Dear Owen Parents/Guardians
We hope you enjoyed the weekend and your children got lots of rest! We are working hard with staff and families to keep students healthy and safe.
We are asking parents to help us with the traffic flow and we are quite concerned about the parking situation on Gordon Road. Two main areas of concern:
Please look out for our little green Owen students with flags. These two little ones are there to guide students, parents/guardians and drivers to allow safe passage across Gordon Road. One of our little green Owen students did get run over and we are thankful it was not a real student. Parking illegally should not be at the expense of the safety of our students.
2) Entrance bus look on Gordon Road.
Parents are pulling into the back bus loop in the morning to drop off students and then backing up to go back onto Gordon. This is very dangerous as we've had parents get hit in the past. Please park at any of the yellow highlighted areas and do not park in front of any of the x's or the staff parking lot. The staff parking lot is reserved for Owen staff, Owen Childcare, Board maintenance and trades and supply teachers.
If you see any unsafe driving, please let the office know. See below for more information.
Virtual Parent Council Meeting
Curriculum Night - Thursday September 30th
- 5:30 pm - 6:00 pm
- 6:45 pm - 7:15 pm
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As news continues to unfold across Canada concerning the discoveries of unmarked graves of children at the sites of former residential schools, we are reminded of the painful legacy of unmitigated and profound injustice inflicted upon Indigenous families in this country, which remains unresolved.
Classes will be engaged in various discussions. It won't be a day for celebration but a day for education. Ask your child at dinner about these discussions that took place at school.
Parking and Bus Loop
Permission Click Forms
The Start of Year Forms package will be made available to parents/guardians digitally again this year. The forms will be emailed to all parents/guardians this week directly from the board. The Start of Year Forms will be completed for all students (both in-person and virtual). These forms are associated with the student and therefore will move with the student, regardless of the learning model chosen.
The Start of Year Forms package does not replace the Student Verification form . Please return the Student Verification form this week. This will help us update our parent contact information and medical information.
The forms/procedures that will be provided in digital format are:
- PR088 - Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources
- PR511H - Walking Excursion - Immediate Community
- PR511E - Medical Information for Excursions
- PR511K - Physical Education Information and Intramural Information/Permission
- PR519A - Severe Weather Conditions: Permission to Leave School
- PR529B - Student Media Consent Release Form
- PR563 - Anaphylaxis
- PR571 - Code of On-line Conduct
- PR585 - Board Code of Conduct
- PR607 - Diabetes Management
- PR714 - Asthma Management
- TDSB Digital Learning Tool Consent Form (now mandatory for all grades)
An email will be automatically sent to the parent/guardian who is the primary or secondary contact (Priority 1 or 2). The email will include a link to complete these forms for each of your children. The sender will be “TDSB Online Form (noreply@tdsb.on.ca)” and the subject line will contain the School Name, Student Name, Date and name of the form (eg. TDSB School - John Doe - Sept 25: Start of Year Form 2021/2022).
Here is a tutorial for the Start of the Year forms that will help guide parents through this process.
Terry Fox Run
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Anti-Black Racism and Advocacy
The link below provides support and advocacy for Black families and students navigating the education system.
https://studentandfamilyadvocate.com/
Additionally, if you are a student who identifies as being of African descent and seeking to further develop an anti-racist practice. Please click on the link below to register for a workshop.
Daily Health Screening
Ensuring the health and safety of our students and staff is a priority and everyone plays a role. The most important thing families can do to help mitigate the transmission of COVID-19, is to screen their children daily for any COVID-19 symptoms and keep them home from school if they are sick or have had close contact with anyone diagnosed with COVID-19. Please note that visitors/adults will only be greeting staff outside their doors or the front door. Before coming to school or an administration building each day, all students and staff must conduct an active health screening self-assessment, considering the following questions:
- Fever
- Cough
- Difficulty breathing
- Loss of taste or smell
- Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
- Have you returned from travel outside Canada in the past 14 days?
- Have you been in close contact with someone who is sick or has confirmed COVID-19 in the past 14 days without wearing the appropriate PPE?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, please stay home; self-isolate right away; and call Telehealth or your health care provider to find out if you need to be tested. For more information about testing, please visit www.toronto.ca/home/covid-19/
If students are not cleared, then it means either:- the screening indicated a "yes" and the child could be ill- the daily health screening was not completed that morning before school.
Students in this case will be sent to the office and a phone call will be made home to ensure your child is healthy and can be in class.
QR Codes - We are able to generate the QR Codes this year so parents do not have to send their child's QR code to school.
Login Information - Only emails with the tdsb.on.ca credentials can be used to log into the Service Now app. Your child's userid is as follows:
UserID - firstname.lastname@student.tdsb.on.ca Password - Classroom teachers have either reset it or students can use the same login information they used for remote learning. Please ask your child's teacher for the password if it has been reset for the class.
Check out these guides and video to help you set up!
Before coming to school or an administration building each day, all students and staff must conduct an active health screening self-assessment, considering the following questions:
- Fever
- Cough
- Difficulty breathing
- Loss of taste or smell
- Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
- Have you returned from travel outside Canada in the past 14 days?
- Have you been in close contact with someone who is sick or has confirmed COVID-19 in the past 14 days without wearing the appropriate PPE?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, please stay home; self-isolate right away; and call Telehealth or your health care provider to find out if you need to be tested. For more information about testing, please visit www.toronto.ca/home/covid-19/
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Caring and Safe Schools Committee
Each school has a Caring and Safe Schools Committee who provides input for fostering a safe, inclusive, and accepting school climate.
We are looking for 2 parents who would like to meet (virtually) 4 times a year, along with our vice-principal and teacher representative, to discuss ways we can bring improvements to Owen.
If you are interested in serving on this committee, please contact jamie.parkes@tdsb.on.ca.
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