September

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Down at the Principal's Office (November) (Calendar)

• Please read the attached letter from Mr. Landry, School Board Superintendent.  In this letter, Mr. Landry reminds us that good, basic hygiene and regular health precautions will go a long way to keeping us all healthy during the cold and flu season.

• I have a request from the lunch time supervision staff to remind parents to send lunch items that are already cooked at home.  Some children are bringing noodle meals that are not yet cooked and are asking the supervision staff to prepare these uncooked meals.  This is a problem because the supervision staff is spending a great amount of time cooking meals for students instead of supervising them while in the cafeteria.

• Provincial test results will soon be coming home.  If you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call.

• Safety drills are an essential part of keeping people safe in the school building.  So far, we have only practiced fire drills with the children.  In November we will be practicing an emergency response drill that has our teachers and students staying in the classroom and practicing being quiet and staying out of sight.  This drill is part of the School Board Safety Response procedure and is practiced in every school on the Board.  We will be practicing this drill in conjunction with our RCMP officer Constable Darrell MacNeil.  With Darrell around you know everything is going to be OK.

• The school Christmas concert schedule is attached.  Please have a look and see the time and date of your show!

• Our school has been selected to participate in a provincial initiative in the form of a survey that will be administered November 25 in the morning.  The entire survey will only take an hour and results will be completely anonymous.  The classroom teachers will be administering the survey in their classroom.  It’s kind of nice to know that The Nova Scotia Department of Education is interested about what we think here at Digby!

Around the School

• Christmas Bazaar is fast approaching and donations are already starting to come in to the school.  All donations are welcome.  Please bring any items you have for the Christmas Bazaar to school and we’ll keep them safe. The Christmas Bazaar is on December 14^th, here at the school.  More news to follow as this great school event gets closer.

• Playground meeting is being held on November 24^th at 6:30 pm here at school.  If you would like to participate in creating a new playground space for our children, please come and see what this very exciting process is all about.  All are welcome, and you remember how playgrounds work, the more the merrier!

Thanks for the help!

• Once again the Home & School has done a wonderful job with supporting community initiatives and raising funds for our school.  The Crafty Claus event was a big success due to the help of the parents in this school.  Volunteers worked the cafeteria counter and food items where donated.  Money was raised to help support our school.

• Volunteers are always welcome to help at the breakfast program. 

• Year books will be distributed very soon!  Thanks again to Lisa and Michelle.

Down at The Principal’s Office (October) (Calendar)

     Well it’s hard to believe that September has come and gone.  The school start-up is going well and things are slowly getting into place.  October has many exciting events happening in and around the school.  Provincial testing of Grade 3 and 6 students is well underway. The teachers and students are doing a wonderful job of demonstrating their best work.

     You’ll see that this Friday there is no school.  We are working on the school accreditation plan.  Remember last year when you completed those surveys about the school?  Well, we have your information back and we’re going to conduct an internal review of this school so that we can work to be the best school we can be!  A final draft of this document should be ready by Christmas time.  I’ll keep you posted.

     As you can see from the school calendar there are a lot of safety drills and programs running this month.  We have already had two fire drills and the kids did great!  When they heard the fire bell they got out of the school, lined-up outside and did it so fast that they beat last year’s record. A student told me afterwards that his family practices a fire drill at home too.

     In preparation for the flu season the school has installed new soap dispensers around the school that are at “kid height” and can be reached by even the smallest of hands and arms.  We have been told that hand washing remains the best defense against the flu this season.  Teachers have a hand washing poster in every classroom and we will be practicing effective hand washing this month.

     As part of our Healthy School initiative students are being encouraged to go outside at recess to play, run, and jump and just have a ball.  Speaking of balls. We bought 200 new playground balls that kids can use at recess.  But I digress. Students and teachers need a break from all the hard work going on in the class.  So, when the bell goes, everybody is to get up from their desks and take a break, have a snack, hit the washroom, you know, break time stuff.  If it’s raining we bring the students back in, nobody has to stand in the rain, no matter how much they want to!

     Other than that I think the school has had a good start.  From what I’m hearing most people are busy getting back into routines and happy to have kids back in school.  I know that this place is a happier place when the kids are here!

