Summit Heights Public School

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Mid-November Update from your Principal

17 Nov

Staffing Update
We like to welcome Ms. Andrews back, and thank Ms. Villella who was here in Ms. Andrew’s absence. Likewise, we’d like to welcome Mlle. Gazey, who returns for half days (am). Mme. Istrate will continue to be teaching core French for the full-day, in Portable 1, along with Mlle. Gazey for the time being.

Thank you and farewell to Ms. Hyoojoo, one of our lunchroom supervisors (who was also a staff member of the Before/After care). Hopefully Hyoojoo will return to our staff again!

Morning Drop-off
A reminder that supervision in our school yard, for students in grades 1-6, begins at 8:25am until entry (8:40am). Parents may drop off their child to our supervision starting at 8:25am (in the school yard). Kindergarten students should be supervised by their parents/care-givers until entry (at 8:40am).

Please note that the school’s front doors, during the morning entry, is only for kindergarten students and late Grade 1-6 students.

Parents, thank you for your cooperation with parking on Delhi and your kind conduct in our parking lot. Things have improved (almost everyone stops/parks in the correct direction on Delhi in the morning, and drivers are courteous and kind in our parking lot) during the morning drop-off. Thank you for your efforts everyone!

Dogs in school yard
While we recognize many community members use our yard for their dogs after hours and on weekends, dogs on our yard are not permitted.

This past week, with snow on the ground, it was obvious there were numerous patches of discoloured snow in our yard, including in our in our kindergarten play area. Naturally, our students often roll around, pick-up, and play in the snow.

Please do your best to not only not walk/unleash your dog in our school yard, but discourage your neighbours from doing so as well.

Playing with Snow at recess
This certainly has been one of our “earlier winters” in Toronto in recent memory. As such, we have reminded students a number of times over our morning announcements and in class, about our rules of safe snow-play.

Please remind your child:

Snow is not to be thrown/kicked at any person or at any thing
There’s no sledding/sliding down our hills (a child can go ‘down’ a hill if that’s on their way to another location in our field, but not back up and down etc)
The snow belongs to everyone (forts, giant snowballs are not the sole property of any individuals/groups)
Snow is for building, not destroying (i.e., do not destroy forts/snow structures)

Students who do not abide by these rules will receive an immediate, short, time out outside. Repeated conduct results in a detention in the school office. Our school has also ‘closed the field’ when there are too many conflicts over snow.

While we understand playing with snow, and all that is winter-related at school, is really fun and memorable, safety is always first.

Thank you for your understanding,

Mr. B. Mah,
Principal.

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Posted in Notice to Parents

Principal’s Update for October

03 Nov

Dear Summit Heights Families,

October was an eventful month. While it may seem a long time ago, we started the month off with adjusting to a number of new routines due to the CUPE job action. Thankfully, our school managed well, students continued to be safe and learn, and of course the job action ended.

The month concluded with a lot of fun and sugar! Many classes hosted Halloween-themed celebrations/parties. The kindergarten students made their way through the school in their annual parade/walk. Students (and some staff) were dressed in fun costumes – we’re happy to report it was a fun day! The annual Pumpkin Patch was a success. Our kindergarten students participated in picking pumpkins as well as working through some educational (but pumpkin-related) stations. A huge thanks to the Primary Reps, parents Alanna, Jillian and Julia!

Despite the rain and cold temperatures, we hope everyone can look back to Halloween 2019 with some fond memories.

Being the second month of the school year, a lot of school sports took place. The cross country team completed in their meet on the 4^th. Many students advanced to the conference finals, and a few even made it to the city finals! Congratulations to the entire team for a great season. Special thanks to Mr. Khaja and his team of staff and parent co-coaches/volunteers for making this team possible!

Our touch football team competed in their one-day tournament, and advanced to the quarter finals match. Great job on a great season! Thanks to coaches Hunter and Cabacungan for their time and efforts.

October is soccer season for the TDSB. Both of our teams, girls’ and boys’, completed their seasons last month. The boys hosted their tournament and had a successful run, but came up short from advancing. The girls’ team, also hosted and won their tournament to advance to the Conference quarter finals. We also hosted that game on our field, and it was as exciting as any match could be! After ending regular time with a score of 0-0, two 5 minute extra time halfs were played – and the score still remained 0-0! So it went to penalty kicks, where our girls came out victorious! The team thus advanced to the Conference finals, but alas this is where their season ended. A huge congratulations to all of our student-athletes on both teams! Many thanks to coaches, Eschle and Khaja, for their work in leading both teams.

