December 2019

Principal’s Message:


House Activities

Our first "House" activity this year was held on November 30th. Each of our twenty-four "Houses" are made up of a variety of students from FDK-Grade 8. If your child was at Maple Grove last year, they remained in the same "House" which gave them the opportunity to continue to foster relationships with a group of students and adults outside of their homeroom. This was also a wonderful opportunity for students new to Maple Grove to begin to establish new friendships. Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers for their time and support, it was a truly special event for our students.


School Improvement Plan

Our school’s Literacy, Math and Well-Being team leads have met to review our school’s data and make our school improvement plans for the year. We used data such as EQAO, Report Cards, Reading Assessments and Student Surveys to create our vision and goals. Staff have had the opportunity to explore the direction of the plan and we as a school are excited to see the work unfold throughout the year.


Looking forward to an exciting month ahead,

Principal M. McKenzie Wells


Parent Council:

Looking at this year’s financials, Council reviewed a number of requests for funds from the teachers and the school in general and has made an initial commitment to the following items: Grade 8 graduation, Teacher Classroom Support, JungleSport, the Waterloo Math Competition, ACF Movie License (for movie nights), playground equipment and a sensory path, Newcomer Tea and an LLI Kit.

Council Communication Rep messaging:

We are pleased to announce that MGPS School Council had their second meeting on Nov 4th . It was very well attended and very productive. We were able to finalize our Parent Involvement Committee representative who will be Karin Kapoor. Thank you Karin for stepping up and volunteering to be our PIC Rep this year.

Budgetary request in the amount of ~$23050 was approved for the year, amongst the items we have some exciting additions like installing a Sensory Path in the school and a new learning toolkit that will help our teachers to improve the reading and writing levels of our kids. The following is a list of full items approved:

  • Jungle Sport $4500 (same as last year)
  • ACF Movie License $550 (same as last year)
  • Playground equipment $600 (same as last year)
  • Newcomer Tea and Coffee ~$200 (same as last year)
  • Grade 8 Graduation support $2000 (same as last year)
  • Teacher support of $200 per teacher (same as last year)
  • LLI Gold Kit $7000 (purchased Blue Kit last year) - These gold standard readers are carefully written leveled books that have been proven to be engaging, efficient, and effective.
  • Sensory Path USD$1199.00/C$1600 (new request) - A sensory path is a colourful, creative and playful way for kids to develop balance, hand-eye coordination, and spatial awareness, and helps build connections in the brain responsible for sight, touch and sound.

Discussions on how to best utilize the funds collected from the Spring Fair to upgrade our outdoor play space continue. Mrs. Mckenzie Wells is getting a lot of excellent information and updates on the possibilities through exploring other school projects and discussions with other board staff. The next School Council Meeting is on Monday, December 2nd at 7pm.

We encourage all parents to attend if you can and if you have any item that you would like to be discussed at the council meeting, you can email us at mgps.parentcouncil@gmail.com.

Shahan Farooq

Communications Rep

MGPS School Council

COBS-Thank you

Thank you to our local COBS bakery as they continue to be a tremendous support to Maple Grove!


Days of Significance:

  • December 25th Christmas - Western (Christian)


Spirit Days:

  • December 20th Holiday Outfit/Sweater Day


Newcomer Session December 3rd at 9:30:

All parents and guardians who are new to our community within the last year are invited to attend our Newcomer Session in the library on Tuesday, December 3rd for coffee, tea and to meet other members of our school community. This month our topics will be:

  • Bullying Prevention
  • Code of Conduct
  • Community Resources - Oakville Public Library


Celebrating the Holidays Together in Kindergarten!

Maple Grove's Kindergarten Holiday Concert will be held on the morning of Wednesday, December 11th at 9:15 am. Families of our Kindergarten students will then be invited to their classrooms to do a holiday themed activity with their child. Moms, Dads, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Nannies, etc. are welcome to attend the concert, but due to limited classroom space, we ask that only 1-2 adults per child (no siblings please) attend the activity.


Maple Grove’s Holiday Concert – Grades 1-8

Our annual Holiday Concert is right around the corner on December 11th at 6:00pm. Our grades 1,2,3 and 4 students will be performing with their classes. Also performing in the evening will be the Primary Choir, Junior Choir, Intermediate Glee Club as well as our Symphonic Band. Students and parents should arrive at 5:45pm to prepare for the concert and take their seats in the gym. Parents can pick up their children in their homeroom classrooms at the conclusion of the Grand Finale.


Sharing Assembly - December 20th

Our last Sharing Assembly of 2019 will be held on December 20th in the gym at 9:30. We will have a holiday sing-a-long as part of this assembly. All parents/guardians are welcome to attend.


A Fond Farewell to Mrs. Dixon

Congratulations to Mrs. Dixon on her retirement! Mrs. Dixon has been an integral part of our Maple Grove Community for over 7 years. Over the years she has made new families feel welcome upon their arrival at Maple Grove, has organized bussing for many of our students, has helped students who are injured or ill, has ensured that students have arrived safely at school and has answered countless questions and queries and has ensured that our office runs smoothly. We will greatly miss her smile and hardworking and helpful nature, but we know that she is also going to enjoy her new adventures with her husband, family and friends as she enters this new stage of her life.

