Dear Parents/Guardians,

We made it to the last week of the school year! It's hard to believe how fast the time has gone. As this is the last newsletter of the year, I wanted to thank all of you for your continued support again this year. I look forward to working with you and our incredible staff to meet the needs of all our students on multiple levels again in September. I hope all of you have a wonderful and safe summer! Here are some updates for the last few days. We look forward to celebrating our grade 6 students on Tuesday and recognizing our incredible volunteers on Wednesday. A reminder that the last day of school is Thursday!

Lost and Found: We still have some clothing in our Lost and Found. If your child has misplaced an article of clothing, please check the table in the front foyer of our school. All unclaimed clothing will be donated to charity on Friday, June 28th.

Report Cards: Report cards will be sent home with all students in hardcopy form on Tuesday this week. They will also be published to Edsby for anyone wanting to view it digitally.

Class Lookup Portal: Please see the information in the newsletter regarding finding out who your child's teacher will be in September. The portal will go live on July 3rd. The same letter attached to this newsletter will be sent home with your child's report card. My understanding is that there will be an email sent out from our board office on Tuesday, July 2nd with child's OEN and PIN that will be needed to use in the Lookup portal. Again, class placements are tentative as changes do sometimes happen over the summer.

Have a great "short" week everyone and an AMAZING summer! See you in September!

~Mr. Coulter

June 25th - Gr. 6 Leaving Ceremony @2pm with Clap-Out to Follow

June 25th - Report Cards Go Home

June 26th - Volunteer Appreciation Tea @ 10am

June 27th - Final Year-End Assembly

June 27th - Last Day of Classes

June 28th - PA DAY

July 1st - Canada Day!

June is Recognized as National Indigenous History Month, Filipino Heritage Month, Portuguese Heritage Month, Italian Heritage Month Month and also Pride Month!

June 27th - Canadian Multiculturalism Day

We have 34 grade 6 students leaving us at Roger Neilson PS at the end of the month. To celebrate and recognize their time at RNPS we are hosting a special "Leaving Ceremony" for them and their families on Tuesday, June 25th at 2 pm in our school Gym. Families can begin taking their seats at 1:45pm. Following the ceremony, we are going to have our traditional "Clap-Out" as the grade 6s walk through the hallways and pass by all the other younger students, parents, and staff. More information about the grade 6 events will be sent home to these families from the classroom teachers. Congratulations grade 6 students and we wish you all the best in grade 7!

We hope that all of our incredible volunteers this year can join us on Wednesday, June 26th between 10am-11am for coffee/tea and treats in our school Library. We have greatly appreciated your support throughout the year. From our incredible School Council volunteers and all that they do for our school, to the volunteers that support our Nutrition Program, those that come in to read with students or volunteer to go on class trips and events. We love having you as partners in education!

There can always be changes over the summer, but here is the line-up for staff in September! A few teachers still need to be hired.

Y1/Y2 Kindergarten - A. Hibbs/ K. McKnight (ECE) Rm 138

Y1/Y2 Kindergarten - K. McInroy / B. Barrons (ECE) Rm 135

Y2/Gr. 1 - L. Piercey (Rm 133)

Gr. 1/2 - TBD - New Hire (Rm 132)

Gr. 2 - J. Grimes (Rm 206)

Gr. 2/3 - R. Reeves and TDB (Rm 205)

Gr. 3 - A. Gibson (Rm 207)

Gr. 4 - D. Barry (Rm 220)

Gr. 4/5 - TBD - New Hire (Rm 221)

Gr. 5/6 - R. Nolan (Rm 218)

Gr. 6 - R. Martin (Rm 217)

LLS - K. Sundup (Rm 202)

LLS - J. Northey (Rm 204)

Core French/Overlay - S. Henderson (Rm 216)

Library / SERT/ Overlay - J. Roberston

Early Intervention Teacher (EIT) - L. Peers

SERT - J. Jackson

Overlay - T. Campbell

Support staff will be finalized in August and shared with the September updates.

Unfortunately, this is the time of year where we have to say good-bye to some staff since they are moving schools in September or in a couple of cases, retiring! We have a wonderful team here at Roger Neilson P.S. and anytime anyone leaves it is tough on all of us. However, there is always a chance that we will see them again! Please join me giving the following staff a huge THANK-YOU for all they have done for students and wish them all the best at their new assignments.

Listed in no particular order...

Kindergarten ECE - Kira Downes

Kindergarten LTO Teacher - Melissa Bowman

Gr. 1/2 LTO Teacher - Pam Kearnan

Gr. 2 Teacher - Rose Sanderson

Gr. 3 LTO Teacher - Ledia Blaceri

Gr. 4/5 Teacher - Nansi Harris - Is going to be a Math Coach and could be back!

EA Support staff - Sarah Sinclair

A special congratulations to 2 of our incredible Educational Assistants, Sarah Sutherland and Tracy Gemmiti on the recent announcement of their retirement. Both have been at Roger Neilson PS for many years and have worked with many students over the years. Their dedication to education, especially to those with specialized needs, is exemplary and they will be greatly missed! Thank-you for all the hard work and support over the years. We wish you the very best in your retirement years!!!