Talk to you soon, Gerald Reber

Around the School

• The Peaceful Solutions Committee is holding a very interesting evening with a world renowned speaker here at the school on Tuesday, the 27^th. Hetty Van Gurp created an organization called Peaceful Schools International, and we are a member.  We fly the flag that we earned in front of the school.

• Home & School is holding a pumpkin sale and bottle drive Saturday, October 2^nd at the school. Volunteers and bottle donations are welcome.  And the pumpkins are the best price in town.  All money raised will go directly to the school playground fund.

• Ms Oswald’s grade 5 class is holding a sock-hop on Halloween Friday in the gym.  As usual the P-3 students will dance together and the big guys will have their own time.

• Grade 6 Soccer tournament is this Friday and the Walk/Run club goes until the 22^nd.

• “Christ for Kids” starts on the 14^th from 6:30/8:00pm at the Wesleyan Church.

Thanks for the help!

• The breakfast program is up and running thanks to Noreen Millar and Juanita Clayton

• The school book fair was a great success!

• Rising Star assembly this month will include all student recognition

• Volunteers are needed to help serve/prepare food at the breakfast program.  All the hard work is done, all we need are parents to be present and volunteer their time.

• Year books will be in this month!  Thanks again to Lisa and Michelle.

Down at The Principal’s Office (September) (Calendar)

Welcome back to all the families who call Digby Elementary home.  We’re in for a very exciting year.  The teachers are all fired-up and ready to go.  The school is as clean as a whistle.  Every student I’ve talked to is happy to be back at school.  If that doesn’t sound like the ingredients for a great year, I don’t know what does.

Just a few new things I want to share with you about the up-coming year.  The first is that Mr. Balser won’t be at the helm this year; he has retired and promises to be only a phone call away.  We all wish him the best and thank him for all the many wonderful things he has done over the years to help support students and families in the Digby school community.  Mrs. Marshall has also retired and our Primary program will never be the same without her.  On behalf of the families and students who started their schooling in her classroom I’d like to thank her for making this school and our world a better place to live and learn.

I’m joined in the school office this year by our new Vice-Principal, Mr. Jeff Bain and a new addition to Digby Elementary is our School Counsellor, Mrs. Alison Arthur.  All three of us are located in the school office, right next to Wanda.  And that’s a good thing, because who doesn’t love Wanda!  Welcome to Mme. Robicheau, Mrs. Mailman and Ms Adams.

The school breakfast program is in need of a Parent volunteer Coordinator.  This person will be in-charge of organizing the menu, corporate/community volunteers, and program funding.  This is an essential part of the community services that are provided here at the school.  Keeping this program alive and well here at the school is another example of the strong partnerships that exist between school and community.  We need your help.  Please call myself at the school to discuss ways you can participate.

As far as changes to the way the school works, there’s not too many things different this year.  Unfortunately, the price of lunch from the cafeteria had to be raised to meet the rising cost to provide a healthy lunch program for your children.  Therefore, the cost of a lunch at the school cafeteria will be $4.00.  Also, the cafeteria will not be offering credit this year. Families ordering lunch will pay for it in the cafeteria before school starts. Well, I think that’s it for now.  Let me just say again how excited I am to be Principal of such a fantastic school. 

Until we talk again, Gerald Reber

Home and School

The first meeting of the Digby Elementary Home and School Assoc. will take place on Sept. 15, 2009 @ 6:30 p.m. in the cafeteria.  Parents are encouraged to attend this meeting and see what Home & School is all about.  We need lots of volunteers for activities throughout the year so if you would like to help in any way, this is your opportunity.  Please join our email group by emailing deshomeandschool@live.ca and we will add you to our list that keeps you up to date on Home & School events, or you can use this to email any of your parent questions or concerns. 

Thank you, Carla Smith-Titus, President

School Counsellor

Hello and welcome to the new year.  My name is Alison Arthur, school counsellor at Digby Elementary.  You may be wondering what an elementary school counselor does.  Basically, I am here to support students.  My job is to promote students’ emotional health by working with the students themselves, their families, and school staff to help develop healthy relationships, social competence, and successful coping strategies.  If you feel that I could be of help with your child, please contact me at the school.  My office is located in the main office, or I may be reached by phone at 245-7550.