GORDON HAPPENINGS
It is hard to believe that it is already May and we only have two months left of school. It is a busy month ahead with a number of exciting fieldtrips planned and events happening, including our School Streets program and Spring Fling! Please take the time to update your calendars and read the emails and newsletters that come out. You don’t want to miss out!
It is so nice to see the sun and feel that Spring is finally here! I want to give a special thank you to our PAC for organizing a night of learning for parents and caregivers that looks at exploring Digital Literacy. You can still join tonight by registering HERE. Our children are exposed to more and more information online and it is hard sometimes to always be on top of it, especially when us as adults are not familiar with the types of apps and social media platforms that our children are using. Monitoring your child’s internet use can help you protect your child from harmful interactions, prevent your child from accessing inappropriate content (such as violence, pornography, hate speech, or misinformation), as well as promote your child’s healthy and responsible internet use. Key ways to monitor your child’s internet use are: Familiarize yourself with various media outlets, set up parental controls see HERE, check your child’s devices, and talk to your child. No amount of monitoring can protect your child from everything and your child may find ways to get around your monitoring. That is why it is essential to foster a trusting and respectful relationship with your child and to educate them on how to be a smart and safe internet user. Safer School Together have a number of great parent resources you can access free online as well.
Congratulations to our school badminton team who will be finishing off their season at Kits Secondary for the annual Badminton Jamboree. Thank you to Ms. Hargrave and Ms. Poon who were the teams’ coaches. Our final sporting team for the season is Track and Field for Grades 3 – 7. Students were given permission forms and practices have started on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 8:00 AM, rain or shine! Extra forms are in the office if your child has not brought one home.
SCHOOL STREETS
This is a friendly reminder that beginning Monday, May 6, 2024, the School Streets Program will be starting at Gordon Elementary to help improve safety and encourage active travel to and from our school. A School Street is a car-free block adjacent to a school open to walking, biking, and rolling during school pick-up and drop-off times. Your PAC, with a very dedicated group of parents, has been working tirelessly to promote human-powered modes of transportation – such as, walking, biking, scootering, and skateboarding – while collaboratively addressing safety concerns within the school community. I encourage all families to take part in this amazing initiative and join in the activities. It will be a great community building event for our school!
Gordon School Street Program Details:
- Dates: May 6, 2024 to May 31, 2024 on all school days (4 weeks)
- Location: Bayswater Street between West 6th and West 7th avenues (see Figure 1 below)
- Times: 8:40 – 9:10 am and 2:45 – 3:30 pm
- Extended Hours: Wednesdays, 2:45 – 4:00 pm, for Play Street activities.
Play Street Wednesdays
On Wednesday afternoons the Society for Children and Youth of BC (SCY) will be hosting Play Streets during our School Street! Families are invited to join the fun and enjoy various activities such as badminton, crafts, and a scooter course with ramps.
Volunteers Needed!
Gordon needs your help to make our School Street program a success! We are looking for volunteers to sign up for 45-to 60-minute shifts to help set up, monitor, and take down barriers.
- Visit org/8FB8B for details or email goldmaya@gmail.com for questions.
- In-person training will be provided on Wednesday, May 1st from 6:30pm to 7:30pm at Gordon.
- As a thank you for your valuable time, each shift you volunteer will be rewarded with a $5 gift card to a nearby coffee shop.
Need to Drive?
- Drive-to-five: While we promote active travel, we recognize that some parents may need to drive. Please consider drop-off locations a short walk away for older children, freeing up space nearer to the school for parents with younger students or those with accessibility needs.
- Parking: Please continue to follow the parking signage and park only in designated areas (see Figure 2 below).
Accessibility
All other streets surrounding the school will remain accessible by motor vehicle as needed. Please contact me directly if you have accessibility needs and require more information.
Questions/Feedback
For inquiries about the School Street program, email SchoolStreets@vancouver.ca or visit vancouver.ca/School-Streets.
Parents will also receive a survey at the end of the program for feedback.
SOFT PLASTIC RECYCLING INITIATIVE
In the month of May, our school will be participating in a pilot project by Recycle BC. The purpose is to educate the students on ways in which we can recycle soft plastics. Some families are already recycling soft plastic and taking the recycling to Vancouver Zero Waste or to London Drugs. There will be a super sack to put all the plastic collected in each classroom. We will measure our progress with liners in the super sack. The super sack will be collected at the end of May by Recycle BC. They will give our school $2 per kilogram collected. Our goal is to collect 1,000Kg. This means that if each student brings 2 kg, we will meet the Gordon goal. 1 kg is roughly the equivalent of 120-150 plastic bags/items. We will use the proceeds to support our garden beds and outdoor equipment for the students.
What do you need to do?
· Start collecting all your soft plastics in a reusable bag (FlexiblePlasticsToolkit_Poster (1))
· Make sure that the soft plastics are clean and dry
· Send them with your child whenever the bag is full or daily, starting May 1st until May 31st
· If you already recycle soft plastics, don’t take them to your recycling depot, bring them to Kerrisdale from May 1st to May 31st
What kind of plastics should we collect?
· Ziplock bags
· Bread bags
· Flexible packaging with plastic seal
· Outer bags and overwrap
· Woven plastic bags
· Stand-up pouches
· Crinkly wrappers and bags
· Protective and squishy cushion packaging (WARNING: remove non-plastic items from packaging).
· Plastic bags
What does not go in the soft recycling?
· Food film or saran wrap
· Plastic bottles
· Plastic containers with numbers for recycling in the blue bin
· Plastic with left-over food
· Small envelops of ketchup or soy sauce.
After May 31st, we invite you and your family to continue recycling your soft plastic and take it to Vancouver Zero Waste Centre or to London Drugs.
Thank you for helping our planet to be a better place!