We had three assemblies last month. Officer Shari (from the Toronto Police Services) visited our school on October 23^rd. She spoke to our K to grade 3 students about safety, conflict resolution and inclusion. With Officer Shari was Officer Phil, who will be taking over the community liaison role, as Officer Shari is retiring! We wish her well as she embarks on this new phase of her life.

October 23^rd was also the same day that our grade 3-6 students watched the documentary “Screenagers”. Funded by our SAC, this eye-opening film delved into the effects of screen time on young people and the dynamics on relationships with others, particularly family members. Parents were also invited to a viewing that same evening, after parent council. Thank you for those who attended. Likewise, thank to you SAC for funding the event for our students, staff and parents.

To round out the assemblies, our grade 6s attended an assembly about the Cyber Arts program at CH Best (a program that, for our students, would start in grade 7). Finally, Ms. Eisen/Bernstein and Ms. Brock/Anton’s classes organized and presented the character education assembly last month. The skits, songs and message were well written, rehearsed and performed! Well done everyone!

Our ECO Team hosted the first of three walk to school days in October. While the temperature was chilly, many students and families walked to school to help reduce our community’s carbon footprint and to spread the word about saving our environment. Those who walked were treated to a hot cup (re-usable cup of course) of hot chocolate! We apologize that we ran out of hot chocolate, and will work towards a solution to this issue in the future.

October was also the month where our school had photo day (the re-take day is in November, see below). Our Social Justice League also held our annual “We Scare Hunger” food drive. A heartfelt thank you to all who donated to this worth cause! Lunch programs (organized by SAC) also began in October. In addition, our school was a polling station for the federal elections.

Finally, a note about our school’s transition to include grade 7 in September of 2020, and specifically the gifted program. At this point, as confirmed by our Superintendent’s office and the TDSB special education department, the Grade 4-6 gifted program will be at Summit Heights in September 2020. However, we will not have a grade 7 or 8 gifted program at our school. We WILL have Grade 7, regular stream, starting in September 2020 and then expanding to include Grade 8 in September 2021. A parent and staff committee are currently planning and working on the inclusion of Grade 7 next school year. Please stay tuned for more information.

Please check our Google Calendar for upcoming events this school year. However, for your convenience, these are important November dates:

Nov 4 – Pizza Lunch

Nov 5 – Grade 6 Ice Hockey Tryout (4-5pm, @ York Mills arena)

Nov 7 – Home Alone Course (by registration only)

Nov 11 – Remembrance Day, Lest We Forget

Nov 11 – Pizza Lunch

Nov 13 – Progress Reports go home

Nov 14 – Photo Re-take day

Nov 14 – Parent/teacher interviews (evening)

Nov 15 – PA Day, no classes (and morning Parent/Teacher Interviews)

Nov 18 – Pizza Lunch

Nov 27 – SAC Meeting (7-9pm)

Thank you for reading,

Mr. B. Mah,
Principal.

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Posted in from the Principal

Summit Heights Musical Concerts

31 Oct

Dear Summit Heights Families,

This year, instead of the annual Festivals of Light, our school will be hosting three different concerts in our gym for parents/families and students. We will be hosting a Winter Concert, a Spring Concert and a Kindergarten Concert.

Winter Concert – December 12, 2019 (evening performance, time TBA) involving the following classes:
Ms. Kipka, Ms. Andrews/Villella, Mr. Valdoria, Mr. Cabacungan, Mr. Eschle, Mr. Anton/Ms. Brock, and Ms. Irvine/Mr. Schonberger.

Spring Concert – May 13, 2020 (evening performance, time TBA) involving the following classes:
Ms. Bernstein/Ms. Eisen, Ms. Bates, Ms. Schmitz, Ms. Mercer, Mr. Chen, Mr. Hunter and Mr. Kellesis.

Kindergarten Concert – Spring (date/time TBA) involving both classes (Ms. Bower/Powell and Ms. Marchiori/Kalimbet).

Stay tuned for more information!
Mr. R. Shapiro

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Posted in Events

Marker Recycling Program

29 Oct

Dear Summit Heights!

WANTED! Your dried out Markers!

Help save our planet – one marker at a time.

Please drop off your dried-out markers (any brand, size, colour, shape) at the bin outside of the main office. The bin will be labelled “Crayola Colourcycle”

By doing so, the casings will be separated from the cartridge to be recycled! Every recycled casing means one less marker in our landfills!

If you have questions, please contact desireecreed@rogers.com

Thank you for your cooperation!
Eco Team in partnership with parent Ms. D. Creed

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Posted in Notice to Parents