Together in Education

Email: lancd@limestone.on.ca
Website: http://lancaster.limestone.on.ca
Location: 1020 Lancaster Drive, Kingston, ON, Canada
Phone: (613)634-0470
Twitter: @LancasterPSLDSB

Nov. 2 - Holocaust Education Week

Nov. 6 - Hot Lunch: Pasta

Nov. 5-9 Treaties Recognition Week

Nov. 7 - Diwali

Nov. 9 - Remembrance Day Service 11:00

Nov. 11 - Remembrance Day

Nov. 12 - Picture Re-takes

Nov. 12 - Family Picture Fundraiser (book in advance)

Nov. 13 - Hot Lunch: Panzarotti

Nov. 15 - Progress Reports sent home

Nov. 15 - Kindergartens to Gymnastics club

Nov. 18 - Empathy Week: Bullying Prevention and Awareness

Nov. 20 - Hot Lunch: Subway

Nov. 22 - Community Officer Val Hurding Safety Sessions with Junior classes, Lockdown drill

Nov. 23 - PINK SHIRT DAY

Nov. 24 - Parents Night Out Fundraiser

Nov. 29 - Sharing Assembly 9:00

Nov. 30 - PA Day (no classes for students)

In November we take time to learn about and honour past and present Canadian military that we are so thankful for in their work to keep our country and others safe. We welcome community members and parents to our Remembrance Day service on Friday November 9th at 11:00. November is also a focus month for school-wide learning about bullying awareness and prevention. This year our Ministry of Caring is putting together an Empathy week to focus on building and strengthening our student's empathy muscle. Students and staff are invited to wear pink on Friday, November 23rd for our district Pink Shirt Day. Indigenous education is also celebrated as a focus for learning during November.

At Lancaster we have chosen to highlight and bring student voice forward as a way to improve student engagement and sense of belonging within our learning community. The feedback that we have received from students in Our School Survey tells us that one of the student's most celebrated aspects of learning and growing at Lancaster is the way that staff care about them, listen to them and value them. In keeping with this, staff have re-structured our approach to student leadership to include more students. We have developed three student ministries to replace our former student council model.

The Ministry of Caring, Ministry of Athletics, and Spirit Ministry have been created to give students an opportunity to tune into the areas that most interest them and give a more focused effort to bring opportunities and initiatives to our student population. Grade 5 and 6 students have been trained as Yard Pals to assist on both the primary and kindergarten yards by running interactive games. Our Spirit Ministry organized dances for all three divisions, a pumpkin contest and a food drive as part of their spirit week. The Ministry of Athletics has brought back supervised intramurals that include football, soccer and open gym times that are facilitated by student leaders. Our Ministry of Caring is working hard on initiatives that will lead the school through our upcoming Empathy week and are looking at ways for community outreach later in the year. We are very excited to be able to give students these opportunities that build skills in collaboration, organization and leadership and gives our whole-student body ways to feel connected as a school community. Well done Lions and a big thank you to staff who are supporting our student leaders.

As Progress reports head home with students this month take some time to engage with your child about individual goals they have as they continue their learning this term. We would like to thank parents for their ongoing support and our amazing staff for their diligence and commitment to continuing to grow professionally and for bringing new experiences into the classroom. We are excited to see the continued growth of our students as the year progresses.

Your leaders in learning,

Lani Fox and Sara Wellwood

Dear Lancaster Families,

October came and went in a flash of activity and your parent council was very busy with activities supporting our children, teachers, and staff. In preparation for the coming months I was honored to attend the Parents Engaged in Education Seminar where many parent council chairs and parent council members from across Ontario congregated to work together and learn from each other. Our friends at Parents Engaged in Education provides workshops, training, and support to parent councils throughout Ontario and is an excellent resource that I was happy to be a part of. I was able to bring home many fantastic ideas to support our community of parents for the rest of the school year and hopefully beyond.

The last of the leaves have fallen off the trees in our little community with the arrival of November’s chilly weather. As a veteran, the start of November always holds a special place in my heart as my thoughts turn to my brothers and sisters who I had the honour of serving with as well as soldiers from our community who currently serve our country at home and abroad. Our thoughts will be with them today and this weekend.

The beginning of November was also our parent council’s third meeting of the school year. Thank you for all who came out and I hope to continue to see a strong attendance. The council is looking to move meeting locations to a larger room for the next meeting in December. My hope is to see as many parents as possible at the next meeting.

Our November meeting focused on several points, including:

· The proposed upgrades to the front of both Lancaster and Mother Teresa. This is a project that is on-going between both boards and the City of Kingston.

· I am happy to report that we have created a sub-committee to look into upgrading our school’s playground. The council is currently looking for parent volunteers to join the sub-committee. Please feel free to contact me directly if you’re interested.

