Thames Valley District School Board
9188 Plank Road P.O. Box 94, Straffordville, . Tel. 
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| Balanced Day Schedule |
| School Entry/Learning Block A 8:50 - 10:50
Nutrition Break 1 10:50 - 11:30 Learning Block B 11:30 - 1:10 Nutrition Break 2 1:10 - 2:00 Learning Block C 2:00 - 3:20 Dismissal 3:20 |
| Absence, Late Arrival, or Picking Up Early |
| Regular and punctual attendance is important for student success. Parents/ guardians have the primary responsibility to ensure their child's safe arrival at school and to inform the school if a student will be late or absent at any time. Your child's safety is our primary concern. TVDSB uses SchoolMessenger Safe Arrival Reporting System which allows parents/guardians to report student absences by phone (1-844-305-3756) or smartphone app (App Store: SafeArrival, Google Play: SchoolMessenger). If the system does not receive a response from a parent/guardian, the school secretary will contact the parent(s)/guardian(s)/emergency contact(s) using all available contact numbers. Please note: Parents/guardians are still required to personally sign their elementary child in/out at the school office for a late arrival or early departure. If the student is being picked up by another person, please write a note. The student cannot be released to someone without consent. Late arrivals on a continuing basis are a disruption for both the student who is late as well as other students in the class. |
| Parent Portal |
| Parent authorization for certain forms is available in the Parent Portal. Please check the portal out, if you have not already. |
| Communication Between Home and School |
| Communication between home and school is important. Communication methods include face-to-face conferences, telephone conversations, planner notes, and school website/calendar. We are currently exploring a way to communicate digitally with home. As always, please contact the school should you have any questions. |
| Use of Telephone / Messages for Students |
| Students must have permission from school staff to use the school phone. Phone calls are not to be made during class time unless for emergency reasons. We respectfully ask that messages to students about going home with others, to grandmother's house, etc. should be finalized at home before coming to school. Emergencies are a priority, but frequently too many routine situations that need not involve the office staff are called in and interrupt the classroom instruction. |
| Visitors to the School |
| All visitors, including parents/guardians, entering the school and playground areas must first report to the office and sign in the visitors log. As per our safe schools policy, all doors, except the front entrance, will be locked after 9:00 a.m. Upon departure, visitors must sign out. |
| Parking |
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Parents/guardians and visitors are asked to park in the staff parking lot or in the parking lot in the front of the school. The drive in front of the school is not to be used by parents/guardians dropping off/picking up their children or for parking while in the school as it is a fire zone area and is used for our buses and special transportation vehicles. |
| Vulerable Sector Screening / Criminal Background Checks and Offence Declarations |
| It is Thames Valley DSB Policy that all volunteers working with our students have an original Vulnerable Sector Screening / Police Check on file at the school. To obtain a police check, a Straffordville application form, signed by the principal, needs to be picked up at the school office and taken to the local Police Detachment Office, along with two pieces of identification, with at least one being a photo ID. It takes approximately two weeks to be processed before it is ready to be picked up and brought to the school. In busier times, it may take longer to process. It is best to complete this early in the fall and then you are good to go for the year. Once a Vulnerable Sector Screening /Police Check is on file, an Offence Declaration has to be filled out and submitted to the school office each year in order to volunteer at the school, in classrooms, or on field trips. Please call the school office for assistance with this process. |
| Volunteering |
We are appreciative of volunteers who commit their time to assist with numerous activities. Here are just a few of the ways in which parents/guardians can help to support our students:
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| Illness at School |
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It is our policy to make a sick child feel as comfortable as possible while parents/guardians are being contacted for pick-up. When an illness or injury appears to be serious, the principal or designate may contact an ambulance to ensure that the student is transported safely for medical care. |
| Headlice |
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To confirm a case of headlice you need to find live lice. A child's head can have many empty nits (egg or young form of lice) and no live lice. Headlice shampoo, when used properly, will kill all live lice on a child's head. The empty nits will remain on the strands of hair until they are pulled off.
About headlice Headlice move fast and are hard to see. They are usually found very close to the scalp at the bottom of the neck, behind the ears and underneath your child's bangs at the forehead.
How to find headlice To look for nits, part hair in small sections, moving from one side of the head to the other. Check carefully, looking close to the scalp. Nits can be brown or a whitish-gray colour. Brown nits indicate an egg that will soon hatch a baby louse. Whitish/gray nits are empty shells that do not contain a live louse. The priority should be to rid the head of brown nits first as they will perpetuate the case of headlice and focus on whitish-gray nits next.
How to remove nits
Spring and fall are the seasons when head lice commonly infest school aged children. Please check you child's head weekly. If you find evidence of head lice, information is available from your pharmacist and local health unit. |
| Medical Conditions |
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It is the responsibility of the parent/guardian to ensure that the school is aware of any medical conditions of a child. If your child has a life-threatening condition (asthma, anaphylaxis, epilepsy, Type 1 diabetes or any other potentially life threatening condition), please go to the Parent Portal to complete an Individual Plan of Care (IPOC) as soon as possible so we can meet your child’s needs and keep him/her safe. If you need assistance with completing the IPOC, please contact the school office.
