École Maple ES Family Update

Monday, September 16th

• Basketball Club Girls Group 1 @ 1:35 in the Gym

Tuesday, September 17th

• Terry Tuesday- Wear your Terry Fox Shirts
• Soccer Tournament Rec Girls @ 8:15 -2:00 John Machin Soccer Fields
• Basketball Club Girls Group 2 @ 1:35 in the Gym

Wednesday, September 18th

• Soccer Tournament Comp Boys A & B and Rec Open @ 9:30 -3:00 John Machin Soccer Fields
• Basketball Club Girls Group 3 @ 1:35 in the Gym

Thursday, September 19th

• Soccer Tournament Comp Girls and Comp Open @ 9:30 -3:15 John Machin Soccer Fields
• Basketball Club Boys Group 1 @ 1:35 in the Gym
• Bus Patroller Training @ 9:45 -11:15 in the Gym

Friday, September 20th

• Basketball Club Boys Group 2 @ 1:35 in the Gym

We encourage you to wear RED and/or Majors wear on Fridays in support of our many military connections. A big welcome to our military families who are new to École Maple Elementary School this year!

Maple enjoyed another wonderful week as students settled into class routines and building class communities. The Terry Fox Assembly offered our first opportunity to gather as a whole school and our school Mascot, "Major" even made a special appearance! Look for fundraising packages coming home as we work towards meeting our school fundraising goal for a cause very dear to our hearts. We also held our first fire drill this week and 836 students were able to safely evacuate the building in under 9 minutes, setting our time to beat over the course of the year. We will have two more drills this month as well as a lockdown drill.

We received positive news from the central staffing committee with the approval of our school organization with 15 English classes and 21 French Immersion classes. Some rebalancing of numbers was required in our primary immersion classes to ensure we met Ministry expectations around class sizes, but a whole school reorganization will not occur this year.

In Limestone, students in grades 1-6 are not permitted to use Cell Phones during the school day, including recess/nutrition breaks. Student who bring cell phones to school will be required to keep them out of sight. If you need to communicate with your child please contact the office to have a message passed along.

Check out our Spirit Wear and Mabel's Labels links to purchase school clothing or labels to keep track of your students' items at school. These links do help with fundraising for special events as a percentage of funds raised will go back to Maple.

See you next week Majors!

Mrs. Fox, Mme Tiiu, M. Derbyshire, and the entire Maple Team!

Ecole Maple is so proud to be kicking off the year with our Terry Fox Run. Our school event will take place on Tuesday, October 8th.

Please help our students fundraise for cancer research and follow in the footsteps of one of our greatest Canadian heroes. If we reach our fundraising goals, our staff are ready to take the challenge! Pie in the face, scooter races, beard shaving, ice buckets and a big surprise by our admin team!

Please donate today.

Ecole Maple Elementary School Fundraising Page: https://schools.terryfox.ca/EcoleMapleKingston

Terry Fox t-shirts are available for purchase on School Day. Every dollar from shirt sales will go towards our fundraising goal!

Together, we can make a difference. #terryfoxschoolrun @terryfoxfoundation

It's that time of year! School Council elections for executive positions are coming up very soon! The first School Council Meeting of the 2024-2025 school year is on Tuesday, September 24th at 6:30pm in the Maker Space. All parents/guardians are welcome!

Please use the link below or newsletter button to volunteer or submit SAC nominations. If you are nominating someone, please ensure they are up for the position and have agreed to your nomination. The person you nominate must be available to be present at the meeting. Your nomination does not count as a vote; you must be present to vote. Nominations are due by 11 am on Tuesday, September 24, 2024. You can connect with our Maple SAC to ask questions via email: ecolemaplecouncil@gmail.com

Positions for election are:

Chair

Represents, works with and provides support to all school community and council committee chairs. This person works closely with the school principal, school staff and parents to enrich the education of all students. Additionally, they preside over and conduct monthly council meetings, set agendas and schedule meetings (in consultation with the Principal). The chair promotes discussion amongst council members and the community, receives and reports on correspondence sent and received by council. Acts as coordinator between the school board and council. Receives documentation from board and keeps council advised of board decisions, activities etc. Supports programs, initiatives and activities led by other council members and contributes to the monthly council newsletter.

Vice Chair

Presides at meetings in the absence of the chair or upon the incumbent’s inability to serve. Responsible for overseeing all sponsored events and programs.

Treasurer

Works with the council and coordinators in developing an operating budget, keeps a full and accurate account of receipts and expenditures and serves as the liaison with the LDSB. Additional responsibilities include depositing/disbursing funds on behalf of the council, review of monthly financial statements, and the preparation & filing of all necessary financial reports, where applicable.

Secretary

Attends scheduled council meetings, records, maintains and distributes minutes of meetings, keeps non-financial records of council.

Indigenous Representative

This member acts as an advisor and offers Indigenous perspective to School Council discussions and events.

