Principal’s Message – November 2020

Dear Norwood Park families, 

With the beautiful, more mild days we were enjoying earlier this month it made it hard to believe that November had arrived! The days are getting colder and snow will be falling before too long. 

We will continue to go outside for recess breaks and DPA. Please be sure to send your children with warm clothing: coats, hats, mittens or gloves so we can enjoy the time outside, even as it is getting colder. 

Readiness for Distance Learning Survey 

If you have not had the chance to complete the Readiness for Distance Learning Survey, you can find it in the parent portal. It is a short, two-question survey for our students learning in-person to tell us how prepared they are to learn from home. Please complete the form on the Parent Portal by midnight Friday, November 20th.  

If you are having trouble accessing the portal or would like to request a paper copy of the survey, please contact the school. 

Parent Portal: https://hwdsb.info/parent 

New Schedule for Cohorts at Nutrition Break 

To balance out the number of students on the playground during nutrition breaks, we will be starting a new schedule to allow for proper physical distancing and use of the blacktop for play during recess. More information will be coming about our new schedule from your child’s teacher. We will be starting this new schedule on Monday, November 23rd. 

Lockers 

This month marked a return to use of lockers in our school. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we developed a plan that allowed our students to continue to follow Public Health guidelines when it comes to physical distancing while they are at their lockers. I would also like to thank the staff team that worked to get us ready for locker use. 

Remembrance Day 

We had our first virtual assembly of the year to mark our observation of Remembrance Day. Thank you to Mr. Lemmond and our grade 8 students who worked to put together a thoughtful assembly, as well as setting up the technical side of things so that we could have a live assembly, broadcast to each classroom.  

Staffing Update 

We shared earlier in the week that our Vice Principal, Mme Milinovich will be moving on to the next stage of her leadership journey on December 7th and that Mme Giles will be joining us at Norwood Park as our new Vice Principal. Please read the full announcement here.  

We would also like to extend best wishes to our caretaker, Mr. Schlarb on his retirement. Thank you for helping to keep our school clean and safe, especially during the last few months since our school has reopened. Mr. Schlarb’s last day will be Wednesday, November 25th. 

Upcoming dates to mark on your calendar: 

Tuesday, November 24th – School Council meeting, 6pm via MS Teams. Please email the school for the meeting link

Friday, November 27th – PA Day, no school for students 

Friday, December 4th – Lockdown Drill 

Friday, December 18th – Last day of school before winter break