April Update

 

In April the Gatestone Co-ed Pickleball team competed in their first ever tournament at Wentworth Sports Centre. It was a great day with one of the teams making it to the quarterfinals! The Junior Girls and Junior Boys Basketball teams wrapped up their regular seasons with the girls finishing second, and the boys finishing first with an undefeated record. Both teams were successful in their first round play-off games and are moving on to the quarterfinals. Dance Club continues with a Line Dancing class. The Junior and Senior Co-ed Flag Football teams were selected and continued practicing for their tournaments in May. Our student athletes are also looking forward to the upcoming Junior and Senior Co-ed Soccer tournaments and Junior and Senior Track & Field competition.  

At Gatestone we continue to acknowledge important recognitions and also continue to build a school environment where identity, belonging, and excellence are uplifted every day. During April, we recognized World Autism Day and International Day of Pink. Recognizing these days supported our learning around Human Rights and how our school and community can support the rights of all people.

 

We also welcomed families into Gatestone for Spring Open House. We enjoyed visiting with families and allowing the opportunity to see some of the great work that your children are engaged in everyday. We also appreciate the support for our library (book fair sales), our school enhancements (TCBY sales), and our grade 8 commencement (ice cream cookie sales). We hope that you were able to get out to the back playground to see the new lines that we had painted. We were able to repaint four 4-Square Courts and our Basketball Court. We also added a new Hundreds Chart!

 

Thank-you to those families who were able to support the School Council Satellite Gardens fundraiser. We can’t wait for the warmer weather to work on our gardens!

 

As a school, we also continued our focus on our Words that Build project. We continue to support students in understanding the importance of upholding each other’s Human Rights and the impact of the words we use. Positive and encouraging words can build us up, support us, and strengthen our community. We appreciate your continued support at home to reinforce these important messages. The way we speak shapes the rights we protect - Speak It. Build It. Live It. Our morning announcers from Mrs. Abdin’s class continue to share our Word of the Week and how we can bring it to life each week. At our monthly assemblies, we are also recognizing our Words that Build. Looking ahead to May we will be focusing on: courage, resilience, gratitude, and togetherness.

 

Our Gryphon Growth Awards Assembly at the end of April recognized some of the students who showed integrity this month. We welcomed families to attend this assembly to recognize the certificate recipients. Our May focus will be creativity. We appreciate our student leaders who support keeping our focus on our monthly traits through reminders on the morning announcements.

 

Our Band represented Gatestone well at Bandfest at Sherwood Secondary School. It was an opportunity to play for other schools and an adjudicator. The adjudicator also offered feedback to the band as to next steps to continue to enhance their performances. The band showed good team spirit when they played as well as when supporting the performances of the other schools. We also participated in the HWDSB Student Summit at the Education Centre this month where our student representatives learned about how we can support our own mental health and the mental health of others. They brought back some excellent ideas to share during Mental Health Awareness Week in May.  To make excursions possible, we do require a certain ratio of adults to students so we need volunteers who are able to support supervision on excursions. Parents/Guardians are encouraged to get a Vulnerable Sector Screening through Hamilton Police Service. This screening is required to be able to volunteer on excursions. Once you have a Vulnerable Sector Screening, please bring it into the office.

 

With the Ministry of Education approving Bill 33 there are some changes to our volunteer requirements starting immediately. We are now required to have a hard copy of your Vulnerable Sector Check on file. If you have previously showed the office and filled out the volunteer paperwork you must bring a copy of the Vulnerable Sector Check to the office. It is good for 5 years from the date of the check.

 

We hosted the HWDSB Speaks @Gatestone competition for our students in April. This year the theme was “Stories that Shape Us.” The finalist will be moving on to the HWDSB Speaks competition at the Education Centre in May. All the best!

 

During May, our grade 3 and grade 6 students will be participating in the Education Quality and Accountability Office’s (EQAO’s) Assessment of Reading, Writing and Mathematics. In a total of 4 hours over 2 days, students will complete a variety of assessment activities designed to allow them to demonstrate their skills and knowledge relating to reading, writing and mathematics as described in The Ontario Curriculum. Parents/Guardians of Grade 3s and Grade 6s should reach out to their child’s teacher if they have any questions.

 

Our Gryphons are excited that we’re continuing with our special food days: Pita Pit Days (Tuesdays), Kernels Popcorn Days (Wednesdays) and Pizza Days (Thursday), TCBY Days (Fridays, 1x/monthly), and Terra Cotta Cookies (other Fridays). The funds raised through the sale of these special lunches support the school in terms of experiential subsidies for students, school/classroom accessories and enhancements, nutrition program supplies, and technology.

 

At Gatestone, we recognize that food insecurity is a growing concern for many of our families. As we shared previously, we were able to secure a grant through the Heritage Green Community Trust to support our nutrition program snack cart for students 2-3 days/week. We offer those students who need additional food to supplement their lunch a snack (e.g., cereal/granola bar, cheese string) and/or piece of fruit (e.g., apple, banana, clementine). We are also excited to share that we’d been able to secure additional funding through Tastebuds! If you’re interested in making donations to our nutrition program, items that are pre-packaged and nut-free can be dropped off at the office. Thank-you to those families who are able to donate to support.

 

~ Ms. Varghese & Ms. Wilson