Dear Families,

Warning: Grab a cup of tea, coffee or any drink of choice, have a seat and relax…This is a long but important email:

​Tomorrow is the last day of school! ​

Well, what a year it has been! I wish to honestly and sincerely say a huge thank you to each and every one of you for all that you have done this year. I am always so grateful that when I ask for some parent volunteers or help, you always respond.

For those families moving away throughout the summer I would like to extend my warmest wishes that you and your kids stay healthy and happy.

For those families that are staying I look forward to seeing many of you next year around the school.

End of the year wrap up:

For those who were not able to make it to the PAC meeting last week. I will have the final financial breakdown of how and what the Direct Appeal money has been spent on by the school and what the PAC has spent this year up on the PAC website for everyone to see shortly.

Our Treasurer is working with Rosa to come up with a more comprehensive plan on funds needed and how PAC can better plan ahead with our finances. Hisham will share this out, as well as a final report, to parents sometime mid July (through the PAC Website).

 

Moving into September:

Communication!!!:

We would ask parents to please, sign up to follow our PAC Website. This will be the main source for our information to come from next year. When you follow, you will get notification (sometimes under “Social”) when there is a new posting. This will be especially handy come mid to late August when we will let parents know about the lunch program roll out date etc. With the help of the website, we hope to start food deliveries earlier than this year. So, go to:

https://nrppac.wordpress.com Find the “Follow” button and click! you may need to confirm your subscription. Soon we will have the VSB calender plus the PAC calendar up and but the end of the summer we will have the link to the new MunchaLunch website (which will replace the Hotlunches.net site).

Also, if you have not yet done so, please download the NRP app. This will again, be very useful to you as school approaches and gets under way.

Changes to the running of PAC meetings.

We recognize that there is a lot of mundane information we pass along when really, the most exciting part is hearing from the school administration and teachers. Therefore we are going to utilize the website for those more…let`s just say it…boring information and updates. Our desire is to have a teacher representative, a student council rep, school admin and parents come to each meeting. This way, we get to hear from parents, teachers AND students. We also found that the most exciting meetings were those where we opened the floor to all parents for conversations about different topics. We are hoping for a lot more of this. Meetings will remain at 60 minutes long!

More Parent Ed evenings and sooner:

With the school enrollment increasing from 756 to 860 NRP will have a huge number of new families. Working with one of our amazing parents Julie, we have identified a number of important topics to tackle. There are 3 in particular. With the help of Rosa, we have scheduled these into the 2017/18 calendar already.

The topics are:

#1 – Curriculum 101: There is still a lot of confusion about whether kids at NRP are learning what they need to be taught. Short answer is yes of course.

#2 – Communication: How do parents know what is going on?? This will help clarify not only the “How” but “When” and “Why”. From what are our Parent responsibilities to keep informed (NRP App, PAC Website, PAC meetings, Parent Ed Nights) to the basic process parents follow on getting in touch with teachers.

#3 -Assessment & Reporting 101 – how to read the progress report, how to get the most out of the informal reporting opportunities like goal-setting, student-led conferences.

 

Start of School:

First day for Grade 1-8 is September 5th from 9:00-10:00am. Kindergarten will be notified before then about the graduated entry dates and times.
Please remember that on September 5th PAC hosts a free coffee/tea and snack hour in the foyer while students are in class. This is a great time to re connect with those you have not seen over the summer. PAC Executives will be there to answer any questions.
The incoming kindergarten parents are welcome to join us as well!

I would like to personally say that it has been a real honour and privilege to be PAC Chair at NRP for the past 4 years. Being able to see your kids so much in the halls has been so much fun. I am very excited to start the new school year and look forward to you voting in the new PAC Executives at the AGM. Thank you to all parents for the amazing support you show to the school.

Last but certainly not least, if you have any questions throughout the summer, please feel free to email us. I will check the site every so often especially as we get closer to mid August.

Have a wonderful, safe summer to you all.

Cheers,
Jody