As well, if your child requires administration of medication, there is a form that must be completed (Authorization for Administration of Daily Prescription Medication form or Authorization for Administration of PRN [as needed] Prescription Medication Form) and signed by a medical practitioner. These forms are available in the school office. |
| Allergies |
| Straffordville School is home to a number of students who are affected by environmental and food allergies. We need the help of all the students and their families, to refrain from sending peanut butter or nut products as snacks or lunch foods. If students have these ingredients in their lunches, they will be asked to eat at the office, and wash their hands before returning to class. Students do not eat outside, or share any food, utensils or containers to reduce the risk of inadvertently triggering an allergic response. Please contact your child's classroom teacher prior to sending in any treats for class distribution. Please do not send peanut butter substitutes (e.g., Wow butter, Soy butter) to school. These products are said to look like, smell like and taste just like peanut butter. TVDSB Senior Administrators have decided any products considered to be a peanut butter replacement are no more appropriate in schools than regular peanut butter because staff would have great difficulty in being able to differentiate between real peanut butter and the substitute. |
| Healthy Snack and Food Programs |
| Straffordville Public School offers a well-balanced, healthy snack program, which complies with the Board of Health regulations, for all students first thing in the morning.
Students may purchase pizza on Wednesday throughout the year. Pizza is ordered in two to three month increments and full payment is made in advance for each period. Students may also purchase milk or ice cream/yogurt. Milk and ice cream/yogurt is ordered in two to three month increments with full payment made in advance.
The School Council offers hot lunches every Friday through LunchBox. |
| Student Concussion Policies |
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Schools are required to follow certain steps whenever a student suffers a concussion or whenever a concussion is suspected. Parents/guardians can access Concussion Policies and Procedures through the board website or by contacting the school and requesting a copy. As with any potential injury, our first goal is prevention. Since a concussion can affect a student's ability to learn or to participate in activities, schools will work with parents/guardians and medical contacts to assist any student who has suffered a concussion. If an injury occurs on a weekend or after school, parents/guardians are asked to inform the school so that appropriate accommodations and support can be provided. Questions can be directed to the office staff. |
| Emergency Drills |
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According to the Ontario Fire Code, a school must conduct six fire drills, three in the fall and three in the spring. During these drills, students practise exiting the building to a predetermined meeting place on school grounds. Two severe weather drills must be practised, one in the fall and another in the spring. Students will go to a predetermined spot and put themselves in the turtle position. Two lock down drills are performed annually. The goal of this drill is for staff and students to practice how to react should an actual lock down situation occur. This is a drill, not a simulation. In a lock down, all staff and students within the school are to remain in the classrooms. Doors and windows are to be locked. Students and staff are to remain away from windows and doors until otherwise notified. |
| Temperature Extremes |
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Administration may consider indoor recesses and cease outdoor activity when the temperature is at or lower than -20 C (considering the wind chill) or when a heat advisory is issued in the spring. |
| Inclement Weather Bus Procedures |
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Transportation cancellations may occur. Please use TVDSB website at www.tvdsb.ca for information regarding transportation. Parents/guardians may sign up to receive email notifications in the Parent Portal. Then, when there is a bus cancellation for your child(ren)'s bus, you will get an email advising you to check www.mybigyellowbus.ca for details. Parents/guardians are again encouraged to download the free BusPlanner app for convenience. The app offers push notifications to smartphones and tablets. Parents/guardians can also listen to the radio (101.3 FM) for a notice regarding Straffordville Region or all of Elgin County.
Examples of bus notices include:
In the event of an AM cancellation, parents/guardians are responsible for transporting their child(ren) to school. In the event of an entire day transportation cancellation, parents/guardians are responsible for transporting their child/ren to and from school. Decisions to cancel student transportation services due to inclement weather are made in the best interests of student safety. It is and will remain the decision of the family to use school bus service in the event of any type of inclement weather based on their own assessment for their child(ren). |
| Bus Information and Safety Expectations |
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Information about transportation policies and answers to some common questions can be obtained at the STS (Southwestern Ontario Student Transportation Services) website http://www.mybigyellowbus.ca/. STS is responsible for the coordination and delivery of school bus transportation. Please be aware that the school does not have the authority to change riders on the bus or to add riders to any bus for any reason. Please do not send notes to the school asking your child to go home with another student on another bus. Students will only be transported on a particular bus to and from their address/bus stop. Any questions about transportation please refer to the above website or call 519-649-1160.
