May 29, 2014

LABOUR ISSUES

As you are likely well aware,  the protracted negotiations between the BCTF and BCPSEA have not been very fruitful and it is beginning to impact daily life at Hawthorne.  The latest developments have forced the cancellation of some field trips, meetings and staff planning.  We are all hopeful for a speedy resolution to this impasse and we will do our best to keep you informed.  Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

VOLUNTEER TEA

Thank you to the many parents who joined us at our Volunteer Appreciation Tea on Thursday, May 22.  It was a well attended event and a great opportunity for our staff to recognize the tremendous contributions that parents make to Hawthorne.  We truly appreciate the support whether it be with homework, field trips, fundraising, classroom help and the list goes on.  Our shared efforts help to make Hawthorne the best school it can be.

TRACK AND FIELD

On Thursday, May 15th, Hawthorne was proudly represented by over 50 students at the District Track Meet.  Our students enjoyed a great day and we congratulate them on their efforts.  Our grade 4 girls relay team actually continued their track and field experience at the provincial track and field championships held at Minoru Park in Richmond. Well done Lauren Amundsen, Mackenzie Gray, Gabrielle Valle and Kaitlyn Kitigawa. Thank you to all of our coaches and parents for their support during the track and field season. Special thanks to Mrs. Robinson for coordinating our efforts.

LADNER MAY DAYS
It was clear on Monday morning that most of our Hawthorne families were somehow involved with the Ladner May Days held last weekend.  It was an exciting weekend for Ladner and the continuation of a great community tradition.  Our school was represented formally by Skye-Ann Persad who was one of the princesses chosen from each school in Delta.

IMPORTANT DATES

(please note that these dates/times are subject to change due to the ongoing labour dispute)

Friday, June 6

Sports Day

9am - 2:15pm (approx.)

Friday, June 20th

Final Monthly Assembly

11am Gym

Thursday, June 26th

Grade 7 Assembly

9am Gym

Thursday, June 26th
Summer Break Begins
Students dismissed at 10:30am

May 15, 2014

CLASSROOM PLACEMENTS:  2014-2015

In the coming weeks, our teaching staff will be meeting to create tentative class lists for next year.  The classes will be determined by considering the following factors:

- Learning styles and strengths

- What the child can do in relation to the program

- Degree of independence in work habits

- Social and personal needs

- Age and physical maturity

- Previous year's placement

- Previous teachers input

- Parent input / requests

- Establishing a balanced group academically

- Male/Female balance

- Friendship groupings

- Equalizing class size

- Siblings/Twins

- Special needs

- Medical needs

If you have some information that you would like to include in this process,  please forward a note to Mr. Carruthers at the office or correspond via email at mcarruthers@deltasd.bc.ca. We would only ask that you please refrain from making a "teacher" request and focus on what you believe to be the best learning environment for your child.  Thank you in advance for your attention to this. 

MOVING?
Please contact Mrs. Page at the office (cpage@deltasd.bc.ca) if your family is considering a change of schools next year.  This information is an important part of our planning for the 2014-2015 school year.  Thank you in advance for your consideration.

TRACK and FIELD

Congratulations to all of our staff and students who enjoyed a very successful regional track meet on Tuesday, May 6. Hawthorne was represented by over 100 intermediate students and 8 staff members.  It was a very proud day for our school and many of the students qualified for the district track meet scheduled for today.  

District Qualifiers:

Grade 4:  Lauren Amundsen, McKenzie Gray, Kiely Hutt, Kaitlyn Kitagawa, Tye Hemenway, Mantaj Dhah, Caden Pacaud, Cameron Ferguson, Jeremy Napilot, Michael Norcott, Yunus Tutuncu

Grade 5: Casey Asquith, Kara Kovalick, Morgan Regalado, Kim Williams, Mackenzie Loyer, Isabelle Peters, Abby Malesku, Keagan Denman, Koby Ground, Jackson Lawton, Reece Palmer, Lucas Hanford

Grade 6: Maheen Randhawa, Rachel Francis, Julia Chorney, Alicia Hornby, Sophie Hornby, Emily Morris, Charley Pacaud, Kylie Christopherson, Jaya Dhaliwal, Gracelyn Palmer, Dylan Broad, Tyler McIntosh, Connor McIntosh, Tyler Rooyakers, Riley Salikin, Carson Hemenway, Dawson Baker, Matt Willford, Branden Phillips

