Registration is OPEN for students wanting to take ONLINE courses in September from Connected Learning Community (CLC), the online school for SD42.

ALL of these courses are taught online from teachers at THSS:

• BIOLOGY 11-12

• COMMUNICATIONS 11-12

• ENGLISH 10-12

• GUIDED INQUIRY 10-12 (teacher: Kristi Lauridsen)

• MATH 10-12 

• PHYS. ED. 10 

• PLANNING 10 (ONLY 30 SPOTS REMAINING!)

• PSYCHOLOGY 11-12

• SCIENCE 10

• SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 11 (a project-based course for students needing Science 11 credit)

• SECONDARY SCHOOL APPRENTICESHIP (teacher: Brad Dingler)

• WORK EXPERIENCE 12A & B

To register, have student complete this online form: http://clc.sd42.ca/registration-form/

Make sure to mark your calendar with these upcoming dates:

May 13 – PAC Meeting at 6:30pm
May 15 - Spring Music Concert @ 7:00pm in the Multipurpose Room. Come out and enjoy an evening of music performed by students enrolled in the Music Program at Pitt Meadows Secondary School.  Tickets at the door:  $5.00/family $3.00/person.
May 20 – Victoria Day Holiday
May 21 – Professional Development Day (no classes for students)
May 24 – Grad Dinner & Dance @ Meadow Gardens followed by Dry Grad at PMSS
May 29 – Grade 7 Day (no classes for current grade 8 students)
May 31 – Late Start (first class begins at 9:55am)

“How do you feel about the school culture here at PMSS?  Take some time to fill out this short survey and let us know.”

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDhjYTRJWlVzX1JDNGxabEJCNWMySWc6MQ

On Monday an email was sent out with the newsletter advising of the Late Start Friday to allow for teacher collaboration time.  This once per month late start is to allow teachers time to collaborate to review practice, to implement new assessment strategies and to learn new instructional strategies, such as guided inquiry and challenge-based learning. 

The late start Friday dates are:

• January 18
• February 22
• April 12
• May 31

On these dates school will be open as usual  so there will be no changes to students who use the bus service. The cafeteria and library will both be open at 8:30am for student use. Special education assistants and some teachers will be available to support students should they need assistance with school work.

Here is the altered block times for these late start Fridays:
8:30 – 9:40     teacher collaboration time
9:45                 warning bell
9:50 – 10:50   Period 1
10:55 – 11:55 Period 2
11:55 – 12:30 lunch
12:30               warning bell
12:35 – 1:35   Period 3
1:40 – 2:40     Period 4

Should you have any further questions, do not hesitate to contact the school.

Be yourself – Demonstrate your natural concern calmly and in your own words.

Be available – Spend time with your child. Attempt to distract your child by reading, walking, going to a movie, etc.

Listen – Let your child express his/her thoughts, concerns, feelings, and perceptions in a nonjudgmental, emotionally safe environment.

Explain – Talk about what you know in short, ruthful statements. Don’t be afraid to admit that you do not have all the answers.

Do not  speculate.

Develop resiliency – Your child will look to you for reassurance. Do not convey your own feelings of hopelessness, but rather let your child know that they will get through this difficult period.

Provide comfort – Physical and verbal comforts are great healers.

Attend to physical manifestations of trauma -  Children will often complain of headaches, stomach aches, backaches, etc. Monitor physical symptoms such as loss of appetite, anxiety, sleep disturbance, etc. and determine whether medical intervention is required.

Maintain regular routines – As much as possible, attempt to provide normalcy to your child. Humans are creatures of habit and derive comfort from regular routines.

Monitor media exposure – Do not overexpose your child to media reports (especially preschool and elementary age children).

Seek additional support – When appropriate, your child should be directed to community support agencies.

Every child deserves an education free from discrimination, bullying, harassment, intimidation and violence. The ERASE (Expect Respect and A Safe Education) Bullying strategy is part of the Province of British Columbia’s efforts to personalize learning and supports for all students. 

