Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope you had a great weekend. It was nice to have a week last week that didn't have interruptions with bus cancellations. I hope that this week is the same as we head into the Family Day weekend. A reminder to please ensure students still dress appropriately with boots and snow pants to help them have fun learning and playing outdoors on our schoolyard! We continue to go outside up to -20 C.

Congratulations to all Jr. basketball players for their efforts last week at the area tournaments. I heard nothing but positive comments and it was great to get these tournaments completed. We look forward to future sporting opportunities for our students!

Valentine's Day is on Friday this week. All students are encouraged to wear Pink, Red or White to represent this fun day. Our school, with the support of School Council, will be hosting a Valentine's Day Dance for all students. Each class will have an opportunity to come to the gym to enjoy some music and dancing on Friday at an assigned time. More information is in the newsletter below about treats and refreshments available for purchase at the dance.

Speaking of Dancing! Next Wednesday, Feb. 19th, Breakdancer Jimmy Chapman is returning to RNPS to work with many of our students. This is always exciting for our students! If your child's class does not work with him on Feb. 19th, they will on March 6th when he returns. A big thank you to school council for supporting the cost of bringing Jimmy to our school!

Finally, there were a lot of articles of clothing that were retrieved from our "Lost and Found" last week, but we still have plenty of pieces still there. If you child is missing something, please check the table in our front foyer!

I hope you have a good week and a wonderful Family Day Long Weekend,

~Mr. Coulter

Feb. 14th - Valentine's Day Dances for all students - More info coming

Feb. 17th - Family Day Holiday - No School

Feb. 19th - Jimmy Chapman Breakdancing Day

Feb. 20th - Term 1 Report Cards Go Home

Feb. 20th - School Council Meeting

Feb. 26th - Pink Shirt Day - Anti-Bullying Awareness Day

Feb. 26th - 28th - "Sweet is Kind" Fundraiser!

February is recognized as Black History Month

Feb. 12th - Lantern Festival (Buddhism)

Feb. 14th - Nisfu Sha'ban (Islam)

Feb. 14th - Valentine's Day

Feb. 15th - National Flag Day

Feb. 15th - Shakyamuni Buddha's Nirvana Day (Buddhism)

A big congratulations to all our Jr. Basketball players for their efforts at their respected tournaments last week. All players played well and represented RNPS with incredible sportsmanship and a variety of wins! A big thank-you to coaches Ms. Sundup, Ms. Martin, Mr. Amit and Ms. Nolan for their support with coaching this year's teams. Way to go Knights!

Our next school council meeting will be Thursday, Feb. 20th at 5:00pm in our school Library. Any parent interested in being part of school council is welcome to attend this meeting. We are always looking for new members. We meet once a month and there are a variety of roles and tasks that we need support with. Some don’t require much commitment at all. We will also offer a virtual drop in if you can meet the first meeting via "Microsoft Teams" as the platform. If you do not have the use of a computer, a free app can be downloaded to most Smart Phones. To access the meeting, please use this link: RNPS Virtual Council Option at 5pm on the 20th.

If you have any questions please contact Mr. Coulter. We hope to see you!

Our school, with the support of school council, has decided to run a full day Valentines Day Dance on Friday, Feb 14th for all students in all grades. We figured this would be a fun opportunity for all students. Classes will come down to the gym at an assigned time throughout the day to enjoy some music and dance opportunities. Please see the picture below regarding refreshments and treats available for purchase by our school council!

With so many treats already happening on Valentine's Day, we thought we would do a different opportunity starting on Feb. 26th for students. Wednesday, Feb. 26th is all about Anti-Bullying and also Pink Shirt Day. From Feb. 26th - Feb. 28th, students will have an opportunity to purchase sweets for themselves or to give to others during our first "It's Sweet to Be Kind" event. See the attached flyer for more info!

Last week a flyer went home regarding our Little Caesars Pizza Kit Fundraiser. If you are interested in ordering a pizza kit, please see the flyer (picture) below. Ordering has begun and the last day to place an order is Mar. 2, 2025. All kits will be delivered to RNPS for pick-up on March 20th (After March Break). Thanks for your continued support!

