Welcome to Donview Health & Wellness Academy new students and families! At Donview we work as a team which includes parents. Communication between school and home is very important for the success of each student. If you need to speak to a staff member at any time, please call ahead to make an appointment. Please help your child gain the most from this year by seeing that their attendance is regular and that they are on time

each morning and each afternoon. If the office can be of any assistance to you please do not hesitate to call.

FROM MS. ROBERTSON & MR. VOHRA

DONVIEW MIDDLE HEALTH AND WELLNESS ACADEMY 20 Evermede Drive, North York, Ontario M3A 2S3

Principal: Karen Robertson, Vice -Principal: Neel Vohra School Superintendent: Angela Naradi -Addesa, Trustee: Harout Manougian

School Website: http://schools.tdsb.on.cadonviewms/ Twitter: @DONVIEWMS September 2013—issue 1

NEW FACES AT DONVIEW

As every year, the new school year brings changes to Donview Middle Health & Wellness Academy. We welcome new staff members:

Ms. Scarborough to grade 6 and grade 8 Ms. Guinane to grade 8

Ms. Sasikanthan to grade 6, replacing Ms. Lee Mr. Yip to grade 7 and grade 8, replacing Ms. Lim

Mr. DelSol to grade 8 & Library, replacing Ms. Mohamed

Welcome to Donview!!!!!!

STUDENT SAFE ARRIVAL PROGRAM

Our telephone number for reporting a student absent or late is 416 395-3971. This line is available 24 hours a day. Please call as early as possible if your child will be absent due to illness or an appointment. Leave your child’s name, and teacher and the reason for absence. This will assist us in ensuring that all our students are safely ac-counted for.

If we do not hear from you and your child is absent, we will try to contact you at home, at work or through an emergency number. If a contact cannot be reached we may have to involve social services. It is essential that you keep us up-to-date with any home or work telephone changes and new emergency phone contacts.

General Phone: 416 395-2330 Safe Arrival: 416 395-3971

Fax: 416 395-2337

TRAFFIC SAFETY AT DONVIEW

At the beginning of the school year many parents are dropping off and picking up their students in front of the school. Please keep in mind the following:

1. Student safety is paramount. Please arrange to have your child meet you in a location AWAY from the bus drop off zone.

2. Have your child walk home with friends or an older student as daily physical fitness is important and necessary for great health.

3. Please respect our neighbours by not blocking their driveways when parked. Stop at the stop sign at the end of Evermede at Versend. Many students cross the street at the end of Evermede.

4. We have students that are bussed in the morning and afternoon and we ask that you do not park in the bus zone during this these times.

BICYCLE SAFETY

As part of our physical pillar we are encouraging students to walk or ride to school. Please ensure that if your child is bringing their bike to school that they use a “U” lock. This lock is difficult to break into and it is the only lock the police recommend.

U LOCK

PICTURE DAY AT DONVIEW

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2013 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2013—Retake Day

WEAR SOLID COLOUR CLOTHING FOR BEST RESULTS AND DON’T FORGET TO SMILE!

ART CLUB

Art lovers will be happy to hear that Ms. Maloney will be holding Art Club during lunch recess at 12:00 p.m. on Thursdays for term 1. There are spaces for 30-36 students. See you there.

IMMUNIZATION

Each year the Toronto Public Health offers free hepatitis B and the meningococcal ACYW-135 (Menactra/Menveo) vaccines to grade 7 students.

Also the TPH offers for free Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine (Gardasil) to grade eight female students.

Our first vaccination clinic at Donview will be...

Thursday, November 28, 2013

for Hep B and HPV vaccines

For more information:

www.toronto.ca/health

Email: immunization @toronto.ca

Or call 416 392-1250

Vision and hearing clinics are available in our school. This is a wonderful opportunity for service to your children within the school day. We do want to remind parents that for children under the age of 18, the cost of an annual eye examination with an Optometrist in the community is cov-ered by the Ministry of Health with your health card. Hearing examinations for children birth to six years old are covered through the provincial Infant Hearing Program. For parents who wish to have their child’s vision and/or hearing checked, our clinic day has been scheduled for Wednesday, October 9, 2013. A minimum of 25 students is required in order to run the clinic.

Food allergies are common amongst adults and more so among children. Eight percent of children suffer from some type of food allergy where the immune system makes a mistake and thinks a certain food protein is danger-ous and attacks it. Well known food allergies include unwanted reactions to gluten, seafood and peanuts.

It might only take you a few minutes to finish a meal but it takes your body around 12 hours before it has complete-ly digested the food.

