It’s hard to believe we’re

approaching the end of this

school year. Time surely

flies when you’re having

fun! We are so fortunate to

have such active and dedi-

cated parents, guardians,

volunteers and parish mem-

bers who make a difference

in the life of the school and

the lives of our children.

It’s been an honour to work

with such a hard working,

competent and compas-

sionate staff. We accom-

plished much as a unified

team. Our Lady of Sor-

rows students are one of a

kind! They are gifts we all

treasure. The greatest les-

sons I learned were the

lessons your children

taught me. We congratulate

all grade 7 graduates and

students

who will

be mov-

ing on to

new

schools for their successes

here at Our Lady of Sor-

rows School and wish them

all the best in their future

endeavours. Best wishes

for a blessed and restful

summer!

Thank You!

Bus Transportation & Walk Policy

Special points of interest:

Congratulations to Stacey Munch who has been

appointed as supervisor at Lil’ Troopers South Day-

care and to Mireille Mainville who is the new super-

visor for our school’s Before and After School Pro-

gram.

Each year we have staff that move on. This is always

bitter sweet. Thank you to Madame Orianne, Mrs.

Jamieson, Miss Stunt, Miss Finner, Mrs. Calver and

Mrs. Herrick! We wish them all the best in their

future endeavours.

Transportation 2

Before and After School Program/Extended French 3

Tournaments 3

Graduations 3

Parish News 5

School Council 5 & 6

Prayer 7

Inside this issue:

Ou

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f S

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JU

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2

01

6

NE

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Principal: Christina Brown

VP: Karen Keels

This is what Yahweh asks of you: only this, to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

Transportation for September 2016

The RCJTC endeavours to communicate transpor-

tation information to all current RCCDSB students

by the end of June. In order for this to be success-

ful, the transportation consortium requires accurate

and up to date information. A Student Transporta-

tion Request Form has to be completed for:

Every student who has an address change (home, joint custody, sitter etc.)

Every student whose transportation needs will change (for example: currently a student

who only uses the bus in the morning, however in September they will need to use the bus

in both the morning and afternoon).

This form provides information to assess transportation eligibility as well as confirm any stu-

dents that do not require transportation. It can be found on the transportation website at

www.onthebus.ca under the “I’d Like To” heading.

Letters have just recently been sent to some families for those whose address falls outside the

school’s attendance boundary/zone. It is important that route details will change as new enrol-

ments are accommodated over the summer. Therefore, it is important that you login to

www.onthe bus.ca after August 22nd to ensure your have the correct details for the first day of

school via the parent portal.

RCJTC Walk Policy

Each year there are questions around how far a child may be required to walk to either get to a bus stop or get to the school. The criteria is:

Where roads are municipally assumed & maintained, passable and where cul-de-sacs (of adequate size to safely accommodate a vehicle

turnaround) are accessible, transportation may be provided for pupils residing more than:

To/From School To/From Stop

Junior Kindergarten and Senior Kindergarten 0.5 km (0.3 mile) 0.5 km (0.3 mile)

Grade 1 to 6 1.6 km (1 mile) 1.6 km (1 mile)

Grade 7 to 12 (rural) 1.6 km (1 mile) 1.6 km (1 mile)

Grade 7 to 12 (urban/developed)* 2.5 km (1.55 mile) 2.5 km (1.55 mile)

*usually posted 60 km/hour or less All pick up and drop off stops will be established by the RCJTC.

Please note, when schools and or parents (any stakeholder) visits the website to search for eligibility for transportation (Am I Eligible for

Transportation?) the information generated will be based on the most current information with the hazards applied.

Courtesy and Cross Boundary Seats

Additionally, if you were granted a courtesy seat this year you will have to reapply next year (e.g. older sibling is not eligible but the

younger sibling is eligible). Further, if you were granted a cross boundary seat this year you will have to reapply and transportation will

not be set up until October to allow those eligible to have a seat and IF approved you will be required to get to the closest in zone stop.

Please note: from the above requests (courtesy or cross boundary) those that are eligible are assigned a seat first and those that do not quali-

fy are only assigned if there is seating available.

RCJTC Summer Hours

RCJTC is open all year long including the summer months, Monday to Friday (excluding statutory holidays).

September to June (regular school year)

By e-mail or phone from 6:30 am to 5:30 pm Monday to Friday

In person from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday to Friday, excluding holidays

June to August (summer break)

By e-mail or phone from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday to Friday

In person from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday to Friday, excluding holidays

The Renfrew County Joint Transportation Consortium (RCJTC) is responsible for providing transportation service to over 1, 000 Renfrew

County students in 53 different schools for both the Renfrew County Catholic District School Board and the Renfrew County District

School Board. Four routers are responsible for creating bus routes, setting up bussing and making changes to bussing for these students.

They work closely with the various by Operators in each area to ensure safe, efficient effective transportation to and from school.

As safety of students is a priority, it takes time, and occasionally a physical review of a designated stop to process transportation requests,

especially from mid-August to mid-October when there is a high volume of requests which result in delays in responding to individual re-

quests.

What can you do to help?