This past November, our school community participated in the School Travel Surveys with Active School Travel Peterborough.

We’re thrilled to share the results! Your participation helps us track travel trends, identify opportunities for improvement, and create safer streets for everyone.

Key Findings:
65% of students designated to walk to school are doing so!
93% of students designated to take the bus are using bus transportation.
38% of students were driven to school—down from 42% in 2021!

This progress shows our commitment to sustainable and active school travel. Keep up the great work Roger Neilson PS!

How can we keep up the momentum?

✅Walk or roll to school, wherever possible

✅Use the school bus if eligible

✅ Reduce congestion by parking a few blocks away and walking the rest of the way to school

Together, we’re making school travel safer, healthier, and more sustainable.

JK (Y1) students have the option of going to French Immersion in SK (Y2). The French Immersion opportunity for Roger Neilson PS students is at Prince of Wales PS and transportation will be provided to qualifying students. If you are interested in registering your child for this program, please fill out this link. An information session about this program will be coming soon.

This year we will offer, through Lunchbox on School Cash Online a different “hot lunch” every Wednesday. All money raised from our hot lunch program will go to our school nutrition program. LINK TO SCHOOL CASH ONLINE

If you are interested in volunteering at Roger Neilson PS, this is great news! However, you do need to have a police check on file with us. These last for one year from when they were issued. We have a letter that you will need from us in the school office. The link to get a police check can be found here: Link for Police Check

Please connect with our office to provide you with the letter that is needed to complete the check.

We would like to thank the "Children's Breakfast Clubs" for their support with our morning nutrition program. This started last week! 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. However, running a school wide program comes with a cost. We are hoping that families can donate 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!

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

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. REMINDER - ALL STUDENTS WHO QUALIFIED FOR A BUS HAD TO OPT-IN TO RIDE THE BUS THIS YEAR THROUGH THE PARENT PORTAL.

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!

Join EQAO for a free live webinar where EQAO staff will discuss math questions that Ontario students encounter when they participate in Ontario’s large-scale assessments. These assessments are taken by all Ontario students in Grades 3, 6 and 9. During the webinar, EQAO staff will show how these math questions help assess the skills students are learning in their math classes. Staff will also share valuable insights from the past three years of assessment results, which can help parents and guardians support their children’s math learning.

Next available date is: February 18, 2025, at 6:30p.m.

Register here; https://eqao.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5puRqI8uQJypIaHgBYoBMw#/registration

2025-26 School Year Calendar Survey

KPR students, staff, families and community members are invited to provide feedback on the proposed 2025-2026 school year calendar through a survey, which is available until February 2, 2025. Please visit the KPR website to learn more and provide feedback.

Here is a link to our: School Code of Conduct

The 2nd Session of the after School Science Club for Roger Neilson Public School is January 16th to March 6th (8 Week period), every Thursday from 3:30-4:30pm on the school stage.

Session 2 Science experiments will consists of; Take a deep breath, elephant toothpaste, Engineering Bridges, DNA: Banana split, Digestive system: Plate to poop, pumping heats, Dr. Bones, purple power pH, Vicious volcanoes, Pigments of imagination & lots of fun, hands on science experiments.

Children are supplied with lab coats, goggles & all science equipment. They make & take home their own experiments from science club.

If you have any questions please contact us by Email: junioreinsteinsseontario@gmail.com

Bookings can be made through the below link:

https://junioreinsteinsscienceclub.com/events/roger-neilson-public-school-after-school-science-club-thursday-330-430-term-2-january-16th-to-march-6th-2/

Warmest Regards & Explosive Bubbling Potions,

Laura Duffy

Owner Operator, Junior Einsteins Ontario

Durham Region & Peterborough

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

RNPS School Council Chairs 2024 - 2025:

Amanda Bush

Superintendent of Student Achievement:

Jodi Sepkowski

(705) 742-9773 ext. 2061

jodi_sepkowski@kprdsb.ca

Trustees:

Rose Kitney

rose_ kitney@kprdsb.ca

Steve Russell

steve_russell@kprdsb.ca