The human body needs iron to help perform a number of important func-tions. Iron helps carry oxygen to parts of your body in the form of hemoglobin. Not having enough can lead to a iron deficiency and symptoms such as weak-ness and fatigue. Foods rich in iron in-clude red meat, fish, chickpeas, tofu, beans and lentils.

The Cross Country season is here and this year Donview’s team will be coached by Ms. Dorey, and assisted by Ms. Maloney, Ms. Meszesan, Ms. McKean and Ms. Guin-ane. Our first meet will be held October 10, 2013 at Earl Bales Park, and City Finals will be held October 24 at Centennial Park in Etobicoke. All are welcome.

DONVIEW’S SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING

Wednesday, October 8, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. in the Staff Room Please come out to our inaugural meeting. We will discuss our new status as a Health and Wellness Academy, look at our year plans and ask for volunteers to take a leadership position.

Our children enjoy a healthy morning snack Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays. In addition, breakfast op-tions are available every day for under $1.00. We will be sending home a letter at regular intervals asking for contri-butions from parents to support our snack program. The suggested donation is $2.50 per month per student or $25.00 for the year. Any support you can offer would be very helpful.

Please make cheque payable to “The Student Success Foundation”.

PLANTS FOR CLEANER AIR One of our goals for our physical pillar is to grow and place an “air cleaning’ spider or ivy plant in each classroom. The classes have each elected two environmental representatives who will be responsible for recycling and for plant watering and feeding.

If you have spider plants that are having “babies” please bring them to the school we will be happy to raise them for you.

A TOONIE FOR TERRY—TERRY FOX RUN/WALK The school Terry Fox Run/Walk will be taking place on Friday, September 27th at 1:30 p.m. Our goal has always been a “Toonie for Terry”.

Terry believed that if every person in Canada gave a small amount that we would be on our way to discovering a cure for this disease which has affected someone in everyone’s life. This year our students will be offered an opportunity to run or walk for someone they know who has been touched by cancer. Classes will be collecting funds throughout the week of September 23th to September 27th.

STUDENT AGENDAS All students in grades 6-8 require a student agenda to help them remember special days, record their homework and provide communication to their parents.

The agenda is an important tool to help children develop routines and return organized to school the next day. Teachers will be using the agenda each morning after the announcements, through the day to record homework and before dismissal at the end of the day. Parents are asked to check the agenda each evening and initial that day’s entry. Working together with you, we will teach some valuable organi-zational skills your child will use for a lifetime. Agenda’s are available for $5. Thank you for supporting this worthwhile initiative.

GUIDANCE HOURS

Ms. Bradbury will be at Donview on:

Monday & Wednesday (all day)

Every other Friday

7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEENS Once Again, Sean saved the day!!! Sean Covey has followed the steps of his father Stephen Covey to influence us teenagers to be-come better people. Sean Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens" has caught the attention of our fellow teachers and from there the book has fallen into our hands. Sean Covey was once a teenager just like us. He went through all the complicated obstacles but never really had the opportunity to use the 7 habits he discovered in his adult years. Most of you know what they are but just in case you don’t here they are: Habit #1, Be Proactive, Habit #2, Begin with end in mind, Habit #3, Put first things first, Habit #4, Think Win-Win, Habit #5, Seek first to understand, then to be understood, Habit #6, Synergize and last but not least Habit #7, Sharpen the Saw. These habits can really be very helpful and totally change your life. You might be asking yourself questions about the book like what in the world does "sharpen your saw" mean?, What does this quote have to do with anything? Well, read the book to find out. Trust me, it's an awesome book. We have read it and we are very reliable. Rubaina & Kandy 66

SETTLEMENT SERVICES AT DONVIEW

Our settlement worker, Natalie Perini, is part of the Settlement and Education Partnerships in Toronto (S.E.P.T), a school based outreach program that helps newcomer students and their families settle in their school and community.

Settlement services include, but are not limited to:

Settlement information for newcomer families

Information on the referrals to community resources

Interpretation and translation

Orientation sessions and assistance on topics such as citizenship and immigration, community service, child care, employ-ment, labour, English classes (ESL/LINC), education, housing taxation, transportation, health, legal aid, welfare and bene-fits, parenting, recreation, trades and professions.

Services are provided in the following languages: Arabic, Cantonese, Dari, Farsi, Hindi, Korean, Kurdish, Mandarin, Rus-sian, Sindhi, Spanish, Tamil, Ukrainian, Urdu.

For an appointment please call Natalie Perini at (647) 999-6320

Come learn more at our workshop: "Learn About the School System and Settlement Services”

Tuesday, September 30th from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Donview Middle Health & Wellness Academy