Dundas Central School News October 2009

73 Melville Street
Dundas, Ontario L9H 2A2 B. Morlog, Principal
Phone (905) 627-3521 Fax (905) 627-3522 J. George, Vice-Principal
Education is “Central” www.hwdsb.on.ca/centraldundas

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK

A Good Start!

It was nice to experience a good “start-up” to the school year. Our timetable has run smoothly and our staffing predictions were
accurate so we “dodged” school re-organization at the end of September. It was great to meet and greet our school community at
“Meet the Teacher” Night. Thanks must be extended to our Home and School for organizing the evening and arranging for
Dundas’ own “Super Submarine” to attend and provide the food and drinks.

Q.S.P. – Magazine Fundraiser

Once again our Home and School Association has organized this annual fundraiser. This project is beneficial to our school
community. It serves as our major fundraiser and the proceeds are utilized for classroom and school needs. It assists families
with the emphasis on literacy and most households purchase magazines. The prices offered are very favourable. We are
concluding this project by the Thanksgiving weekend so send your orders in promptly. The longer you keep the order forms at
home the easier it is to lose them. Thank you for your participation in our major fund raiser.

School Community Meetings

Our next Home and School Meeting will be hosted on Wed. Oct. 7th in our staff room. This organization serves as a major
support to our school by organizing fund raisers and providing support to our school. At our last meeting on Sept. 15th, the group
discussed the organization of Meet the Teacher Night, QSP, other fund raisers, school initiatives and was introduced to our
Vice-Principal, Ms. George. The next meeting will address the selection of the executive and the initiatives for this year. Our
current chairperson Michelle Chin is looking to her reduce her role (thanks for your efforts Michelle!) so the organization is
looking for people to “step up”. See you there!

Our first School Council Meeting was held on Tuesday Sept. 29th in our staff room. This organization serves as an advisory
body to the school. The meetings serve to be information sessions on school, Board and Ministry initiatives. Mr. Mike Downs
has served as our Chair for many years and he is planning to step down. (Thanks for all your efforts over the years Mike!) Mike
will remain to assist with transition and Jeremy Abrahams will serve as our new chair person. Thanks Jeremy! Our next meeting
will be Tues. Nov. 3rd. Plan to attend this session and bring a friend!

4. Student Teachers

Our school once again has been selected for the Internship program with the Faculty of Education at Brock University. Student
teachers will be paired with an Associate Teacher on our staff. The teacher candidates will be working with their Associate for
10 days throughout September, October and November. Their first teaching block will run from November 17th to December
11th. We welcome them to our school and we hope they enjoy all the opportunities available to them.

Teacher Candidate Associate Teacher

Ms. Dodge Mrs. Bloom

Ms. Walker Mrs. Bennett
Ms. Elphick Mrs. Waller
Ms. Moulden Mr. James Bennett
Ms. Young Mrs. DiDonato
Mr. Fraser Mr. Bell

Ms. Learner from Lakehead University has been working with Mrs. Groves since school started . We will also have 9 student
teachers from Nipissing Teachers College in Brantford working on Mondays with staff from October to until April and then
teach for a week that month. In addition, we have 6 co-op students from Parkside High along with our parent volunteers helping
us. It’s nice to have so many people assisting in delivering program and improving student / teacher contacts. I believe our
students will benefit from the “extra hands”.
EQAO Preliminary Results

The preliminary results from the grade three and six testing from last Spring have been released. In October, parents will receive
their child’s individual results. We are very pleased with our results, especially with the primary scores. Enclosed is a brief
synopsis of the school’s scores.

Dundas Central School Results for All Students at or Above Provincial Standard (Levels 3 & 4)

Grade 3 08/09 07/08 06/07 05/06 04/05

Reading 80% 75% 52% 59% 72%

Writing 90% 80% 52% 68% 78%
Math 78% 84% 70% 78% 75%

Grade 6

Reading 64% 73% 65% 78% 88%

Writing 62% 67% 51% 63% 82%
Math 60% 87% 73% 75% 87%

The testing results provide a “snapshot” of student progress and staff will analyze all the data to address student needs and
program delivery.

