Welcome back A. Lorne Cassidy, we look forward to having our new ducks join us this fall and we are excited to see our returning ducks. 
Please read and review all of the important information below to answer your many questions:
OPEN HOUSE:
We will be hosting an
OPEN HOUSE on TBD for
New students to come and take a walk through and get familiar with the school. If you have questions, you may ask them and we will be happy to answer them, please stop in to the office and say hello! At this visit, please be advised we will not be providing you teachers names or where your class will be located.
Student Class Placements and Teachers:
Your teachers will reach out to you on the first days of school to introduce themselves. If you have not heard from your teachers by September 11th, please reach out to Miss Eddy at [email protected]
If you have a kindergarten starting, you will be contacted before school starts once teachers and ECEs are back to school. Thank you for your understanding.
STUDENT INFORMATION:
Your first week of school you will be given a package from your teachers to Verify your information, sign permission forms and such. These are very important and ask that you do so right away when you receive them, sign them and return them promptly to your teachers.
*Students new to the area: If you are new to our area and only had a purchase agreement at the time of registration, please remember to send me a second address proof when you have one:
[email protected]
MEDICAL:
If your child has any MEDICAL Conditions/Allergies that we need to be aware of, there are specific forms you will need to have signed and filled out. IF you have Diabetes or Anaphylactic Allergies and require EPI Pens, we need to have your back up devices in the office right away with the forms filled out and signed for the required medical condition.
*We
cannot help your child in need without the Medical Form and Device they require, so please do this right away and have them ready for the first week of school please if possible.
Forms can be found
here if you can do them before school starts, please print the required one and send in with devices. The forms you will be looking for are in the high 900s, find the one you require.
*Please reach out to me directly to ask me for the specific form if you cannot find one or you would like a hard copy sent home, send me an email:
[email protected]
WEBSITE:
Please visit our school website often throughout the year. We post and the board posts important dates, information and our school activities here. You don't want to miss that Hot lunch registration date or Picture day etc.
https://alornecassidyes.ocdsb.ca/
HOT LUNCHES:
Information for Hot Lunches will come out some point in September from our excellent School Council team, watch for these emails as there are strict timelines on ordering.
LUNCH:
We have two nutrition breaks in the day (kinders have more). We ask that you make sure your children have lots of options to eat and drink throughout the day as they will be busy burning many calories with all their exercise and fun. Children often come to the office mid day without anything more in their lunches, so please make sure they are good and packed as needed. Your children are growing and may need an extra at times. Please discuss this with them throughout the year.
Please have reusable water bottles and lunch bags
labelled. If you need labels,
MABELS LABELS have a great selection.
SHOES and the Weather:
We ask that all children are dressed for the weather, they will get wet when it rains, they will get cold when it snows, dress appropriately for the weather, as all children get a good amount of outdoor recess and outdoor gym time. We ask that they have an indoor pair of running shoes, please check in with your children mid year to see these still fit. Young children will need to have a spare pair of underpants/pants/socks and a tee, as accidents can happen! Dress for a typical Canadian day!
SCHOOL SUPPLIES:
With the decrease to our budget, the largest costs come from school supplies used daily in the classroom. Please feel free to reach out to your teachers for any support you can offer them throughout the year for supplies or items the classroom could use. These are NOT Mandatory, but voluntary.
ATTENDANCE PROTOCOLS and PROCEDURES:
We have attendance procedures that we ask all parents to respect. IF you have appointments, please try to book them at the start or end of the day, to avoid disruption to our teachers and their classes. It's extremely disruptive to have a constant flow of coming and going in the instructional times.
Attendance/Absences:
**School Messenger is now in affect, please click here for user info for ABSENCES/LATES**
We have attendance procedures that we ask all parents to respect. IF you have appointments, please try to book them at the start or end of the day, to avoid disruption to our teachers and their classes. It's extremely disruptive to have a constant flow of coming and going in the instructional times. We also ask you to send an email to
[email protected] and
copy all of your teachers. If your child will be picked up early. dropped off late etc. You can send your information to our safe arrivals or email at any time of day or night or in advance, so please make sure we have this information before
9am on any school day to avoid fear of where your child is.
*Reminder to include: Your child's FULL name and Reason. Example: "Sky Lake is will be picked up at 3 for a doctors appt".
SCHOOL HOURS:
9:15am-3:45pm
*Children can NOT be dropped off to the school before 9am and absolutely cannot remain at school waiting on parents after 3:45pm. Please respect the school day hours, we do not have supervision before or after these time frames.
*Kinders are dropped off at their kindergarten yard directly, please make sure an adult has seen you and your child, before leaving.
Walkers (Children that do NOT take Bus):
IF your child is a "walker", you must drop your child off at the fence line of the school yard between 9am- 9:15am, not the front door and do not park in the school parking lots. IF your child is Grades 1-3 they require a parent to be at the fence at the end of the day 3:45pm.
IF you have a kindergarten "walker" you will go to the Kinder Fence for your pickup between 3:30-3:45pm, then any additional grade children at the yard fence.
BUS:
If your child is going to be on a bus, watch for news from
OSTA www.ottawaschoolbus.ca they will send a generic email to tell you when the parent portal is open to view which bus your child/ren will be on. There will be bus stop information, times for pickup and drop off(be 10 mins early for each way for the first few weeks while drivers get familiar) and there will be bus numbers/colors once we are assigned bussing. On the first days of school your kinders will receive a color tag with their bus number and colors on them so they know which bus to get on. There will be signs placed up on the school buses once we have them ready and drivers have placed them in their windows, these are great help for new bussers. We will post a color name with each bus route on our
website once we get confirmation of our bus routes. PLEASE review this once your children have been given bussing.
The first day of school is the best time to get your child in the routine of bussing, we encourage you to do so, the drivers and children need to get familiar with each other and where they are coming and going from. IF you drive your child on the first day instead, this can cause disruption in the routines as does for the teachers greeting them. So please send them on their bus.
IMPORTANT*****Kinders are NOT allowed to get off the bus without the assigned parents/caregiver registered on their school file. IF there will be a different person greeting your children, you need to have a letter sent to OSTA and [email protected] to give permission for the siblings(10+)/caregiver/grandparent to be allowed to greet the child at the bus stop. Failure to do this will result in your child being returned to the school late in the day.
IMPORTANT****Children under the age of 9 or under (grade 3 and under) cannot walk home by themselves and or take younger siblings home with them without written authorization and acceptance by the Principal.
EX. DO NOT make arrangements for your Grade 2 to take their kinder sibling home, they will not be dismissed.
IMPORTANT*****First Day of school we ask you to be on time and have your children start their school day procedures that day. Try not to alter the first days by dropping them off at the front door or being late. Your teachers will be looking for them in the yard, the students will be confused if you don't follow the procedures for beginning and end of day. Please have them on the bus or at the yard line to wish them well!
This helps make routines work and kids feel confident and safe. We wish you all an excellent first day/week and school year and welcome to ALC!
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at any time and I will be happy to respond asap.
Thank you for understanding the need for routine and we wish you a great rest of your summer, cheers,
Tina
AKA: Mrs. Walker :-)