PAC Communication

Reminder – PAC GM is this Wednesday

/ Ross Road PAC

Dear parents,

Just a reminder that the next PAC GM will be held in the library this Wednesday (February 5) at 7pm. All parents are encouraged to attend and childcare will be available.

As part of the meeting, Carla Orr will be speaking about changes to the process of assessments and the new curriculum.

Thanks,

Your PAC Executive

New MunchaLunch session now open! Ordering closes December 20!

/ Ross Road PAC

Dear parents,

Food day ordering is now open for Session 2.  There will be 7 food days between January 10 and March 14 and this session includes Flying Wedge Pizza, Booster Juice Smoothies with Magic Lunch Box Wraps, Subway Sandwiches, Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt, Sushi, Magic Lunch Box homemade meals.

If you want to take a break from making lunches, you must get your orders in by noon on Friday December 20.  (the last day of school)

Click here to go to the MunchaLunch website.

Or click here to find out more about the program. (including the link to register if you’re a new user)

Friday Newsletter: Christmas Craft Fair | SnowPass | Young Actor’s Project | Valet Volunteers

/ Ross Road PAC

Dear parents,

  • Christmas Craft Fair:   This year’s Fair is shaping up to be awesome, but organizers still need your help.  Please don’t forget to volunteer your time, as well as making contributions to the class raffle baskets, bake sale, Holiday Show and Wrap Market, and mystery bags.  It may sound like a lot, but the results are worth it.  It’s a wonderful community-building event and a great fundraiser that directly benefits all our kids.  Click here to find out more, and contact the coordinators at rossroadcraftfair@gmail.com, to find out how you can help.
  • SnowPass:  Did you know that if you have a child in Grades 3 or 4, you can buy a pass for $29.95 that lets your child ski or ride three times at participating resorts all over Canada.  Click here for more details.
  • Young Actors Workshop:   Have your kids been talking to you about drama activities, masks and improv lately? If so, this is thanks to the fantastic work that Mike, Jody and Robert from the Young Actors’ Project (YAP) have done with all divisions.  At the AGM in May, the PAC voted to bring the YAP to Ross Road and the program went extremely well, with students  learning hands-on about drama, masks, focus and the power of body language. A big thank you to the instructors from YAP and to the Ross Road teachers who welcomed them into their classrooms!  Click here to find out more about YAP.
  • Valet:   A volunteer is still needed for Thursdays and new volunteers are needed for next year.  If you benefit from this service, perhaps you might consider giving up 25 minutes once a week for one month to help out.  Please contact Nancy Barton at nancybinbc@hotmail.com.

Have a great weekend,

Your PAC executive

Friday Newsletter: Environment Club | Card Project | Christmas Market | Safeteen

/ Ross Road PAC

Dear parents,

  • Environment Club:  Have you seen the incredible mural on the west-facing wall near the edible garden?  With thanks to talented artist and Ross Road parent, Shula Klinger, this Environment Club initiative was paid for by proceeds from a TD Friends of the Environment grant.   Click here for more information about the Environment Club and keep your eye out for more amazing projects happening at the school.
  • Card Project:  Have you ordered yours yet?  You must order by midnight Friday to guarantee delivery in the first week of December.  (cards ordered after this time will be delivered on December 16)  Click here for more details.
  • Christmas Market:  The Market will be held on Friday, December 6 from 5pm to 8pm, and here are some important things to note;
  1. If you want to order dinner, you must do so via the MunchaLunch website by 5pm on Monday, November 18.
  2. The organizers are  in desperate need of men’s ties and glass baby food jars.  If you have any, please leave them under the ‘down’ stairs by the PAC box in the lobby.
  3. As per the notices from the class reps, the Market also needs your time!  Please consider volunteering 45 mins on the evening to help make the event a success.  See the sign-up sheets on your classroom doors or get in touch with your class rep to find out how you can help.
  4. If you have any ‘treasures’ that you can donate to the “Holiday Shop and Wrap Market” please drop them in the box under the “down” stairs in the lobby (not in the AV room as previously mentioned.) These are new items such as that gift you bought for someone and then forgot you had it, or the picture frame you loved and bought, but never found the right wall to hang it on.  There is no need to buy anything, it’s just a chance for you to pass on treasures that you have never had the chance to use.
  • 9781896095998_p0_v1_s260x420Safeteen:  This week, the Safe Teen experts came to Ross Road to hold 3-hour workshops with all the grade 6 and 7 students. The Safe Teen program introduced the students to bullying and harassment prevention strategies and non-violent conflict resolution in a powerful and engaging, gender-separate workshop format.  Many thanks to Family Services of the North Shore, who generously funded the student workshops!  Also many thanks to those parents who came out for the very exciting parent night on Tuesday!  For those of you who are interested in continuing the conversation with their 6th or 7th graders or who want to learn more, Anita Roberts has published a book about the Safe Teen philosophy (available at the Lynn Valley library).

