June 2011

Ryerson P.S.

749 Grand Valley Drive

Atte nd an ce Li ne : 519 -570 -812 3 Principal: Mr. Peter Berndt

X 3 726

S cho ol Li ne 519 -653 -5532 Office Manger: Mrs. Sandra Spurgeon

School Council President: Mrs. Amy Willard-Brown

Principals Message
June has arrived and with it come year-end school trips, track & field events and some significant graduation celebrations for our Kindergarten and Grade 6 students. The school is abuzz with all the different adventures taking place almost every day this month. Rarely a day goes by without some notable event which makes Ryerson an exciting place to be! By the time you read this newsletter, our Grade 6 students will have completed writing their provincial EQAO test and our grade 3 students will be just starting. Many of you have asked why Ryerson does not have their past provincial EQAO ratings posted on the Ministrys website and the answer is that our schools data was statistically too small. Starting this year, now that our population has grown, our results will be posted and you will be able to obtain this data moving forward from this year. Our teaching staff have been busy this past Friday working on writing your childs report cards. Over the next few weeks, these will be finalized and ready for you to receive on Monday, June 27. Please review the report with your child and promptly return the tear-off section to your childs teacher. Time lines are short during that last week so your help in this area will be greatly appreciated. Speaking of appreciation, we as a school staff wish to recognize all those who have volunteered this past year in our school in a special way. More details will be coming home shortly, but we want you to be on the look-out for this special announcement! We are so grateful for those of you who have given of your time to help make our school that much better! Sincerely, Mr. Peter Berndt

Special Dates
June 6 June 7, 8, 9 June 8 June 10 June 13 June 14 June 16 June 17 June 17 June 22 June 23 June 23 Junior EQAO testing Primary EQAO testing 1st NB Gateway Lunch PM Junior Track meet @ Ryerson AM Junior Field meet @ Ryerson Party in the (Witmer) Park from 5 8 pm Grade 1 French Immersion Information Night Junior Track & Field meet @ Southwood All Library Books returned 1st NB Gateway Lunch Kindergartens to Schneider House Radical Play Day Mr. Hilborns drop-in retirement celebration @ Ryerson from 5 -7 pm All are welcome! Junior Wild Water Kingdom trip Report Cards go home Grade 6 Graduation @ 10 am Last Day of School Beach Day lots of water events

June 24 June 27 June 28 June 30

Message from School Council

It is hard to believe that the 20102011 school year is almost over. It has been a great year getting to know all our new families and students. In order to better understand our new community, this spring we decided to send home a survey which will help us determine the direction for future School Council events and fundraising. Thanks to everyone that took the time to fill one out. We appreciate all of the information that these surveys provided and will be using that information as we move forward. Congratulations to Krisha Patel winner of the Kindergarten draw for a Playfit Kids pass, Trey Lawrence winner of the Primary class draw for a Playfit Kids pass and Brianne Banderob winner of a gift card for Empire Theatres. The results of the survey showed some definite trends. It was clear that much of the population places a priority on expanding our home reading program as well as enhancing the playground. As a result, next year will see council dedicate approximately $2000-$3000 to enhance the home reading program. In response to comments made by members of the school community over the past year and through the survey, we have decided to undertake a Home Reading specific fundraiser. All money raised from this program will go directly to buying books for our home reading program. Watch for details as this will be happening before the end of the school year so that we have books ready to go for the start of next year. We will also be working on a plan for enhancing the playground including additional trees and learning spaces as well as development of a play area dedicated to junior students. In terms of fundraisers, many people identified that their reason for not participating was that they did not like the fundraisers that were done this year. We recognize that we will not be able to find something that will appeal to everyone but agree that it is time to try something new. Next year we will be doing a fall QSP campaign, which is a magazine order program. We will also be offering an option to make a one-time donation for those that would prefer not to participate in traditional fundraisers at the school. We will be doing another spring Craft and Gift show for Mothers Day. Further fundraising will depend on whether we have met our fundraising goals, which have been set at $15, 000 to meet our additional goals for the 2011-2012 school year. Thank you to the entire Ryerson Community for a great first year at the new school. I truly appreciate the contributions of all of the parents who have come out to council as well as all those volunteers that have worked with us throughout the year. I hope everyone has a wonderful summer and look forward to seeing all of you in the fall. Amy Willard-Brown School Council Chair