CLASS PLACEMENT REQUESTS
Close to the end of the year, teachers start to think about next year and the placement of students into classes. When it comes to considering class placements, classes are put together carefully and with a great deal of thought by classroom teachers. When placing students into classes, many factors such as academic level, social-emotional learning and learning style are taken into consideration as well as personality and social dynamics. Teachers use objective criteria to assess students’ abilities and needs. Some of the factors used to make decisions are class size, student-teacher ratio, and the overall composition of the class, which can affect how well a student will perform and learn. At Gordon, we believe that parents are partners in education and can bring an important perspective to the class-placement process. They can provide useful insights into their child’s strengths, weaknesses, and preferences. It is important to understand that information provided by parents is one component of the process. This year, instead of filling out a form, please share information you believe relevant with your child’s current teacher before the end of May. Please note that we do not accept input or requests for specific teachers nor for combined classes versus straight classes.
GARDEN BEDS
Students are very excited about seeing their hard work growing in our garden beds. A number of divisions have been learning about where our food comes from and how to grow our food. Besides the garden beds, classes have also been part of a project called “spuds in tubs” where they are growing potatoes in pots. To learn more, click here. As tempting as it is for kids to explore and play in the garden beds, we would appreciate your support in reminding your children that our garden beds are part of our outdoor classrooms and that they need to be respected. Our teachers and students are very proud of our garden and would like to see their hard work rewarded with a bountiful crop to harvest.
SPRING WEATHER
As the weather hopefully gets nicer, so does the need to dress and prepare ourselves for the sun. Please remember to send your child to school with a hat, cool clothing, and suntan lotion already on. We will not be able to apply suntan lotion to children. Don’t forget their water bottle as well. Thanks for your support!
BIG ONE AT 2
The safety and welfare of our students and staff are our highest priority at the Vancouver School Board. As such, we practice safety drills throughout the year to help our students know what to do in an emergency.
On Thursday, May 2, 2024 the VSB will be conducting its annual district wide Big One @ 2 emergency drill. As a part of this year’s drill at 2 pm, we will be conducting a school student release. This means that if parents are able to come to the school between 2 – 2:30 pm, they will be able to be part of the drill and take part in what we call our student reunification procedures. This is a voluntary activity and if work schedules do not allow you to come to the school early, students will be dismissed at 3:00 pm as per our normal practice.
If you choose to be part of our drill, students will only be released to parents and/or alternates listed on the emergency information forms you provided to the school (yellow forms you filled out at the beginning of the year). These are the ONLY people who will be allowed to sign for the release of a student in an emergency situation (and on the day of the drill). It is MANDATORY that the parent/guardian picking up the child MUST show government issued ID. No child will be released to a parent/ guardian without it.
Please be sure that this information is current and accurate. Alternates should live within walking distance of the school as transportation disruption is a possibility if a real emergency occurs.
During the drill on May 2, students will be released from the designated evacuation area at the school. Parents or alternates will be expected to:
- Identify and report to the Student Reunification table located at the front of the school where you will show your ID. Please line up along the northwest corner of the building according to your child’s last name.
- Obtain a release slip from the Student Reunification table that you bring to supervising staff members who will go and collect your child from the student holding area.
- Leave the grounds with your child(ren) and not allow your child(ren) to play on the playground while the drill is still occurring until after 3:00 pm.
*Please be prepared to show identification, as it is an expected requirement for student release.
It has been a while since the school has done a full release, so we ask that those of you who wish to participate please be patient with us. It will take some time to go through the procedures so you might have to wait to pick-up your child. We also ask that everyone not arrive right at 2:00 pm but stagger your arrival, just like in a real emergency.
If you have any questions regarding the procedures for student release on May 4, please contact your child’s classroom teacher or Ms. Steele at ssteele@vsb.bc.ca.
This is a great reminder to review your own emergency preparedness at home and talk about what you as a family would do if there was a natural disaster.
SUMMER SCHOOL
Online registration began on April 24, 2024.
Students are limited to one Ministry Funded course and must register in their current grade level as of June 30, 2024. Students can register in as many fee-based courses that fit in their schedule.
Please visit the VSB website for more information.
GRADE 7 FAREWELL
We are excited to be able to plan for our Grade 7 Farewell this year. Please save the date for Wednesday, June 19, 2024 at 1:30 PM. More information will be sent home to grade 7 families once plans have been finalized. If parents are interested in helping plan for this event, please email Ms. Steele at ssteele@vsb.bc.ca.
RBC RACE FOR THE KIDS
A message from Ms. Sinclair:
It’s that time of the year again! I’ve signed Gordon up as a team for this year’s RBC Race for the Kids, which works towards raising funds for childhood cancer programs and research, as well as mental health initiatives. In the past, Gordon Elementary has been placed among the top earning teams in terms of fundraising. Our first year, we raised over $3,000 as a community, followed by last year’s total of almost $6,000 and last over 10,000. I have set our goal as $3000.
The race will be held this year on Sunday, June 9, with a meeting point right beside Nat Bailey Stadium. Below, I’ll included the link to register for our team. If you pledge to raise at least $50.00, the sign-up fee is only $5.00. It is always great to see Gordon Families out running!
The following link will take you to the sign-up page for our team. Should you need any help, please don’t hesitate to ask. Select whether you’d like to walk or run the 2K or 5K.
https://fundraise.bcchf.ca/join/gordonelementary
PAC EVENTS
Make sure you stay up to date on all that is happening with Gordon PAC. Please visit their website- gordonpac.com for all the news including Hot Lunch, PAC meetings and volunteer opportunities. While you are there, do not forget to sign up for their newsletter. You don’t want to miss out on information for our upcoming school events like our Spring Fling on Sunday, May 26 from 2 -5 pm.