Virtues at Cleveland

The staff at Cleveland work hard to support the social and emotional learning needs of our students in a variety of ways. We have lessons on friendship, how to handle peer conflict, and how to behave in a socially responsible manner at school and in other places. Class meetings take place in many classes, and students are encouraged to be kind to one another and take care of each other.

We are also teaching some virtues. We have started off the year focusing on respect, and will move on to six other virtues throughout the year: patience, tolerance, forgiveness, compassion, assertiveness and determination.

These virtues were showcased during our Terry Fox assembly on Thursday of last week. Students from division F01 (Mme Simpson’s and Mr. Zellweger’s class) worked in groups creating video presentations about how Terry Fox was a role model for each of these virtues. These clips were shared with the school, and we were all impressed. Well done students.

Each morning this week, students will hear more about Terry Fox and his legacy. Our grade 7 announcers will share more about our virtues each day, and teachers will continue the lessons.

With the help and support of students, parents and staff, we will continue to work to create a positive school culture, where everyone feels safe and welcome.

Take care.

Helmets Please

While driving towards Edgemont Village yesterday, at around 3:30 pm, I was spotted by a number of grade 7 boys who were zipping along on their skateboards or scooters. They waved hi, crossed the crosswalk and zipped along the sidewalk. They looked like they were having a great time, and I was pleased to see most of them stop at an intersection and look both ways before crossing (one boy did skate behind my car before he realized who I was).

It did bother me that all the boys were riding without helmets. On almost a daily basis, I seem to have to ask students several times a week where their helmets are. Wearing helmets should be automatic. Your children need to wear them. Helmets keep them safe, and wearing them is the law.

Please review the bylaw information at the District of North Vancouver web site.

I would be a very happy Principal if I saw every child who rode a bike, scooter or skateboard wore the proper helmet. Please help me happy. 🙂

Thanks

Take care.

Ambulance Comes To School

Yesterday, your child may have come home and shared that there was an ambulance on the school grounds. Just before 2:00 pm, we had an accident and we needed to call an ambulance. A Kindergarten child was hurt. Last night I was able to chat with his mother, and she reports that he is doing well.

Children get hurt at school. We have many systems in place to prevent accidents, but sometimes kids get hurt. Very rarely will we need to call for an ambulance.

The most common form of first aid provided at school is giving a child a bag of ice. We bring out a cooler of ice to the East playground and children always seem to feel a bit better if they get some ice when they have a bump. If the bump is bad, or they bumped their head, we call home and let parents know.

Schools do not have a full-time nurse. Vancouver Coastal Health have community nurses who support schools, but we have no medical assistance at school. So when children (or adults) need medical attention, we need to call home or call for an ambulance.

That is what we did yesterday. His music teacher contacted the office for help. We mobilized ourselves to do different jobs. Support and comfort the child. Move the rest of the class away from the the area where the child was. Call 911. Contact his mother and/or father. Grab our two-way radios. Assign jobs to staff (someone stays in office, someone prints out the emergency information for ambulance, someone gets ready to meet the ambulance, someone stays with the child, someone remains ready to keep children away as the ambulance needs to drive on the school grounds, and someone needs to cover the Kindergarten class so the child’s teacher can check in with him). We also need to be ready to meet the child’s mother and bring her to her son.

All of the above happened in a few minutes.

Our grade 7 class all paired up with the K’s, and their teacher monitored 50 children. The ambulance arrived and we escorted it around the West playground to the music portable. Three paramedics emerged and they got right to work. They were excellent with our injured child.

Mom arrived and we brought her to the music portable. Once the paramedics and the child’s mother arrived, our job changed. We focus on monitoring the other children and answering questions they may have.

  • “Why is the ambulance here?” – “Someone is hurt, and they are here to help.”
  • “Who got hurt?”- “One of our Kindergarten students.”
  • “Will he be ok?” – “Yes. He will be ok.”

The paramedics moved the child into the ambulance, mom climbed in too, and off they went.

Thank you to all the staff and students who did their part in helping keep things calm.

Here’s to a cal Friday the 13th. I know everything will go well today.

Take care.

Meet the Teacher

Tonight is our first Meet the Teacher night this year. Tonight, the parents of students in our Kindergarten classes and two of our grade 1 classes are meeting their child’s teacher(s) and hearing about the year ahead.

The parent/teacher partnership is very important. Educating children is a complex job, and children are most successful when there is a positive relationship between parents and teachers. We encourage parents to keep in touch with their child’s teacher(s) through notes, the agenda books, phone calls or emails.

Teachers put a lot of thought and effort into planning these Meet the Teacher evenings. They have spent the first 7 full days of the school year getting to know your children, and developing plans to engage students in learning. Thank you teachers for sharing these evenings with our parents.

I am so pleased to see how many families came out tonight to meet the teachers, and I look forward to seeing even more families on Tuesday night.

Take care.

Good News Girls

The work in the girls’ washroom in the west wing is now finished, and it is open for use. Our summer construction project is almost fully complete. It will be finished soon – I hope.

At the start of the school year, we were unable to open the girls’ washroom, as we did not yet have the new partitions. The washroom had a fairly open concept without the partitions, so we closed it. The girls had to walk all the way upstairs (It’s so far Mr. B.). It was so unfair. C’est dommage.

Finally, on the fifth full school day, the washroom was finished. We announced it to the west wing classes today, and there were cheers. Happy girls everywhere. It’s nice when you can share good news.

Take care.