Have a great weekend!

Your PAC Executive

Friday Newsletter: Card Project | Christmas Market | Valet | Library Update

/ Ross Road PAC

Dear parents,

  • Card Project:  Last year, we raised over $1000 from the Card Project!  This year, the sample cards will be sent out on NOVEMBER 8, and ordering will be open for 1 week only from NOVEMBER 8 to NOVEMBER 15.  A standard gift box costs $20 and contains 12 cards and envelopes, and the PAC receives $5 from each order.  Information about ordering will be included with the sample card.  For more information, and to see samples from last year, please click here.
  • Ross Road Christmas Market:  The Christmas Market coordinators are doing an amazing job putting together this very special event.  As well as all your old favourites, this year the team has also put together a Holiday Shop and Wrap Room, a Silent Auction, an Outdoor Cafe and free cookie decorating. For more information, including links to order dinner on the night, please click here.
  • Valet:  The program desperately needs an adult volunteer on Thursday mornings in November. We have one parent on duty and with the rainy weather starting there will be more people driving to school, which means  more traffic in the drop off zone.  If you are available to help on Thursday mornings from 8:25 to 8:45 please contact Nancy Barton at nancybinbc@hotmail.com.
  • Library update:  Did you know you can ‘adopt a shelf’ at the school library?  Or that there’s a student-generated list of recommended books by grade level on the bulletin board?  Or that money YOU raised through fundraising has purchased over 250 new books for the library and helped to provide the library with a digital projector and laptop.  Teacher librarian Mme. McAllister has put together a newsletter highlighting all the wonderful things that are happening at the Ross Road library.  Click here for more.

Finally, if you know of a parent that isn’t getting these emails, but would like to, please tell them that subscribing is as easy as going to the PAC website, and entering their email address on the right hand side.

Enjoy your weekend,

Your PAC

Friday Newsletter: Dates | GM Minutes | Safety at drop-off | District info

/ Ross Road PAC / Leave a comment

Dear parents,

  • Dates:  The PAC calendar  has been updated with food days, PD days and early dismissal days.  Please be aware though that it may be subject to change!  If you want to import this calendar into your mobile device or another calendar service, here is the feed for  iCal  or, XML, or HTML.
  • GM Minutes:  Minutes from the last PAC GM can be found here
  • Drop-off Safety:  As winter closes in, please be extra-careful around drop-off time.   In particular, please be aware that if you are turning into Kilkenny Road, you need to watch out for bikes!  For bike-riders, please use extra caution near this intersection.  Finally, please spare a thought and be respectful towards the children and parents who volunteer for valet duty.  It’s not always fun standing out in the cold and rain, but they do it because it makes everyone’s morning safer.
  • Finally, a reminder that the school administration no longer sends out emails to parents.  All the information about school activities, staff and programs can be found on the Ross Road Elementary website. 

Have a great weekend.

 

Welcome to the 2012-13 school year from Ross Road PAC!

/ Ross Road PAC

Dear parents at Ross Road,

Time flies and it’s time to get into the groove of school, homework, sports and play dates! We hope you’ve all had a wonderful, relaxing and fun summer holiday! Welcome back to school and to a hopefully exciting and productive new school year! Here are a few items to note:

Welcome Back Coffee – Tuesday, September 4
The kids will be in session from 8:40 to 9:30 AM so the Ross Road PAC would like to ease you into school by serving you Welcome Back Coffee in the lobby tomorrow morning from 8:30 onwards! Come have a cup of coffee and check out the Volunteer Fair posters in the lobby while catching up with friends! Read on for more info about the Volunteer Fair…

Volunteer Fair
This year the PAC is trying something new to help recruit volunteers for the valuable volunteer services that our parent group at Ross Road provides. We are going to have a “Volunteer Job Fair” that will be set up in the lobby along with the FREE coffee tomorrow morning. This will give parents an opportunity to find out about all the great services our parent group provides as well as sign up for volunteer positions that they are interested while enjoying a cup of coffee with their friends. Come check it out if you are hanging around the first day of school waiting for your children. The Volunteer Fair posters and sign-up sheets will be in the lobby till Friday and will also be posted on the PAC website: www.rossroadpac.ca/volunteer