Fundraising Coordinator

Plans, manages fundraising activities of council. Works closely with treasurer and often works with a subcommittee.

Event & Volunteer Coordinator

Plans and organizes events for the school community. Often works with a subcommittee.

Communication Coordinator

Uses the council Canva account to provide SAC communication to the Maple community.

Divisional Representatives

1-2 representatives for each division; Kinder, Primary and Junior.

Other Possible Members

This could include Inclusive Education Coordinator, Staff Appreciation Coordinator, etc.

More information about School Councils, including a toolkit of information, can be found on the Limestone District School Board website at: https://www.limestone.on.ca/school-council

Everyone who is part of our Maple family is welcome to attend any of our meetings this year. Meeting dates will be shared out after the September 24rd meeting.

Nomination and Volunteer Form

Overview

Classes should begin with phones put away.

Students Grade 7 and above may not use cellphones or other mobiles devices during class time without the explicit permission of their teacher.

Students Grade 6 and below may not use cellphones or other mobile devices at school during the school day without the permission of a teacher.

This supports student achievement and well-being by:

• keeping students focused on learning by removing distractions
• promoting mental health

For more information, please see the Government of Ontario Web site:

https://www.ontario.ca/page/cellphones-and-other-mobile-devices-schools

Our school gardener, Madame Louise and the school garden club need your help! The Learning Garden is in need of some improvements. We would like to ask our school community for any expertise in landscaping to help us with improving the Learning Garden. If you could consult on this project regarding , please reach out to Madame Louise (adamlouise@limestone.on.ca).

In collaboration with the City of Kingston and KFL&A, Ecole Maple is excited to offer an opportunity for families to access established meet up locations for their student (s) who are walking from the neighbourhood indicated on the meet up location map. Families may decide to walk with the group, or set up a network where this could be scheduled with other families in the neighbourhood. At the end of the school day, students can also access the meet up location at the Gazebo for their walk home. As indicated, there is the advantage of increased safety when traveling in numbers as well as an opportunity to make friends and build community.

• Little Tykes (or similar) houses
• Step 2 (or similar) climber playset/slide
• Large plastic toy animals/dinosaurs
• Trucks/cars
• Child size brooms
• Child size shovels
• Pots
• Pans
• PVC pipes cut in half
• Balls
• Bubbles
• Chalk
• Zip ties
• Bungee cords
• Sand pits
• Child sized picnic tables
• Child sized plastic chairs

Late Arrival:

If your child is late for school, please come to the front door and ring the bell to speak with a staff member. Parents will need to wait outside until staff arrive to sign your child in and welcome them inside school. We will make sure that young students get to their classrooms safely.

Early Dismissal:

If you are picking up your student early, please ring the bell on either front door to speak with someone in the main office. Early pick up should be avoided if at all possible, this is a busy time of day and there can be delays. Between 3:20-3:35, families picking up their student(s) will be asked to wait for the dismissal bell.

9:00-9:15 am - Arrival (Kindergarten Yard & Main Yard Supervised)

9:15-11:15 - 120 mins of learning

11:15-11:35 - Recess & Nutrition Breaks

• Primary students eating / Junior students outside
• Kindergarten Outside: Hanlan/Matheson, Toffolon/Sweet-Young, Scott/Bond, Trueman/Sauve-Leroux

11:35-11:55 - Recess & Nutrition Breaks

• Junior students eating / Primary students outside
• Kindergarten Outside: Turcotte/Prescott, McNaughton/Pottier, Hein/Melbourne, Hurteau

11:55-1:35 - 100 mins of learning

1:35-1:55 - Recess & Nutrition Breaks

• Primary students eating / Junior students outside
• Kindergarten Outside: Hanlan/Matheson, Toffolon/Sweet-Young, Scott/Bond, Trueman/Sauve-Leroux

1:55-2:15 - Recess & Nutrition Breaks

• Junior students eating / Primary students outside
• Kindergarten Outside: Turcotte/Prescott, McNaughton/Pottier, Hein/Melbourne, Hurteau

2:15-3:35 - 80 mins of learning

3:35 pm - Dismissal (if you arrive late, after 3:35 pm, your student(s) will be taken to the office to call home

When you join SchoolMessenger, you will be able to:

• receive imporant information from LDSB
• join classrooms and extra-curricular groups
• report a student's absence (same day and in advance)

Reporting A Student's Absence:

The new student absence reporting system will let you use a mobile app, a website, or an interactive toll-free phone number to report an absence in advance. These options are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Future absences can be reported at any time.

If your student is marked absent and the absence hasn’t been reported in advance, our new SafeArrival system will attempt to reach the student’s priority contact by telephone to confirm the absence. If our system is unable to reach the designated contacts, school office staff will follow up.

Email: maple@limestone.on.ca
Website: www.maple.limestone.on.ca
Location: 529 St. Martha Street, Kingston, ON
Phone: 613-650-5478
Twitter: @Maple_LDSB