It is a privilege to ride a school bus. The safety of the students is our goal. Inappropriate behaviour may result in a loss of riding privileges. Students need to:
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| Ontario Elementary Reporting |
| "The primary purpose of assessment and evaluation is to improve student learning." (Growing Success, pg.6) Kindergarten students will receive a Communication of Learning: Initial Observations in November and two Communication of Learnings, one in February and the other in June. All elementary students in grades 1-8 in Ontario will receive an Elementary Progress Report Card in November and Provincial Report Cards in February and June. As partners in supporting your child's education, parents/guardians are asked to review the reports and complete the bottom sections and return them to school. The signed portion will be filed in the Ontario Student Record. |
| Safe and Accepting School |
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Please check out our website. There is a Safe Schools section in Our School tab where our Bullying Prevention and Intervention Plan (BPIP) is found. In addition, bullying may be reported anonymously on our school website.
Difference between Conflict and Bullying Conflict is a mutual disagreement or dispute, involving a difference of opinions, interests, etc., between two opposing groups or individuals. Conflict can create hostile feelings and attitudes. Conflict may lead to inappropriate behavior. It can be demonstrated through the following actions:
These behaviours are done by both groups/individuals (i.e., two-sided).
There are three parts to bullying. There is an intent to harm, hurt or humiliate another individual's body, feelings, self-esteem, reputation, etc. (i.e., it is one-sided). Bullying is a repeated and persistent activity (i.e., it happens over and over). Finally, there is a real or perceived power imbalance based on size, age, intelligence, race, status, etc. Bullying can involve many kinds of inappropriate behavior (e.g., physical, verbal, social, and technological - the same examples as above). |
| Photographs |
| A professional photographer from Lifetouch takes school photographs during the year. You are not obliged to purchase photos but a photo must be taken for school records. Each student receives a free class photo. |
| Locks and Lockers |
| Lockers are assigned for students in grades 5-8 in the junior/intermediate halls on the first day of school. New locks will be sold for $5.00. Lockers remain the property of the TVDSB and school personnel may enter them at any time. Key locks are not allowed, as keys are easily lost or left at home. We further caution you about purchasing a cheaper lock, as experience has shown us that many such locks will not last. Students should not share their combinations with anyone, including "best friends". |
| Physical Education |
| Active participation in physical education is a part of developing a healthy mind and body. All students are required to bring a pair of non-marking running shoes for the classroom and gym. Flip-flops or sandals without backs are not appropriate at any time due to the possibility of injury. When instructed by their teachers, students are to have a t-shirt, athletic shorts and a pair of indoor running shoes for phys-ed. Due to health and safety concerns, aerosol deodorants are not allowed; however, unscented roll-on or stick deodorant is strongly recommended. |
| Cell Phones / Handheld Electronics |
| Understanding how to use technology in a courteous manner is part of growing up in today's world. It is our goal to help educate students in using any type of technology in a thoughtful, responsible and safe manner. With regard to handheld technology and supervision concerns, operation of these devices will not be permitted in the classroom (unless permission is given by teachers to use for instruction), in the washrooms, on the schoolyard, or inside or outside the classroom during nutrition breaks. Students must not share devices. Cell phones should be stored in the lockers or backpacks. Staff/School is not responsible for lost, stole or damaged items or devices. |
| Straffordville Public School - Code of Conduct |
| Straffordville Public School's Code of Conduct is being sent home as a booklet at the beginning of the year. Please keep your copy handy at home. In addition, the Code of Conduct is on our website under Our School - Code of Conduct. |
| Tobacco, Cannabis and Smoke-Free Environment |
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Students, staff and visitors are prohibited from smoking or vaping on school board property and within 20 metres from any point of the perimeter of any school board property. This includes the smoking or holding of lighted tobacco or cannabis (marijuana), and includes a ban on the use of e-cigarettes and electronic smoking devices. Students and staff that have a legal medical document authorizing them to use medical cannabis will be able to do so on school board property, but only in a non-smoking or non-vaping form (e.g., capsules, edibles and oils). Students, staff and visitors are also prohibited from using shisha, smokeless tobacco and/or cannabis products (unless medically prescribed) and all related accessories. This code of conduct is in effect 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and on school buses, or during any part of an official school field trip, including athletic team trips and school club excursions. |
| Straffordville Public School - Dress Code |
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A school is a place that promotes responsibility, respect and academic excellence in a safe learning and teaching environment. Students, parents/guardians, volunteers, teachers and other staff are included in the Dress Code whether they are on school property, school buses or attending school authorized events or activities. All clothing should be suitable for active participation in daily school programs, with an emphasis on learning and respect for self and others. A good general guideline is to follow the three Cs: comfortable, covered and clean.
Students in violations of the Dress Code will be asked to remedy the situation. They will be asked to cover up, change, turn the article inside out or some similar action. Non-compliance can result in a warning, parental contact or other disciplinary action as required.
The Straffordville Public School Dress Code is reviewed annually by our School Council.
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| Scent-Reduced School |
| Straffordville is a scent-reduced school to prevent triggering health issues for students and staff. We ask you avoid perfumes, sprays and strong scents. |
Contact(s)