Principal Update Sept 6

Hello,

 

It has been a great first week back at Ancaster Meadow! It has been a lot of fun talking to students about their summers.

 

During the past two weeks over 70 new students have registered at Ancaster Meadow. Welcome to our new families! This has definitely made the office a busy place. While we have welcomed lots of new students, we have also had a number of families move away. In consultation with the school board, changes in registration numbers can lead to the class re-organization process later in September. There are standard timelines for all schools in the HWDSB and I will communicate any potential impact in line with these timelines.

 

I would like to welcome Ms. Friedman as the teacher for class 8B. This was the last of the remaining staff placements that needed to occur.

 

There have been some changes to the forms in the start up package. An initial welcome package was sent home this week with students, this package has a reminder page for families with lots of the various organizational routines of school. Next week another package will go home with many of the “sign and return.” Each teacher also has class specific methods for communicating home, some teachers use agendas, blogs, email, newsletters, and other tools. I encourage all families to make sure they know how their child’s teachers will be communicating.  Unfortunately our supplier of paper agendas has had some difficulty, we are looking at options to get paper agendas as quickly as possible.

 

Today we ended the week with short school-wide assemblies. Mr. Zwolak and myself welcome our new students and staff. A number of the extra-curricular activities running at Ancaster Meadow were highlighted and students are encouraged to get involved. Baseball tryouts were already running this week and there was information about some of our senior bands. Students are encouraged to pay attention to announcements for activity information, parents can also view our announcements on the school website.

 

Information about our Fall Mum’s flower fundraiser went home this week. Forms are due back Monday and plant pick up will be Thursday.

 

A quick reminder that morning supervision does not begin until 8:45am and students should not be at the school property before this time unless they are part of the formal before care program run by Umbrella Daycare. Our bell rings at 9:00am to start school. We have streamlined our morning announcement process and classes start right at 9am, the anthem is held at the end of period one. It is important that students are on time and ready to learn at the start of the day.

 

Students are encouraged to be in class all day, every day. Appointments and similar events should be booked after the school day. However the school recognizes that this is sometimes unavoidable. If a child needs to be dismissed early in the afternoon, we ask that pick up times be limited to the times between class periods ( 1:00pm, 1:40pm or 2:40pm). Families cooperation in minimizing disruptions to class learning time is appreciated.

 

While our bus situation has had some first week issues, I am cautiously optimistic as the situation is better than at this point last year. The Main Office will keep Courtesy Transportation requests on file but cannot approve or deny any forms until at least October. Families are reminded to check http://www.hamiltonschoolbus.ca for HWSTS contact information and posted delays. Our school Twitter account @ancastermeadow can also be followed for bus information.

 

All parents are invited to attend the first meetings of our School Council and Home & School Association. Both groups are parent run groups that are involved in the school community but each group has a slightly different focus; parents are welcome to be part of both groups. The first meeting is Tuesday September 17th with School Council starting at 6:30pm followed by the Home & School Association at 7:30pm. Both groups meet in the school Learning Commons (Library).

 

Our school Meet the Teacher night is Thurs Oct 3rd from 4:30pm-6:30pm further information will come out in the coming weeks. This later date is chosen in consultation with the parent School Council and is preferred in case classes undergo re-organization.

 

After a great first week, I look forward to another fantastic year at Ancaster Meadow.

 

Have a great weekend,

Simon Goodacre, Principal

 

 

Hello Parents, Guardians and Caregivers!

 

My name is Alex Johnstone and I am your School Board Trustee representative for Wards 11 and 12. I have also been elected as Chair of the Board for 2018-2019.

 

As a school board trustee, my role is to maintain a focus on student achievement, well-being and equity and to participate in making decisions that benefit our board’s entire jurisdiction while representing the interest of my constituents. I look forward to visiting our schools and seeing all of the hard work that is taking place by students and staff.

 

I’d invite you to reach out to me to introduce yourself and share any positive feedback or concerns you might have about the schools in our wards. I can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 905-515-7082.

 

For more information about the Board of Trustees, including the committees that Trustees are part of, please visit: http://www.hwdsb.on.ca/about/trustees/