· Finally, we discussed the implementation of a three-year plan for the council to adopt and to use as a guide for all of our activities. This will be a plan that will be aligned with the

Limestone Board, our school, and or parent council’s goals. More to come…

This continues to be an exciting time for our LDPS community and I am very honoured to be Lancaster’s parent council chair.

Sincerely,

Mike Marchand, Chair

Treaties Recognition Week is the first week of November every year. Treaties Recognition Week was introduced in 2016 to honour the importance of treaties and to help Ontarians learn more about treaty rights and treaty relationships. Ontario is covered by 46 treaties. Schools across the LDSB will learn about treaties as part of our Indigenous Education Month. More information about treaties in Ontario can be found at https://www.ontario.ca/page/treaties

In a profession that continuously evolves, we place a significant focus on ensuring that we are meeting student need by using the most effective instructional strategies. On the September and October Professional Activity Days, our school educators reviewed and analyzed student achievement data (EQAO and classroom-based assessment data, school climate survey data and other sources of information) to work toward the creation of an updated, 2018/19 School Learning Plan. The comprehensive report for Lancaster's 2017/18 EQAO results is accessible on the EQAO website (www.eqao.com). Individual student reports for the Grade 3 and 6 students were sent home in October. Time was also allocated to review important health and safety practices and provide time for required training (including whole-school Progressive Discipline practices, Anaphylaxis training, Ryan’s Law (Asthma) training, and many other staff training modules).

Our school educators continue to focus on strengthening math teaching and learning through ongoing professional development. Focusing on the Fundamentals of Math, a compendium guide for educators released by the new government, is one of the learning documents we are reviewing, to support a focus on fundamental number sense and numeration concepts across all strands of mathematics in the curriculum. For your interest, the link to this Ministry document can be found at:

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/teachers/teacher_guide_math_en.pdf

Excerpt from the Compendium: “What are the fundamental math concepts and skills? Fundamental math skills, and the concepts that underpin them, may be categorized according to the following framework:

• Working with numbers: Understanding and using numbers (e.g., being able to read, represent, count, order, estimate, compare, compose, decompose, and recompose numbers).
  
• Recognizing and applying an understanding of number properties: Understanding how numbers behave in operations and drawing on that understanding to master math facts and perform calculations.
• Mastering math facts: Understanding and recalling math facts, using a variety of strategies.
• Developing mental math skills: Doing calculations in the mind, with little or no use of paper and pencil or calculator.
• Developing proficiency with operations: Performing calculations with ease, precision, and consistency and with a general understanding of number and operations, number properties, and their appropriate application in problem solving”

Later in the term, we will share our updated and revised, 2018/19 School Learning Plan, which sets improvement goals and strategies for Mathematics, Literacy, and Positive School Climate.

Hi Lancaster community! Thanks to everyone who has already participated in our very first fundraising event for this school year – The Winter Family Photo shoot! The first session was a great success and families seemed to enjoy the fun of having a mini photo shoot!

Our next big event will be the Parent’s Night Out - which is being generously donated to our school by Kingston’s Best Kids!! The event will take place at Kingston’s Best Kids 710 Front Road from 5pm to 9pm November 24! For $20 per child the kids enjoy pizza dinner, games, martial arts session and more! The best part is that 100% of the proceeds go directly to our school and will be put toward playground improvements!! Simply call 613-449-9935 to sign your kids (and their guests) up!!

There are two new fundraising initiatives underway! These will be ongoing throughout the school year and they are SO SIMPLE!

Need labels for your kids belongings – simply hop onto www.mabelslabels.com and click on “support a fundraiser” scroll through until you see our school then do your shopping – 20% of all sales go to our school fundraising efforts – how easy is that!!

Love tasty baked goods from Cobbs Bread?? Every time you visit Cobbs Bread Bakery at 770 Gardiners rd. in Kingston simply let them know you are supporting Lancaster School’s Fundraiser and they will donate 10% of your sale to us!

Let’s “Raise some Dough”!

RSVP right now and save your child’s spot! Contact us at: 613-449-9935. (Siblings and your guests ages 5-12 are welcome!) Once the event sells out, we will begin a waiting list!

Having each of our students arrive and depart safely to and from school is of utmost priority and a shared commitment between home and school. In June we updated our families about the timeline for the parking and traffic project that has been developed as a joint effort of the Limestone District School Board and Algonquin Catholic District School Board to address the traffic patterns on Lancaster Drive around school drop off and pick up times.

With this project slated to occur in the summer of 2019, we would like to make sure the Lancaster community is aware of and following the intermediary measures that are in place for student safety.

