Southwood School News

About Us

Southwood School originated in 1947 and currently has 610 students, 35 teachers, 23 educational assistants, 2 secretaries, 1 learning commons clerk, and 3 custodians.

Two important focal points for Southwood this year include enhancing our early literacy education and building our basic number sense to ensure that all of Southwood Students have the knowledge and skills needed in these areas. To do this, we also need to increase our students’ resilience, responsibility and sense of belonging. Setting daily goals to Care. Learn and Grow helps our students focus on being good citizens and contributing to the school community.

We continue to strengthen our community partnerships through visits with nearby senior citizens in our Grandbuddies program, inviting in elders to teach us and visiting local business and community members to learn about our community and ourselves. Above all, staff of Southwood School recognize the impact that meaningful relationships have on the social, emotional, and academic development of each child.

Lifetouch was at Southwood School taking our annual school photos on September 25th and 26th. You will be receiving information in the next few weeks about how to order photos. For students absent or requiring retakes, photographers will be returning on November 6th.

At Southwood School, we took some time during the last week in September to learn about Orange Shirt Day and what National Day for Truth and Reconciliation means for us as students.

Our Grades K - 2 students read and heard stories about the experiences of Indigenous children who attended residential schools. Grades 3 and 4 students spent some time learning about Indigenous culture, listening to and watching Sons of the Drum in an assembly at Clearspring Middle School.

Costume Parade events will occur on Thursday - October 31st this year.

We love to see our students in costumes on the 31st! However, if costumes aren't your thing, don't worry, many students enjoy the day, coming to school in more comfortable clothes and participating in the playtime or activities at the end of the day. Kid friendly costumes are welcome: "not scary or gory," and without props (especially no toy weapons). Costumes worn throughout the day should be comfortable enough to survive recess and phys.ed. classes. Grade level costume parades will happen in the afternoon. Classroom parties will happen at the end of the day...

We ask that parents say their hellos and goodbyes to their children at the school doors. Remember that you mean everything to your child but that you are a stranger to most of the other students in the building. This is the reason we ask parents to drop off or meet their children outside the school doors.

If your child comes to school late, please have them enter the school through the front office doors so that they can be escorted to their classroom.

Please contact the school or submit your attendance changes through Parent Portal by 9:00 a.m. if your child is going to be late or absent. If we have not heard from the parent/guardian of an absent student, we will be calling the home and, if needed, work places to make sure the student is safe.

END OF DAY MESSAGES & EARLY PICKUP - If at all possible, we encourage you to stick to the same routine every day... this is the best possible way to ensure your child comes to school and gets home safely every day.

Only if it is absolutely necessary to change after school plans... call the school to relay these messages by 2:30 pm. If you call after 3:00 pm., it becomes difficult or impossible to make sure that the messages are delivered before students are dismissed. When staff is occupied sorting out changes, they are not able to complete the routine duties required to ensure our students are supervised and arrive at the right place. Your pre-planning and communication help us keep kids safe after school as they make their ways back to you!

Every fall Southwood School participates in Hearing Screening Month. This means that teachers may identify students who seem as though they don't hear or pick up on certain sounds or instruction in the classroom. Should they have concerns about your child, they will let you know. Your child will then be referred for Hearing Screening at Southwood School. A dedicated screener (employee of Hanover School Division working with the Speech and Language Pathologist) comes to school and assesses identified students with a screening device. Students who show signs of hearing loss are referred to Southern Health to an Audiologist. Parents are notified about the referral. Please contact Southwood's Learning Support Team, Melissa Heinrichs, Holly Gushulak or Vanessa Kluz, should you have concerns about your child's hearing or have other questions about the program.

Planning Priority #1 - Growth in Literacy for Every Student

All Southwood students will engage in effective, frequent guided reading instruction and “check-ins” with their teachers. This practice is to provide timely feedback to the reader, focusing on the accomplishments and suggestions for the next steps. For 6 - 8 weeks of the year, students will be supported in their classrooms with additional literacy support teachers conducting reading sessions, planning with the classroom teacher to maximize literacy learning in the classroom and address literacy challenges as they arise. School wide home reading programs for students will be strengthened and monitored for its effectiveness for increasing literacy at Southwood. Teachers will participate in data analysis to address literacy challenges and engage in collaborative planning to increase research based interventions to address literacy learning in their classrooms. All classes will participate in a variety of phonemic awareness and phonics based work during literacy blocks. Literacy team, clinicians, and learning coaches will support literacy training (guided reading, home reading, assessment training and continued review of the new ELA curriculum) including strategic writing and reading instruction.

Planning Priority #2 - Student Engagement and Citizenship

All students will have the opportunity to engage daily with the Care. Learn. Grow program (school wide prosocial behavior plan) by setting daily goals and recognizing achievement of those goals. Students will understand the benefits of responsibility and citizenship and refer to their classroom contracts and routines. All students will participate in Project 11 lessons and be able to practice the Zones of Regulation. Students at Southwood will continue to celebrate diversity through cultural celebrations at assemblies and special events and through the daily announcements highlighting cultural days and events. Activities include Celebrating Diversity announcements, STEAM Month, Pink Day, Orange Shirt Day, Terry Fox Run, Literacy and Numeracy Months. Families will be invited in to participate in these events at Assemblies, and other community and parent evenings. Learning partnerships with community members including parent volunteers, will be leveraged to support a variety of curricular objectives and to celebrate the diversity of those in our local and global communities. We will also make connections with our Elders and Knowledge Keepers to help us learn about Indigenous ways of knowing and interacting with our world around us. Teachers will continue their professional learning in this area through book studies, Treaty Training PD and in school professional development.

Planning Priority #3 - Building Basic Numeracy Skills

Numeracy Teachers will collaborate with each other and our returning Numeracy Support Teacher to explore a variety of teaching practices to increase mental math skills and expand flexible thinking in students. Teachers will set short term goals based on the numeracy data for the purpose of targeting specific math skills in student learning activities. Southwood School will continue with the Numeracy Assessment Project, in partnership with the Manitoba Rural Learning Consortium. This project focuses on teaching foundational outcomes and revisits concepts that students do not master. Richer learning tasks will be implemented, using hands on and real world learning experiences to teach numeracy concepts.

September 30th -- National Day for Truth and Reconciliation -- School Closed

October 14 -- Thanksgiving – School Closed

October 25 -- Manitboba Teacher's Socieity PD DAY – School Closed

Nov. 6 -- Picture Retake Day

Nov. 7 -- Assembly 12:00 - 12:25 p.m. – Remembrance Day

Nov. 8 -- Professional Development and Report Writing for Teachers -- No classes for students

Nov. 11 -- Remembrance Day - Monday - No classes