LABOUR ACTION UPDATE: The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) announced it intends to hold another one-day strike in select school boards, including the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB), on Friday, February 28, unless an agreement is reached. If this takes place, all OCDSB elementary and secondary schools will be closed to students on Friday, February 28th.
GEOGRAPHY CHALLENGE: The Can Geo Challenge is an excellent way to get students excited about Geography. This year thousands of students in grades 4-10 and 16 to 19 years old will compete to be the best, test their geographic knowledge and skills, and better understand the world that they live in. http://challenge.canadiangeographic.ca/en. GMS will declare its champion on Wednesday February 26.
ART WORKSHOPS: This year we were fortunate to receive a grant from the Proud to Be Me Foundation. This grant is going towards supporting one art workshop for each homeroom class. Through the end of February, each class will experience a workshop with Kate Ryckman. We are excited to have Kate join us for the next 6 weeks! https://www.artistkate.com/
CARIBOU CONTEST: Due to the ongoing labour action, teachers will not be able to administer the contests at school. However, students are encouraged to write the contest at home. The administration from Caribou Contests has the following reminders for participating students - Students writing at home should be reminded by their honour as young mathematicians that:
they do not get help from anyone nor give help to anyone,
they do not forward the questions to anyone before the end of the contest on Friday morning,
they do not use calculators (neither handheld nor on-screen)
they do not use the Internet for anything else during the contest (only writing the contest on cariboutests.com [cariboutests.com])
be advised that unfair participation will be detected by the system
The contest time window has been adjusted in order to facilitate writing the contests at home. Participating students should use their name and access code to log in during the adjusted contest time window: Wednesday (February 26) 11:30 to 19:30, Thursday (February 27) 11:30 to 18:30. If your child has misplaced/forgotten the access code, please see Mrs Law before Wednesday February 26, 2020.
MINI-ENRICHMENT: All important dates for the grade 8 Mini-Enrichment Program have been added to the GMS calendar. Please check the calendar below for registration and course selection dates.
SCHOOL COUNCIL: The next meeting is February 25 at 6:30pm in the Library.
LETTER OF INTENT: All Grade 8 students have received a Letter of Intent for next year. This letter will give us a sense of where students will be going to school next year as we begin making transition plans for them. We realize that some of your children have applied (or will be applying) to programs and you do not yet know if they have been accepted. Please indicate on the form your best case scenario for them. We can adjust as we go for those students. LETTER
LUNCH LADY: Lunch Lady has asked us to remind families who have placed orders, that if your child will not be at school on Monday, you can cancel the order for that day and receive a credit for future orders. Please email : www.theLunchLady.ca before 8:00 AM on the day of the order.
MORNING DROP OFF: If you are dropping off your child in the morning, please enter the line of vehicles (in the parent drop off zone) and wait for a signal from staff to let your child/children out of the vehicle. With so many vehicles moving through the parking lot, it becomes a safety issue when students are walking behind the buses and staff are not able to see them. Thank you for your help in keeping our students safe.
CANADIAN TIRE MONEY: GMS gratefully accepts Canadian Tire donations to supplement our phys. ed. equipment. There is a jar that is kept in the office where your donation can be placed. Last year we were able to purchase two bocce sets and two benches for the yard
NEW STITTSVILLE SCHOOL: A New Stittsville Secondary School Study webpage has been created to provide information to the public regarding the study and will be updated throughout the consultation process. Also an email address (NewStittsvilleSS.Study@ocdsb.ca) for the study has been created for the public to submit individual input.
MEDIA RELEASE: https://forms.ocdsb.ca/Forms/Media-School-Website-Consent-Form
ACCEPTABLE USE OF TECHNOLOGY: https://forms.ocdsb.ca/Forms/Use-of-Technology