Oct. 1, 2009.
Dear Parents,
The first Secord PAC meeting was held last week. There were several guest speakers including our own Secord librarian, Lauren Smith. Lauren shared information about our library and also made a request to parent volunteers for help in the library. If you are interested please contact Lauren directly in the library. She would love to hear from you.
Another guest speaker was Joan Carne from the Stream of Dreams project. We will be starting the sessions on Monday, October 19th.Stream of Dreams is an eco-education program that will introduce our whole school to our local watershed and the streams that flow or once flowed through them. We will learn how we can all help take care of water, and the project’s legacy will be a Stream of Dreams fish mural on our school fence. Each student and staff member will paint a fish to contribute to the mural. The program's goal is to help our community learn how to conserve and protect water resources and to inspire behavioral change for environmental protection.
The installation date is October 27th. Parent volunteers are needed throughout the day:
7-8 parents for the first hour and 5-6 parents for each hour during the rest of the day.
If you are able to volunteer please sign up on the 'Stream of Dreams' sheet just outside of
the main office, or e-mail: karenwik@hotmail.com with the time you are available. Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered to cut and paint the fish for this workshop. Your help has been very much appreciated!
There will be a $3.00 charge to cover the cost of the materials. Please fill out the form at the bottom of this newsletter and return it to your child’s classroom teacher with $3.00.
At the PAC meeting I also did a presentation on the seismic plan for the school and shared the architectural drawings with parents. For those of you who were unable to attend, there will be an Open House next Wed., October 7th from 3:30 - 7:00 pm. The design proposal and the construction timeline will be presented by the Vancouver School Board staff and Bingham Hill Architects. Please bring your questions and comments to our experts.
I am sure that you have noticed all the work crews on our back field in preparation for the arrival of the portables. The size of our field has been greatly reduced during this time period until the Winter break. In order to provide extra activities for our students, we have being working with Heidi Benson, our Community Links Coordinator to set up some fun activites for the students at lunch starting this coming Monday, Oct. 5th.. Each day there will be sports activities in the big and small gyms run by our Community Links team members and Frog Hollow as well. There will be sign up sheets for the students to sign up for these activities in advance. There will also be chess club in room 105A for intermediate students each day. We really would like to thank our Heidi and her team for helping us to provide these lunch time activities for our students. In addition we are preparing a plan for January after the move into the portables. There will be a staggered lunchtime for primary and intermediate students and students will likely eat their lunch in their class. The hot lunch program will also be adjusted to reflect the fact that we will not have access to the kitchen facilities. We understand the inconveniences that the seismic mitigation will cause. We are happy that our school structure will be reinforced and made safer in case of an earthquake. We are also looking forward to working in a newly designed school that will not only accommodate our students but will be also inviting to parents, and to programs such as Strong Start for 3 year olds. The school will have space for before and after school daycare, and for community groups to share our school after hours.
Vancouver Coastal Health
I would like to reinforce the advice from our VSB medical advisor on tips to help prevent the spread of H1N1 of which the 3 most important elements are
• Frequent hand washing with soap and water
• proper etiquette for coughing and sneezing
• keeping students at home when they have flu-like symptoms
The school will be encouraging students to follow these practices.
Meet the Teacher and Multicultural Dinner
A huge thank you to all the parents who attended our Meet the Teacher evening and multicultural dinner.
An extra special thank you to all the parents who volunteered to help make the multicultural dinner such a success.
School Newsletter
We are still looking for email addresses in order to further decrease the amount of paper that we use when we send our newsletter home. There will be a table in the foyer at the Goal Setting conferences next week so please remember to stop and give us your email address.
Goal Setting Conferences
The Goal Setting Conferences will take place next week on Wednesday and Thursday starting after early dismissal at 2:00 pm. If you are new to the school, goal setting conferences are a time to sit down with your child and the teacher and identify 1 or 2 key educational goals early in this school year.
A number of schools in Vancouver are doing this; they report that an early conference (around mid-October) with parents where 1 or 2 key educational goals are identified allows both parents & teachers more time to support students in achieving their goals by the end of the school year.
Parents report that they greatly appreciate goal-setting earlier in the school year versus just before Winter Break when 1/3 of the school year has gone by. The 4 weeks we have already been in session have given each teacher time to get to know your child; specifically, some of your child’s strengths as well as areas needing attention and support. Of course, this means there will be no conferences after your child receives her/his report card in December, if, after receiving your child’s 1st report in December, you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher.
English Book Fair
Next week is our English Book Fair in room 105A. It will be open during the Goal Setting Conferences so that families can come and take a look at the books. It is a great time to stock up on books for the Winter break.
Upcoming Dates
Wed., Oct 7 Open House for seismic 3:30 - 7:00 pm
Wed. and Thurs.,
Oct. 7, 8 2 pm. dismissal Goal setting conferences
Mon., Oct. 12 Thanksgiving holiday
Tues., Oct. 13 Individual Photo Day
Fri., Oct. 23 Pro-D day, students do not attend school
Tues., Nov. 10 Pro-D day, students do not attend school
Wed., Nov. 11 Remembrance Day
Wed., Nov. 18 School Immunization K’s and Grade 6's