Dear Dundas Central Families:

Are you building a
I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you all back to a new
school year and hope that everyone had a safe and happy summer. home-school team?
This letter is to inform you about the care that the Umbrella Family
and Child Centres provides, right here in your home school. Research shows that
when home and school
We are excited to be able to offer your school aged child a form a strong team,
“seamless” day, one full of opportunity without worry. Your child can kids learn more and do
be dropped off as early as 7:30 a.m. to take part in quiet activities
better in school.
and have a healthy snack. They can then go straight to their
Answer the following
questions yes or no to
classroom when the bell rings. At dismissal time, your child will meet
see if you’re doing
the Umbrella Staff member outdoors at a designated place. They will
your part to build a
take part in active games and free play activities outdoors, weather
home-school team:
permitting. After outdoor play, they will come inside to have snack,
___1. Have you met your child’s classroom
interact with their friends, start homework, and take part in self- teacher at least once this year?
directed creative activities, etc. until 6 p.m. when the program ___2. Do you talk with your child about school
closes. each day? Do you talk about the
importance of working hard and doing
We offer part-time, (min. 3 days per week) and full time spots your best?
throughout the school year. Feel free to contact me, Kathy Pryde, ___3. Do you have a regular time for homework
Centre Supervisor at 905-628-2680 or each day? Is the TV turned off during that
kathy.pryde@umbrellafamily.com or pop into the drama room and ask time?
Linda for more information. Our centre phone # is 905-973-7472. ___4. Do you make sure your child gets to
school on time each day?
We look forward to meeting your child care needs! ___5. Do you read to or with your child every
day?
Sincerely,
Kathy Pryde How did you do? Each yes answer means you
Centre Supervisor are building a strong homeschool team. For each
Umbrella Family and Child Centres of Hamilton no consider taking an idea from the quiz.
 Senior Girls Baseball
Congratulations to our Senior Girls' Baseball
team for their fine efforts in the HWDSB Division
1 3-pitch tournament. The team faced some
tough competition throughout the day, but always
exhibited a strong competitive spirit and sense of
fair play. We had fun and were proud to
represent Dundas Central. I would like to
acknowledge the following players: Nicole
Brown, Amanda Harvey, Emily Shaw, Erica
LeBlanc, Hope Bartley, Rhyleigh Hopkins, Salma
Mobasher, Haley Kenna, Jessica Derrick, Alex
Lloyd and Jadye Malek-Laidlaw.
Well done girls!
S.Lyall
Coach
Baseball News
Junior Girls Baseball
The Junior Girls Baseball team won their
championship pennant on Tues., Sept 22. The
girls went undefeated throughout the tournament
and won the championship game by a score of
16-4. Congratulations girls! I would like to
acknowledge the players: Marscha Kingsley,
Charlotte Rose, Lauren Bell, Nicole Cashin,
Sierra Succar, Megan Smith, Callista Stavnitzky,
Jessica Diamond, Sarah Wilkinson, Natasha
Vlietman, Destiny DeKock, Hannah Kinghorn.
Mr. Dean
Coach
Junior Boys Baseball
Congratulations to the Junior boys baseball team
on winning their tournament. The school would
like to thank Mr. Corsini and Mr. Grisdale for their
help. Thank you to the following students for their
excellent effort: Alex Tomlinson, Jonathan
Grisdale, Ben Birkby, Spencer Butts, Harrison
Corsini, Matt Flaherty, Brodie Lennox, Cam
McConnell, Jordan McNeil, Joey Monds, Joe
Thompson.
Mr. Jamie Bennett
Coach
St. Donat January 13-16, 2010
Dundas Central registration form
and Perspectives registration form
plus $50 deposit is due October 2,
2009.
Terry Fox Run
In the last two weeks of September, Student Council representatives
made daily announcements to generate support for our annual Terry
Fox Run/Walk on October 2nd. Students were encouraged to
research an answer for a daily trivia question about Terry Fox and
his Marathon of Hope. Thank you to all of you who have supported
this event by donating to the Terry Fox Foundation, by offering to
supervise this event, and by helping your child learn more about
Terry Fox and his commitment to combat cancer and help others.
A very special thank you goes to Mr. Morlog, who, because of his
commitment to this cause and to the spirit of our school, has agreed
to "face" a cream pie should our school succeed in raising more
than last year's collective donation of $1250.00. Thanks as well to
Fortinos on Main St. W. who have donated freezies for all of our
students to enjoy following the run/walk. We are very grateful for the
contributions everyone is making to support cancer research!
Kindergarten News and Dates
SMILE! Picture day will be on Oct 14 for the “B” day SK classes and
on Oct 15 for the “A” day JK and JK/SK class.
Trip to Yee Haw Adventure Farm will take place on Thursday Oct22
in the morning for the JK and JK/SK class and on the morning of
Friday Oct 23 for the SK class.
Hallowe’en parade: JK and JK/SK will be going on a Halloween
parade through all classes Thursday, October 29th in the a.m. and
the SK's will be doing it on Friday, October 30th -same time.
Home & School News
Hope everyone has had a good start to the school year and the
routines are starting to kick in.
Thanks to everyone who made the Meet the Teacher BBQ such a
success. We raised about $300 for the school.
QSP Magazine Drive: The campaign deadline is the end of day
October 13th. Thanks for helping make this our biggest fundraiser
for the school year!
We have started a Mabel's Labels campaign that ends in December.
Mabel’s Label’s have a website called ww.dundascentral.mabel.ca
and this is where you can directly place your orders and receive
them in the mail to your home.
There will probably be one or two H&S events in October and
November, which we'll advertise closer to the dates.
Our next H&S meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 7th
7:00 -8:30 pm. We are approving our list of events and initiatives
for the school year, and also ringing in the new H&S exec and
event leaders, so if you're interested ... Child care is
available ...hope to see you there!
Michelle Chin
Dundas Central Home & School
http://www.hwdsb.on.ca/centraldundas/
 Pizza! Pizza! Pizza! Don’t forget to turn
Get ready for Pizza! your clocks back one
hour on Saturday,
Our Pizza Thursdays will be
starting up again on Thursday, October
October 31st.
15th. We will be offering cheese or
pepperoni slices from Domino's Pizza, for NSF Cheques
$2 per slice. Primary/Junior students Last year we had a number of NSF cheques.
please give your order to your teacher by A friendly reminder there is a
$7.00 charge for all NSF
Wednesday mornings. Middle School cheques.
students, you do not need to order in
advance; you may purchase slices during All cheques must clear before
the trip date, therefore we
the second part of Nutrition Break on your will not be accepting post
way up to your lunchrooms, after recess. dated cheques.

