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JANUARY’S CHARACTER ATTRIBUTE:
With December being Kindness and Caring
month, our students participated in various
activities that demonstrated this character
attribute including posting positive messages
on lockers for students to find at the end of
the day, to bringing in toiletries for our
Shoebox Drive and participating in a lunch
hour Write for Rights.
There were many other special activities in
which our students were involved in
December and some are highlighted below
and more will be shared in our student
written newsletter coming out in the next
month.
Our grade 8 students had an exciting day at
the beginning of the month at a Raptors 905
game. We received compliments on the
maturity and consideration demonstrated by
our students on public transit.
Our students continue to develop their skills
in technology. We had a great turn-out to
our Hour of Code sessions and our Lego
Spartans were up early on a Saturday
morning for the TDSB First Lego League
qualifying event.
Message from the Principal and Vice-Principal
Upcoming Events
January 2020
6 Back to School and a Day 1, Pizza Lunch forms go out
7 MADD Canada presentation
for grade 7 and 8 students 10 Pizza Lunch payment due 14 Social Media awareness
presentation for grade 6 students
15 School Council Meeting 17 PA Day 27 TDSB Grade 6 Class
Webcast – Hana’s Suitcase 28 Recognition Assemblies
Safe Arrival
If your child will be absent
or late, please call:
416-395-3951.
Kindly leave a message
with your child’s full name,
homeroom number and
reason for absence.
You may also contact
SchoolMessenger
(automated call-out system)
directly at 1-833-250-2290
between 7:00 a.m. and 3:00
p.m. for the current day or a
future date.
MVMS Newsletter January, 2020
Milne Valley Middle School Principal: L. Moore Vice Principal: C. Harvey Kerr Superintendent: I. Allison Trustee: T. Doyle
100 Underhill Drive, Toronto, ON M3A 2J9 416.395.2700
[email protected] http://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/milnevalley Twitter @MilneMS
Our grade 8 band performed for our recognition
assemblies and two of our grade 8 classes
participated in STEM activities with students at
Cassandra Public School.
We look forward to more opportunities for students
to enrich their learning outside of the school day. If
there are any clubs or teams they don’t find but are
interested in, we ask them to please let their teacher
know. We also welcome participating from any
parents or guardians who would like to support any
of our teams, clubs or activities.
TEAMWORK Your child is involved in learning activities designed
to develop good character and help children make
good choices. Our focus this month will be on
TEAMWORK.
What does teamwork mean to you?
Your child can show teamwork by:
• helping to complete a household chore with other
members of the family
• working with peers in a group to complete school
assignments
• participating in a sport and working as part of a
team to be successful
• taking responsibility in household chores for the
benefit of the family
Questions to discuss with your child:
• What does it mean to be a team player at home and
to be an integral part of the family?
• How do you deal appropriately with conflict when it
occurs during teamwork?
• What are some of the ways to resolve some of the
arguments that occur at home?
• Sometimes a teammate may have to make a
sacrifice so that the team can succeed. What does this
mean?
Milne Valley Middle School Principal: L. Moore Vice Principal: C. Harvey Kerr Superintendent: I. Allison Trustee: T. Doyle
100 Underhill Drive, Toronto, ON M3A 2J9 416.395.2700
[email protected] http://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/milnevalley Twitter @MilneMS
Projects to do together:
• Play games as a family to develop teamwork and
good sportsmanship.
• Participate in sports or leisure activities together
and encourage communication including active
listening.
Encouraging teamwork in your child:
• Stress the importance of teamwork and the aspects
of being a team player that make being on a team
worthwhile.
• Stress the importance of being willing to work and
play with others at school, in the home, and in the
community.
• Share a story that will help your child understand
that sometimes “fair” does not mean “equal.”
Thank you for supporting our Character
Development program.
SAFETY PATROLLERS Our Safety Patrollers will be starting their training on
the morning of Tuesday, January 7, in the bus loop to
assist students with crossing driveways safely and
with our morning drop-off to greet students and keep
the traffic flowing. We would ask that when you are
dropping students off that you pull all the way
forward in the loop and have students exit your
vehicle from the passenger side ONLY. Safety
Patrollers will assist with opening and closing doors
to keep the flow of traffic moving. As our program
grows, we will be looking to close access to our
parking lot for drop off.
STUDENT MID-MORNING SNACK CONSULTATION As you know, our school participates in a Student
Nutrition Program. We apply for funding for our
program from the Toronto Foundation for Student
Success, the City of Toronto Student Nutrition
Program grants, consideration for provincial grants,
as well as contributions from our school community.
We are looking to make this program more accessible
to all students in our school.
Our Student Leadership Council has lead discussions
in classrooms around our current snack program and
students have noted that while they would be happy
with the program to continue at the current time, they
recognize that it is challenging for students who do
not have breakfast to wait until 10:00 a.m. to have
only a snack and more so for students who have not
contributed to the program financially to not be
accessing the food at all. We are looking for
feedback from parents and guardians on some
proposed changes including a change of timing to
make the snack available earlier in the morning, and
possibly prior to the start of the school day in the
cafeteria, as well as moving to a breakfast program
for September, 2020. Further details will be shared at
our upcoming School Council Meeting on
Wednesday, January 15, at 6:30 p.m. and then
communicated to our families.
MADD CANADA PRESENTATION FOR GRADE 7 AND 8 STUDENTS We will be hosting a MADD Canada presentation of
“Over The Edge” on Tuesday, January 7. On
average, every day in Canada up to 4 people are
killed and over 100 are seriously injured as a result of
crashes involving alcohol and/or drugs. Impaired
driving is the number 1 criminal cause of death in
Canada. The devastating impact on victims/survivors
and their families is immeasurable. In an instant, their
lives are changed forever.
