Thursday 1 May 2014

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.)