Good evening Families!

Thank you for supporting your children and our Staff as they navigated through a great first week of school! Everyone has worked hard to find their place in their classes and are settling into routine. Below are a few specific thank yous, information items and reminders. Some of the information is also a response and result of inquiries from your fellow parents.

Open House/Meet the Teacher Night – This Thursday (Sept. 15th) will be our “Meet The Teacher” open house.

  • We are welcoming parents and students to visit their classes; doors will be open from 5:45 to 7:00 pm.
  • Because of underlying/current COVID concerns, we are not offering a food sharing option this year.
  • This evening is a chance to meet and greet, it is not parent/teacher interviews, please come in say “Hi” introduce yourselves and have your child show you around their room and the school

East Kitchener Boundary Review – Since early spring, discussions and meetings have been occurring in this Boundary review. Details about the review are published on the Board’s website through this link. https://www.wcdsb.ca/about-us/accommodations/east-kitchener-7-12-boundary-review/ The next Public Consultation Session is scheduled Wednesday, September 14, 2022, from 4:00pm – 8:00pm. It will be a drop-in open house, to be held at St. Anthony Daniel Parish Life Center (29 Midland Drive, Kitchener). Everyone is welcome to stop in, get information and discuss the review with staff.

Communication from Us to You – We want to keep you as informed as possible, we have communicated quite a bit over the first week on School Messenger, with emails and direct phone messages. We know that the phone messages may be an interruption or troubling as you might worry that the school is calling about a problem when you see the school on call display. We will avoid using the phone option unless there is an urgent message to share. We will count on you to check emails regularly for information. We will notify you via email if there is a bus running late – if your children are not home yet, please check your email; you can also subscribe to student transportation to get messages direct from them like we do: https://www.stswr.ca/parents/subscription-service-instructions/  Other St. Anne news sources are the school website https://stannekitchener.wcdsb.ca/, Newswire https://stannekitchener.wcdsb.ca/newswire-subscribe/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/stannestars

Safety Practice/Drills – every year we practice a variety of drills, all of these are aimed at keeping the students and staff safe in the case of an emergency. The following is a list of drills including their purpose, frequency, process, and dates of our drills this fall:

  • Fire drills – 6 per year; we practice safe evacuation of the school to be prepared should we ever experience a fire. The students walk quickly and quietly with staff out of the building through a designated path, out designated doors to specific gathering spot. Fall dates: Sept 16th, 23rd and 29th.
  • Lockdown Drills – 2 per year; we practice getting students and staff into as safe a position as possible, to be prepared should there ever be a real or perceived risk to safety in our school or immediate areas. Students gather in a corner of the room with their teacher, in a way that no one is visible from the door. The door is locked. Fall date: Sept 15th
  • Tornado drills – 2 per year; we practice getting into a safe position to be prepared in case we ever experience a Tornado in the area, students sit (protecting their heads) against strong interior walls away from windows. Fall date: October 4th.

Primary Safety Patrol – Thank you to everyone for getting on board with our plan for safe arrival and departure of our primary friends. On the parking lot side, we have established a pick-up and drop-off spot for families arriving off of Pandora St. We have Grade 6, 7 & 8 students escorting the kids across the yard and keeping an eye on them as they connect with parents. On the Kindie wing side, I have painted a bright yellow line on the blacktop, this is the meeting place for students and parents who pick up from the front of the school; it is also a good visual to define the play space for the kids. Thank you to everyone for respecting the boundaries and for helping us to keep our yard clear of non-staff adults.

Back Parking Lot Travel – To keep parents and students safe, it is critical that pick-up and drop-offs are not done through the back parking lot where the buses and staff cars are travelling.

Being Safe, Kind and Respectful of our Neighbours – We have received calls from a few neighbours including right next door at the Wellness center. The Wellness center is not our parking and should not be used for dropping off and picking up students. Other neighbours have expressed concerns about cars parked on their streets that were blocking driveways and general travel. Concerns were also raised about students/parents walking between parked cars and moving traffic – not seeming to be aware enough of the danger to themselves and their kids.

Changes In The Main Office – We now have a second, full-time admin assistant! You will have noticed a new face in the office. Our original reception/attendance Admin Assistant decided to move on to another opportunity.  Therefore, we have Sukh Sukhraman Kaur working in the attendance/reception office. Sukh’s name is pronounced Sook phonetically. Sukh is here temporarily, the job has been posted and we expect the permanent person will start on September 19th.

Late Students – speaking of the attendance office, this is a reminder that if a student is late, they must go to the office to sign in – teachers will not admit them into class without a late slip. This helps us to track everyone properly and avoid calling home to ask where your child is if they have arrived after attendance has been taken.

Adults in the Building – This is a welcoming place, and we desire to have a strong bond and partnership with parents. That said, we also have a responsibility to the community to keep everyone safe. We ask that if parents want to connect with staff or speak to them, they need to reach out and arrange a time to meet. Arriving unannounced may leave you frustrated as the staff is quite likely tied up with duties or even working with their class. All visitors to the school must enter through the front/main door and speak to office staff. Again, thank you for respecting the boundaries and for helping to keep our halls clear of non-staff adults or adults who have not been checked through the office.

Parking – I have reminded staff and parents of their designated parking areas. Parking spots for staff are the entire lot behind the church and the 7 spots facing the church at the front of the school. We are leaving the spots at the very front (facing East Ave.) open for visitors, parents and kiss and drop access. Thank you to those who are already backing into the spots out front to maximize safe travel and avoid congestion.

Thank you and have a great evening!

Paul Gladding