ERASE Bullying builds on the Province’s Safe, Caring and Orderly Schools Strategy (2004), which focussed on creating schools where students are free from harm, where clear expectations of acceptable behaviour are held for all members of the school community, and where there is a sense of connectedness. ERASE Bullying will help ensure every child feels safe, accepted and respected, regardless of their gender, race, culture, religion or sexual orientation.

ERASE Bullying also builds on effective programs already in place and will ensure there are consistent policies and practices across all 60 school districts, backed by strong community partnerships and support.  To view this website CLICK HERE. 

If you or your student have concerns regarding any bullying issues, please contact the school administration to discuss.

As reported PMSS went into a lockdown Thursday at approx. 11:40 a.m..     The RCMP advised administration to go into lockdown because they were assessing a possible threat in the area.   The lockdown was for cautionary reasons only.    Our students and staff were excellent and cleared the hallways in minutes.   It was a bit more complicated than we normally practice in that the lockdown was initiated during a lunch period so students were not  in classrooms.   RCMP advised us that we were the first school in SD 42 to have an incident during lunch and that we did very well.  Again, our staff and students responded very well.

1. We are debriefing the incident and reviewing lockdown procedures with students today but  I thought it might help to review the Lockdown Procedures for our parents as well.  Here are a few things that will help you understand what we do when we go into a lockdown.  We practice Lockdown with at least 2 drills per year and 1 drill as a surprise visit from the RCMP.   They drop in and tell us to go into lockdown without notice.  The other drills are staged and everyone knows we are in a drill.
2. On that note we are required to hold 6 Emergency Evactuaion Drills per year but lockdown drills are not part of that requirement (6 Emergency Evacuation Drills, 2 Earthquake Drills and 3 Lockdown Drills per year).
3. Any staff member can initiate a lockdown.   If that happens and RCMP are not on the scene we have a very strict protocol to get everyone out of the hallways and into a locked room.  Staff are trained NOT TO OPEN the door for any reason.   Admin will have to make an all clear announcement first.
4. In this case RCMP initiated the Lockdown so they were on site.   This still means that all students are out of the hallways and staff are NOT ALLOWED TO OPEN the door.  But in this case administrators walked the hallways to let students into safe areas.
5. Each administrator has specific duties.  Calls are made to 911 and to the district who then notifies our feeder schools, plus we lock outside doors as possible given time.
6. Students in classrooms are to remain quiet, lights must be out and no one should be phoning out.
7. No matter how often we practice this, there are always people and students who come to the school late and do not know the school is in lockdown.   if RCMP are on site they will be stopped but in our practice drills we often find people in the hallway who do not know what to do.    And there is no easy answer to his but the best advice is to just leave the school.   In theory all staff have been informed to not open the door for any reason.   In fact, RCMP will attempt to get someone to open a door during  a drill (without identifying themselves as such).   If that happens we “fail” the drill.

I know that Thursday’s lockdown was a stressful event for many of our students.    Staff have been asked to debrief the lockdown with their students and if necessary to identify students who may need a counsellor to touch base with them.  Finally, in many cases it is hard to get information out to the public in a timely manner but we were able to get info to our webpage that we were in lockdown.   It is a good idea to get an RSS feed from our page.   Also with our new autodialer system, we can send messages to the everyone in about 20 minutes.  This is significantly less that the 6 hours it used to take.   Hopefully you received a call from us.  If not please take a moment to send us your updated information.

We are always open to feedback so feel free to let us know how it was from your end.   Just one further comment.   The RCMP provide the protocol, and the training.  While we do have input, it is their experience that we rely on.

Thanks

Mr. Dickson

Principal.

Community Support Resource Guide for Parents 2012

Open Education Resources

All blocks are 80 minutes in length with 5 minutes between classes.  The morning warning bell will ring at 8:25am with classes beginning at 8:30am.  School will dismiss at 2:40pm daily.  Attached for your reference is a copy of the timetable.   Timetable