Welcome! We are thrilled to be starting another school year

with familiar and new staff, students and their families, our

volunteers and community partners!

At Plymouth our goal is to establish a safe and orderly envi-

ronment that fosters caring relationships between adults and

students, as well as among peers. You can expect that all

the educational professionals at Plymouth will be relentless

in our efforts to ensure all students feel safe and develop a

sense of belonging at school.

Expectations for student learning are high and everyone

working at Plymouth is committed to providing each student

with the support needed to meet these expectations.

We always welcome your input and sincerely believe that a

key element to assisting our students to achieve excellence is

having a positive relationship with our students’ families. We

are always willing to talk, problem solve, support and work

together because your children are our children and we both

want the absolute best for them!

It is important for both your child and yourself to get in-

volved! There is so much to be done in a day and we wel-

come all hands. Ask your child's teacher or the office how

you can help.

See you at the School BBQ and at Parent Council (see dates

and information inside).

Mrs. Train and Mr. Winger

SEPTEMBER 2015 NEWSLETTER

Attendance

Please remember to call the

school to report your child’s

absence as soon as possible.

The answering

machine

will accept messages 24

hours a day.

School phone number is 905-

732-4110.

Thank you.

Principal - Mrs. N. Train Superintendent - Mr. W. Hahn

Vice-Principal - Mr. G. Winger Trustee - Mrs. S. Barnett

Secretary - Mrs. S. Bodner

111 FIRST ST WELLAND ONTARIO * Phone—905-732-4110 Fax-905-732-2728

Breakfast Program—Starts Tuesday, September 8th

Volunteers are needed to help set up and serve food to the students from 8:10-8:45

a.m. If you are available to assist at any time, please call the school at 905-732-4110. We would like to extend a “Panther Thank You” to our existing Breakfast Club Volun-

teers! Please do not hesitate to send your child/ren to this program.

Our Breakfast Program runs five days a week. Each day there is a different menu such as cereal and toast,

pancakes, egg muffins, etc.

One Less

Hungry Child!

Page 2

If a child requires medication at the school, the school must have a medical form

(obtained at the school office). The form must be signed by the physician as well as

by the parent/guardian. A prescription bottle must have a “doctor’s” prescription

label on it in order for the medication to be kept in the office. Please be sure to notify

the office if your child requires any medication during the school day.

Please DO NOT send medications in a baggie.

Medication Safety at School

Welcome Back!

Did you know that Plymouth has a Parenting and Family Literacy Centre???? We welcome

anyone with babies and children up to six years of age to come and visit our centre Monday to Friday

between 9 am and 1 pm. We offer a range of fun programs that help children get ready for school. Best

of all it is FREE and NO REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. Parenting and Family Literacy Centres are

school-based programs in which parents, grandparents and caregivers with their children, participate in a

range of play-based learning activities that focus on the optimal development of the child and the early

acquisition of literacy and numeracy skills. Coffee, Tea and Juice is available as well as snacks

September 2015 Newsletter

Teachers are on duty in the morning starting at 8:40 a.m. Please do not send your child to

school prior to this time. Safety is our greatest concern and we do not want children on the

yard without supervision. At dismissal times we expect students to go directly home for safety

sake.

Parent’s picking up their children at 3:20 p.m. are asked to wait outside their child’s entry

doors of the school.

We appreciate your assistance in this matter.

School Times

The morning bell for students to start their day will go off at 9:00 a.m.

The school day will be as follows:

Period 1 9:00-10:00

Period 2 10:00-10:40

Gr. 1-3

1st Nutrition Break 10:40-11:00

1st Fitness Break 11:00-11:20

Gr. 4-8

1st Fitness Break 10:40-11:00

1st Nutrition Break 11:00-11:20

Period 3 11:20-12:10

Period 4 12:10-1:00

Gr. 1-3

2nd Nutrition Break 1:00-1:20

2nd Fitness Break 1:20-1:40

Gr. 4-8

2nd Fitness Break 1:00-1:20

2nd Nutrition Break 1:20-1:40

Period 5 1:40-2:40

Period 6 2:40-3:20

Dismissal for all Grades 3:20

Page 3

PLEASE

BE ON

TIME!

staff and students are quite sensitive

to these odors. Thank you for helping make Plymouth

a safe place to come to school.

If your child has a serious allergy, is

medically at risk or requires medica-

tion, please notify your teacher and

the office so we can provide you with

the proper forms and get an Action

Plan in place.

