Safe Arrival (Call-Back) Line

Volunteers needed!

/ Ross Road PAC

1bf70784e1832060c275d726b423dd7fRoss Road events, initiatives and programs all require volunteers in order to run smoothly, so there are many ways to get involved in the school by volunteering your time. Volunteering is a great opportunity to meet other parents, to get to know school staff, and to enhance our school community! While all of the positions require communication with the PAC Executive, not all of them require you to attend regular meetings!

Many volunteer positions were filled at the PAC AGM that was held on May 22nd, but there are still a few positions available for next year, both big and small. While all of them require communication with the PAC Executive, not all of them require you to attend regular meetings. (We meet once a month on a weekday evening.)

For those wishing to get their feet wet:

  • Meeting Coordinator — Check with the school administration that the library is booked for meetings, help advertise General Meetings and organize some simple refreshments for those meetings. Assist when a special speaker is booked.

For those wishing something a bit bigger, we are looking for people to do the following

  • Community Outreach Coordinator — We no longer have sponsor children, but would like to continue to support meaningful charity projects that involve our students. Maybe something local? Maybe from school to school or class to class? This is something new for us and so there would be plenty of room to bring your own ideas to the table.

If you are looking for more of a challenge, how about one of these positions? All of them come with a complete instruction manual and experienced PAC members to help you!

  • Christmas Craft Fair Coordinator — Our current Treasurer has co-organized this event for the past two years and has a simple, step-by-step manual to help you. This is one of our biggest fundraisers and community events, and usually takes place the first Friday in December.
  • Spring Carnival Coordinator — Our current organizer has organized this twice now, and as for the Christmas Craft Fair, there is a step-by-step manual available. This is a favourite (and successful) fundraiser for Ross Road. It usually takes place the first Friday in June and is our second big, annual community event.
  • Advertising Coordinator — If you are handy with graphics programs, this could be the job for you! You would be involved in creating posters to help advertise PAC meetings and events, keeping the PAC noticeboard up-to-date, taking photos of events, etc.
  • School Directory Coordinator — Update the phone and address files from last year (school office to assist with new data), find advertisers, a printer, distribute directory to classes. The PAC provides this as a service to RR parents every two years.

Haven’t found your dream job on the PAC Executive yet, but would like to be involved? We’d love to have you join anyway – it’s always good to have new voices join the group even if they don’t have a special task assigned to them! If you would like to help out with any of the activities listed above as a volunteer, but not in a leading role, that can certainly also be arranged! Please contact us at rossroadpac@gmail.com if you would like to get involved or have any questions.

Safe Arrival Reminder

/ Ross Road PAC

The Safe Arrival program aims to identify missing children in a timely manner. Even in the safest neighbourhoods, and at our school, a child has gone missing! When this happens, every second counts.

That’s why it is so important that parents/caregivers call the school’s Safe Arrival number (604-903-3755) regarding the absence or late arrival of students.

Each morning, office staff and volunteers check attendance against messages from parents/caregivers. When the lists don’t match, we have to interrupt the student’s class to determine their whereabouts. Checking classrooms for students who are simply late, on holiday or sick is time consuming. It disrupts the class and teaching/learning that is going on as well as increasing the amount of time it would take to identify a truly missing child.

Please help minimize disruptions and keep our children safe by:

  • Calling 604-903-3755 by 9:00am when your child is going to be late or absent,
  • Reporting holidays to the office & teacher (specify the first & last day of absence)
  • Ensuring your child signs in at the office when arriving late

When calling the Safe Arrival line, please be brief. The office has your contact information; unless you are going to be somewhere unusual, we don’t need your phone numbers. Here are four examples of what we record from the Safe Arrival line:

  1. Student Name: Jill Smith
    Teacher/Division: Mme. Yuen
    Reason for Absence/Late Arrival: Sick – fever
    ————————————–
  2. Student Name: Les Brown
    Teacher/Division: E01
    Reason for Absence/Late Arrival: Vacation – until April 15 (inclusive)
    ————————————–
  3. Student Name: John Jones
    Teacher/Division: F08
    Reason for Absence/Late Arrival: Will be Late – recess (doctor)
    ————————————–
  4. Student Name: Kim Holmes
    Teacher/Division: Mr. Prentice
    Reason for Absence/Late Arrival: Excused Absence – hockey

Thank you very much for your cooperation,
The Safe Arrival Team

Safe Arrival (Call-back) Reminders

/ Ross Road PAC

To ensure every child arrives safely at school, parent volunteers and office staff check attendance against parent phone calls every morning.

