December 2023 Updates
Parking/Round About Drop-Off and Pick-Up SAFETY
- No drop off / pick up is to take place in the main Helen Detwiler staff parking lot (closest parking lot to St. Marguerite school) unless you have an accessible parking pass.
- The Round About is only for quick drop off / pick up only. There should be NO double parking/dropping off in the Kiss & Ride. Please ensure that children are only exiting the vehicle when you are stopped at the curb. DO NOT let children cross into oncoming/moving traffic within the roundabout area.
- If your child(ren) is in kindergarten, drop them off at the kindergarten fenced area and LEAVE QUICKLY to allow other families to drop students off.
- If your child(ren) is in grade 1 – 8, DO NOT leave your car parked along the roundabout curb to walk them to their line on the pavement area. Please park in the visitor parking lot instead. There is also street parking on Byng Street, off of Brigade Drive.
- While in the roundabout area, please ensure your children are getting out of the vehicle from the passenger side ONLY.
- If you are planning on parking at Helen Detwiler, please use the available parking lot that is closest to the field and/or finding a spot on the local side streets. Please be mindful of all municipal parking by-laws.
- DO NOT stop or park in front of the school as this is a bus loading zone.
Failure to adhere to parking, drop-off and pick-up expectations will result in regular enforcement from City of Hamilton By-Law officers during and tickets will be issued. Thank you for working with the school and the community to keep our students safe!
Addressing Questions or Concerns
Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) is committed to building strong relationships with students, parents/caregivers/guardians and the community. HWDSB believes that questions or concerns from parents/guardians or the community, should be dealt with at the level closest to the issue in a fair, respectful and effective manner. Please click on the following link for the protocol for addressing concerns at HWDSB Addressing-Concerns-HWDSB.pdf
Dropping Off Student Lunches
When lunches are dropped off for students at the main office, students will be called down at the start of nutrition breaks for pick up to avoid classroom interruptions during instructional and learning time.
Front Entrance Doors and Late Students
It is important for students to arrive on time for morning routines and learning in the classroom. Our morning entry bell is 8:35 a.m. Students arriving late are to report to the main office. Just a reminder that the front door is for late students and visitors only. If you are arriving to school before 8:35 a.m. please meet your teacher on the back playground each morning.
School Council December Meeting
December’s school council meeting will take place Tuesday, December 12th in our library/learning commons at 6:30 p.m. Parents/caregivers/guardians are welcome to attend.
Student Council Update
Our leaders of tomorrow are extremely excited about our continued plan to help take better care of our Planet Earth. We are encouraging all students to bring reusable water bottles, pack litter less lunches and recycle properly at school. To help with these initiatives, Student Council members will be visiting each class and explaining how as a school we produce far too much garbage, and how this could be greatly reduced if students were to take all their lunch waste home with them including compostable and recyclable materials. At Helen Detwiler, we are only permitted to recycle clean paper and so too often materials that we would normally recycle or compost in our home blue or green boxes are being placed in our school garbage cans. Please help support our litter less lunch initiative by reminding your child to bring home all waste from their lunches. To encourage reusable water bottle use, Student Council will be selling ‘vintage’ HD reusable water bottles for $2 each while supplies last and throughout the rest of the school year, Student Council will also be selling Kernels popcorn again to those who bring in a reusable container with a lid that holds at least 2 cups of popcorn. A heaping 2-cup scoop of popcorn will be selling for $2 (updated price), but students may also wish to buy a reusable container to use week to week for an additional $2 at the beginning. All sales begin this Friday, November 24th. Please help us take steps toward making our school a little more environmentally friendly.
Head Lice Treatment and Free Medication
Head lice are tiny bugs about the size of a pinhead that live only on the scalp of human beings. They do not have wings so they cannot fly or jump but do crawl very quickly. Lice lay eggs on the hair called nits. Live eggs are dark but can also be the colour of the hair they are on. They stick to the hair and do not fall off if you touch them. After the eggs have hatched, the shells are white. These empty shells stay on the hair, as the hair grows.
For more information on how it is spread, treatment and prevention, please click on the following link: https://www.hamilton.ca/people-programs/public-health/parenting-supports/parenting-school-aged-children/head-lice
To learn more about FREE head lice medication for children:
Ontario has introduced OHIP + . This program provides many medications to youth 24 years old and younger whose parents, or themselves, do not have private health care coverage. Head lice medication is covered for free. Please find the link to OHIP + below. The website answers questions on eligibility and the process to obtain medications.
Please contact your family doctor for treatment and learn more about https://www.ontario.ca/page/learn-about-ohip-plus
World Kindness Day and Bulling Awareness and Prevention Week.
At Helen Detwiler this year, our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee initiated a whole school Random Acts of Kindness Campaign. We kicked off this initiative on Monday, Nov. 13, 2023, which was World Kindness Day. The event nicely rolled into Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week, where focused on preventing bullying by choosing to be kind.
It was a 2 week event where students who were observed to demonstrate an Random Act of Kindness were given a paper hand to honour their kind gesture. Kindness hands were collected at the end of each day and added to our bulletin board in the main lobby. The message for these past 2 weeks was, “In a world where you can be anything, be kind. Even the smallest act of kindness can make a big difference in the world.”
A special thank you to all of the students in the portapack who took the time to cut out all the hands during their nutrition breaks, to all the staff and students who participated in the event, to Student Council members for collecting and distributing hands daily, and a shoutout to our Kindergarten Room 5 class for painting the beautiful world for our mural.
EarlyON and Before and After School Program Closed – Friday, December 1st
On Friday December 1st, the city of Hamilton will be hosting a professional development day for EarlyON staff and staff of childcare programs from birth to 12 years of age. As a result, all full day programs for children from birth to 3.8 years of age and all before and afterschool programs for children in kindergarten to grade six will be closed for the day.
HPL Book Mobile
Hamilton Public Library has a bookmobile that makes stops throughout the city so that everyone can enjoy library materials and services. The bookmobile visits Helen Detwiler every Wednesday from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm. For more information, please click on the following link: Bookmobile Frequently Asked Questions | HPL
Updated on Monday, November 27, 2023.