We have staff and students with aller-

gies, some of whom are allergic to

peanuts. We ask that peanut prod-

ucts not be brought to school. A

good alternative to peanut butter can

be purchased at a variety of grocery

stores.

We ask that you counsel your child

on wearing scented perfumes, body

sprays, lotions and hairsprays as some

Allergies

Early Release Days

Early Release Days scheduled for the following dates in the 2014-15 school year:

Friday, September 18, 2015 Friday, February 12, 2016

Grade 1-8 Students

On the dates listed above, all buses and taxis providing service to the District School Board of Niagara will arrive at their respective schools three (3) hours earlier than the regularly sched-uled bus departure time. Historically, working on a fixed three-hour advanced schedule across the Board provides par-ents with greater clarity in knowing that their children should be arriving home three hours ear-lier than normal on these days. Also, as many of the school buses are now double or triple run, logistically we need to shift all schedules forward in order to service these days as safely as possible. On Early Release days all late activity buses at secondary schools are also cancelled.

Junior and Senior Kindergarten Students

Full day kindergarten students can ride the morning and afternoon buses on these dates be-cause their bus stop is assigned on the regular grade 1-8 bus routes.

Crossing Guards

The municipal clerks at all Niagara municipalities have been notified in writing of the 2015-16 School Year Calendar, and specifically the Early Release Days. Crossing guards will be on duty for the students’ morning trip to school and their trip to home following the three hour early release schedule.

Page 4

Communicating with your child’s school is important for their success. Please

be sure to contact the office and let us know if your child will be absent or

late for any school day.

The phone number to call is

905-732-4110, extension 36700.

Please leave a message in the event that we are unable to answer your call.

Picture Day

Communicating with the school

Page 5 September 2015 Newsletter

Say Cheese!

Edge Imaging will be taking school pictures on October 6th starting at 9:00

a.m. so be sure to wear bright, colourful clothing.

The photographers will not be taking any photos during the

nutrition breaks.

If you would like siblings to have their picture taken together, please send in

a note requesting this.

Breakfast Program Picture Day

All students from Grades 1 through 8 will be required to use an agenda. The school will be selling cus-

tomized organizers at a cost of $5.00 and the remainder of the cost will be subsidized by the school.

These organizers contain pertinent information including Codes of Conduct and Policies and Procedures

for our school as a handy reference. Please review the Code of Conduct with your child. When home

and school work together towards positive behavior, great things happen. We feel that using an organ-

izer is an important life skill, helping the student to use goal-setting and self-management skills. We feel

strongly that Student Organizers will be a useful tool with which we can provide our students.

Classroom teachers will be distributing the Student Organizer and collecting the money for them as well.

Agendas & Code of Conduct

Plymouth School Staff

Principal—Mrs. N. Train Vice-Principal—Mr. G. Winger

JR/SR Kindergarten Mrs. Pieterse

Mrs. Ranalli-Marr

Mrs. Reid

Grade 1 Ms. Parry

Grade 1/2 Mrs. DiMarco

Grade 2 Ms. Cobbe

Grade 2/3 Ms. Shields

Grade 3/4 Mr. Lafleur

Grade. 4/5 Ms. Fong

Grade 5/6 Mrs. Woods

Grade 7/8 Mrs. Droppert

Mr. Mead

French Mme. Scott

Library & Prep. Mrs. A. Miralles

LRT Mrs. Fraipont

Early Childhood Educators (ECE’s) Ms. J. Nicholls (Mrs. Pieterse’s class)

Mrs. Kent (Mrs. Marr’s class)

Mrs. McGill (Mrs. Reid’s class)

Educational Assistants (EA’s) Mrs. Smith

Mrs. Couture

Ms. Barbera

Ms. D’Addazio

Mrs. Donnison

Mrs. Cronin

Secretary Mrs. S. Bodner

Chief Caretaker Mrs. D. Rogers

Afternoon Caretakers Mrs. C. Bass

Ms. L. Chevalier

Noon Hour Supervisors Mrs. T. Belanger

Mrs. D. Simpson

Mrs. L. Tremblay

Youth Counsellor Mrs. Hofland

Instructional Coach Mrs. Rice

Page 6 September 2015 Newsletter

At the beginning of each school year we ask parents to complete a verification information sheet for

each child. We are sending home a print-out of the most up to date information that we have on

file. Please read this over carefully and make any necessary changes in the right hand column.

