Dear Owen Parents/Guardians,
We are now into October and we can't believe we have already been in school for almost a month! Thank you for support your child with the transition to school. We are happy to see the students enjoying being at school learning and playing with friends at recess and lunch.
Just a reminder to please remember to finish your health check in the morning before your child is at school. Any students who are not cleared (either indicated the child has a symptom or the health check was incomplete) will be sent to the office before they are permitted to enter class to ensure students are healthy.
Phone calls will be made home to students in K-2 to confirm students' health status with parents. Students in Grade 3-5 whose screening are regularly not cleared will also be sent to the office for a phone call home.
During Curriculum Night both Ms Rosenbloom and Mr Parkes will be available to assist with the health check. You can also ask any staff in the morning with a yellow vest for assistance with the Service Now app. You can also access from home the website to do the health check at TDSB Health Screening App - ServiceNow.
We will no longer be using the paper pass as health checks need to be entered into our system. The Service Now app does that automatically for us. If you have any questions feel free to email Ms Rosenbloom or Mr Parkes.
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Follow up info from Parent Council Meeting
Our goal as a school board is to try to keep students in school as long as possible and to avoid a shutdown.
There was a question at the Parent Council meeting regarding the need to test the unvaccinated vs vaccinated. Below are a few resources to help answer this question. It's true breakthrough infections (infections among those who are fully vaccinated) may occur and those individuals may transmit the virus to others. However, the main point to keep in mind is that vaccination greatly reduces the chances of infection occurring in the first place, and if you are not infected you do not transmit.
-Vaccines reduce the chance of getting infected by about 85%; (Ontario Science Advisory Table Update - September 28, 2021-https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Update-on-COVID-19-Projections_2021.09.28_English-2.pdf)
-Unvaccinated individuals are approximately 7.3 times more likely to become a case of COVID-19 compared to fully vaccinated individuals; Unvaccinated cases account for the majority (93.6%) of COVID-19 cases reported in Ontario, with breakthrough cases accounting or only 1.9%. (Public Health Ontario, Sep. 18, 2021-https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/ncov/epi/covid-19-epi-confirmed-cases-post-vaccination.pdf?la=en)
There was also a recent article in the Atlantic which provides a good lay summary of this very issue: https://amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/620161/
Hispanic Heritage Month
Islamic Heritage Month
Somali Heritage Month
Since June 2016, the TDSB has had the privilege to recognize Somali Heritage Month.
There are many Somali who immigrated to Canada who continue to participate and to educate others in their traditions within their new environment. Music has always been an integral part of Somali tradition, and one well-known Somali-Canadian artist who has been sharing his love of songs on the world stage is Keinan Abdi Warsame (K'naan). K’naan was born in May 30, 1978 in Mogadishu which is located in the southeastern Banaadir province of Somali and later moved to Toronto’s Rexdale community as a young teenager with members of his family. K’naan is identified as a poet, rapper, singer, songwriter and instrumentalist; however, he is renowned for his song “Waving Flag” as it was chosen as Coca-Cola’s promotional anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup that was hosted by South Africa.
2021 Parents as Partners Conference - Oct 16 & 17
Join us for a virtual conference and learn strategies to support your child, connect with other parents and hear from our inspirational keynote speakers.
TDSB is committed to parent, caregiver, and community engagement as an essential element in our shared efforts to improve outcomes for children throughout their lives. Our role is to help build capacity by successfully engaging parents and caregivers, strengthening home-school partnerships and aligning our collective efforts.
The 2021 Parents and Caregivers as Partners Conference provides an opportunity to highlight innovation and high-impact strategies for partnering, collaborating, and nurturing parents’ and caregivers’ partnerships and alliances.
Please watch this promotional video created by our amazing Community Support Workers communications team and then you can go to the 2021 Parents and Caregivers as Partners Conference website to register.
Curriculum Night - Wednesday October 6th, 2021
- 5:30 pm - 6:00 pm
- 6:45 pm - 7:15 pm
Lates / Lunches / Afternoon Pick Up
Lates:
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 - October 5th and 6th
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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 1 more parent 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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