Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope everyone had a great weekend and were able to enjoy the beautiful weather! It was wonderful to meet our new September Kindergarten students and their families at the Kindergarten Orientation last week! Class group photos were also completed on Friday and we will let you know when they arrive at school.

This week has a lot of different events. Monday May 5th, is the "National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People". It’s also known as Red Dress Day. We wear red to draw attention to missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two spirit people and as a call for all Canadians to remember and to take action. You may also notice red dresses hanging in communities as a visual reminder.

This week we are hosting a fun school spirit week starting on Tuesday as a way to bring awareness to the Pedal for Hope campaign! A flyer went home last week and the various themed days are in the newsletter below. We will end the week with a school wide spring dance hosted by our school council!

Please see the updates in the school council section in this newsletter. There are many events and activities they have planned for the final months of school. We appreciate all that school council does for RNPS! Please take a look at the family event planned for Thursday, May 15th from 6:30-8pm. We hope to see there!

Finally, families might also be interested in some activities in the "Community" section of this newsletter, so please scroll towards the bottom of this newsletter. Registration for Camp Northern Lights is now available on their website.

Have a good week everyone!

~Mr. Coulter

May5th - National Day of Awareness for MMIWG2S

May 6th - Recognizing Music Monday

May 6th - LLS Classes @ Special Olympics Event

May 6th - Pedal for Hope Fun Day - Wear your Silly Hat / Hair

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

May 7th - Pedal for Hope Fun Day - Sport's Day!

May 8th - Pedal for Hope Fun Day - Movie Character Day!

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

May 9th - Spring Dance Day for all Class

May 12th - Pedal for Hope Assembly!

May 13th - TASS Performance Trip for All Jr. Classes!

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

May 14th - RNPS Track and Field Day for all Jr. Classes @ Kenner Field

May 15th - Parent Council Special Event for Families @ 6:30-8pm (Info Below)

May 19th - Victoria Day - Schools Closed

May is recognized as Asian Heritage Month, South Asian Heritage Month, Dutch Heritage Month and Jewish Heritage Month

May 5-9 - Education Week

May 5-9 - Canadian Mental Health Week

May 5 - National Day of Awareness for MMIWG2S

May 10 - Jordan's Principle Day

On Monday, May 12th, Pedal for Hope will be bicycling all the way to Roger Neilson P.S. for their annual fundraising campaign for pediatric cancer research. We would love for everyone to try to raise funds for this incredible cause. If your child raises money for Pedal for Hope, they can put this money into the SCHOOL CASH ONLINE (Live Monday) or they can join our school team on: This Roger Neilson PS Pledge Site.

For every $2.00 your child raises, they will receive a 'ticket’ that they can choose to put into either: a draw for a special prize, or they can toss a pie into one of our caring Roger Neilson staff faces (anything to support a great cause) at our school assembly!!!

The draw will take place on May 12th!! If your child is wanting to donate/shave his/her head, please let your homeroom teacher know. They will have This Pledge Form available. This will also be taking place at our school assembly after Pedal for Hope arrives to our school!!

Looking forward to a fun filled event!! Check out this link for all the details!

On Saturday, May 3rd, RNPS had 2 students, Griffin L. and Bryan I., participate in the The ROTARY Club SPELLING BEE at Fleming College. There were 7 rounds of competition before choosing the top 3.

GRIFFIN made it through Round 1 & Round 2. Griffin was around TOP 25 out of 57 contestants. Amazing accomplishment! He improved his personal record!

BRYAN made it through Rounds 1, 2 and 3. Bryan made it all the way to TOP 7 out of 57 contestants. Way to go Bryan!

SEE IF YOU CAN SPELL SOME OF THE WORDS GIVEN IN THE Grade 4-6 COMPETITION:

triumvirate, ostentatious, stalwart, insincerity, circuitous… WOW! Way to Go!

A special thank-you to Ms. Barry for supporting Spelling BEE at RNPS again 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!

There was great feedback last time we held a "whole school" dance day opportunity, so we wanted to host another before the end of the school year. This Dance Day will be held this Friday, May 9, 2025. Each class from K-6 will have a scheduled time to come to the gym to have some fun listening to music and dancing. There will be NO admission fee, but there will be treats and drinks for sale by our school council.

School Council is hosting a special event on May 15th from 6:30pm-8pm titled, "Finding the Calm in our Everyday Chaos". There will be various stations and info booths set up regarding different ways to consider our mental health and well-being. There will be mini yoga sessions, mental health & wellness quiz, colouring stations, crafts such as making your sensory bottle, Social Media influence awareness by community officer Fish, spring planting station, gratitude chan, bullying plinko game, food, drinks, prizes and giveaways! We hope to see you there!

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

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