As we begin to plan for next year, please let your friends and family know they can visit kprschools.ca to register for Kindergarten and to learn more about KPR’s awesome Kindergarten classrooms, where children, and their learning, are supported by caring, professional educator teams.

A reminder to families for September:

-All year 2 (SK) students start back on Tuesday, Sept. 3rd and continue throughout the week

-All year 1 (JK) students will have scheduled visits on Wed. Sept. 4th and Thurs. Sept. 5th

-ALL Kindergarten students will be in school on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.

Each day ALL students are offered something to eat in the morning when they come into the school. Not all students choose to take something to eat, but many do. We recognize the importance nutrition has on learning. We would like to thank the "Children's Breakfast Clubs" for their support with our morning nutrition program. However, running a school wide program comes with a cost. We are hoping that families would consider donating to our program if their child is accessing it in the mornings. Look for this opportunity on school cash online this week. $5 per month, which is roughly 25 cents a day would really help us out.

Thanks for considering!

We recognize that our parking lot is a concern. We sometimes do not have enough spots for our staff. The bus company has also asked that we continue to have room for them to safely enter our parking lot. We kindly ask families to not enter our parking lot with your car as it becomes crowed and unsafe for our school buses. We know this is not ideal, especially in inclement weather, but we thank-you for your support with this!

Before and after school can be very busy with picking up and dropping off students with many little ones around. We have also been asked to remind everyone to watch the language we use during this time around our students. Thank-you!

Arriving by car? Cars will not be permitted in the school parking lot BEFORE OR AFTER SCHOOL. Students are to be dropped off on one of the side streets and can use the sidewalks to walk to a designated entrance.

Arriving by bus? A staff member will be at the bus drop-off location to assist students getting off of the bus and to greet students. Students will go directly to their designated entrance.

Arriving by foot? Students are to use the marked crosswalks when arriving at the school. A staff member will be monitoring the entrances.

Arriving by bike or scooter? Please park your bike/scooter at the racks on the left side of the front of the school and then proceed to the sidewalks to enter the yard. For safety reasons, students are NOT ALLOWED to ride bikes or scooters in our parking lot. Please make sure to walk them to the rack when on school property.

Late to school? If you arrive after the gates have been locked, please go directly to front of the school, press the buzzer and wait for further instructions.

All busing information and issues happens through STSCO. Please use the link below if you have any questions or concerns.

Please ring the buzzer when arriving at the front door of the school and sign-in at the main office. We kindly ask that parents and caregivers not be in the hallways or going to classrooms during school hours unless they are volunteering.

Should you wish to speak with a teacher regarding your child’s progress, an appointment can be made by contacting the office or the teacher directly by email. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation. Your child’s safety and education is our number one priority.

Most communication from Roger Neilson and our KPR board office is delivered via text messaging or email. If you have not opted into these services and would like to, please do so. For text messaging, your cell number must be in our system. You can opt into text messages by simply texting the word “yes” to the number 978338. If your phone number or email is not registered in the school system, or you have changed your number, please call the school to update: 705-745-6456.

This Weekly Newsletter will be sent via email every Sunday evening, please check it for weekly updates!

A reminder, if your child is going to be absent, you can use the "very user-friendly" School Messenger app (a free download), to let us know. You can also call the student absence reporting system at 1-844-434-8119. This number is available 24 hours a day. Complete attendance information can be found at this link: https://www.kprschools.ca/en/our-schools/attendance-and-absences.aspx

School Year Calendar – 2024-2025

At this month’s Board meeting, the 2024-2025 School Year Calendar was approved. It will now be submitted to the Ministry of Education for final approval. Highlights of the approved calendar include:

1st day of classes – Tuesday, September 3, 2024

Last day of classes – Thursday, June 26, 2025

Winter Break – Monday, December 23, 2024 through to Friday, January 3, 2025
(Friday, Dec 20, 2024 will be the last day of school and Monday, January 6, 2025 will be the first day of classes)

March Break – March 7 to March 14, 2025

Final approval by the Ministry of Education is expected later this spring.

New Language Curriculum Grade 1 to 8 – A Guide for Parents

Ontario’s language curriculum for Grades 1 to 8 was updated last spring by the Ministry of Education for implementation beginning this September. The parent guide below provides an overview of the knowledge and skills that students will learn in each grade. Language, Grades 1 to 8: a guide for parents (gov.on.ca)

8:55am - School Gates Open and students can enter yard

9:10am - Morning Bell - Students Enter School

10:50 - 11:30 - Nutrition Break #1

1:10-1:50pm - Nutrition Break #2

3:30pm - Leaving Bell (Gates Open for Parents to Pick Students up on Yard)

Principal, Roger Neilson Public School

Email: kevin_coulter@kprdsb.ca
Website: rogerneilson.kprdsb.ca/
Location: 550 Erskine Avenue, Peterborough, ON, Canada
Phone: 705-745-6456
Twitter: @rogerneilson_ps