Ventura Park PS BLOG

The Area Cross Country Meet was held on October 6, where VPPS sent more than 75 enthusiastic Grade 4 – 8 runners to Concord/Thornhill Regional Park.  As a result of our excellent showing at the Area Meet, 18 VPPS runners qualified for the Regional Cross Country Meet that will be held on October 19 at Bruce’s Mill Conservation Area in Stouffville.

At the Area Meet, VPPS won 3 pennants!  These 3 teams and individual runners have qualified for the Regional Meet:

Grade 4 Girls – Camilla V.

Grade 4 Boys – First place overall team: Joseph L., Matto B., Zachary F., Jeremy N. and Tyler Z.

Grade 5 Boys – First place overall team: Matthew T., Kayden L., Koby P., Devin P. and Neel S.

Grade 6 Girls – First place overall team: Valentina F., Alissa G., Alina R., Arli M. and Maia K.

Grade 6 Boys – Nick T.

Grade 8 Boys – Justice S.

Some individual top finishes out of approximately 150 runners were:

Joseph L., 4th place; Matto B., 6th place; Matthew T., 1st place; Kayden L., 8th place; Valentina F., 2nd place; Alissa G., 4th place

We finished 3rd overall for the junior division!

Congratulations to all of our awesome VPPS runners. Thank you to our coaches Mme Shifman, Mme Forde, and M. Babin for leading our talented Viking runners! Mme Shifman and Mme Armstrong will lead our Regional Runners to Bruce’s Mill on October 19. Go Vikings Go!!!

 

IMPORTANT – New Safe Arrival System -when reporting your child’s absence it must be done before 9 a.m. on the day of the absence.

If you know that your child will be away either for a Religious Holiday or medical appointment you may enter it in advance of the day of the absence.

Please make sure you receive a confirmation that the absence has been entered and completed.

If you miss the 9 a.m. cut off on the day of the absence, than we cannot intercept the system, you will receive an automated call and at that time you can answer the prompts in regards to your child’s absence.

Prior to the new safe arrival system this year, parents were requested to complete a blue form indicating future absences.

Those absences now need to be entered via the new system by families.  Also, if you are experiencing issues when you log into the website,  yorkrdsb.schoolconnects.com , please call us to confirm your email address matches what the school has on the Student Information System (Trillium) which is connected to your child’s information.

Thank you for your continued support.

Just a note to all to let you know that most of our buses are delayed due to Dufferin Street having been reduced to 1 lane between the 407 and Centre Street.

Friday October 14 is our first major spirit day of the year!!!  Students, staff, and parents at VPPS are encouraged to wear their Toronto Blue Jays clothing (or blue and white clothing) to show support for the Toronto Blue Jays as they continue their playoff run.

Once again, Ethan, Madison, and Avery need your help to support those less fortunate. Please click the link for more information: milkbagsannouncement

On the Horizon at VPPS…

1. Monday October 10 – Thanksgiving Day – NO CLASSES TODAY
2. Monday October 17 –Workshops “My Life Online” for all Grade 4 – 8 students
3. Tuesday October 18 & Thursday October 20 – Bus evacuation training
4. Wednesday October 19 – Regional Cross Country Meet
5. Friday October 21 – Special Guest Performance for Grade 5 – 8 students
6. Thursday October 27 – Monthly Character Assembly
7. Friday October 28 – PA Day – NO CLASSES TODAY
8. Saturday October 29 – Diwali

The deadline for ordering VPPS Spirit Wear is fast approaching! Show everyone how proud we are to be Ventura Park VIKINGS! We are pleased to offer our great collection that includes: T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, jogging pants and shorts.

Click spirit-wear-flyer for further info!!!

VPPS is pleased to work in conjunction with Spirit of Math to offer a number of Math Contests. Please click on the link for further information:  math-contests-letter

October 6, 2016

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Each year, our school plans a variety of programs to inspire and involve students in the Arts.  This school year, all students will have an opportunity to watch and interact with a number of performers through our Arts Series presentations. The performances listed below are conducted in French, have been carefully selected and come highly recommended.

Arts Series performances are scheduled as follows:

Roland Bibeau Musical Concert Friday, November 18, 2016, 9:20 a.m. (Day 1)	Grades 1, 2
Little Red Theatre Aesop’s Fables Friday, May 12, 2017 9:30 a.m. & 11:35 a.m. (Day 1)	Grades 1, 2 (9:30 a.m.) Grades 3, 4 (11:35 a.m.)
My Life Online Monday, October 17, 2016 9:20am, 11:35am, 1:40pm (Day 3)	Grades 4, 5 (9:20am) Grades 6, 7 (11:35am) Grade 8 (1:40pm)
Magic Brent Friday, October 21, 2016 9:20a.m.	Grades 5, 6, 7, 8
Bboyzim L’évolution du “break” Thursday, February 23, 2017 9:20 a.m. (Day 1)	Grades 3, 4

We wish to thank our School Council for allocating fundraising dollars to support the Arts at Ventura Park and thank all parents for their contribution to the Council’s fundraising initiatives.

We know these presentations will captivate, motivate and inform our students.

Sincerely,

A. Otis                              N. Nassar

Principal                          Vice-Principal

New Safe Arrival System Starting Thursday, October 6^th, 2016

Dear Parents/Guardians;

At Ventura Park Public School, one of our greatest priorities is ensuring that all our students arrive safely to school each and every day.  As a part of our safe arrival process, a daily absence check is conducted by office staff and often involves:

• Checking phone messages left by parents regarding sick calls for students
• Phoning parents whose child is absent but no notification has been made to the school
• Recording all absences in the attendance system

This process can be inefficient and time consuming for schools and for parents.

To enhance our existing absence check procedure, Ventura Park Public School is one of a number of schools introducing a new, more efficient student absence or late arrival reporting system. This new system will reduce the time it takes to verify student attendance making it easier for you to report your child’s absence and easier for staff to respond to unaccounted student absences.

We will be introducing a new absence reporting system to our parent community, called Safe Arrival. It will allow parents to report their child’s absence quickly and conveniently in one of three ways:

1. Parents can call into an automated interactive telephone system via a toll free number (1-855-203-2994) through which absences can be reported.  

1. Parents can log into a website, yorkrdsb.schoolconnects.com to authenticate their Portal account to report absences and update contact information.

1. Parents who have authenticated their accounts and have either an iOS or Android device can download an app that can be used to report absences.

The system will be available 24 hours/day, 7 days a week.  Future absences can be reported at any time.

In addition, we will also be introducing an automated notification system already used by our High Schools to contact parents who have not reported their child absent. The automated notification system will contact parents at multiple contact numbers until one of the designated contacts is reached. If our system is unable to reach a designated contact after 20 minutes, office staff will follow up.

By reporting your child absent in advance using the Safe Arrival toll free number, you will NOT receive a call.

We will start using our new absence reporting system on Thursday October 6^th, 2016.

As of October 6^th, all absence and late arrival reporting must go through the toll free number.  Please do not contact or send notes to the school or classroom teacher to report an absence or late arrival.

To assist you in using this easy system, we have included a business card, containing the toll free number that you can keep in a convenient location for quick reference when reporting your child’s absence or late arrival.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation during this transition period to better ensure the safety of all our children.

Arin Otis

Principal

Ventura Park P.S.