Grade 7: Daniella Dubljevic, Mackenzie Last, Teah Bryce, Olivia Malesku, Hannah Hansen, Sophia Janzen, Katelyn Johnston, Grace Lee, Jeenat Sidhu, Liam Maclennan, Jake Stamatiou, Jaicob Hastings, Maximus Leung, Ben Knauer

SUMMER CAMPS:

‘Strive ~ Express ~ Achieve’ with Delta Continuing Education’s “YOUTH ACTIVITY PROGRAMS” again offering a wide variety of Summer 2014 programs for the children and youth of our communities.  Activities, directed by teachers and other professional people, will focus in the areas of Fine and Performing Arts, Sports and Active Living, Academic Enrichment, and Personal Development.   There will be many new programs available for students aged 5 – 13 in each of the communities of Ladner, Tsawwassen and North Delta.  Brochures will be delivered in your local newspapers in May as well as available at the front office of each school.  As well, each elementary school’s youngest in family member will be given a brochure to take home during the week of May 26-30. Early registration is strongly recommended as courses do fill up quickly.  Be sure to bookmark: http://onlineca.activecommunities.com/connectandlearn for on-line information and registration options or phone 604-940-5550.

HOMEQUEST PROGRAM

Home Quest is Delta School District's  Distributed Learning (DL)  program and is located at  Pinewood Elementary.  This unique program supports families who wish to home school their children.  Home Quest provides part time classes, workshops, field trips and much more!  Many families prefer the flexibility of tailoring a personalized program to suit the needs of their child.  For more information visit Homequest. 

FREE GOLF CLINICS

The Maple Leaf Golf Tour is hosting free golf clinics for children.  You can find more information at the following link: http://www.maplejt.com/clinics.php

IMPORTANT DATES

Friday, May 16

Professional Day

School Closed

Monday, May 19

Victoria Day

School Closed

Thursday, May 22

Parent Tea

2pm Library

Wednesday, May 28

PAC Meeting

6:30pm Library

Friday, June 6

Sports Day

9am - 2:15pm (approx.)

Friday, June 20th

Final Monthly Assembly

11am Gym

Thursday, June 26th

Grade 7 Assembly

9am Gym

Thursday, May 1st

PLAYGROUND INSTALLATION:

After a full day's work on Saturday, our playground installation crew was able to successfully assemble a new play area for students.  We would like to thank Mrs. Ranu for spearheading this project and Mrs. Pryce and Mrs. Lawless for their assistance.  The funds for this playground were made possible through a provincial program designed to support the installation of new playgrounds around B.C.

Thank you to the many volunteers who donated their time in support of this project:

Mr. B. Sigouin, Mr. D. Sigouin,  Mr. Lockhart, Mr. Buonanno, Ms. Brookes, Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Graham, Mr. Barton, Mr. Panesar, Ms. Todd, Ms. Bains, Mr. Aulik, Isaac Ziprusky, Mr. and  Mrs. Norcott, Mr. Hunter, Ms. Li, Mr. Spence, Mr. Fischer, Mr. Galbraith, Ms. Gilbert, Mr. Lawless, Mr. Ranu, Mr. Carruthers, Ms. Emigh, Ms. Fisher, Mr. McWilliams, Mr. Salazar, Ms. Lawton, Mr. Li, Mr. Wong, Mr. and Mrs. Bak, Mr. and Mrs. Halkett, Mr. Hunter, Mr. and Mrs. Jurchuk and Mr. Schulte.

ZEN GARDEN AT HAWTHORNE
Saturday, April 26th was a busy day at Hawthorne as Mr. Bourgeois and our parent volunteer, Neil Malesku, worked to create a "Zen" garden in one of our courtyards.  We have been left with a great space for learning and relaxing.  Thank you to Neil and his baseball team, the Delta Heat, for all of their hard work!