For those who wish to join us, we will be honouring Mrs. Dixon during our Sharing Assembly on December 20th, which will begin at 9:30.


Book Fair

Thank you to our Maple Grove School Community for your overwhelming support of our annual Scholastic Book Fair! A very special thank you to the wonderful team of volunteers who kept the book fair organized and the lineup at the cash moving! The funds raised from this book fair help provide the materials that will make our Library Learning Commons a place for all our students to develop their imagination, their creativity, and their critical thinking skills!


Early Dismissal:

On the last day before the Holiday break, we will have an early dismissal by 90 minutes. Students will also have adjusted lunch breaks. Please see below for the schedule. Please ensure that you have made arrangements for your child.

9:10 – Entry

10:25-11:05 – 1st Break

12:15-12:55 – 2nd Break

2:05 – Dismissal


Athletics:


Sr. Volleyball

Congrats to the Boys Volleyball team for finishing 2nd in the regular season and to the Girl for finishing 1st. Good luck to the girls as they host the East Halton Finals at Maple Grove on Tues. Nov 26th.

Intramurals

Reminder of the following opportunities for students each week

Grade 1 and 2: Wednesdays at 11:15

Grade 3 and 4: Thursdays at 11:15

Grade 5 and 6: Mondays at 11:15

Grade 7 and 8: Specific sport and schedule for 2nd break each day.

Badminton Tryouts

Tryouts for the School Badminton will begin late November and/or early December (announcements will be made well in advance). The team will play in the MG tournament on Dec 18th and then another one in mid-January at another school.

Jr Volleyball Tryouts

Tryouts for the boys and girls teams for students in grade 5 and 6 will begin late November and/or early December (announcements will be made well in advance).

Both teams will play in a number of tournaments in January and early February


Science:

This is an early save the date for our Grade 7 & 8 Innovation and Science and Engineering Fair! Please mark your calendars to join us in the gym on Tuesday, February 11th. Our intermediate students have been working hard to develop their ideas and are now in the midst of doing their experiments and planning on building their prototypes. Grade 8 students have the opportunity of being chosen to represent Maple Grove at the 60th Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair at Mohawk College in March.


Student Success:

Grade 8 Transitions: Important Dates to remember

  • Week of December 9th to December 13th - Mr. Gardi and Ms. J. Lynch with meet with each grade 8 class to review transition timelines, academic, applied and enhanced course descriptions, high school requirements, and review OT High School Website
  • Tuesday January 14th - all grade 8's receive their option sheet, due to be returned back to their homeroom teacher by no later Monday January 20th
  • Tuesday, January 14th - 1:55-2:55 pm OT High School Presentation for all grade 8's in the gym with Stacie O”Hara from the Guidance Department
  • Maple Grove Course Inputting with each grade 8 homeroom using myblueprint.ca/halton with Stacie and Chris - Tuesday January 21st at Maple Grove in each grade 8 classroom from 11:35 - 1:15pm
  • April - "Are You Ready for High School” Conference at Oakville Trafalgar High School with 15 of our grade eights and Mr. Gardi
  • Friday May 1st- All grade 8's tour Oakville Trafalgar High School from 8:50am until 10:45 am (date is tentative)


Cell Phones:

We understand that many students, especially students in grades 7 and 8, bring their cellphones to school for a variety of reasons. However, cell phones are often a distraction in the learning environment. At Maple Grove, we are fortunate to have a lot of access to technology in our classrooms, which means that students do not need to bring their own technology to school.

Students in Grades 7 and 8 who do bring their technology to school are expected to leave it in their lockers at all times during the school day, unless expressly given permission by their teacher to bring it to class. Therefore, it is also important that all students have a lock on their locker and that lockers are kept locked at all times. The school cannot take responsibility for lost or stolen personal items.

From time to time, parents/guardians may need to get in touch with their children during the school day. In these circumstances, we ask that you call the office directly. Similarly, if your child needs to get in touch with you, we ask them to come to the office and use one of our school phones.

We also ask parents/guardians to monitor their children’s use of technology at home. We often have problems that begin in the evenings and on the weekends online using a variety of social media platforms such as Snapchat, Google Hangouts etc., which then spill into and affect the school environment. We greatly appreciate it when parents help their children to develop and maintain responsible and appropriate online behaviours. Thank you for your support with this matter.


Bullying Prevention Plan:

Each year, our school’s Bullying Prevention Plan Team meets to examine our school data, and to update our school Bullying Prevention Plan to reflect our current needs. Our Bullying Prevention Plan is now posted on our school website under the “For Parents” tab. Thank you to Alison Hodd, our School Council Representative; Carole Liu, our Community Partner Representative; and Monica Lynch, our Teacher Representative and our Equity and Wellbeing Team for all of your work on this plan. Thank you also to Officer Dawn Freeland, for your ongoing advice and support.