Principal Post – June 2021
Dear Mount Hope Parent(s)/Guardian(s),
As we approach the final weeks to end this school year under atypical circumstances given the pandemic, we wanted to extend our appreciation to our families who worked closely and partnered with our staff to provide our students with opportunities to continue their distance learning in the comfort and safety of their homes. We truly could not have accomplished our tasks without the support and dedication of our parents! Our students have had the opportunity to build upon their technology skills being exposed to many unique learning opportunities during school closure. Our hope is that distance learning has instilled the importance of valuing learning wherever it takes place in life. Learning is a life skill and it can happen in any setting particularly when health and safety is what governs our daily living conditions at present. We anticipate a return to school in the fall with safety measures being put in place to welcome our students back to Mount Hope in September.
We encourage all of our families to listen to the media for updates, follow our board website messaging and subscribe to our school website by clicking on the subscribe button on our main page. This will provide you with current and up to date messaging on how HWDSB will proceed with school re-opening in the fall. We appreciate your patience and understanding as the decision making and protocols will focus on the safety and well being of student access to schools based on Public Health & Ministry guidelines.
With the approval of holding outdoor Graduation celebrations our Graduation committee has been working diligently to welcome our Grade 8 graduates & immediate family members to Mount Hope on Tuesday June 22nd from 3 – 6 p.m. Our graduates will have an opportunity to return their loaned devices & any learning materials and celebrate this milestone with the Mount Hope staff collecting their graduation year end materials and having a special photo opportunity with family and staff at our Photo booth that has been organized on site. A big thank you to our Grad committee, Office Administrators and our Parent Council for supporting the celebration to make it festive and memorable for our graduating class. Every graduate will also receive a Graduate Lawn sign to take home and secure on their property to acknowledge this year’s graduating class of 2021. We will also have a Graduation Banner posted in front of the school that was provided by the Parent Involvement Committee at the system level. Our graduating class will leave their outdoor celebration and have an opportunity to be recognized through Mount Hope’s Graduation Presentation that has been prepared digitally for our Gr. 8 families. Thank you to our Graduation committee for all their efforts to recognize our graduates and honour their skills and success through the virtual presentation that includes a ceremony, speeches and award recognitions.
As year end approaches, all of our students will have the opportunity to enjoy a virtual year end class celebration by the end of this week. Teachers will provide students with creative ways to celebrate the end of this school year virtually. We have sent out a school messenger, post on our school website and tweet to inform all of our families regarding year end procedures that will take place Monday June 28th from 11:50 a.m. – 2:50 p.m. & Tuesday June 29th from 8:30 a.m. -11:45 a.m. Please review the messaging shared that will provide your child with the opportunity to return their loaned device, pick up their personal belongings, school photo and any other items that were left in their classroom. Please be mindful that a display of Lost & Found school items will not be available at this time. We thank you for your understanding.
With the end of the year approaching, we have news to share with regards to our staffing changes. We thank Ms. Beckerson, Ms. Kostic, Ms. Johnston, Ms. Walker & Ms. Alucema for their dedication and support to the Mount Hope community and wish them all the best as they move on to support the system in the fall. We welcome back Ms. Munro as our Early Childhood Educator supporting Kindergarten in the fall. We also welcome Ms. Leavens who will be joining the Mount Hope team teaching Gr. 2/3 next year and Ms. Palys who will be supporting our Kindergarten team as our new Early Childhood Educator. On behalf of the Mount Hope staff we would like to take this opportunity to thank our departing staff members for their dedication to our staff, students & school community. Our updated 2021-22 school team will be posted on our school website in September.
Term 2 Reports cards will be sent home electronically on Monday, June 28th. Your child’s report card will be sent by the system with a message sharing the steps required to access your child’s report card. The link for the report card will expire after 7 days, but families are able to download a copy of the PDF report once they access the document.
There are changes to the report card with respect to Math Reporting. When reviewing the report card you will notice that reporting has moved from a separate grade for each of the five strands to a single grade. The Ministry of Education released a new Mathematics Curriculum this year. Your child’s teacher has been utilizing this new document to guide the mathematics lessons taking place in class. One of the changes this new curriculum introduces is a more cohesive approach to assessing mathematics. Previously, students would receive a separate grade on each of the five strands covered in class on their February and June report cards. The new policy introduces a single grade to reflect the overall learning of the student in mathematics. If you would like to learn more about the new mathematics curriculum, this resource contains more details on the changes to how mathematics is being taught and assessed in your child’s classroom. https://www.ontario.ca/page/new-math-curriculum-grades-1-8
To end the year, our in-school team engaged in the process of class building for next year. Many factors must be considered by our classroom teachers and learning teams when placing students in their classes for next year. To honour the integrity of the class building process, our students were placed into their next grade class by their current grade teachers. As educators, this is a very important task – one that requires much insight, professionalism and knowledge about our students as learners to create an effective classroom learning environment. Recognizing this, our teachers are solely responsible for the class building process given they know your child’s learning needs best. As a result, parental requests are not a part of the class building process. We thank you for respecting the integrity of this process and trusting your child’s teacher and our in-school team in placing & communicating your child’s next grade teacher in June. Class placement has been recorded on your child’s report card as the last comment on the first page under Learning Skills. Thank you for honouring the professionalism of our school staff.
As we come to the end of this school year, we recognize and reflect upon the success, achievement and required flexibility and patience that our staff, parents & students have had to rely on collectively. As a collaborative team we value the importance of building strong relationships with home and school and we appreciate the support that we have received from our Mount Hope families!
We hope you enjoy the remainder of the month of June and wish you a wonderful summer holiday to look forward to, keeping health & safety in mind. Take care and we look forward to the opportunity to be together again when schools reopen.
Sincerely, Ms. N. Radojevic
Principal – Mount Hope School
Updated on Monday, June 21, 2021.