A beginner's guide to Lord Lansdowne

From talking to parents in the playground, I realise that I have learned a lot about life at Lord Lansdowne since my daughter started in SK. Some of it may be obvious, some a little more obscure so here is a post introducing some of the finer points of life at Lord Lansdowne.

My child has library on day 2 - is that not called "Tuesday"?

No, it is not. The TDSB runs on a 5 day cycle. This is, as far as I am aware, to avoid a situation where, for example, a class had gym scheduled on Monday so kept missing it due to public holidays. So, the first day of the school year is day 1 - generally the Tuesday after Labour day - which will make Wednesday day 2, Thursday day 3 and so on. This will continue until there is a PA day or holiday when a day of school is skipped so the days shift forward - got it?! No? Well, the school calendar on the home page also displays the TDSB school day and you should also have got a paper calendar home at the beginning of the year where the school day is printed underneath the date. You can download a pdf or that on the school blog here. You can also download the TDSB Google calendar if you use a Google calendar. 

My child went to Crocodile Island today, apparently. 

Crocodile Island is the raised area with trees close to the playground entrance at Spadina Circle. Obviously.

Newsletter/School Blog/Twitter/Facebook - what is going on?

Honestly? This is still evolving and input is welcome but, in brief:

• The Newsletter - we - the school council - send this out weekly via email, usually around Friday lunchtime but it does vary. It is a roundup of information about what happened in the school during the week, what is happening in weeks to come (e.g. PA days, council meetings) and what school council has been working on. We generally keep it to once a week unless there is urgent information to be conveyed or a time-limited campaign that we want to draw attention to. 
• This website and blog - run by school council to provide information about the school, school council, fundraising and school events for parents, future and present. The blog updates are similar to the newsletter and the newsletter archive is here so if you prefer not to have email from the school council, you should be able to find most of the information here. You can subscribe if you want so that you get an email alert when it's updated.
• School blog/website - this blog is run by the school and is run by the school office and one of the teachers (Mme. Aradj...when labour dispute allows). It provides updates about school events and TDSB communications for parents of students at Lord Lansdowne. You can also subscribe to this blog to have updates sent to your inbox.
• Twitter - this is the school council Twitter. It does not have a huge following but we tweet anyway about school events for those who do follow. We also retweet interesting TDSB, trustee or library tweets. The school also has a Twitter account which will alert you to school events and blog posts. Useful if you like Twitter but you won't be missing out if you are not a member of the Twitterati.
• Facebook - Some people love Facebook, some hate it. One of the parents started a Lord Lansdowne Facebook group and it can be quite useful for queries like "is pizza Tuesday on?" or "did you child mention anything about a school trip?". It's fairly active but not essential - you will not miss out on essential information by not being a member. To join, search for "Lord Lansdowne Parents" on Facebook and send a request and it should be approved pretty promptly. 

General updates- school council meeting, pizza Tuesday, magazine fundraiser, help refugees!

SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING, MONDAY OCTOBER 26th, 7-9pm

That is all! We hope to see lots of you there to hear what's going on in school and what the council has planned for the year to come! Meetings take place in the school library

Interested in helping a refugee family in conjunction with the school community?

Some of the parents are hoping to get Lord Lansdowne involved in the 100 Schools Challenge. Here is a very short (3 questions only!) survey to let us know if you are interested in getting involved - Take survey here

Pizza Tuesdays

Da Vinci School council are running Pizza Tuesdays as a fundraiser. It saves you having to pack a lunch for your child for Tuesday! Just send them in with a toonie (exact change please) and they can choose between pepperoni, cheese or gluten free cheese pizza. For children in SK, they should bring the money and their order in on Monday (envelopes distributed for the purpose on Friday  - check that backpack!).

QSP magazine subscriptions fundraising

Please go here - http://www.QSP.ca/3721339 - to browse and choose discounted magazine subscriptions and raise money for Lord Lansdowne! We are keeping it online only this year and also NOT doing the prizes for number of subscriptions sold. Reason for not having the prizes include the difficulty of distributing them, particularly with work-to-rule and also the fact that the little prizes are generally not actually very good at all! The distribution of prizes also can highlight those families who could not afford to or chose not to buy subscriptions for whatever reason. We hope you understand!

1st of October - already! Updates and information.

School Council Meeting

Please note the first school council meeting will take place on the 26th of October, 7pm to 9pm in the library at the school. It's a great opportunity to meet other parents and hear what's going on in the school even if you don't have time to volunteer. Please let us know if you will require childcare. The date is in the school calendar there to the right which will also inform you of PA days and the like.

Labour Dispute Update

Ms. Mills posted this letter - https://lordlansdowne.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/29sept_elementary-ltr.pdf - on the school blog and many of you, if you are signed up to the TDSB email list, will have received it via email also.  The latest I heard - yesterday on the news - was that the EFTO (teachers' union) are heading back to the bargaining table. Fingers crossed that we will avoid any strikes.

Cross Country Meet - Thursday, Oct 8th

The meet will take place next Thursday at beautiful Ashbridges Bay.  Parent volunteers are needed - sign up here  - and parent supporters are very welcome too! So far the forecast looks good and it's another good way to meet parents, get involved and support the school. It's incredible to see so many children getting out there and giving their best. It is worth noting that the course is mostly run on sand so if you do have a child taking part and you could get them to practice running on sand this weekend, that would be great. The courses for the races have been posted on the main school blog here and the distances vary from 1km for the Grade 1s and 2s up to 1.5km for Grade 3, 2km for Grades 5 and 6 and 3km for Grades 7 and 8.