Dear Parents/Guardians,

I hope you had another great weekend. It is hard to believe that we are coming into the last week of November already. The holiday break is quickly approaching!

Progress Reports and Kinder Communication of Learning Observations were sent home November 20th and can be viewed in Edsby as well. Please connect with your child's teachers to arrange a phone or in person meeting to discuss your child's progress and to plan next steps for success together.

School Council would like to remind all our families that planning is underway for our annual Holiday Shopping Spree on December 11th, please see the message below. We are looking for a variety of items as donations. Thank-you to everyone who has dropped off a donation so far!

This time of year our Lost and Found table continues to have a large collection of clothing. Please remind your child to check this table in our front foyer for missing items. Putting a name on things like jackets and coats is also a really good idea!

Finally, please make sure to see the messages below about saving the date in your calendars for our school wide "Holidays Windows" event and also a reminder about our "Holiday Gift Baskets" that we are creating to be raffled off during our last week before the break!

Have a great week,

~Mr. Coulter

Nov. 28th - School Council Meeting @ 5pm

Dec. 10th - Holiday Windows - School Event - 12-1pm

Dec. 11th - Holiday Shopping Spree Presented by School Council

Dec. 12th - Mathletes Presentation

Dec. 23rd-Jan 3rd - School Closed for Holiday Break!

Jan. 6th - First Day Back after the Break

Nov. 25 - International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

Nov. 25 - Davy of Covenant (Baha'i)

Nov. 27 - Ascension Abdu'l-Baha (Baha'i)

November is recognized as Indigenous Peoples Awareness Month in KPR and also Albanian and Hindu Heritage Month.

Congratulations to the girls' volleyball team on their efforts at Crestwood on Friday. The team displayed sportsmanship and growth throughout the day with some wins and losses, and a little dancing!! Well done team! A big thank-you to Ms. Sundup and Ms. Martin for coaching this year!

The junior boys had an amazing day at the volleyball tournament at TASS on Friday. They quickly won their first four games of the day. Our last game was against another undefeated team, the boys played hard and came just one point shy of a win! They should be proud of how they represented our school with such enthusiasm and teamwork. Great job junior boys! Thanks Ms. Grimes for coaching!

Our next school council meeting will be Thursday, Nov. 28th 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 28th.

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

Please hold the date of Dec. 10th from 12-1:00pm. All classrooms will be open for parents to attend on a 20-minute cycle starting at 12 noon. Each class will be doing something special and the idea it's like "peaking into a window" to see what's happening. No need to schedule your time, the idea is that families with more than one child will have an opportunity to visit multiple classrooms. Stay tuned for more specific information from your child(ren)'s teacher. We hope to see you there!

Classroom teachers will be collecting donated items this week for their holiday gift baskets. Please reach out to your classroom teacher if you have any questions. Baskets will be available to view at our Holiday Windows event and will be raffled off the last week of school before the break.

The "Mathletes" presentation will be returning to RNPS on Dec. 12, 2024. This full day event in our gym is a great way for students in grade 3-6 to find out how fun it can be to solve a variety of math problems as team! Last year we had over a 1000 math problems solved!!! Our grade 6 students are trained on how to be the best coaches on this days as well!

🚀 Exciting News! 🚀

We are thrilled to announce that we are hosting weekly science club programs for the 2024/2025 academic year at Roger Neilson Public School! It's not too late to still join!

🚀 Thursdays 3:30pm - 4:30pm

📅 7th November to 12th December (6 week program)

Non-newtonian fluid oobleck: punch the slime to change its viscosity! stretchy slime making through crosslinking polymerisation, light the lightsaber with our plasma ball, conductors & insulators, hand energy circuit sticks, optical illusions: how the eye tricks the brain, animation & cartoon thaumatropes, Van der Graaf generators, Bernoulli's flying machines & lots more! 🔎

info & bookings at; https://junioreinsteinsscienceclub.com/events/roger-neilson-public-school-after-school-science-club-thursday-330-430-term-1-november-7th-to-december-12th/

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

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.

Thanks to the generosity of the United Way. We still have some backpacks available in the office with start-up school supplies. If you are interested in obtaining one for your child, please contact our office and we are happy to help!

All students should bring a refillable water bottle to school labelled with their name. We have water bottle filling stations and drinking fountains throughout the school. We have few water bottles available for those students requiring one, but supply is very limited.

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!

Please find attached below as a PDF and in the picture, a letter regarding the International and Indigenous Languages Elementary Program offered by KPR in different regions. Registration is now open on the IILE page on the KPR website, https://www.kprschools.ca/learning-and-programs/alternative-and-continuing-education/international-and-indigenous-language-program/ and can be done by clicking on the Registration Open Now heading, or by clicking on the link found within the letter.

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