From the Office

Please report to the

Office:
Dundas Central School has a
safe school policy—we
kindly request that all
parents and visitors to the
school (no matter how
familiar) sign in and out of
the office. While this may
seem like an inconvenience to you, it is one of the required
steps we take each day to keep your child(ren) safe.
We have several students
arriving at school as early as
8:00. Please be aware that
there is no supervision on
the playground until 8:25.
O
Our Newsletter has gone GREEN!

Attendance: As our attempt at reducing paper, we now send

Please help us out by calling the school if your child will be
absent. You can call ANYTIME with this information (name,
class and reason, please speak slowly and clearly). This will
ensure the absence is recorded properly. Please try to call
before 9:00am on the day of the absence 905-627-3521.
out our monthly newsletter and calendar by email.
For those families that have not already registered
for this mailing, please go to our school website
at :

The office at Dundas Central is a very busy place - as you www.hwdsb.on.ca/centraldundas

can imagine with over 500 students. How parents can help:
• If you have information that needs to be given to your
child’s teacher, it would be very helpful if you could
write a note to the particular teacher and have your
child hand it in.
• By having child care arrangements made well in
advance and ensuring your child(ren) know who is
picking him/her up at dismissal. The office phones are
extremely busy at the end of the day and we cannot
ensure that your child(ren) will be notified of last
minute changes.
Thank you for your co-operation with these matters.
In the bottom left hand corner there is a box
marked SUBSCRIBE HERE. Just enter your email
address and the newsletter/calendar and all
important updates from school will be mailed
directly to you. No more searching through
backpacks for important school information!
***We realize that not everyone has access to a
computer at home so we will have paper copies
available in the office at your request. The
newsletter and calendar generally are distributed
on the last day of the month.