Heritage Fair News!   Nine student projects were entered in the District Heritage Fair on  May 15.  All of our students were excellent representatives of our school and did well on their interviews.  Eight of nine projects were therefore eligible for the National Fair.  Our congratulations go out to Cody Brake in Grade 5 whose project WWII :  My Great Grandfather's Experience was one of the two projects selected! (see photo in our gallery) The second project belonged to Emily Harris, a Grade 5 student at Humber Elementary.  Her project was The History of the Grand Banks Fishery.   Both students will receive an all expenses paid trip to Montreal for one week in July. While there they will participate in a number of cultural and educational activities as well as  attend the National Heritage Fair which showcases projects from across Canada.  Projects may be viewed at http://projects.sd3.k12.nf.ca/vhf/home.htm  Other big winners at this year's fair were Ian Locke who picked up a Laurier Lapierre Medal and Sarah Banks and Nicole Ivany whose project Admiral Palliser Trail was chosen to be displayed at the Corner Brook Museum for the next year.  The many tourists that visit the museum particularly enjoy the student projects on display.  Congratulations to all students on a job well done.

 

 

~Sometime on or before May 12 a person or persons gained access to the school and stole six fire extinguishers.  All were taken to a wooded area and discharged of the fire fighting chemicals.  We need help in identifying whoever is responsible for this criminal activity.  The school is offering a reward of $200 for any information which will lead to a conviction.  The identity of any caller will be held in confidence.  Anyone with information should call the school at 783-2780, Crimestoppers at    1-800-222-8477 or the RCMP at 637-4433.

~Construction has begun on the new K-12 facility but unfortunately there will be no outdoor facilities established in the project. An area the size of a small soccer field will be grubbed and cleared. In response to this deficiency a number of us in the local area are taking steps to provide those facilities ourselves. A committee has been formed consisting of teacher, PTA and School Council representatives as well as representatives from the North Shore Early Childhood Association and the Summerside Lions Club. The North Shore Development Association will be holding its elections this week and they will likely be represented on our committee soon after.

Our long-term plan for outdoor facilities include:

- a green regulation-size soccer field with a surrounding asphalt running track;

- a walking / ski / nature trail;

- an outdoor classroom;

- a series of school naturalization projects.

With new school construction about to begin, our group is desirous of getting maximum value for equipment and other resources on the site while grounds work is being carried out. To achieve that we intend to attempt to complete the greened field this year. We will attempt to:

- have the vegetation cut from the land by local volunteers in order to have resulting savings reinvested into heavy equipment hire or purchase of imported soil;

- raise adequate funds to achieve crowning, import and distribution of appropriate soil;

- have seeding or sodding carried out by volunteer efforts.

For the balance of this school year we will be conducting fund-raising drives on a regular basis. All fund-raising activities will be joint efforts between Northshore Elementary and Templeton Collegiate. We will also be soliciting donations from community-minded organizations and applying some school based funds to the project.

~Although we do not perceive our student population to have higher than normal incidents of bullying, it is an issue which we are trying to address in mainly a preventative manner.  At school we teach good student conflict resolution skills.  We also deal with incidents as effectively as we can.  Our district is in the process of developing a policy on this issue.  You can examine the draft by clicking here.

~Our breakfast program continues to get a lot of use.  Well over half our school population is served each day.  However, the number of volunteers coming out to help is dwindling and causing more work for those who do show up and delays in serving our students.  We hope other parents and citizens can take an active part in promoting this program.  To help with funding of this program our committee is inviting parents to send along their grocery receipts from Sobeys, Colemans and Dominion.  For every $1000 of receipts we receive, the grocery chain will donate $2.00 to our breakfast club!  Our thanks to the Summerside Lions Club for a generous donation of $300 to our breakfast club last week.

~Parents are reminded that in order for microwaving to take place a volunteer will need to call before 3:00 p.m. of the previous day.  If no volunteer is listed at that time an announcement will be made that no microwaving will take place the next day.