Agendas
The PAC will help out the school by selling AGENDAS during the first few days of school.
Price: $7.50 (cash or cheque made payable to Ross Road School)
Days and time of the sale:
• Tuesday : 8:30 – 9:30 AM
• Wednesday: 8:30 – 8:45 AM and 2:50 – 3:15 PM (approx)
• Thursday: 8:30 – 8:45 AM and 2:50 – 3:15 PM (approx)
• If necessary, Friday 8:30 –8:45 AM
Available agendas: Primary, Intermediate, French and English. Primary agendas sold to students in Grades 2& 3 only. Intermediate: Grades 4-7
Teachers would appreciate it if students could have their agendas purchased by Thursday

New PAC Communications System
Starting this school year, we will roll out our new communications system that will rely entirely on PAC website subscriptions. No more duplicate notices! ;-) Please note that notices concerning each individual class will still be managed through the class reps. Click here for more information about this new system and how to sign up. Thank you to all those who are already signed up!

MjM Family Photos
Our ever-popular Family Photo sessions are back! This year, MjM Studios will come to Ross Road on Sept. 23 and 24. Stay tuned for more details!

Thank you,

Ross Road PAC

PAC communication system for the 2012-13 school year

/ Ross Road PAC

Dear Parents at Ross Road,

Looking ahead to the 2012-13 school year, are you dreading all those duplicate notices you get from the PAC website, your oldest child’s class rep, your middle child’s class rep and next year perhaps also from your youngest kindergarten child’s class rep? That’s up to four identical emails in your inbox! Think all that duplication is a bit excessive? We do, too!

Starting this September, we will move towards exclusively using website posts for general PAC notices to the parent community. You sign up as a website subscriber and after that, you get ONE email notification for each notice and that’s it! Promise!

The class reps will still be emailing out notices that are particular to their class (letters from teachers, field trip notices etc.), but they will no longer handle the general PAC notices! This will also make the class rep job less time-consuming, which we are sure they will appreciate!

As preparation for this transition, the current year’s class reps will be sending encouragements to all parents to sign up as PAC website subscribers before the end of the school year, in order to be ready for the new system in September. Consider this your first encouragement to sign up! The class rep will follow up with those of you who do not have time to sign up right now.

Should anyone choose not to sign up as a subscriber, they will cease to receive any general information from the PAC. They will then have to seek out the information on the PAC website themselves.

To sign up:

  • Find the box ‘Get Ross Road PAC Updates by Email’ on the right-hand side of the page
  • Enter your email address and click on the sign-up button
  • Confirm the subscription when you receive an email from WordPress (the publishing tool that drives the PAC site) asking you to do so.

For more info about the PAC subscription service, click here:
https://rossroadpac.ca/about/subscribe/

Thank you for putting up with all the duplication, we really appreciate your patience as we move to this more efficient way of communicating!

Ross Road PAC Exec.

To contact the PAC about this or any other matter, click on this link:
https://rossroadpac.ca/about/contact

2011-12 School Directory goes home with students

/ Ross Road PAC

The 2011-12 School Directory will be sent home with the youngest child in each family on Friday, Jan. 20

Ross Road PAC is pleased to announce the publication of the 2011-12 Ross Road School Directory!

  • The School Directory is a project of the Ross Road Parent Advisory Council (PAC) and is intended as a resource for students and parents of École Ross Road School. Even in this technological age, it’s great to have a printed publication to refer to in order to quickly get in touch with other parents, so we hope you find it useful!
  • The Directory lists student names by division, along with an alphabetical listing of Ross Road families and their contact info.
  • The Directory is published every 2 years – this Directory will be continue to be used throughout the 2012-13 school year as well.

The School Directory is offered to parents as a community service, however a nominal donation per family would be appreciated!

  • The cost of printing and binding the Directory is funded by the PAC, paid advertisements (placed by Ross Road parents and other businesses in the community), and donations. All profits raised from the sale of the Directories go back to the school.
  • PLEASE DROP OFF YOUR DONATION (SUGGESTED $5 PER FAMILY) IN THE PAC DROP-BOX (under the “down” stairs in the school lobby)
  • Please include your donation (cash, or cheque made out to Ross Road PAC) in an envelope (with “PAC Directory” and your family name written on the front) and drop it off in the PAC Drop-Box (under the “down” stairs in the school lobby)

Thank you for your patience, and support! Enjoy your Directory!
–Ross Road PAC

Merry Christmas from the PAC!

/ Ross Road PAC

What a great month December was at Ross Road School…starting with the amazing (and very profitable!) Christmas Craft Fair, and wrapping up the school year on December 16th with a festive week that featured two wonderful Christmas concerts: on Wednesday (Mrs Touzeau’s students) and on Thursday (Mrs Morgan’s students). A fantastic musical start to the holiday season!

Hope you all have a happy and relaxing break! See you back at school on Tuesday, January 3th, 2012!

–Ross Road PAC Executive Committee