Please log into the “Parent Portal” by visiting our website (www.onthebus.ca) after August 22nd to confirm the 2016-

2017 school year or at any time throughout the regular school year to confirm your child’s bus information.

If you haven’t yet subscribed to receive e-mail notifications for cancellations and delays or timing or bus # changes we

encourage you to do so by visiting the website and signing up any time.

Over the course of the summer and throughout the school year, if you need to make a change to your child’s addressing

or transportation details (your home, your sitter, custody change etc.) please visit our website at www.onthebus.ca or

contact your child’s school or the RCCDSB board office at 613-735-1031.

If you know of someone who has just moved into the area over the summer months have them contact us as soon as

possible by filling in the Student Transportation Request form and then e-mail us (trans@onthebus.ca) the form.

Before and After School Program

Open to Civilian and Military Families

Our school hosts a school based program that is open to civilian and military families. It is operated by the Petawawa Military Family

Resource Centre, a non-profit organization. The program is licensed under the Days Nurseries Act of Ontario. The school based pro-

gram is to provide a quality education environment for Junior and Senior kindergarten and Before and After school children within our

community.

The school based program will strive to maintain an educational environment where each child will feel cared for, respected, safe and

secure. This environment will nurture the development of each individual child through planned program activities with the children’s

physical , cognitive, social and emotional development in mind.

BEFORE AND AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM

Our Lady of Sorrows

Monday to Friday 6:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and 3:10 to 5:00 p.m.

19 Mohns Avenue, Petawawa

PROGRAM FEES

Extended Day JK/SK—$29 /day

Before and After School

Program—$25/day

Rates may vary (families may apply for grants to help support)

For more information, contact PMFRC at 613-639-3326 or basprogram@pmfrc.org. Please feel free to come in and visit the classroom.

Extended French

This past year we offered our kindergarten and grade one students an extended French program. Each day, these students received 80

minutes of French instruction. Forty minutes was organized as our regular core French program and was taught by our French as a

Second Language Teachers. The additional forty minutes of French instruction was integrated throughout the day and It has been

highly successful due to the efforts of our teachers. Thus, we will continue with the program next year and extend it to grade two.

A big congratulations goes out to our school’s soccer team

who participated in a tournament at BSCH last week. They

came in third overall. This is fantastic! We are so proud of

your efforts. Thank you very much to our coaches Mrs.

Townsend and Miss Stunt.

Grade 7 students travelled to Bishop

Smith Catholic High School to partici-

pate in the “Amazing Race” along with

grade 7 students from other elementary

feeder schools. They had a fabulous

day as future “Crusaders”!

Soccer Tournament

Bishop Smith Catholic High School

OU R LA DY OF S OR ROWS

Track and Field Upcoming Date:

Wednesday, June 8th

Thank you to our coach Mrs. McGillis!

Softball Tournament

Upcoming Date:

Thursday, June 9th and the rain date is

Monday, June 13th

Thank you to our coaches Mrs. List and

Mrs. Galway!

Bishop Smith Catholic High School in

Pembroke has invited our grade 5 to 7

classes to attend their dress rehearsal of

their musical production, “Alice in Won-

derland”, on Wednesday, June 8th. They

are so looking forward to this production!

Kdg. and Gr. 7 Graduation Dates

Kindergarten Graduation is scheduled for Monday, June 20, 2016 at 1:00 p.m.

Grade 7 Graduation is scheduled for Wednesday, June 22, 2016 at 1:30 p.m.

Student Placements/Combined Grades

A high priority for us is creating class groupings which are balanced as possible. We work together as a team to do the best job we

can. Some of the factors that are taken into consideration when making these decisions are:

The range of student abilities and learning styles, the total number of students in each class, a balance of male and female

students, special needs considerations, program requirements and social considerations

Please note, final decisions for placement must remain in the school. Students will learn which classes they will be placed in on the

first day of school.

Combined or split grades are a reality today with declining enrolment and class size stipulations. All classrooms, whether they are

single grade or combined, include students performing at different levels. Several studies have found that students in combined

grades do just as well as those in single grades and in some cases, do better in language. Teachers always work with the whole

class, small groups and individual students. In combined grades, they will also benefit from a broader support structure.

Teachers may use a number of different strategies to teach students in combined grades including the introduction of a common

topic, task or problem, dividing students into flexible groups that are made up of students with varied skills and interests and bring-

ing students together for subjects such as physical education and the arts. Students, regardless of the task, will always be assessed

according to their grade level. The only exception to this is if a child has a formal individual education plan.

Parish News

OUR LADY OF SORROWS CATHOLIC PARISH—Father Steven Ballard

Knights of Columbus

Thank you once again to the Knights of Columbus members for offering to BBQ for us for our Special

Olympics event. We are so appreciate of their time and commitment to our school.

Vacation Bible School 2016

Our Lady of Sorrows church is hosting a Vacation Bible School this summer. It will run from Monday, July

4th to Friday, July 8th from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. This is for kindergarten to grade 3 students. Registra-

tion is limited to 20 children. Once registration forms are complete, they can be dropped off a the Parish

Office in the collection basket at Mass. Anyone requiring another registration form can contact our office

and we will be glad to send one home to you.