• Our school footprint within the community plan was designed to meet the needs of a primarily walking community. If your child, or you and your child, are able to walk to school please do so. This greatly reduces the congestion that occurs with the number of vehicles. Look into options of having an older student in your community walk your child to school as a “walking school bus”.
  

• Please pay attention to parking signs and do not park in places that are not designated as such. This reduces vision lines for other vehicles, for students who are trying to navigate their way to school and can also prevent our busses from entering their drop-off zone. It is essential that we are looking out for the collective not individual safety of our children. One person’s convenience can create very unsafe conditions for our students – please consider this at all times.
  

• When dropping your child off consider using some of the access points to Dunham park and schoolyard that are not out in front of the school. Arrange for the same meeting spot when picking your child up from school. These areas are quieter and offer more ease with finding parking and greeting your child at the end of day. Some of these access points can be found off of Limestone Dr., Irving Ct., Woodside Dr. (near Marsh Cres. and Crestwood Ave.) and Dunham St.
  

• On inclement weather days when it is rainy or too cold for students to be outside staff will invite students inside at 8:15 when supervision begins and students will wait in the hallways until the bell rings under staff supervision. To ensure the hallways are not crowded parents should not be walking their child to the classroom door (especially on days like these) as it creates even greater congestion in the hallways and can have the impact of creating a more stressful environment for students starting their day.

• The front doors of the school are not student entry doors. If you have dropped your child off they are to walk around to the back of the school and enter at bell time with their class. Students are best set up for a successful day when they arrive on time and are able to begin their day with their peers, receive valuable instruction and join in morning routines. If your child does arrive late they may enter the front doors and report to the main office to receive a late slip and have their arrival recorded on our attendance records. When signing your child in please do not walk them down to their classroom as this is disruptive to the classroom and does not reinforce in your child the skills and independence they exhibit throughout the day
  

Thank you to our families for supporting safe arrivals and departures for all of our students. We are a community of caring adults and share this responsibility with you.

The Limestone District School Board is excited to launch our new mobile app designed to enable students, families, staff and the broader community to stay informed about district and school news and events.

The free app (Limestone Dist School Board) can be downloaded for Apple in the App Store or for Android in the Google Play Store. Users can also select “push notifications” when they download the app to receive the latest news from the district and your school(s).

The new app will allow users to subscribe to their schools of choice and will provide families with instant access to school calendars and news items as well as links to sports schedules, busing information and social media accounts. New information will continue to be added to the app.

“Our new, official mobile app empowers everyone in our school communities to stay connected and up-to-date on the information that they want and need using the convenience of their mobile device,” says Director of Education Debra Rantz. “The app will allow the school board and our schools to manage and share content in a more timely manner with our families, students and staff.”

The mobile app is the latest tool in a new suite of electronic communication tools being deployed by the school board to improve communication with families and our school communities.

• New and improved district and school websites were launched in late spring.
  
• All schools will begin using a broadcasting tool called Communicate that allows the Board and schools to push important messages to students, families, and staff via voice mail, email or text message. The tool is linked to the Board’s student information system and families will choose how they wish to receive these important messages. Some schools are beginning the new school year with Communicate. All schools will introduce the tool by the beginning of October.
  
• The Board is piloting Safe Arrival, an enhanced two-way absence reporting tool with Southview Public School this September. This new system will make it easier for you to report your student’s absence, reduce the time it takes for our school staff to verify student attendance, and respond to unexpected or unplanned student absences. Safe Arrival will be rolled out to all schools during the upcoming school year.
  
• Some schools in the Greater Napanee area will begin piloting a cashless payment system that will allow families to pay for field trips, hot lunches and other items online. The system will also schools to include any necessary permission forms to increase efficiency and privacy.
  
  We are excited to unveil these new tools to our school communities. We will share more information as each new tool is introduced. We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding as we improve to serve you better.

Join us on the first Tuesday morning of each month for Coffee Time. Come to the school yard early (anytime after 8am). Our next coffee time will be Tuesday December 4th. We hope you have been enjoying the coffee and have had a chance to meet new parents! It is a great way to chat with Parent Council Members, Administrators, Teachers and Staff over a hot cup of joe!

This fun community building event has been sponsored locally this year by Starbucks.

The Parent Council account balance

as of October 31, 2018 is

$6,061.04

Submitted by Lyndey Caves, Treasurer

Lancaster is happy to share that our students are able to register for instrumental music lessons that take place in our school building during the school day. Please contact the music teachers directly if you are interested in registering your child/children for piano or guitar lessons.

Piano

Tanya Bezanson

613.539.8342

tanya.bezanson@bell.net

Guitar

John Porter

613.328.6070

mouringhorse@gmail.com

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