Greetings
Dear Sydenham Public School Community,
I hope this message finds you well. I am truly looking forward to joining the Sydenham Public School community and am excited for the opportunity to meet students and their families. Sydenham has a strong reputation for being a welcoming, caring, and vibrant school, and I am eager to learn more about what makes it such a wonderful place for children to learn and grow.
As I begin this new chapter, my priority is to support the continued academic, social, and emotional success of all students. I value open communication and strong partnerships between home and school, and I believe these relationships are essential for student well‑being and achievement.
Please know that my door is always open. I warmly welcome conversations, visits, and phone calls from families as I work to understand how I can best support our students and the broader school community. Your insights and perspectives will be invaluable in helping me learn and ensuring that every child feels supported, challenged, and cared for.
Thank you in advance for your kindness and support as I transition into this role. I am excited to get to know you and to work together to support the success of every student at Sydenham Public School.
Warm regards,
Jennifer Ramsay
Principal
Sydenham Storm Updates
- You may wish to send in extra sets of mitts and socks with your child as playing in the snow makes for wet mittens and often they don't have time to dry between recesses.
- Senior and Junior students have joined forces this month for our Basketball Teams! Tournaments will be Feb 18 and 19th - more info to come!
- Ms. Thompson continues to be off on medical leave. Ms. Hume will continue to cover until Ms. Thompson's return.
- Teachers have finished writing term 1 report cards and we are now in the proofing and editing stages. Report cards will go home on February 13th.
- Family Day - February 16th - no school
School Advisory Council
Our next meeting is Monday, February 2 at 5:30 pm in the Learning Grove - babysitting provided! All are welcome!
Late Arrivals
We are having more than half of the school arrive after 9:00 on these cold days (this has been for over 2 weeks now). It is understandable that getting started on these cold days may be a bit more difficult for families. Most of our classes have their literacy learning during the first 100 minutes of the day. We would ask that you try really hard to get your child to school between 8:40 and 8:55 as late arrivals not only affect your own child's literacy learning, but every student that arrives late affects the literacy learning of all students in the class. Thank you for your help with this. If you need any support with this, please reach out the Sydenham Storm Office Team - we are here to help!
Attendance Updates
Our primary classes are rocking attendance this winter! As you know, attendance is one of the biggest indicators of success at and beyond school. Our K-3 students seeing almost 80% of students attending most days of school. As students get older, we see this trend drop off. Please note that this does not include absences due to snow days or absences related to approved temporary excusals forms. The Storm Office Team will be reaching out to offer support for families whose attendance may have been sliding recently.
Literacy Learning at Sydenham
Sydenham students continue to make huge gains in their literacy skills. Throughout the fall and winter term, staff focused on ensuring students' foundational skills were solid and into long term memory. As term 2 begins, you can help out at home by working reading fluency. Check out this info sheet on what reading fluency is and how you can practice fluency at home.
Click this document link to access the live links in the graphic below
Mathematics at Sydenham
In our first term newsletters, we have been sharing Math Reasoning activities for you to try with your Storm Kiddos. As we are continuing on this journey, we are adding in some activities with numbers. Similarly to previous activities, these will have multiple answers. Feel free to 'play' with the math - have them draw and/or talk about their answers. Math reasoning is about the journey to the answer and not just getting to the answer.
Health Unit Resources
[The section below will be at the end of every newsletter - so if you have arrived here - thank you for reading our full newsletter - we appreciate you!]
How Do I Report An Absence?
Please use the Safe Arrival system to report your child's absence; if you need to call to report an absence, please call 1-855-257-9349 (see instructions below)
If your child will be late, please report a full day absence and then we will sign them in when they arrive.
Computerized call outs occur around 9:30 for students absent with no reported absence in our system. This call out system is a mandatory safety feature to ensure you know your child is not at school and can follow up as needed. For this reason, if your child is late, it is important that they stop into the office so that Mrs. Thompson can change their absence to 'Late' so that you don't receive an unnecessary and worrisome phone call that your child is not at school
How to report your absence:
1. Toll-free telephone
- Call 1-855-257-9349 toll-free to report an absence using the automated phone system.
2. School Messenger App
- Use your mobile device to download and install the free SchoolMessenger blue app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store, the SchoolMessenger website portal, or from within the LDSB mobile app.
- The first time you use the app, you must select Sign Up to create your account. Please ensure you use the same email address your student’s school has on file. If you do not use that same email address, you will not be able to create an account, or may not be able to see the "Attendance" option. You may have already created an account when we introduced the Communicate broadcast system.
- Select Attendance, then select Report an Absence and follow the prompts.
3. SchoolMessenger SafeArrival Website Portal
- Visit the SchoolMessenger website portal.
- The first time you use the app, you must select Sign Up to create your account. Please ensure you use the same email address your student’s school has on file. If you do not use that same email address, you will not be able to create an account, or may not be able to see the "Attendance" option. You may have already created an account when we introduced the Communicate broadcast system.
- Select Attendance, then Report an Absence and follow the prompts.