Sunday, 24 September 2023

Owen Online - Family Update - Week of September 25, 2023




Dear Owen Families,

We have had another productive week at Owen Public School with lots of learning and physical activity. Our grade 4 and 5 students have been taking on various leadership roles in the school like reading the morning announcements and volunteering in kindergarten.

Friday was a special day because we had our annual Terry Fox walk/run. There are a great many photos of this event below and more are still coming in.

This Thursday will be our first School Council meeting of the school year. We will have elections, inform the parents about school reorganization and our parent support group. We hope to see many of you there. More details about this and other events are provided below in our Owen School Calendar. 

We hope you will get into the habit of referring to the Owen Online Bulletin and Google calendar to find out what is going on at our school.  If you have missed a bulletin and want to catch up on previous posts, they are archived on our School Website.

Here are some upcoming dates:

Parent Council 6:30-8pm Sept 28th

Orange Shirt Day Sept 29th

Curriculum night Oct 5th

Pa Day (No school) Oct 6th

Thanksgiving Oct 9th

           1st Pizza Day Oct 12th* 

Photo Day Oct18th

We are looking forward to the weeks ahead.  

~ Your Friendly Neighbourhood Admin Team


Acting-Principal - sima.naymark@tdsb.on.ca
Office Administrator - nahid.vashghani@tdsb.on.ca 
AM Secretary - vesna.bozic@tdsb.on.ca 

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National Day for Truth & Reconciliation 
and Orange Shirt Day 2023

Saturday, September 30th marks the 10th anniversary of Orange Shirt Day and the third annual National Day for Truth & Reconciliation. The TDSB will be honouring this day, on Friday, September 29th. Truth and Reconciliation Week will take place September 25th-30th. Visit the Urban Indigenous Education website for more information about events happening across the TDSB.

" It is a day to demonstrate, by wearing orange, that all students matter."


https://www.tdsb.on.ca/Community/Indigenous-Education/Resources/Indigenous-Days-of-Significance#:~:text=Marked%20annually%20on%20September%2030th,orange%2C%20that%20all%20students%20matter.

We would greatly appreciate a volunteer / volunteers to help decorate our front display case for Orange Shirt days.
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School Council Meeting and Elections

We look forward to meeting with our parent community again on Thursday September 28th from 6:30-8:00PM.  

We will continue to run our School Council meetings using a hybrid model, so you can either come in person to the Owen PS Staffroom or join via Zoom.  The dates and Zoom links will be posted in the Owen Google calendar.  

We will arrange for babysitting if needed. Please complete the School Council Survey to help us with the planning of our first meeting.

Council will conduct elections for the Parent Council Executive as well as share the many volunteer opportunities available.  Whether it's helping out regularly or just when you have free time, we'd love to have you involved. Come to the meeting to hear more!




This year, School Council Meetings are planned for:


Thursday, September 28th, 6:30-8:00PM

 

Thursday,  October 19th 6:30-8:00PM


Thursday, November 16th 6:30-8:00PM


Thursday, February 8th  6:30-8:00PM


Thursday, April 11th  6:30-8:00PM


Thursday, May 9th  6:30-8:00PM


Below is the link created for Owen PS, for School Council Fundraising to support school programming for this coming school year.  Please click on the link to make a donation to the school. 


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Student Data Verification

If you haven't already sent in your Student Verification Forms these are now overdue.  It is very important that everyone return these important documents which were sent home for parents/guardians to review.  If emergency contact information has changed (name of emergency contact, cell numbers, emails) we must know this so we can reach you in case of emergency.  Please indicate it on the verification form in a coloured pen (or highlighter) and return it to your teacher.

If there are no changes, please still return the form to your teacher and indicate NO CHANGE so that we can be sure you reviewed it.

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Start of the Year Online Permission Forms


We are happy to say that almost everyone has completed the Start of the Year Online Permission forms.  Please note that students MUST have the walking form completed to participate in any future walks with their class.  


If you haven't completed it yet, please look in your spam folder or junk mail folder for an email with the link. 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 2021/2023).  If you can not find this email, please contact the office so we can help you.


Here is a tutorial for the Start of the Year forms that will help guide parents through this process.

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)

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Police Background Checks for Volunteers


Annual Declaration

If you have a Police Check on file with TDSB it is only valid for one year. The process to renew it is quick. Please pop by the office so Ms. Richter-Glinos can complete your annual declaration with you.

New Background Check

Thank you for your patience!  If you have never had a Police Check for volunteering in the TDSB before, the information about the record check is on this website:  


Please note that on the TPS website it says:

"If you are applying for a Criminal Record Check as a requirement for a volunteer position, please be advised that there is no longer a payment required in Ontario as of April 1, 2022.

