Dear Parents/Guardians,

It was great to get back to a normal week last week! I hope all students enjoyed their PA day on Friday while staff were working on a variety professional development and school improvement activities. I am also happy to report that the majority of branches that had fallen on our yard were also collected and removed on Friday.

A big thank you to our school council for hosting another successful movie night in our gym on Thursday evening for our K-4 students and their families. There was a great turn out and all money raised will be supporting different end of year initiatives.

Congratulations to our first ever Jr. Chess Team for finishing in 1st place at the area Chess Tournament. More information is in the newsletter below.

With the changes in temperature throughout the day, many students are taking jackets and sweaters off when they are outside and forgetting about them. Please see the pictures below from our very full "Lost and Found" table in our front foyer! Please collect missing articles of clothing as soon as possible. A donation will be made to charity shortly!

For all those families who celebrate Easter, I hope you have a wonderful long weekend coming up! Happy Passover to our Jewish community and Happy Vaisakhi to those recognizing this holiday on Monday!

Have a good week everyone!

~Mr. Coulter

Apr. 17th - Appreciation Assembly - 2:30pm

Apr. 18th - Good Friday Holiday - No School

Apr. 21st - Easter Monday Holiday - No School

Apr. 22nd - Spring Water Awareness Presentations (SWAP)

Apr. 29th - Bus Evacuation Drills

Apr. 29th - Kindergarten Orientation @ 5-6pm

Apr. 30th - Gr. 3 Swim to Survive Session #1

May 2nd - Class Group Picture Day

May 6th - LLS Classes @ Special Olympics Event

May 7th - Gr. 3 Swim to Survive Session #2

May 8th - School Council Meeting @ 5:30pm

May 9th - Spring Dance Day for all Class

May 14th - Gr. 3 Swim to Survive Session #3

April is Recognized as Sikh Heritage Month and Autism Awareness Month

April 13 - Palm Sunday (Christianity)

April 13 - 19 - Passover (Judaism)

April 14 - Vaisakhi (Hinduism and Sikhism)

April 14 - Tamil New Year

April 15 - Shakyamuni Buddha's Enlightenment (Buddhism)

April 18 - Good Friday

April 18 - Holy Friday (Orthodox Christianity)

April 19 - First Day of Ridvan (Baha'i)

We are incredibly proud of everyone who participated in Junior Chess Club at Roger Neilson over the past few months. Last week, our school was proudly represented by 4 individuals who competed as a team to bring back the Junior Chess Tournament 1st place title. This was KPRDSB 1st Chess Tournament which was held at North Shore P.S. It was a joy to see the students laughing between games with competitors, shaking hands with opponents after matches and making memories for years to come. We look forward to bringing an Intermediate and Junior team next year.

Congratulations to everyone who took part. Thank you to Ms. Peers for coaching the team this year!

Our next school council meeting will be this Thursday, May 8th at 5:30pm 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!

Registration for Kindergarten for 25/26 is now underway! Please pass the word along to anyone in our Roger Neilson PS area and direct them to the KPR website where parents/guardians can register on-line: www.kprschools.ca/kindergarten

We will also be having an Orientation evening for new families coming to Kindergarten on Tuesday, April 29th from 5-6pm.

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!

Here is a link to our: School Code of Conduct

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