A Wonderful First Week Back for our Bulldogs!
What a wonderful first week back to full classes with your children! We spent the week familiarizing ourselves with routines and expectations, reconnecting, building our community and beginning our learning journey together. It was so great to see our classrooms and school yard full of laughter and learning and we finished the week with a little dance party outside on the pavement. Kinders had their dance party at their last recess break and showed us their moves!
CLASS ORGANIZATIONS AND STAFFING
As you know, each September schools submit enrollment information and the central staffing committee of the LDSB makes determinations about class sizes at each site. Our numbers this year do not warrant a reorganization of our classes, which is lovely news! We remain at 10 classrooms with the current staffing and class organizations below. If there are any staff changes this will be communicated once the staffing committee of LDSB places teachers. We know that students can feel excited, nervous, thrilled or sometimes even sad when they don't get the educators they think they 'want' or don't have their current friend grouping with them. We appreciate that families are speaking positively about students' class placement and this is an opportunity to make new connections with staff and peers within the classroom, and reconnect with old friends at recess on the yard. Building resilience is important and students will settle in with the support of their adults. We are not making classroom switches at this time as all classes are full and moving a student creates a ripple effect.
SCHOOL SAFETY - PARKING LOTS AND SPEED
If you are a motorist around our school, please monitor your speed. By-law officers may be by to monitor parking (there are no parking areas around the school), and speed. The safety of our children and the community is so important. Please slow down and follow traffic rules. A reminder to all that there is no supervision on the yard before 8:45am and children should not arrive to school before that time. Likewise, there is no supervision after 3:25 and end of day pickup is scheduled for that time. Thank you for adhering to our school times.
SAFE ARRIVAL, School Messenger and School Day
Please continue to call in to Safe Arrival, or mark your students' late/absent in the Safe Arrival App to ensure that you don't get unwanted phone calls. The system will automatically call out if you have not marked your student as being away/late. Current contact information is necessary to ensure you get school emails/texts/calls and aren't missing out. Please call the office so that our Office Administrator can update your information as needed - thank you. Information for Safe Arrival, School Messenger and School Day (online payment and permissions) is below.
PARENT COUNCIL - WE NEED YOUR VOICE!
We will be looking to increase engagement in our Parent Council and would love for you to consider attending some meetings, or volunteering for some events, if you are able. Our Parent Council is a wonderful support and resource for our school and we appreciate all they do to support students, programming, staff and families. Our first ELECTIONS MEETING will be September 17th at 7pm. Please consider joining us. Their contact is wcps.council@gmail.com
EMERGENCY PROCEDURES
More information will be shared in the next Bulldog Family Bulletin around emergency procedures and drills that we will practice. We give plenty of opportunity for practice, and staff prepare students in age-appropriate ways .
RUNNING CLUB IS UP AND RUNNING
Big thanks to Ms. Koebel and her parent volunteers for starting up running club! Practices are at morning recess on Tuesday and afternoon recess on Thursday. There is one afterschool practice on four different Mondays. Pick up from these practices is promptly at 4:15pm. Interested students in Grades 3-6 have received information to take home and permission is required to attend practices. Information was sent home with students who are interested in practicing for the Fort Henry Road Race October 16th.
FALL OPEN HOUSE
On October 8th, we will host a drop-in meet and greet with our educators after school hours. We look forward to welcoming families inside to see your child's learning space. We will be hosting a Scholastic Book fair in the library during the week of October 6-9th (10th is a PA Day) and will welcome families into the book fair October 8th from 4:30-6:30pm.
Here's to another wonderful week moving forward. Once again, thank you for your support and collaboration.
Yours in Partnership and Education,
Joanne Borges, Principal
Coming Up for Week 2
Monday, September 8 - Day 4
- Welcome to our first full week of school for 2025-2026 - gets lots of rest!
Running club forms must be in by Thursday.
Tuesday, September 9th - Day 5
- 1st Running Club Practice!- 10:45am
Wednesday, September 10th (Day 1)
Just another great day at Winston!
Thursday, September 11th (Day 2)
- Running Club practice- 1:05pm
Friday, September 12th (Day 3)
- Theme Day! Wear your school colours - maroon/black/grey
Looking Ahead....
