VERDUN ELEMENTARY:A special group of grade 5-6 students were recently honored at a general assembly and a luncheon from the Board. These students have been trained and are working as “Peer Mediators” at the school and have developed excellent skills in listening, cooperation, and conflict resolution.
This program started a few years ago and the mediators have been working to help their peers solve conflicts independently with students in grades K to 4.
Honored guests at the assembly included from the Board, Sector Director Charles Merilees and Peaceful Schools Coordinator Judy Grant, who entertained students with a story about friendship and building bridges. The students were also awarded certificates, pens, and hats for the hard work.
Also this coming Wednesday, Citizenship Canada will be holding a special event at the school. In an invitation-only non-public event, they will be swearing-in a new group of Canadian citizens in a special ceremony. For the past several years now, swearing-in ceremonies have held been held at various venues such as schools and workplaces where there are a large of amount of workers who are becoming new Canadian citizens. We will be on hand to witness this event and we’ll have it in on our next column.
We received word recently about another grant the school received and this one for the “Putting Bullying out of Business program. An amount of $2900 was received from the Alex and Ruth Dworkin Foundation Tolerance Initiative Fund, administered by the Canadian Jewish Congress for this program from DM Family and School Services.
The grant, which aims to promote tolerance, will help a dedicated staff team and DM, and along from teachers to lunch and daycare workers and students and other stakeholders to receive professional development training and student programs on how to promote tolerance and inclusion for all. The students have been looking at other ways at looking and treating each other. What a great initiative!
From the mild-mannered Jennifer Holmes, we hear of a great initiative she will be hosting. It will be a “Babysitting Course” at the school for 11-14 year-olds. The course will be held at the school on Saturday, May 31st and Sunday, June 1st from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm. The cost is $ 65.00 per student which covers the instructor, First Aide and CPR certification, and the room rental. For more info, contact Jennifer at the school at 514-761-4524.
From the Lunchtime Book Club, a bit of catching up here, there was no winner for April for Reader of the month, but there was one for March and that was Deanna Curley.Way to go, Deanna.
The Grad Committee will be holding a bottle drive, plastic, glass and beer bottles, going door-to-door on Saturday, May 24th with monies refunded from those bottles going towards the grad and the upcoming Grade 6 overnight camping trip. So save your bottles and be ready for the drive.
Kudos goes out to student Susan Young, BA’s student ambassador for the Bell Kids Help Phone who raised $315.00 for the Bell Help Line Walk held last Sunday. Kids Help Phone is a 24-hour bilingual toll free phone service for teens to call in when they need anything from advice to simply a person to listen. As the Kids Help Phone Line is not government funded, there are various fundraising events held annually to pay the counselors to be there for the teens that call in and need them more than ever. The Bell Walk is the biggest fundraising event and where the majority of the profits come from. Approximately 3 million dollars is raised annually because of this event. As BA’s Rep, Susan organizes the school’s participation in the rally, and would also like to thank fellow students Jonathan Laroche and Tess Mackinder who helped her for this worthwhile cause. HAVE A GREAT WEEK.
