t use it this year (and within the next 2 weeks!), we will not receive it at all next year, leaving our kids with minimal supervision. We know many parents have had concerns about nutrition break supervision, and here’s your chance to get involved and help us make our school as safe and healthy as possible!

SNOWSUIT FUND

castorcouncil — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:36:12 +0000

It’s that time of the year again! The grade 7 & 8 Ambassadeurs are collecting clean and warm snowsuits in support of The Snowsuit Fund. We ask that you drop off gently used snowsuits, sizes ranging from infant to adult, in the school foyer by Friday, November 18th. Please also send in any hats, mitts, gloves, scarves and boots. For more information, please visit www.snowsuitfund.com.

Please note: before donating anything, ask yourself, would you wear it?

Merci,

Les Ambassadeurs

SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING & ANNUAL REPORT

castorcouncil — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:14:46 +0000

We had a great start to the school year with over 30 people (parents and staff) in attendance at our first meeting of the school year! We welcomed new council members and saw some shuffling in both our executive team and our portfolio members.

Minutes for the September meeting can be found here, and we encourage you read our 2010-2011 Annual Report prepared by our out-going Chair, Heather Wilson – we are so proud of what we accomplished last year!

If you’re interested in joining us for a meeting or would like to be on our Council mailing list, please email castorvalleycouncil@gmail.com.

Lunch Monitors Wanted!

castorcouncil — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:08:31 +0000

CVES has been funded by the board to have adult lunch monitors in our classrooms and on the yard for 3 hours a day. This works out to two adult lunch monitors per nutrition and recess break every day of the week. We are currently looking for 2 lunch monitors for each nutrition and recess break on Mondays and Thursdays and 1 additional lunch monitor for each of the nutrition and recess breaks on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. These are paid positions and require an hour and a half commitment daily.

If you are interested or would like more information, please contact Gail in the Main Office (821-1272). She will be able to provide you with the documentation required by the board. Once an application is submitted to the board with the requisite documentation, each new lunch monitor will be given an Employee Identification Number (EIN), after which their service as a lunch monitor in the school can begin.

Recently Added

castorcouncil — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:03:45 +0000

Please note we have added the following to our site:

Grades 1-4 and 5-8 Lunch Program dates have been added to the CVESC Google Calendar.
CVES Entry Procedures and Balanced School Day (see left column)

Recently Added

castorcouncil — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 08:51:58 +0000

Please note we have added the following to our site:

OCDSB school council updates and events have been added to the Community Events page.

Donate your Lunchmate “BUCKS”!

castorcouncil — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 08:51:36 +0000

CVES now collects Lunchmate Bucks!

Please drop off your Lunchmate Bucks in the designated box in the school lobby or send them in with your children.

Points will be used to collect items such as articles for the kids to play with around the school and prizes for various school functions.

Thank you!

SENS tickets!

castorcouncil — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 21:12:12 +0000

We hope to bring this fun opportunity back to the CVES community for this upcoming hockey season!

Look out for an email and /or check back here as we get closer to the season

** if we don’t have your current email, please email castorvalleycouncil@gmail.com **