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI CATHOLIC PARISH - Father Titus Ndala

We have always had military and civilian families attend Our Lady of Sorrows Parish. Due to the reestab-

lishment of school boundaries last spring, we recognize a number of military families attend mass at Garri-

son Petawawa as well. Thus, we endeavor to work with both parishes and are open to providing communi-

cation from both.

Sacrament of First Holy Communion

Congratulations to students who received their First Holy Communion at St. Francis in mid-May!

School Council 2015-2016

Volunteers make a world of difference! We are so blessed to have such caring and supportive school council members and other

parent volunteers that work very hard to meet needs of the school. I would like to acknowledge our executive including Kate

Shaw (chair), Jennifer Schori (co-chair) Laurie Stepaniuk (treasurer) and Jamie Clouthier (secretary) for all their hard work.

School Council has focused on a number of initiatives including community building, student achievement, healthy

snack/lunches, faith development and fundraising initiatives. We have had much success with many of our fundraisers due to

your wonderful support. For this, we are grateful!

Some of the specific key initiatives supported by school council this year include:

Kindergarten Playground Upgrades (Climber)

2 $100 Bursaries for former OLS students graduating from BSCH

Refreshments for Kdg. and Gr. 7 Grads

Trophies for Gr. 7 Grad

$8.00 to offset transportation costs for class trips

SPECIAL OLYMPICS BBQ

Our Lady of Sorrows School Council hosted the Special Olympics Bar-B-Q once again this year. It was a wonderful success

thanks to the Knights of Columbus and our many parent volunteers. All proceeds from this event went toward the Special

Olympics - a total of $617.00! Thank you for your contributions!

SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR

Our final Scholastic Book Fair was held during Catholic Education Week at the beginning of May. It was a “buy one, get one

free” fair. It continues to amaze me how successful our book fairs are. This one did not disappoint! Thank you for your contin-

ued support. We are truly appreciative to Mrs. Cooney for organizing all three book fairs for us this year. She has done a stellar

job! Also, thank you to the many parent volunteers who worked various shifts. Their time and efforts did not go unnoticed.

PRI NCI PA L: CHRIST I NA B R OW N

MONCION RECEIPTS PROGRAM

When shopping at Independent/Moncion Grocers, you can ask to have your receipt of over $25.00 stamped.

Receipts are collected in a box which is located at the front entrance of the school. They are used to redeem

snacks for our healthy snack program which we provide monthly. This has been quite successful and truly

beneficial to our school. Jamie Clouthier has been collecting all receipts and taking them to the two grocers

in the area for us. We are blessed by all she does!

LABELS FOR EDUCATION PROGRAM

Labels for Education has been awarding free educational equipment to schools in exchange for proofs of pur-

chase from the Campbell family of brands. We encourage families to send in any Campbell’s Soup labels

you may have to contribute to our program. As with the Independent/Moncion Receipts, we encourage you

to ask relatives, coworkers and friends to collect receipts for you. Thank you to Laurie Stepaniuk for spear-

heading this!

HOT LUNCH

Pizza from Petawawa Pizzeria will be served to those who order it on Wednesday, June 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd.

Thank you to those who placed orders throughout the year, Mrs. Bowden (our hot lunch organizer), Mrs. Ken-

nedy, Mrs. Wilkins, Mr. Bowden, Mrs. Gallagher and Mr. Adams. This activity would not be possible without

all the wonderful help we receive each month. It’s a big job!

NEXT MEETING

The next school council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 7th, 2015 at 6:30 p.m.

School Council 2015-2016 Cont’d

Our two spirit days during the month of May—80’s Day and Red Day

for Red Cross were both successful. Thank you to all students who do-

nated funds to the Red Cross to assist those displaced in Alberta. A total

of $400.00 was collected!

We will be celebrating Canada Day early. Friday, June 24th is our Red

and White Spirit Day.

We have a number

of items in the lost

and found. These

will be placed on

tables beginning

next week. Stu-

dents will be en-

couraged to take

anything that be-

longs to them.

Please feel free to

come and have a

look yourself prior

to June 17th!

REPORT CARDS

Report cards will be sent home on Thursday, June 23rd. Please return the third page by the last

day of school if you can (Friday, June 24th).

Milk and Hot Lunch for September

Please note, milk will be sold on a daily basis for the first week

of school next year. An order form will be sent out that would

cover the rest of the month.

Hot lunches will begin later in September. Orders forms will be

sent home during the first or second week of school.

Last Day of School is Friday, June 24, 2016

First Day of School for 2016-2017 is

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

A Summer’s Prayer

There are two ways of

spreading light—to be the

candle or the mirror that

reflects it.

Edith Wharton

Wonderful God,

We thank you for the many treasures

You have given us this year.

We thank you for what we have learned,

And the friends we have made.

Bless all who have helped us

To learn, to love and to pray.

May the gifts of this school year, like seeds

Planted in our hearts,

Continue to grow throughout the summer.

Amen

Professional Activity Day

Friday, June 10th

Thank you very much to Mrs. Holm for

all her work with our Breakfast Club. It

has truly been a success! We have had

up to 90+ students participate in one

morning.