September 15 School News

Dear Parents:

The beginning of the school year is always a busy, exciting and energetic time of the year.  With 1 week of school behind us procedures and routines have been established, practiced and refined and our students are well engaged in meaningful, authentic learning opportunities each and every day.

Currently Tapleytown has an enrolment of about 410 students in 18 classes.  In a community where parents have a choice in what school to send their children to we are honoured and thankful that you choose Tapleytown.

The safety of our students is a priority.  Thank you for respecting our parking lot signage and staff/volunteer directions.  Please don’t compromise safety for convenience.

Communication is essential between home and school.  Should you have any questions, concerns or compliments please contact your child’s teacher first.  They are accessible by phone at the school and their contact information can be found on our school website.   You can also write a note in the student agenda.  If you wish to meet with a teacher and/or administrator please contact us to make an appointment.

Daily COVID Attestation

A daily student COVID attestation is required.  Please ensure that you sign the attestation calendar daily or write a note in your child’s agenda.  Students in Grade 4 – 8 may self screen using their phone or personal electronic device and show their teacher.  This is a requirement of Hamilton Public Health for students to attend school.  Thank you to parents what are completing this.  If this is not done we will need to call you to confirm.

School Photo Day – POSTPONED

Our student photo day originally scheduled for tomorrow — Thursday September 16 has been postponed.  We hope to communicate a revised date in the near future.

The Ministry of Education immunization disclosure policy for the education sector applies to all frequent visitors in schools, including volunteers and third party service providers (including school photographers). Third party service providers include any and all organizations outside the board who provide services or supports to students or staff in a school.  Third party staff and volunteers will be required to disclose their immunization status and follow Ministry and HWDSB process. HWDSB is currently working through an immunization disclosure process and Visitors to School protocol for both categories of visitors. We will share this process as soon as possible.
School Day Schedule

Our school day begins at 9:15am.  Please do not drop off your children before 9:00am as there is no staff supervision prior to this time.  Children remain your responsibility until 9:00am.  Students not taking the school bus should be picked up promptly at 3:35 from the back playground or Kindergarten area.

We have two nutrition breaks:

11:15-11:55 and 1:35-2:15

Please ensure you pack a lunch and snacks as well as a refillable water bottle for your children.  We discourage the delivery of lunches during the day as it is disruptive to our classrooms and our office.

Parking and Traffic Flow

Thank you for your patience as we establish routines for traffic flow and parking.  It has improved greatly over the past week.  Thanks to our Parent Council volunteers for their help in creating a “Kiss and Drop” area where you can safely drop off your child without needing to park or get out of your vehicle.  We continue to work with the school board’s Facilities Operations team regarding ongoing maintenance of the parking lot that we share with the City of Hamilton.

If you have not already done so please view our traffic flow and parking map here: Tapleytown Parking Map

School (Parent) Council: 

What is “School Council”?

School councils provide advice to the principal and school board. Every school must have a school council, and members include parents, the principal, a teacher, a student (optional), a non-teaching staff member and a community representative. The majority of members must be parents, and the chair must be a parent. Principals do not vote on school council decisions.

School councils are governed by Ontario Regulation 612, which sets out the purpose, membership and election requirements for school councils.  Under section 2(1), the purpose of the school council is “through the active participation of parents, to improve pupil achievement and to enhance the accountability of the education system to parents.”  School councils are responsible for:

• Sharing information with parents and the community, and seeking their input on matters the council is discussing.
• Providing advice to the principal and school board on issues such as school year calendars, strategies to improve school performance, codes of conduct and dress, curriculum priorities, safe arrival programs, community use of schools and community programs provided at the school, selection criteria for principals and board policies that will affect the school.
• Many school councils are also actively involved in organizing social events for the school community and fundraising events.

 

It is a great way to keep up with what is happening in the school. You can also contact the school council if you have questions about how to get involved at the school or if you are looking for information from a parent perspective.

 

SCHOOL COUNCIL VOTING MEMBER NOMINATION 2021-2022

 

Council meetings are open to everyone in the community, so you do not have to be a voting member or register to attend or speak at any of our meetings.  Meetings are generally held one evening each month from 6:30-8:00pm.  Due to COVID-19 our meetings will be held virtually using MS Teams and the link will be published on our school website at www.hwdsb.on.ca/tapleytown.  If you are interested in being a voting member of the School Council for Tapleytown Public School complete the nomination form online at http://bit.ly/tapleytownsc.  Voting members must be a custodial parent/caregiver of a student attending Tapleytown and must commit to attending monthly meetings regularly for the entire school year.  HWDSB employees must disclose this in their profile.

 

If you wish to be a voting member, we ask that that the nomination form be submitted online at http://bit.ly/tapleytownsc by 4:00pm on Tuesday, September 21.  The first School Council Meeting of the year with the outgoing executive will be Thursday, September 23 at 6:30pm.  Nominations and elections for executive positions will take place at this meeting.