Mabels Labels Fundraiser

Its a fact kids lose things, but its harder to lose when their name is on it! As we head into Summer Camp season, many of you will be scrambling to label things so that they make it home from camp. For others, the summer will provide that time to get things ready for the next school year. Whatever the reason, Mabels labels provide a fantastic option for labeling your childrens belongings to ensure that they come home at the end of the day. School Council has partnered with Mabels Labels to provide great labeling options that allow you to support the school at the same time. All you need to do is visit www.ryersonps.mabel.ca. You can order directly from the Mabels Labels website and the product will ship directly to you. However, in order for Ryerson Public School to benefit from your order, you need to visit our direct link above.

Party in the Park June 14 @ 5 pm

During the evening of June 14th from 5 to 8 pm, Ryerson will host a community party in Witmer Park, located on Arthur Fach Drive in our Mattamy-Townline Road community. Everyone from Ryerson is encouraged to come out and enjoy an evening to celebrate the end of our first year together as a new school! The park will be filled with many events to keep you entertained and well fed: a BBQ, bouncy castles, musical entertainment by a musician and your own children, face and henna painting, Zoo to You animals to pet and learn about, and a fire truck and police car and the list goes on of the things to see and the events that will be happening. A flyer has gone home already with more information. If you did not see it yet, ask your childs teacher to have another one sent home to help get you better informed about the event.

Jump Rope for Heart

Thank you to all Ryerson Raptors, Family and Friends. You are all Heart Heroes for helping to raise just over $8000.00 for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Way to go! A special thank you to Mrs. Coady and Mrs. Spritzer who helped to count all the money. Student prizes should arrive in 3 weeks. A big thank you to all the volunteers who delivered the Strong Start Program at Ryerson this year. This is a very valuable program that services our Kindergarten and Grade One students in the skill development of letters and sounds and words. A special thank you to Mrs. Munroe - a retired teacher, who took on the Volunteer Coordinator position this year.

Kids Korner: Marvelous May By The Leadership Club

Over the last month, we had "Twin Jump Day", and the leadership club came up with some fun skipping routines. We need to work on our double dutch, but we mastered several other tricky moves. We finished off the assembly by practicing our new Ryerson cheer with the whole school. Ryerson rocks! Stay tuned for some fantastic "Beach Day" activities at the end of June. Be prepared for lots of water! We finished off our year of creating fabulous DPA dances. We got Beiber fever with "Bigger", and grooved to two other new songs, "Jumpstart" and "When Love Takes Over". We had a fantastic time dancing with the entire school this year, including the Kindies. The nicer weather now has us participating in DPA activities outside with our classes. We still have been very busy running PALS every Tuesday and Thursday, giving primary students the chance to play cooperative and fun games outside during second nutrition break. Our Twin Jump Day inspired us to organize skipping games, spring stations, and other fun outdoor activities. Way to go PALS Penguins, and keep on being the active, responsible kids we love to have at PALS. Finally, we are looking forward to celebrating our fantastic year together at the end of June. Future grade five and six Ryerson students, if you want to participate in a fantastic group next year and lead lots of great activities, find out how to be part of the Leadership Team in September!

Character Education at Ryerson

In May, the focus of our Character Education Program at Ryerson was BALANCE. We would like to recognize the Students of the Month for May, who did an excellent job demonstrating BALANCE as well as the other keys:

Mrs. Gjersten (JK/SK): Brooklyn W. Mrs. Haefling (JK/SK):Ainsley P. Mrs. Mielen (JK/SK): Venkat K. Mrs. Edgell (JK/SK): Kirsha P Mrs. Kewley (Gr. 1): Jasneet S. Miss Bates (Gr.1): Anika H. Mrs. McKinnon (Gr. 1/2): Laura E. and Samneet S. Mrs. Fox (Gr.2): Tyler M. Mr. Wells (Gr. 2/3): Joban D. Miss McMullen (Gr.3): Josephine P. Miss Kiefer (Gr.3): Ugrian S. Mr. Moog (Gr.4/5): Alex K. Ms. Piano-Crandon (Gr. 4): Justice B. Ms. Bates (Gr.5): Alexi H. Mr. Grant (Gr.6): Brandon M. Ms. Gill (Millville): Blaydon V.M. Miss Nichol (Enrichment): Laura B. Congratulations to all students who have been acknowledged as Student of the Month this year. Ryerson students have been working hard each and every day to show the 8 Keys of Excellence at school, at home, and in their community. COMMITMENT BALANCE FLEXIBILITY THIS IS IT OWNERSHIP

Ryerson School CD
Last month the students of Ryerson worked with singer/songwriter James Gordon to write and record their very own class song. These songs are phenomenal; they will truly be treasured for days to come. The CD has been cut; the art work and jacket designed, and is currently being pressed by a company in Toronto. In a couple short weeks, the CDs will be available to purchase and take home. You can preorder your CD or you can purchase your copies at the Party in the Park on Tuesday, June 14th. Individual CDs will cost $15. Families can purchase 2 CDs for $25. Order forms will be coming home next week. Don't miss out on this limited edition, awesome keepsake!

INTEGRITY FAILURE LEADS TO SUCCESS SPEAK WITH GOOD PURPOSE

Ryerson Radical Play day By Mr. Grant and Ms. Nichol

On Thursday June 23rd from around 11:30am1:30pm, the Raptors will be involved Ryerson's Radical Play day. This is a fun flowing play day run by rooms 1 and 2 by the grade 5s and 6s, including over 14 different activities for students to get involved in. Raptors will take part in activities such as a water balloon toss, water relays, parachute games, obstacle course etc. The grade 5s and 6s will be spending a lot of time creating these fantastic activities for the students to participate in, and they can't wait for this great day to come. Hopefully we have some great weather in store, so please make sure you come prepared for this awesome day. Students will not get wet if they don't want to, but it is usually part of the fun! Looking forward to a fantastic play day!

SMART Showcase School

Ryerson P.S. has recently become a SMART Showcase School! This special designation is a result of a new, two-year partnership with SMART Technologies that will bring more visitors and attention to our amazing school. SMART Technologies will be supporting Ryerson with new training, products, and services as Ryerson becomes a showcase for other educators. We are the first school in our school board to participate in this program, leading the way in the area of educational technology for our region! We are so SMART!

Grade 6 Graduation
Our Grade 6 graduation ceremony will take place in our gym on Tuesday, June 28th at 10 am. We are very excited about this event as it is the first one in our new school and with our new expanded number of graduates, over 40 of them! We invite all to attend this event to celebrate these students accomplishments. We will also recognize some students who have particularly excelled in various aspects of life here at Ryerson from the 3 graduating classes this year. Come on out, bring your camera, take in the ceremony, and enjoy some cake and punch!

Dress Code
As the hot weather is upon us, so too comes dressing appropriately for dealing with the heat and humidity. We are fortunate that our building is air conditioned. At present one of our portables has air conditioning and the remaining 2 portables will have air conditioning installed later this month. With that in mind, a reminder goes out to all families to please review the Dress Code outlined in the front section of your childs planner. Please be reminded that shorts and skirts must be mid-thigh length or longer and shirts must have straps that are 2 finger widths wide. These expectations are created by parents and staff working together to ensure that the learning environment is focused and appropriate for all. Please help ensure that your child is following these dress expectations prior to coming to school. Your support in this area is greatly appreciated.

Mr. Hilborns Community Retirement Party

A community open house retirement social will take place for Mr. Hilborn on Thursday June 23rd at the school from 5 to 7 pm. All are welcome to drop in and wish Mr. Hilborn the best in his retirement at that time as well as connect with many present and former students and staff of Ryerson!

Class Lists
Class lists for grades 1 to 6 will be posted on the front entry doors to the school with the teachers name, class number and students first name on Friday, September 2. Kindergarten class lists have already been created to establish staggered entry days come the first week of school in September.

HAVE A SAFE AND FUN FILLED SUMMER SEE YOU ALL IN SEPTEMBER