Please be sure to cross out any information that requires a change. This information is used to up-

date our computer and is then filed separately and is readily available in the event of an emergency.

It is very important that we have an emergency contact who would usually be available and lives in a

relatively close proximity to the school. Please return these corrected/signed forms right away to

the office or your child’s classroom teacher in the interest of your child’s welfare and safety.

REMINDER: ALL FORMS MUST BE COMPLETED, SIGNED AND RETURNED.

Kids don’t come with an instruction manual, so when it comes to parenting, how do you know what’s best

and what works?

Triple P - Positive Parenting Program is one of the world’s most effective parenting programs. For more

than 30 years, Triple P has helped families around the world deal with issues ranging from temper tantrums

to disobedience, bedtime dramas to homework battles, schoolyard bullying to teenage rebellion.

Whatever your parenting needs - no matter how simple or how complex - Triple P can help. To learn more

about seminars and group sessions visit www.niagararegion.ca search: Triple P or talk to your school nurse.

VERIFICATION/INFORMATION FORMS

Triple P—Positive Parenting Program in Niagara

Page 7 September 2015 Newsletter

How do I know if my child is getting enough sleep? The number of reasons and studies showing the value of enough sleep continues to grow. Dr. Shelly Weiss ,

author of “Better Sleep for your Baby and Child”, notes that children who don’t sleep well my have prob-

lems with behavior, attention, learning, and memory. The impact may extend beyond an impact on the brain

as recent research out of John Hopkins University notes that for each additional hour of sleep the risk of a

child becoming overweight or obese was lowered by 9%. The paper also showed that children who slept

the least had a 92% higher risk of being overweight or obese compared to children with longer sleep dura-

tion.

So back to our initial question; the quick answer is that the amount of sleep a child needs depends of the

child. Children of the same or similar ages may need different amounts of sleep. If your child wakes up

groggy or is sleepy during the day, they are not getting enough sleep. In this instance you should consider

making bedtime earlier. The “average” amount of sleep required by a child who is 5-12 years of age is 10 to

11 hours a night.

To encourage good sleep habits you may want to consider removing the TV, computer and video games

from your child’s bedroom. Regardless of the amount of sleep your child needs, Dr. Weiss suggests that,

“The more consistent parents can be with regards to regular sleep habits, the more likely the child will have

better sleep.”

Page 8 September 2015 Newslet-

Did you know that every elementary and secondary school in Niagara has a school nurse?

The school nurse provides teachers, parents and students support and resources on health

related topics, including:

Healthy eating

Physical activity

Tobacco use prevention

Parenting

Mental and emotional health

Puberty and sexual health

Drugs and alcohol

Secondary school nurses in public schools provide:

Sexual health counseling

Birth control

STI testing

To learn more about the school nurse call 905-688-8248 or 1-888-505-6074 ext. 7379 or

visit www.niagararegion.ca search school nurse.

Each month we recognize 3 students per class, 1 in each of the ar-

eas of Literacy, Numeracy and Character. This month we will focus

on our CHAMPS strategies. Our September assembly will be held

on Wednesday, September 30 at 9:30 a.m. Everyone is Welcome!

Recognition Assembly

From Your School Nurse

Page 9 September 2015 Newsletter

School Council

Our School Council meets on the 4th Tues-

day of each month at 6:00 p.m. We will be

holding elections at our first meeting. A

form will be sent home with your child. All

parents are welcome to attend and/or run

for a position.

Our first meeting is:

Tuesday September 29th

In the library.

See you there!

Page 10

All sports are off and running her at Plymouth. Mr. Mead and Mrs. Droppert have al-

ready started volleyball for the intermediate students and Ms. Fong wants all interested

students to consider participating in Cross country running. We welcome all students to

come out and participate in this sport which is open to anyone Grade 3 to Grade 8. No

students are cut from this team so it is a wonderful opportunity to work out, meet new

friends, set goals and challenge yourself. The first meet is scheduled for September 24th.

Junior Co-ed Soccer is also getting started with our tournament scheduled for October

2nd at Young’s Sports Complex.

During each 2nd nutrition break our student volunteers sell white and

chocolate milk for 75 cents. This will start the week of September

14th. Thank you to Mrs. Simpson for organizing this!

Milk Program

Sports Clubs and Teams