As part of the process and in order to receive your Criminal Record Check free of charge, you must attach a signed letter* to your online application, or provide a hard copy if you are applying in person or by mail. 

 

 If you still want to sign up to receive such a letter, please fill in this Google Form.  https://forms.gle/MoCzsvfJJQQJHmcH8

*Thank you for your patience.  We have had to take a brief pause with preparing the letters because we are doing a lot of work related to reorganization.  We are excited to have received a lot of requests, and we will go back to preparing these letters on a first come first served basis, as soon as possible. 
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Pizza Lunch is Back by Popular Demand!


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Terry Fox Walk - Friday, September 22, 2023 @9:30 am 


 

Every year, schools across Canada hold a Terry Fox event to raise money for cancer research. Friday was a huge success, with all students and staff participating in some way!  Thank you so much for the many volunteers who helped make our route safe.  We couldn't have done it without you!

 

If you haven't had the chance to donate to Owen's Terry Fox campaign and still wish to do so, here is a link to Owen's dedicated on-line donation page:  https://schools.terryfox.ca/OwenPSNorthYork 

 

We hope to announce our total at this week's School Council Meeting.  OUR GOAL IS ADD ANORTHER $5 000 to the approximately $170 000 that the Owen Community has raised for the Terry Fox Foundation!

 


We hope you will enjoy the pictures of the event that are further down on this bulletin.

 

Thank you again for your continued support and generosity!  


The Terry Fox Committee


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                        Student Transportation News

Bussing for students previously enrolled with TDSB Transportation started the second week of school.  Others have received an email saying when their child may begin to ride the bus.  We thank you for your patience if you are waiting to hear about transportation.  Before sending the forms in we must first check them for accuracy and completion.  Then it takes a while for them to be processed.  The people at TDSB Transportation are working extremely hard to fulfill requests as quickly as possible. 

Some applicants have been declined.  A child may be eligible to ride the school bus provided they live within the catchment area, but are 1.6km or more from their school. To check eligibility enter your home address on this website:

Please note that if there is no adult to meet their child at the bus stop in the afternoon and they are not yet permitted to walk home alone(Gr 3 and below), they will be returned to the school and we will call parents to pick up their child.  Please check that young children have a purple tag on their backpack to let the bus driver know that they are not allowed to walk. School busses cannot wait for late parents and delay the route so please try your best to be punctual.

For details on your bus schedule, times and route, please see the bus planner site here: https://www.torontoschoolbus.org/  We will be the Brightspace Bus page. Instead we will send emails or make phone calls if the bus is very delayed after school 

Questions / Applying for Bussing for the First Time?
Please, email all questions to the Vice Principal Hella.Richter-Glinos@tdsb.on.ca. 

Empty Seat Policy
Students living less than 1.6 km from school are expected to walk.  Given that there is a shortage of drivers, we do not know yet whether there will be any seats available under the TDSB’s Empty Seat Policy (PR504).  

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Please Check Ingredient Lists Carefully!

Please keep in mind that we have students with life threatening allergies. Make sure you are not sending any food containing tree nuts or peanuts so that you do not put anyone at risk of a reaction. Some people may not realize Nutella contains Hazelnuts, so please do not send any Nutella sandwiches for lunch.

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TDSB Days of Significance

In order to be equitable and respectful to all of our students, we would like to provide and share information and insight into any day of significance through the Owen Online, our message board, and morning announcements.  


Days of Significance in the Coming Week are:

Tuesday to Monday

19 - 25

International Week of the Deaf

Canadian Association and World Federation of the Deaf

Monday

25

Franco-Ontarian Day

Government of Ontario

Monday

25

Yom Kippur

Judaism

Wednesday

27

Elevation of the Holy Cross

Christianity (Eastern Orthodox)

Wednesday

27

Mawlid-al-Nabi – Prophet’s Birthday*

Islam

Thursday

28

Anant Chaturdashi

Jainism

Saturday

30

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Government of Canada

Saturday

30

Orange Shirt Day

First Nation, Métis, Inuit

Saturday to Friday

30 to 06 October

Sukkot*

Judaism

If you have a particular day that you would like to bring our attention to, please contact hella.richter-glinos@tdsb.on.ca. 


The list of Days of Significance that the TDSB recognizes can be found by clicking the link.

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Student News

See what our students have been up to lately!





































If you have photos, student work or family activities you would like to share on the Owen Online for next week, please email them to hella.richter-glinos@tdsb.on.ca . 
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Please click here for the latest updates and newsletters.  


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