Week Of May 21 – May 24, 2019

Ridgemount Families,

A remidner that our OPEN HOUSE is this Thursday, May 23 from 5:00-6:30 pm. Please be sure to come by with your child or children to check out the great work that is happening at Ridgemount. We will have 2 Food Trucks on site. One will be Tony’s corner which is mainly Greek and Mediterranean food but they also have fries, onion rings,  poutine etc. The 2nd truck is an ice cream truck!! We will also have the scholastic book fair happening in the library so please be sure to join us this Thursday after school starting at 5:00pm!

A reminde that our Grade 3 and Grade 6 students will be writing EQAO this Wed, Thur and Fri for the first block  (8:45-10:25am) of the morning so we are encouraging fmailies to avoid making appointments during these scheduled writing times as we will not be making announcements or causing any unnecessary disruptions during these times.  Please be sure to support your child if they are writing by simply telling them that they are to do their best, answer all questions to the best of their ability, show what they are thinking in their answers and act like it is just like any regular day at Ridgemount.  Thank you.

Please be sure to let any families in our neighbourhood with school aged children know that they are welcome to visit us at the office to register their children for Kindergarten for September 2019. Remind parents to bring proof of their address, birth certificates, health cards and any other information regarding their child’s needs. Thank you.

Please click on the link below to view the Week at a Glance for the week of May 21-24, 2019:

Week at a Glance May 20-May 24, 2019 (1)

At HWDSB, one of our greatest priorities is ensuring that all students safely arrive at school every day.

To strengthen our procedures for absences, we will be deploying SafeArrival, a student absence reporting system that will make it very easy for you to report absences. It will also allow school staff to respond quickly and thoroughly to all unexplained absences. Our goal is to continue to have all absences explained and all student accounted for each day, knowing that they are all safe.

With SafeArrival, families report a child’s absence in one of three ways:

1. Use the SafeArrival website, go.schoolmessenger.ca. The first time you use the website, select Sign Up to create your account. Select Attendance then Report an Absence.
2. Using your mobile device, download and install the SchoolMessenger app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store (or from links at go.schoolmessenger.ca). The first time you use the app, select Sign Up to create your account. Select Attendance then Report an Absence.
3. Call the toll-free number 1-844-506-4350 to report an absence using the automated phone system.

These options are available 24 hours/day, seven days a week. You can report a future absence any time.

In addition, we will use the SchoolMessenger Communicate automated notification system to contact parents whose elementary school child is absent when the absence was not reported in advance. The automated notification system will attempt to contact parents multiple times until parents confirm and explain the absence. If this system cannot reach the designated contacts, elementary school office staff will follow up.

If you try to explain an absence using SafeArrival, but are then told that it is past the cut-off time, please contact the school directly.

There will not be a follow-up phone call for secondary students and their notification will occur, as it does now, in the evening of a day that had an absence.

If you report your child’s absence in advance using either the SafeArrival toll-free number, the website or the mobile app, you will NOT receive these notifications.

Starting April 23, 2019, please report absences in advance using SafeArrival instead of sending notes or calling/emailing the school. On this date, staff will begin using the SafeArrival notifications to let you know if your student is absent (when you haven’t reported the absence in advance).

If you have questions, please speak with your school office or principal. Resources including translations of this information can also be found at https://bit.ly/safearrivalHWDSB

Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we implement this new system.

Frequency Asked Questions for Families

SafeArrival Family FAQ

A remidner to be sure to check your “CLUTTER” and “SPAM” as some of your Ridgemunt Website notifications  end up in these folders.

Students have been following our Ridgemount Roadrunner Road to Success expectations. Please review these expectations with your children and have them share with you what they are. A reminder that cell phones are not to be used without permission from staff and are not to be used during Nutrition Breaks. Students are to place cell phones in bins in the classrooms provided or keep in lockers or backpacks. Please remind students that they are not to take photos or recordings of others without consulting with staff first.

Please also be reminded to follow the signs located around the school regarding parking and school bus loading zones located at the front and east side of the school as well as in the back parking lot. We would like to ensure that safety of all our students and staff and our Bylaw Officers will be monitoring and giving out tickets to those.

We will ask that parents/guardians not enter the parking lot during entry/dismissal as we have had a couple of close calls with accidents and we must allow safe access for our school buses that drop students off in the parking lot. Please drop students off in the desiganted areas on Ronaldshay Street and avoid blocking the entrance/exit to the school parking lot to allow for our buses to enter and depart safely.

Thanks and have a great week!

Mr. Carey – Principal & Mme. Kucic – Vice Principal