CLASSROOM PLACEMENTS:  2014-2015

In the coming weeks, our teaching staff will be meeting to create tentative class lists for next year.  The classes will be determined by considering the following factors:

- Learning styles and strengths
- What the child can do in relation to the program
- Degree of independence in work habits
- Social and personal needs
- Age and physical maturity
- Previous year's placement
- Previous teachers input
- Parent input / requests
- Establishing a balanced group academically
- Male/Female balance
- Friendship groupings
- Equalizing class size
- Siblings/Twins
- Special needs
- Medical needs

If you have some information that you would like to include in this process,  please forward a note to Mr. Carruthers at the office or correspond via email at mcarruthers@deltasd.bc.ca.  We would only ask that you please refrain from making a "teacher" request and focus on what you believe to be the best learning environment for your child.  Thank you in advance for your attention to this.

PEDALHEADS BIKE SAFETY CLINIC

Families are invited to paricipate in the Pedalheads Bike Safety Clinic that is being held free of charge on Wednesday, May 7th at 3:15pm.  For more information or to sign up, you can email hawthornebikeday@gmail.com. Thank you to Mrs. Sigouin for coordinating this event. 

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

Hawthorne will be hosting a school-wide emergency drill on Thursday, May 8th at approximately 2:20pm.  This exercise will involve the following:  duck and cover in the classroom, evacuation to marshalling area, building assessment, search and rescue.  We should be completed our drill within 20 minutes and it will provide our staff with a good opportunity to review emergency procedures and what students can do to keep themselves safe.  With this in mind,  you may want to follow up with your child after checking out these emergency preparedness tips.

EMERGENCY RELEASES

May 4-10, 2014 is emergency preparedness week in Canada. In the Delta School District we take emergency preparedness very seriously. All of our schools conduct emergency drills throughout the school year. Some of these drills may be full emergency release drills, meaning that parents are involved in the drill because we are practicing how students will be safely released to their parents in the event of a disaster. It is important that if a school has a full release drill, that parents take part. Our students, staff and parents need to be ready in case disaster strikes.

*** It is important that all parents understand that all students, whether in kindergarten or grade 12, will only be dismissed from school in emergency situations to their parents or designated emergency release adult. Students cannot be released to an older sibling who is still under the age of 19. Students will not be allowed to leave school property until a pre-designated adult retrieves them. In order to maintain the safety of your children, there can be no exceptions.

This means that parents need to regularly plan for who will be able to pick-up their child in an emergency situation and that the information needs to be reviewed and updated annually. If both parents do not work close to the school, then they should designate another trusted adult who will, most likely, be in the area if disaster strikes during school hours. Again, this person cannot be an older sibling who is under the age of 19. Parents need to inform the school of who their Emergency Release designated adult is and they need to review this information annually and update it if necessary. They should do so via Parent Connect (instructions are listed below). This needs to be done for each child you have in the Delta School District and you need to inform each child of who his/her Emergency Release adult is.

Parent Connect Instructions:

1.     Sign on to Parent Connect
2.   Click on the BASIC tab on the main toolbar
3.   Click on the blue "Emergency/Out of Prov/Other Contacts" button
4.     Click on the Edit button to the left side of a blank line to add a new record, or on an existing line to change the information. Use the drop down option box to choose the appropriate option for this record; choose ER-Emergency Release. Fill in all of the fields.
5.     Click the Save button to update the changes. If you close the screen or go to another screen before saving, the changes will be lost.

Note: This needs to be completed separately for each child.

For more information about emergency preparedness in the Delta School District visit the DeltaPrepared website: facilities.deltasd.bc.ca/deltaprepared

PARENTING WORKSHOP
The PAC for South Delta Secondary is hosting a free workshop for parents with teenagers on Tuesday, June 3rd from 7-8:30pm.  Parenting expert, Klaus Klien, will be on hand and you can register by contacting Mrs. Abraham at johannaabraham@yahoo.ca.

IMPORTANT DATES

Tuesday, May 6
Regional Track Meet
Delta Secondary

Thursday, May 8
Emergency Drill
2:20pm

Friday, May 9
Monthly Assembly
11am

Tuesday, May 13
Class Photos

Thursday, May 15
District Track Meet
South Delta Secondary

Friday, May 16
Professional Day
School Closed

Monday, May 19
Victoria Day
School Closed

Thursday, May 22
Parent Tea
2pm Library

Friday, June 6
Sports Day
9am - 2:15pm (approx.)