Tytler Public School News

Dear Parents and Students:
We hope you have been watching the progress of the new school currently being built. We are excited that it will be ready for students this coming September 2013! At this time, the new school does not have a name. We would like to give you the opportunity to participate in naming the school. You never know - it may be your suggestion that is used!

The process for naming a school is as follows:

• Suggestions can be made by filling out a printed copy of the PDF form at the bottom of this post and placing it in a ballot box located in the lobbies of Tytler PS, King George PS and Ottawa Crescent PS, or submitted online.
• A "New School Naming Committee" comprised of parents, principal, trustee and superintendent of education has been established at the Board level. This committee will consider all submissions and forward its recommendation to the Board. Final approval will be given at an official Board meeting and announced to the community.

According to Board Policy 303, a school can be named in the following ways:

• According to the street name on which the school is located.
• According to the community the school serves.
• After a significant individual or after a significant event. (A significant individual or event shall have had a notable impact on education or the quality of life throughout or beyond Dufferin and/or Wellington Counties).

[ Laurine Avenue Name Suggestion Form ( PDF )

This month’s Tytler Tiger assembly focused on the character trait of respect. Staff and students will be doing some learning on what respect looks like, sounds like and feels like. Currently, we have two classes who are engaged in a learning program called the Roots of Empathy. Two newborns, baby Emily and baby Karis come in to visit Mrs. Pauw-Klapwyk and Mrs. Fritzley's class as well as Miss Tyszka's class. Students are learning about the babies' development, growth benchmarks, and how they have their needs met by the parents. One aspect of the program is to try to have the students think about how actions and choices effect the babies. They come to an understanding of what it is to be empathetic or to understand things from another person's point of view...READ THE ENTIRE APRIL 2013 NEWSLETTER (PDF)!

Saturday May 4th, 2013
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm 

Please join us along with special dignitaries to share your memories of Tytler Public School while we wish our last group of elementary students continued success in their future endeavours. They will be embracing new opportunities for learning with a new family of friends, students and educators at our new school site Laurine Avenue in the fall of this year.

We wish to remember the contributions of Tytler Public School touching so many lives throughout the years and thank you kindly for your support for our young citizens of Guelph.

‘Thanks for the Memories’
1878-2013

[ View Open House Information (PDF ) ]

Welcome to March! We certainly have had some winter weather finally. The students have been enjoying building snow forts and playing on the hills left by the plow. This has been a great opportunity for collaboration and team work.

Our Tytler Tiger Assembly focused on the trait of "Encouragement". So we will be encouraging students to "increase the kindness" in March. Staff will be looking out for students who are acting in kind ways toward each other (which happens very often at school), and recording examples of how we can help each other.

Last month I wrote about some strategies to help at home with self-regulation. One of the ways you can support at home is to recognize the things that your child does at home, even small jobs. Encourage them to take responsibility for their own things and actions. Invite them to help out with jobs around the house and to work with you!

Once again, we have many to thank for supporting our students in their learning:

• Thanks to every parent for reviewing the report card with your child.
• Thank you to Mrs. Harron, Mr. Mantelos, Mrs. Gibson, and Mr. Craine for supervising on the Tim Horton's trip for the grade 5/6 classes. We even got a bonus night stay due to the snow storm! Thanks to Ms. Davis and Ms. Smit for being the emergency phone contacts!
• Thanks to Ms. Tyszka for taking the safety patrols to the Storm game.

[ View the March 2013 Newsletter ( PDF ) ]

A lot of exciting learning has happened in January. We have had Justin come in from the Guelph Y to start training grades 4,5 and 6s to run games for primaries. This is part of the Daily Activity at School and Home program.

Students have been using our iPads courtesy of the Rotary William Tytler Foundation to improve their reading, learn the writing process, do science experiments, practice skills, and complete music projects to name a few examples. Thanks to the efforts of our staff and Ms. Mottin to get these up and running!

As a staff, we have also been studying about strategies to help children self- regulate, or control and manage their emotions, actions and words. The following are some strategies from our Book Calm, Alert and Learning by Stuart Shanker that you could try at home:

• provide predictable routines
• help your child take responsibility for tasks, and monitoring their own success (like cleaning their room or the dishes, you can ask “How will you know when you are done?”)
• encourage your child to talk about how they are feeling (you may try waiting and giving them some time first)
• encourage positive and appropriate physical activity to blow off steam and for general fitness

Feel free to contact the office if you would like some more information or strategies!

[ View the February 2013 Newsletter ( PDF ) ]

Children born in 2009 are eligible to begin Junior Kindergarten in September 2013. Children born in 2008 are eligible to begin Senior Kindergarten in September 2013. Given that Tytler Public School is closing at the end of June, students will be attending the new school being built at the Laurine Avenue site. If you have questions or concerns please see Mr. Keesmaat.

Junior and Senior Kindergarten registration will be held on Tuesday, February 5, 2013 from 9:15 to 3:45 pm. Please call the school (519 822 9271) to make an appointment.

Parents must bring proof of birth, proof of current address, and immunization record when they register their children. If your child was not born in Canada, you must bring a“record of landing”. In some families, there are issues regarding custody. If this is the case, please provide a copy of the custody papers.

[ View the Kindergarten Registration Information (PDF)]

Hi everyone! Happy New Year and I hope you had some quality time to spend as a family over the school winter break. It is exciting to be back and I find myself well rested and ready to go. We have a lot of exciting learning experiences planned and exciting initiatives for the coming year. For instance, you may have heard about our technology. We now have 15 Ipads that the students will be accessing to aid in their learning! The world is at their fingertips! Teachers and staff are providing some excellent learning opportunities for our children!

I thought I would include some tips on how we deal with problems and conflicts here at school that you can use at home. I know how you have heard about the "NO, GO, TELL". If someone is bothering you say an assertive polite "No thank you", if that doesn't work - walk away, and if that does not solve the problem - get an adult.

At School, staff use Collaborative Problem Solving. CPS is based on the belief that children are communicating feelings through behaviour. It helps the child take responsibility for actions and solutions. The steps are outlined below. If you would like more information, there are plenty of resources on the web or contact me at the school.

When a problem or problem behaviour happens, use a calm voice and:

Step 1: Ask the child "What's up?" - and then wait for some time for your child to respond - this encourages the child to stop and reflect.

Step 2: Ask open ended questions (those that can not be answered with "yes" or "no") like "What's going on?" or "How are you feeling?" or "Why do you think you were doing ____?" This helps the child identify what may have caused the behaviour in the first place.

Step 3:Solutions and Plan - after discussing the above ask "What do you think you could do differently?" You can always throw in "I was thinking..." or "Why don't we try..."

Step 4: Revisit -After a few days - discuss with your child how the "plan" is working.

This approach takes patience, practise and time! Good luck and let us know how it goes!

[ View the January 2013 Newsletter (pdf) ]