To help this program run smoothly, please:

  • Call 604-903-3755 by 9:00am if your child is going to be away
  • Report holidays to the office & teacher (specify the first & last day of absence)
  • Do not ask for homework to be sent home on the Safe Arrival Line; send a message to the teacher via e-mail or by calling the main office (604-903-3750)
  • If a child needs to be picked up for an appointment, notify the teacher in advance via agenda or a note

Thank you very much for your cooperation,
—The Safe Arrival Team
Click here for more info about the Ross Road Safe Arrival program.

Call-Back Line Reminders

/ Ross Road PAC

Our Call-Back Coordinator for the last few years has been Sandra Bridgman. Sandra has recently gone back to school and is now working almost full time as an SEA (Special Education Assistant). She has been a real asset to our Ross Road team for many years and now finds she cannot continue in the role of Coordinator. We thank Sandra for all she has done for all of our children over the years and wish her well in this next phase of her career.

Many of you know Laurie Ainsworth has taken on the role of Call-Back Coordinator. Here is a note from Laurie telling us all more about Call-Back and reminding us of the value of this service:

Ross Road Call-back LineIn order to ensure that all the kids in our school arrive safely, parent volunteers and office staff check attendance against parent phone calls every morning. Not all schools implement such a program and if a child were to go missing on the way to school, it may not be noticed until many hours later. Although we live in a very safe community, our Call-Back system ensures early detection if a child were to go missing (and it has happened, even at Ross Road). We feel this is one of the many advantages our children have and it is a pleasure for the Call-Back team to carry out these procedures to ensure our children’s safety.

By following the points below, you can help our procedure flow smoothly and allow our office staff and volunteers to get on with the rest of their day in a timely manner:

  • When your child is going to be away, phone the Call Back Line, 604-903-3755 (by 9:00am if possible)
  • Please report holidays to the office as well as the teacher
  • Please do not ask for homework to be sent home on the Call Back line.  A message should be sent to the teacher via e-mail or by calling the main office number (604.903.3750)
  • If at all possible, the teachers should be notified in advance (via agenda or a note) if parents need to pick up their child for an appointment.

If the office does not have a note and there is no message on the Call Back Line, we need to call home, even if there is a sibling at school who can tell us the status of the absence.

Thanks so much for helping ensure the safety of each and every student at École Ross Road School.

Laurie is still looking for volunteers to help with Call-Back (alternate Wednesdays and Fridays). If you are interested, check out the Call-Back Line page on the website, or contact Laurie:

Laurie Ainsworth (Call-Back Coordinator)
lmainswo@sfu.ca
604-360-0754

Call-Back Team: Volunteer positions available!

/ Ross Road PAC

Ross Road Call-back LineNEW OPPORTUNITY!

  • Looking for a new way to volunteer in the school?
  • One that requires little time but is of BIG IMPORTANCE to the SAFETY of our children?
  • Don’t want to sit in another meeting?

…then here’s the job for you!
Join our CALL-BACK team and volunteer one morning/week (or sometimes only every second week).
Time required: 8:40 to 9:30 or a bit later
Job: sign in late students, retrieve call-back messages and match to attendance list, work closely with office staff and discover how wonderful they are! :-)

We are currently looking for volunteers for Friday, and Tuesday (every second week)
Training is available! This is an awesome way to be involved and play an important role in our school!

For more information, please contact:
Sandra Bridgman at bridgwoman@shaw.ca
or 604 986-7669