Allergies
We have a life-threatening allergy we need to be aware of this year at Shortreed:
Peanut/Nut allergy: We are a ‘nut aware school’ and require your support to not send nut products to school. If you need to do so, please ensure you practice with your child at home not touching items before washing hands after consuming products with nuts. If your child does come with nut products, we ask these students to come eat in a designated area where there is adult supervision to ensure hand washing occurs.
If your child has a life-threatening allergy (i.e. they need Benedryl and an Epi-Pen at school) we request that you remember to ensure that these items are up to date and you have completed the necessary paperwork at the office. New: If your child has such an allergy, we will be asking them to wear their Epi-pen (in a pouch) on them at all times. **Please contact Mr. Touzeau to set up a consultation regarding your child’s allergy!
Shortreed Behaviour Expectations:
You can help us at home! Review with your child(ren) what to do when they are angry, sad, frustrated, etc. Being physical to solve problems is not an option.
“At Shortreed we keep hands, feet and objects to ourselves at all times.”
Please encourage your child(ren) to take problems to the nearest adult instead of leaving them unresolved at school and waiting until they get home to tell you. Problems are best dealt with at the time they occur. We also spend a lot of time working with our students to help them distinguish between things that happen ‘on purpose’ and those that happen ‘accidently’. If you could review the difference at home, that would help us out at school. Lastly, we try and get our students to know the difference between tattle-taling (purposely getting someone in trouble even though you could resolve it with words yourself or it has already been dealt with by an adult) and telling (to prevent harm to self or others, something an adult definitely needs to know about). Spending time reviewing at home these items will help us out here at school. Thank you in advance for your support!
School Colour Fridays
In an effort to create an even stronger sense of community for our Shortreed students, we would like to suggest that every Friday students try and wear our school colours (blue and yellow and white).
Stay tuned for more Shortreed Wear ordering options coming soon!.
Student Pick-up and Drop-off
Students are not to be dropped off at school before there is morning supervision (8:20), and should leave the school grounds at the end of supervision at 2:45. Students are not supervised before or after these times and it is a huge safety concern if you are not abiding by these times. As well, please ensure your child(ren) are beginning the year arriving at school on time. School begins at 8:35 with our welcoming bell and classes begin at 8:40. Being on time and attending school regularly is essential for children to be successful in school.
Visitors to the School
Parents entering the school Just a reminder that parents dropping off lunches, jackets, etc. must sign in at the office and wear a ‘visitor’ badge. This is necessary for safety reasons. We are responsible for all adults and children in the building and need to know who is present in case of an earthquake or fire drill. Please be respectful of this (even if Mrs. Frost knows who you are) and sign in each and every time.
Attendance
If your child is going to be away from school, please call and leave a message at the front office as soon as possible. In addition, please do not send your child to school if they have thrown-up or are threatening to throw-up (i.e. they have a flu). There needs to be a 24-hour window where there has been no fever or vomit before returning to school. Please be mindful of all the other staff and students who would prefer not to get the flu from your child A reminder that we cannot give medication to students without proper forms being filled in by parents at the office.
Research on chronic absenteeism shows that missing 10% or more of a school year for any reason – excused or unexcused absences and suspensions – places students at risk of academic failure, involvement with juvenile justice, and dropping out. The goal should be students missing no more than one day of school a month. If you need support with this, please do not hesitate to let us know.
Lates
If you are running late and your child is arriving after the 2nd bell (8:41), please ensure your child enters the school from the main doors. They will need to check in with Mrs. Frost and get a late slip. We realize that mornings can be hard but being consistently late should be something that should be avoided as it greatly impacts a student’s connection to classmates and interferes with their learning.
Traffic and Parking
Families are reminded that the school parking lot is closed to parents during the school day and especially between 8:15 – 8:45 and between 2:15 – 2:45. If you see us letting certain vehicles in during these times it means: they have a disabled person sticker; a daycare identification badge; are a bus; or are a staff member or someone belonging to Family Place. If you sneak into the lot early, then please stay parked until after 8:45 or after 2:45 for the safety of all our children.