September
17th - Parent Council Elections Meeting
30th- Truth and Reconciliation - Every Child Matters (Orange Shirt Day)
October
2nd - Brave Education workshops - Primary classes (Boulieris, Gladstone, Powers) -Setting Healthy Boundaries
6th-9th - Scholastic Book Fair (in library)
8th - Meet the Educators Open House 4:30-6:30
10th - PA Day
13th - No School - Thanksgiving Monday
16th - Fort Henry Road Race
Daily Schedule
Time | Activity/learning block |
|---|---|
8:45 to 9:05 a.m. | Supervision on the yard |
9:05 a.m. | Bell rings, students enter the school |
9:05 to 10:45 a.m. | First instructional block |
10:45 to 11:05 a.m. | First nutrition break |
11:05 to 11:25 a.m. | Recess |
11:25 a.m. to 1:05 p.m. | Second instructional block |
1:05 to 1:25 p.m. | Second nutrition break |
1:25 to 1:45 p.m. | Recess |
1:45 to 3:25 p.m. | Third instructional block |
3:25 p.m. | Dismissal |
Winston's All-Star Tentative Staffing Line-Up
JK/SK- Ms. Mardicis, Ms. Hawley (ECE)
JK/SK- Ms. Moorehead, Ms. Samas (ECE)
Grade 1/2 - Ms. Boulieris
Grade 1/2 - Ms. Gladstone
Grade 2 - Ms. Powers
Grade 3 - Ms. Johnston
Grade 3/4 - Ms. Rochefort
Grade 4/5 - Ms. Gencarelli
Grade 5/6 – Ms. Koebel
Grade 5/6 - Mr. Pottery (AM)/Mr. Hardy (PM to start the year until Sept. 15th staffing)
Core French – M Fleet/Mme Parson
Planning Time – TBD (Ms. Cotman to start the year until final Staffing Sept. 15th)
Student Support Teacher - Ms. Lamarche
Intensive Support Teacher - Ms. Abraham
Educational Assistants: Ms. Williamson (Ms. W), Ms. Basconcillo (Ms. Grace), Ms. Raison (Ms. Alaina), Mr. Veley (Chase), Ms. Prosser (Ms. Morgan), Ms. Traynor (Ms. T), .5 EA , Orchid/lunch supervisor - Ms. McPhedran
Student Support Counsellor - Ali O'Hearn-Keogh (1.5 days/week - Wednesday/Friday AM)
Custodial Team - Sean Cockerham/Zach Gauvreau
Office Administrator - Lori Hanley
Principal - Ms. Joanne Borges
School Superintendent - Mr. Mike Blackburn
How Can I get Information From the School?
LDSB schools and school board use School Messenger to send key messages, alerts, and general communication to families. Winston uses this platform and will continue to use our Bulldog Family Bulletin to provide updates to families. This newsletters are where we will share school-specific information and highlights of student work and events in the building and is generated on our school website. This newsletter is also sent out via School Messenger so that you receive it in your in-box (sign up for alerts - email or text).
SchoolMessenger App: Download the SchoolMessenger App to stay connected. Use your mobile device to download and install the free SchoolMessenger blue app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store, the SchoolMessenger website portal, or from within the LDSB mobile app. *New families will be able to create their account after the first day of attendance.
The first time you use the app, you must select Sign Up to create your account. Please ensure you use the same email address your student’s school has on file. If you do not use that same email address, you will not be able to create an account.
School Day Online Payments and Permissions
We are paperless and cashless at Winston. We use the platform School Day for online payments (field trips, milkshake days, etc) and for digital permission slip signatures. ALL families are required to sign up using their child's individual match key that will be provided within the first weeks of school. Please direct families to the office if they are having trouble signing up or registering with School Day.
2025-2026 LDSB School Year Calendar
A PDF version of the 2025-2026 School Year Calendar is available online.
Allergen Awareness - Nut-Free School
Thank you for packing nut-free snacks! Please communicate with teachers before sending any treats in for your student's class.
Bus Requests are Through Triboard.ca
Most children in our community are within walking distance to our school and we encourage active transportation (biking, walking, scooter). Bike racks are located on the grass outside the gate of the main playground. Please encourage children to NOT cut through the parking lot as this is a busy place in the mornings and after school. Children who are out of school boundary are not guaranteed busing and families should arrange for drop off at 9:05 am and pick up at 3:25 pm. There is no supervision on the yard after 3:25 so it is important that pick ups are punctual. Morning supervision begins at 8:45am.