It’s never too early to teach our youth about the
dangers of impaired driving and getting in a vehicle
with an impaired driver. Traffic crashes remain by far
the largest single cause of death among 16-25 year
olds. Amongst the age group, more than half of those
motor vehicle fatalities are alcohol and/or drug-
related. While young people are significantly
overrepresented in alcohol-related deaths as drivers,
they are overrepresented to an even greater extent as
passengers. The problem of impaired driving among
youth in Canada is very real.
You may not have been aware that Canadians
between the ages of 14 and 25 have one of the
highest rates of cannabis use in the world. Therefore,
Milne Valley Middle School Principal: L. Moore Vice Principal: C. Harvey Kerr Superintendent: I. Allison Trustee: T. Doyle
100 Underhill Drive, Toronto, ON M3A 2J9 416.395.2700
[email protected] http://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/milnevalley Twitter @MilneMS
the combination of drugs and driving is also a major
concern for our young people.
The film being shown this year is called Over the
Edge and it opens with a fictional story that illustrates
the tragic consequences of driving while impaired by
alcohol and/or drugs. Throughout the film, students
are shown times when this tragedy could have been
prevented by making different choices. The second
half of the movie contains real testimonials from
victims/survivors of impaired driving. These are very
emotional and powerful.
So why is it important for students in grades 7 & 8 to
view Over the Edge? Although your child isn’t
driving yet, he or she will soon be thinking about the
future possibility of driving. They may already find
themselves in situations where alcohol and drugs are
present. As well, they may have opportunities to ride
with an inexperienced teen driver. As they learn to be
more independent, they need to know the facts and be
ready to avoid dangerous situations involving
impaired driving.
Did you know that the 2015 Ontario Student Drug
Use and Health Survey published by the Centre for
Addiction and Mental Health indicates that 15.5% of
grade 8 students drank alcohol within the last year?
Those percentages represent thousands of young
people. So before students even reach high school
and begin to drive, many are already exposed to or
participating in risky behaviors that could lead to
impaired driving, among other harmful
consequences, in later years. Delivered through
Canadian schools since 1994, MADD Canada’s
School Assembly Program presents students with
solid information and best practices to help them
understand the issue of impaired driving from alcohol
and drugs. The hi-tech presentation has proved to be
an effective method to raise awareness and for
providing safety strategies.
Over the Edge has an enormous impact on Canadian
students and will influence their own decision-
making for years to come. We hope that after your
child sees this presentation that you will be able to
have a family discussion about what they have
learned. By educating our future generation about
impaired driving, lives will be saved and injuries
prevented. Impaired driving is a totally senseless
crime and is 100% preventable.
If you would like to view a preview of Over the
Edge, it can be found here:
https://madd.ca/pages/programs/youth-
services/school-programs
For additional information and resources for parents
go to:
http://madd.ca/pages/programs/youth-
services/information-for-parents/
TDSB RECOGNIZES TAMIL HERITAGE MONTH IN JANUARY The TDSB is celebrating Tamil Heritage Month in
January 2020 with the theme of "Vision 2020:
Yengal Kathaigal – Our Stories”. In October 2016,
the House of Commons voted unanimously to
recognize every January as Tamil Heritage Month.
This month was chosen as it coincides with one of
the most important celebrations for Canadians of
Tamil heritage, the Thai Pongal Harvest Festival.
Millions of Tamil people around the world,
irrespective of their religion, celebrate Thai Pongal,
and offer thanks for an abundant harvest. TDSB
proudly marked Tamil Heritage Month for the first
time in 2016.
As Toronto has the largest Tamil populations outside
of the South Asian subcontinent, this committee aims
to ensure that the objectives of TDSB's January's
Tamil Heritage month are reflected in the curriculum
and learning objectives for students. To explore these
themes, the planning committee will be inviting
students to learn about the rich culture of the Tamil
heritage and how their own respective ancestry can
be used to shape their future through essays, original
artwork and public speaking contests. The poster for
the month was open to students to submit their work
and we are very proud of Milne Valley Middle
School Grade 8 student Khaviyaa. Her poster was
selected by the committee as the winning entry and
she was recognized for this at the Tamil Heritage
Launch at Woburn Jr. P.S. by TDSB Director John
Malloy, Chair of the Board, Robin Pilkey, and
System Superintendent Uton Robinson – pictured
below, on December 16.
Milne Valley Middle School Principal: L. Moore Vice Principal: C. Harvey Kerr Superintendent: I. Allison Trustee: T. Doyle
100 Underhill Drive, Toronto, ON M3A 2J9 416.395.2700
[email protected] http://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/milnevalley Twitter @MilneMS
The poster will be shared with all schools in TDSB
this month – pictured at bottom left.
MILNE MAKERSPACE MATERIALS NEEDED We are hoping you would be able to help support
our Science and Technology teams. We are
looking for spare parts and beautiful junk. The
grade 6, 7 and 8 students are constantly using a
variety of recycled/reclaimed materials to create
and build different projects.
All reusable materials will be accepted
including:
- buttons
- nails/screws
- spools of thread
- containers
- canisters
- paper (GOOD paper, scrap, computer
paper, wrapping paper, books, magazines
etc.)
- cardboard (egg cartons, boxes, paper
towel rolls and other paper tubes etc.)
- ribbons/ties
- wool/felt/fabric
- scrap material (metal, plastic, wood)
- plastic flowers
- carpet
- tins
- old toys (used Lego, K’nex, other build
toys)
- old computers and electronics
- wires, strings, ropes
- styrofoam trays, etc.
We highly appreciate any materials you can
share. Please have your child deliver anything
you can spare to Mr. Vaisman. It will all be used
for the benefit of the students.