A reminder that there is a lot of parking available in the church parking lot and along the street BUT do not park on yellow lines – yellow lines can be used for a quick (less than 30 seconds) drop off and pick up only (i.e. parent must stay in the car).
We respectfully request that the adults model safe and responsible practices with children and use crosswalks and refrain from making u-turns.
Appropriate Clothing/Footwear – Every Day is an Outside Day
School is a busy and messy place to learn. Please encourage your children to dress appropriately for school and in clothing that may get dirty. Remind your child(ren) to not share hats and coats with friends.
Every year, numerous students get injured due to attempts to run in flip-flops. Please send your child to school in shoes that are safe to run in at all times. As a school, we are having special school runs on a regular basis, so proper footwear is even more essential this year than in previous years. Unless it is pouring rain or a snow blizzard, we send students outside for play times. Ensure they are dressed for the weather. Please see the new District Dress Guidelines here.
Healthy Snacks and Lunches
We all love treats but we respectfully request that treats are the smallest part of your child’s lunch. Lunches should have a source of protein & carbohydrate and fruits and veggies should be included.
We strongly recommend that juice boxes not be sent as we see so many thrown out on a daily basis and there is so much sugar in these that it impacts the students’ readiness to learn. It’s best for the environment if students use re-useable water bottles for their drinks at school (water is the best options).
Homework
At this time of year we are often asked about homework. The only homework that is essential is — READING!! Students should be reading on their own or with an adult every single night. It is the most important homework of all – the creation of good reading habits. Additional homework might occur if students need a small bit of additional practice or a particular student did not do their assigned work during class time and now must finish their work during their own time. Not including time spent reading (@1/2 an hour a night) all other homework should not exceed one hour a night for Grade 4 & 5 students.
Assemblies
At the end of most months, we have a designated ‘month end assembly’ (please refer to each newsletter for the date of these assemblies). These assemblies range from 15 – 30 minutes and parents are always welcome to attend. We often show a slideshow of images of the past month as a way to celebrate all we do and are at SHortreed. We would love to see you there!
Backpacks
If your child is in need of a backpack for the 2018-19 school year, please let us know. We have a few new backpacks from Costco donations and would love to put them to good use. Please keep this in mind as the year goes on if your child(ren) need a new backpack for any reason throughout the school year.
Lice
That word that strikes fear in families and unfortunately happens at some point at every school each year. We do our best here at Shortreed (with the help of our trained PAC Lice Checkers) to regularly check if there are any classes where live lice are evident. But we also need your help at home. If a letter comes home to you letting you know that your child has lice, PLEASE take the time to deal with the problem effectively. And yes, it does take time. Please check out the best/most helpful resource: www.lice911.com. You don’t need to buy expensive, toxic substances to get rid of lice. You need to buy a proper lice comb and a cheap but thick, white hair conditioner. Then you need to spend TIME daily combing the conditioner through the hair with the lice comb. The conditioner shows you the lice (because they are black), it makes the lice stick to it and thus makes it easier to comb them out. This is not a one evening treatment. If you don’t consistently do the combing for a period of 2-3 weeks, you will find the lice returning regularly. Remember it only takes one live louse to repopulate your child’s head with hundreds of eggs. If your child does have lice, don’t forget to change the bedding and towels and wash all recent clothes. Lice will die quickly if not in contact with human hair, so even just taking the bedding into the garage or basement for 24 hours will kill any live ones. With your help at home, we can keep these pesky bugs to a minimum for all at school. Thank you!
Is it BULLYING or is it CONFLICT?
Bullying is a persistent pattern of unwelcome or aggressive behaviour that often involves an imbalance of power, and/or the intention to harm or humiliate someone.
Conflict, on the other hand, is generally a disagreement or difference in opinion between peers who typically have equal power in their relationships. It’s usually an inevitable part of a group dynamic.
Regardless of the situation, we encourage/ask students to immediately seek help from an adult to help them through the process. If it is deemed to be a bullying incident/issue, we follow a clear process set out by Erase Bullying BC.